We Are All One in the Periferia
We Are All One in the Periferia
Blackness, Place, and Poverty in Gospel Rap
This chapter turns to the ethnoracial ideas and practices of gospel rap, beginning with a preoccupation among rappers with the periferia, as a place marked by class deprivation and ethnoracial diversity. Despite claims by the black consciousness movement that the periferia is homogeneously negro, gospel rappers know that this is not the case: they identify with a place defined not by race or color but by poverty. The gospel rap scene emphasizes flow and rhythm, which in Brazil have been racialized, with a widespread view in Brazil that a racial predilection for rhythm has been distributed widely throughout Brazil's population, making it possible, in this view, for most Brazilians to rap effectively. Hence, black gospel rappers, though identifying themselves as negros and Brazilian, place greater emphasis on their class and on their transnational commonalities with all who are poor and oppressed than on their racial identity.
Keywords: periferia, racial identity, poverty, black consciousness movement, gospel rap, class deprivation, ethnoracial diversity
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