Claim: Racial democracy was believed to obscure very real forms of racial oppression as argued by Skidmore and that the ideology of racial democracy prevents effective action to combat racial discrimination according to American political scientist Michael Hanchard.
Evidence: Skidmore argues that the predominantly white elite within Brazilian society promoted racial democracy to obscure very real forms of racial oppression. Michael Hanchard, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, has argued that the ideology of racial democracy, often promoted by state apparatuses, prevents effective action to combat racial discrimination by leading people to ascribe discrimination to other forms of oppression and allowing government officials charged with preventing racism to deny its existence a priori. Michael Hanchard, often published as Michael G. Hanchard, is an American political scientist, currently the Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.