From morenidade to parditude: An Interview with Professor Antônio Sérgio Guimarães

Abstract

Antônio Sérgio Guimarães is one of Brazil’s leading sociologists dedicated to the study of race relations, the formation of social thought, and contemporary dynamics of racial classification and identity in Brazil. A retired full professor from the Department of Sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP), his work has been fundamental to understanding the transformations of the ideology of racial democracy, the shifts surrounding the categories of “race” and “miscegenation,” and the social and political effects of affirmative action policies. His scholarship brings together intellectual history, sociological analysis, and public debate, offering key analytical tools for thinking about the reconfigurations of Brazil’s racial field in recent decades.

In this interview, Guimarães examines the transition from morenidade to the contemporary emergence of parditude, discussing both its inclusive potential and its political risks within a society that defines itself as multiracial and multicultural. By revisiting disputes surrounding miscegenation, racial classification, and the permeability of whiteness, the sociologist analyzes recent inflections in Brazil’s public debate, situating parditude at the intersection of racial reclassification, national identity, and the redistribution of social opportunities.