Justice Beyond the Veil

An AfroLatin American Critique of John Rawls’ Theory of Justice from the Perspective of Lélia Gonzalez

Abstract

This article presents a critique of John Rawls's Theory of Justice through the lens of the Afro-Latin American thought of Lélia Gonzalez, aiming to highlight the limitations of liberal theory when confronted with the structural inequalities present in Améfrica Ladina. The comparative analysis draws on central concepts from Rawls’s A Theory of Justice and Gonzalez’s texts “Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Culture” and “For an Afro-Latin American Feminism.” Rawls’s proposal of impartiality—based on abstractions such as the Original Position and the Veil of Ignorance—proves insufficient when examined alongside the lived realities of historically oppressed subjects. Gonzalez exposes how racism and sexism are not incidental but structural components of inequality. Her critique asserts that justice must be grounded in the concrete experiences of Black, Indigenous, and marginalized peoples. The article also underscores Rawls’s omission of the private sphere, revealing, through Gonzalez’s analysis, how the domestic space plays a central role in reproducing social inequalities. By mobilizing concepts such as pretuguês, amefricanidade, and women as exception, Gonzalez offers a critical and situated perspective of justice that challenges liberal assumptions and proposes a reconstruction of the concept of justice from the margins.