By the law of contrasts: José Clarana and racial relations across the Americas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-0337/e148657Keywords:
José Clarana, social thought, race relations, Caribbean, transnational sociology.Abstract
This article examines an intellectual known by multiple names and about whom little information exists: José Clarana, James Bertram Clarke, and Jaime C. Gil. Born in an uncertain location and educated at Cornell University, he traveled to many countries, including Brazil, where he resided between 1916 and 1920. By articulating his ideas with his still largely understudied trajectory, this study seeks to demonstrate how his interpretations of race relations in Brazil took shape as he moved across different contexts, and how his own forms of belonging (name, nationality, and race) were transformed. The research draws on archival materials, press articles signed by the author in journals such as The Crisis, edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, as well as a book published in Portuguese in 1919.
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