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Going to the force: corporately culture and "color" inside the Rio de Janeiro State Military Police

This article’s object is to show the preliminary results of a research called "The Negroes on the Military Police", which main purpose is to present the careers of African-Brazilians on the MP - how it is often called this Police Force - and to present speeches about race and the Negro identity. Therefore, work conditions and the day-after-day reality of the MP tasks were analyzed, being this latter specialized in ostensive uniformed policing. Fifty in-depth interviews were made with soldiers and officers from four battalions and from the Military Police Headquarter. Although this research was not intended to have statistic significance, a especial effort was made to do a deep study inside the corporation. To do that, one battalion was chosen in a predominantly poor area, and another one in a middle-class area. Almost half of the interviewed were soldiers, the others being officers of several ranks. In spite the focus of the research was Negro policemen, a small group formed by white Military policemen has also been interviewed.

race; color; Afro-Brazilians; Negro identity; Rio de Janeiro State Military Police


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