Status: Honor and White Privilege in Brazil and Beyond

With this book, Bernd Reiter reflects on over three decades of research on race, exclusion, inequality, white supremacy, and the defense of privilege in Brazil to explore how social hierarchies, honor, and dignity perpetuate systemic disparities in Latin America. Status, as a structuring force of societies, Reiter argues, offers a different lens through which to analyze Latin American societies.

Combining the works of Tönnies, Weber, and Bourdieu with those of Guerreiro Ramos, Raymundo Faoro, Florestan Fernandes, and Jacob Gorender, Reiter contends that Latin American societies are best understood as status societies where the organizing principle is not class, gender, or race alone, but honor – a set of cultural norms, behaviors, and practices that confer social recognition and prestige. Status is not purely hereditary, nor is it solely a function of economic class. Instead, it is a multifaceted construct that incorporates elements of race, class, gender, cultural capital, behavior, and descent.

A passionate and illuminating alternative to the study of inequality in Latin America, this book adds important nuance to discussions of how to devise more equitable and inclusive strategies for the future.

Bernd Reiter is Professor of political science and Luso-Latin American Studies, working for the department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literature at Texas Tech University. He is the editor of Routledge’s Decolonizing the Classics book series. He is a specialist in democracy, race, and decolonization, with over 30 years of experience conducting empirical research in Latin America, Africa, and Western Europe. He has published over 20 books and 70 articles to date and served on the Ph.D. and M.A. committees of close to 100 students. He has held visiting positions at Harvard, the Barcelona Institute for International Studies, the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil), the Universidad del Norte (Colombia), the Free University of Berlin, and the University of Kassel (both in Germany). In 2024, he served as a Fulbright Specialist for the Federal University of São Paulo and in 2022 as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Public Policy in Recife. Reiter is the recipient of the Outstanding Alum award, as well as several other awards and recognitions, such as the Outstanding Mentor Award, from the Florida Education Fund.