Remembering or Forgetting Mendel: Sickle Cell Anemia and Racial Politics in Brazil

“We wish to affirm, and truly with considerable pride, our condition as a multi-racial society and that we have great satisfaction in being able to enjoy the privilege of having distinct races [racas distintas] and distinct cultural traditions also. In these days, such diversity makes for the wealth of a country” (my emphasis). These words were not pronounced by the president of South Africa, nor even by a multicultural zealot in Great Britain or the United States. Rather they were spoken on Brazil’s Independence Day in 1995 by the recently elected president, sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso.