Between race and class

Abstract

In this essay, I investigate (socio)linguistic scholarship on African continuities in Brazilian Portuguese to analyze the semiotic ideologies that inform academic literature on this topic. I argue that there are two main schools of thought within this field: the one that sees race as a prominent analytical category, and the one that favors social class over race. I claim that there are three commonalities to different frameworks analyzed here: (1) racialized speech is often equated with Africannes; (2) Africanness is commonly treated as an index of pre-modern times; and (3) Africanness is perceived as foreign to the modern present. In addition, I also suggest that authors who privilege social class over race – as an analytical tool – might be aligned with the ideology of racial democracy.

Keywords

• africanisms
• race
• social class
• semiotic ideologies
• language ideologies