In this work thesis with the field of race relations studies, I chose as scope of this analysis the theoretical-methodological paradigms that survived in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Rio de Janeiro. This period is relevant because it marks the resurgence of the black movement in the state, at the same time that new theoretical-methodological influences are intertwined on the scene. To analyze this period, I based myself on a bibliographic survey from four seminal books, as well as documents found in the main collections of Rio de Janeiro and Illinois, in the United States. As well as talking with organic intellectuals of that period. Based on preliminary data, I noticed that the epistemological basis of the theoretical paradigms studied here served both to question and tension previous paradigms and to create an epistemic community that served as the basis for an agenda of racial equality.