FromInvisibilidadto Participation in State Corporatism: Afro-Ecuadorians and the Constitutional Processes of 1998 and 2008

Rift, Rupture and the Temporal Politics of Race in Ecuador: Whiteness and the Narration of Neoliberal Futures During and After the Cenepa War

“…In contrast, as Rahier ( , 2011; see also Whitten 2003) demonstrates, Ecuador's relatively small African Ecuadorian population has been largely invisible not only within dominant racial paradigms in Ecuador-for whiteelites the mestizo (a product of white-Indigenous intercourse) was the authorized "hybrid" citizen-but also in recent multicultural politics, which privilege cultural and ethnic difference. For an analysis of the ways in which mainstream Ecuadorian print media have marked and made Blackness (in)visible from the 1990s on, see .…”

Situating the Obama Effect in Ecuador

“…The second theme is the paradox of official Black incorporation. The recent shift from Black exclusion to inclusion in Ecuadorian state politics has come with fears of tokenism and cooptation of important leaders in the Black community (Rahier ; Rahier ). Activists speculated if Obama's appointment would veil U.S. imperialism and neoliberal hegemony and if he would face the “paradox of integration:” abandoning the African American grassroots constituency to accommodate mainstream government interests (Marable ).…”

“…Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has appointed several Afro‐Ecuadorian activists into high‐profile state positions since he took office in 2007. Their roles signal the state's commitment to racial equality within Correa's populist model of a citizen‐driven government called the “Citizens’ Revolution” (Rahier ; de la Torre and Anton Sanchez ). From their positions, Black Ecuadorian political figures have created powerful legislative changes, but encounter snags materializing their structural demands.…”

Introduction to Special Issue: Seeing Obama's Election through the Black Americas: Ethnographic Perspectives as a Mirror

“…At once, it is a symbol of hope and progress for black peoples the world over on the one hand, as well as a “bootstraps” individual achievement and a mystification of existing structural racism on the other. The activists’ transnationally inspired, locally grounded analyses cited in the article tease apart these contradictory tendencies, in the end offering a cautionary tale of state co‐optation of radical possibilities and movements while acknowledging the notable progress from Correa's “citizen revolution” and “21st century socialism.” The article weaves together Hale's () analyses of the multiple ways in which neoliberalism deploys and depoliticizes discourses of multiculturalism, and Rahier's () analyses of African descended peoples in Ecuador. Main discusses a local concept of “interculturalism” as a way to avoid the pitfalls of a zero‐sum multiculturalism predicated on neoliberal terms of citizenship.…”

“…Specifically, building on insights from Kamari Maxine Clarke (), this transnational connection imagined and called into being networks of black linkages, what she has called “humanitarian diasporas.” The discussions, analyses, and political claims making are examples of Paul Gilroy's (, ) articulation of the Black Atlantic, particularly networks that transnationally or “outer‐nationally” link black communities to one another. Taking ethnographic subjects’ own transnational reflection of the meanings of Obama as a starting point, these articles analyze and extend our understandings of diaspora while offering a solid understanding of the many ways blackness is being defined and redefined in particular national and regional contexts (Clarke ; Rahier , ). This collection asks what shifts, if any, in racial praxis are heralded by Obama's election.…”