Aquilombamento, Entrepreneurial Black Placemaking in an Anti-Black City

Abstract

While an abundance of research focuses on how Black American entrepreneurs respond to systemic racism, less attention has been paid to examining how Black entrepreneurs outside the United States respond. This research addresses the extent to which entrepreneurship is a response to systematic racism, and “Black” businesses exist in a “color-blind” society. I examine Brazil because of its color-blind racial ideology; moreover, Afro-Brazilians comprise 54 percent of the country’s population and 50 percent of its entrepreneurs. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews at 28 Black-owned businesses, I find Afro-Brazilians challenge anti-Blackness through a process I call aquilombamento. As a method of entrepreneurial placemaking, I argue that aquilombamento enables Afro-Brazilian entrepreneurs to intentionally construct culturally significant physical spaces that openly resist and challenge the existing racial order. Aquilombamento functions through three mechanisms: (1) the entrepreneurs make Black culture readily perceivable, (2) the entrepreneurs center Black knowledge and understanding, and (3) the entrepreneurs conceive a community. In explicating aquilombamento, I illustrate an economic and symbolic value system that privileges Blackness in a “color-blind” society. I identify a critical distinction between Black-owned businesses and Black businesses. And, I underscore the important role of entrepreneurs in Black placemaking.

“Quem pode ser a dona?”: Afro‐Brazilian women entrepreneurs and gendered racism

“…In my work, I do not wish to conflate systems of Black oppression in the U.S. and Brazil, but a critical analysis of racism demonstrates systemic patterns between the two countries (Alves, 2018; Caldwell, 2007; Mitchell‐Walthour, 2018; Murphy, 2022; Paixão, 2013; Perry, 2013; Smith, 2016; Telles, 2004). Even after accounting for the unique histories of the U.S. and Brazil, each nation's strategies for the social management of Black people are fundamentally overdetermined by “antiblackness in ever‐changing configurations” (Vargas, 2018:43).…”

“…Despite the robust literature on Afro‐Brazilians generally and Afro‐Brazilian women particularly (Alves, 2018; Caldwell, 2007; Carrillo, 2021; Hordge‐Freeman, 2015; Lamont et al., 2016; Mitchell‐Walthour, 2018; Monk, 2016; Murphy, 2022; Paschel, 2016; Perry, 2013; Smith, 2016; Vargas, 2018), Afro‐Brazilian women entrepreneurs, their experiences, and their strategies for competing in the market and resisting gendered racism remain underexplored. My findings show that Afro‐Brazilian women entrepreneurs actively defy and redefine the standard images of entrepreneurs and Black women in Brazil.…”