Race relations and racism in the worlds of labor

Abstract

This dossier aims to be a contribution to this debate, and is the first in the Mundos do Trabalho journal, which has been published continuously since 2009, entirely dedicated to the analysis of race relations and racism in the worlds of work. Despite the dossier's unprecedented nature, the quality of the articles gathered here shows that various initiatives have been undertaken to explore more closely the multiple connections between race relations, racism and the worlds of work. The articles allow us to observe a myriad of aspects about the connections between race relations, racism and the worlds of work. On the one hand, they show how the analysis of individual and collective trajectories is key to scrutinizing the prejudices and difficulties experienced in the workplace. On the other hand, life stories also reveal strategies for overcoming the limitations posed by race, class and, in some cases, gender, and the struggles for rights and citizenship. The multiple dimensions of associativism appear as privileged spaces for understanding aspects of the Afro-Brazilian population's experiences, from combating racism to guaranteeing freedom and autonomy. As well as seeing mutual associations as an important part of their lives, black workers and trade unionists, mobilized by race and class, acted strongly in the trade union movement and in party and electoral politics, fighting the obstacles imposed by class oppression and racial discrimination. The building of affective bonds between Afro-descendants and indigenous people, overcoming ethnic and legal barriers, and colonial slave violence, in the eighteenth-century society of Spanish America, is yet another dimension of this profusion of multifaceted black experiences, in Brazil and in other parts of the Americas.