Imagining the Mulatta: Blackness in U.S. and Brazilian Media

Description

Brazil markets itself as a racially mixed utopia. The United States prefers the term melting pot. Both nations have long used the image of the mulatta to push skewed cultural narratives. Highlighting the prevalence of mixed race women of African and European descent, the two countries claim to have perfected racial representation--all the while ignoring the racialization, hypersexualization, and white supremacy that the mulatta narrative creates. Jasmine Mitchell investigates the development and exploitation of the mulatta figure in Brazilian and U.S. popular culture. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, she analyzes policy debates and reveals the use of mixed-Black female celebrities as subjects of racial and gendered discussions. Mitchell also unveils the ways the media moralizes about the mulatta figure and uses her as an example of an "acceptable" version of blackness that at once dreams of erasing undesirable blackness while maintaining the qualities that serve as outlets for interracial desire. Title Pages Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Foundations of the Mulata and Mulatta in the United States and Brazil 2 Framing Blackness and Mixedness 3 The Morena and the Mulata in Brazilian Telenovelas 4 Reinventing the Mulatta in the United States for the 2000s 5 Remixing Mixedness Epilogue Notes Index About the Author Production Credits