"The biggest cruelty we face is invisibility, the feeling that we don't exist.” Benedita da Silva
Brazil is a very complex country. I have been intrigued by the amount of beauty that I see in its people on television and in magazines. But what ultimately reeled me in was the myth that in Brazil, racism does not exist, or rather, that people are not as aware or sensitive to it. However, on my first trip to Brazil, Salvador, Bahia respectively, I quickly learned that racism in Brazil did in fact exist, but the idea is different from the way that race is viewed in the United States. This comparative observation is what led me to write this paper. My research has uncovered some pretty harsh realities, and I am welcoming the opportunity to share them with anyone that will listen. I am a firm believer that one cannot consider the first things he/she hears as law. But one must develop his or her own research to find out the facts.
The goal of this research paper is to understand why different histories of racism have shaped different attitudes toward the construction of race in Brazil and the United States. To go about uncovering the myth of racial democracy, I depend heavily on two books: Beyond Racism and Benedita da Silva’s An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story of Politics & Love. Both of these books go into detail about race relations in Brazil, and they include chapters on various aspects of the ways race has shaped society. Because my research relies heavily on these two sources, I have chosen various quotes throughout the readings to expand upon. These quotes establish evidence for my argument that there is much to be addressed on the topic of racism in Brazil, and that, although many choose to ignore, it contributes to the poverty and inequality of the Afro-Brazilian population.
Throughout this paper, I will be using many terms to describe race in Brazil. I want to make it a point of clarification that the term “black” will be used to describe those of the category of Afro-Brazilian, not African-American unless otherwise stated. This is just so that there is no confusion about who I am referring to in terms of race in the world in general. I also want to clarify that the term “black” is a part of a category system of race in that we have in the United States (black and white), and usually does not represent the way Brazilians refer to themselves or others.
History of the Legacy of Slavery
“People aren’t racist because they’re evil; they’re racist because they’ve inherited a legacy of racism that comes from centuries of slavery” Benedita Da Silva
In order to understand the forms that racism takes, one must first understand how slavery shaped the lives of people of African descent in Brazil. Through all of the research that I conducted, the history of slavery always seems to be at the forefront of uncovering the racism that lies underneath the surface of Brazilian life.
When the Portuguese colonized Brazil, they used African and Indigenous slaves to build their empire. It was not until 1888, that slavery was abolished, making it the last nation in the West to end the brutality of involuntary human labor. Despite emancipation, “Official historiography long maintained that the licentious environment of slave quarters and the destructive action of slavery created unstable families” (Goldani p.180). This is evident in black households all over the world, and is not unique to Brazil. However, unlike the example of how affirmative action helps to prevent racial, gender, age, and disability discrimination in the United States, blacks in Brazil have yet to be acknowledged as victims of oppression by the government.
The idea of whitening the Brazilian race was a product of slavery. “From the late 1800’s and through the 1900’s, scientific racism dominated Europe and the Americas. The latter people tried to build new nation-states, and understood civilizations to be white. In Brazil, this was much more challenging than in the United States because in the United States , there had been strict legal apartheid between African and European residents throughout slavery, and in Brazil there had been different laws and an enormous amount of racial mixing” (Paulson, 2007). Because black people were slaves and therefore deemed inferior, anything black was undesirable. After slavery was eradicated, the Portuguese wanted to come up with a way to diminish the presence of the black race in Brazil, so they endorsed European immigration and encouraged everyone to “marry white to improve the race” (Nascimento p.124). This proposal, common all across the Americas, would ideally create a light-skin race, eliminating anything dark and ugly. One great quote of this action states that “[C]annibalism (antropofagia) is an appropriate image of how white Brazilian society and culture metaphorically ‘ate up’ and digested what they defined as Native Indian and Afro-Brazilian traditions, producing what they defined as a new ‘syncretic’ modern culture” (Nascimento p.110).
As one may notice, slavery made a scar so deep, that Brazilians today (and slave-descended blacks everywhere) are still trying to heal from it. However, those of the desired white race have moved on in their lives and are remembered for the great things that they contributed to society. Very much like Lies My Teacher Told Me that we read earlier in the semester, textbooks heroify the wrongdoings of the greatest writers of history. And as a cause of this, “Our schoolbooks glorify the white colonists and explorers, but say little about Brazil’s long history of slave revolts and the creation of quilombos, or townships made up of runaway slaves” (da Silva p.127).
Race Relations in Brazil
“In the case of racial inequality in Brazil, as compared with the United States and South Africa, the outstanding singularity is the absence of racial segregation by law and the accompanying national culture of ‘racial democracy’ that has acted as a smoke screen to mask very stark racial inequities” Nascimento
Almost consistently, I have learned in my classes that racism does not exist in Brazil in the same manner that it exists in the United States. “Racism is much more subtle on a day-to-day basis in Brazil than in the US” is how one professor explained it (Minzenberg, 2007). While this may be true, I still believe that racism in any form is wrong, regardless of its subtlety. The suggestion that racism is more restrained in Brazil than in the United States is a dangerous comparison because it still perpetuates the idea of a racial democracy, and “the truth is that racial democracy in Brazil only exists in school books and official speeches. The elites in Brazil have promoted this myth of racial harmony to make people accept certain forms of discrimination and to deny the need for affirmative action” (da Silva p.127). There has been much research done by professionals to prove this fact, but unfortunately the scar that slavery left on the entire Brazilian population is so deep that even some blacks in Brazil deny that there is racism. “Many Brazilians argue that this separation reflects class differences, not racism” (da Silva p.122). This thought comes from the fact that “[i]n Brazil, a person’s race is not determined solely by their origin. A person with black ancestry who has light skin may be considered white, particularly if he has a good job, lives in a middle or upper-class neighborhood and is well-educated” (da Silva p.124). But in the United States, any person who has even “one drop” of African blood is considered black, regardless of how light their skin is or how much money they have.
The whitening that Brazilian society has undergone has forced serious distinction to be made among phenotypes. Scientifically speaking, no matter how many times you try, it is impossible to create one exact color for your entire population. Therefore as a product, distinctions are made. “Official Brazilian census data used two color categories for African descendents: preto (literally, ‘black’) for dark-skinned and pardo (roughly, mulatto and mestizo) for others” (Nascimento p.108). Because of this, “the ‘white’ and ‘pardo’ categories are notoriously inflated, and the ‘preto’ diminished, by the tendency of African-descended interviewees to classify themselves as white or mulatto” (Mortara 1970). This, in turn, leads to the issue that “racism is so internalized that many blacks refuse to call themselves black; [which is] why there are literally dozens and dozens of terms for describing someone with dark skin- mulato, feijaozinho, criolo, pardo, café com leite, bombom” (da Silva p.124). Contrary to the United State’s idea that race is biological; Brazilians do not determine their race according to these rules. Therefore by United States standards, there are many issues with determining your race in Brazil, one of which is charting the demographics of the Brazilian national census, which makes it impossible to determine just how large the black population in Brazil actually is. Now, with everyone claiming some skin color other that black, one may began to think that the overall rejection of all things African will come into play. However, it is described that “there is an essential difference between rejection of African color and rejection of African origin. The hypodescendency criterion is considered racist, whereas the ‘prejudice of mark’, pigmentocracy’s color criterion [lighter skin is identified with greater prestige], is taken as arbitrary and innocent, a purely aesthetic aversion to the darker phenotype” (Nogueira 1955, 1959). As demonstrated by this quote, it is okay to be African, and many Brazilians embrace those roots. However, the lighter your skin is, the more desirable you will be to the people around you. This is a problem for black populations all over the world. From the Tutsi and the Hutu conflict in Rwanda, to African-Americans living in the United States bleaching their skin and relaxing their hair (this happens everywhere); those with a lighter skin complexion and less African features, such as straight hair, have always been seen as more beautiful, by European standards. The only difference for blacks in Brazil is that unlike the United States, there is no idea of the one-drop rule that states that one drop of blood, even if your physical appearance does not show it, makes you black.
Another area in Brazilian culture that paints an inaccurate picture of race in Brazil is the media. “[T]he mass media present an image of Brazil that looks Scandinavian, whereas nearly half the population is of African descent even according to the distorted, official statistics” (Nascimento p.119). Almost Identical to Clara Rodriguez’ book Latin Looks; the media always seems to ignore the part of society that is deemed undesirable. People of African descent are rarely represented as a part of society, unless crime or high birth is being addressed. Benedita da Silva stated that “In TV shows, blacks are rarely the main characters. They usually appear as waiters, criminals, security guards or maids” (p. 134). This is something that also happens to African- Americans in the United States, although not nearly as much to the Latino Population in the United States. “In the case of racial inequality in Brazil, as compared with the United States and South Africa, the outstanding singularity is the absence of racial segregation by law and the accompanying national culture of ‘racial democracy’ that has acted as a smoke screen to mask very stark racial inequities” (Nascimento p.106).
Like Clara Rodriguez encouraged her readers to do at the end of her book Latin Looks, da Silva has “been working with the black movement to push for legislation that would require that 40 percent of the actors in both the TV shows and the commercials be black” (p. 134). One can imagine just how difficult and slow a process that this would be in a society where racism is believed to be non-existent.
One other area that makes racism very evident is law enforcement. Very much like minorities in the United States, “Stereotype-based discrimination is very concrete Afro-Brazilian life, especially in the form of police repression. Afro-Brazilian religious communities, led mostly by black women, made survival and human development possible for Afro-Brazilian people despite [this] police persecution” (Nascimento p.119). If you recall various events throughout history: the Race riots in Los Angeles in 1992, the September 11 World Trade Center Attacks in 2001 that ultimately made it difficult for anyone “Arab-looking” to feel comfortable in the United States, and the overall racial profiling that takes place on a daily basis, it is obvious that this problem exists in both the United States and Brazil, despite the expression of racism in either country.
The outcomes:
Poverty in the Black Community
“Blacks suffer because they are poor, but they are poor because they are black” Benedita da Silva
If you have ever seen or heard of the movie City of God, you are probably familiar with the problem of street violence, gangs, and children living on the streets with no home or parents to look after them. It is definitely even more disturbing when you notice that these children are disproportionately black. Why is this you might ask yourself? Well you are absolutely correct if you guessed the correlation between ancient slavery and modern racism. In Brazilian history, “the Lei do Ventre Livre (Law of the Free Womb)” stated that all children born after 1871 were free. Because these children were set free and their parents were not, they were put on the street and forced to defend themselves. “The street children of today are the legacy of this law,” (da Silva p.126-127).
Poverty in Brazil is no doubt a huge problem for most of the country. However when you take a look at the statistics among different racial groups, it is easy to see that poverty is an overwhelming black disease. The movement of many countries like Brazil from a mostly rural setting to a mostly urban setting due to the large population growth is related to the issue of poverty for blacks in Brazil. “African Brazilians in disproportionate numbers live in urban shantytowns called favelas, mocambos, or palafitas,” (Nascimento p. 108).
I could show endless pictures of favelas growing alongside massive hills, but you would become quickly bored for there are so many sprawling urban shantytowns all over Brazil. And because so many restrictions were placed on these neighborhoods due to the government’s centralization of wealth, they were more concerned with the favelas infesting the middle and upper class areas of the city, “the favelas began to grow vertically as a way to get around the restrictions,” (da Silva p. 43).
A Glimpse at Black Women in the Workplace
“While black women have always been in the workforce, we are seen as ignorant and only capable of the most menial jobs. Our role is to clean the houses of white people and take care of their children.” Benedita da Silva
This quote represents a common trend that stems from slavery, the fact that black women all over the world were used as cooks, maids, or nannies. This has been a sad reality that many of these women have become accustomed to, not necessarily because they enjoy cooking or taking care of children, but because this is how society interprets the role of a black woman. Recently, black women in the United States have earned prestigious titles that venture away from the position as child care provider or maid, but unfortunately for many Afro-Brazilians, they have not been as successful, and only a select few (Benedita da Silva for example) have been able overcome these boundaries. “Eighty percent of domestics workers are black” (da Silva p.129), and “eighty percent of employed black women are concentrated in manual occupations; more than half of these are domestic servants, and the rest are self-employed in domestic tasks (washing, ironing, cooking), among the lowest-paid in the economy,” (Nascimento p.114).
My Trip to Bahia, Brazil
“The definition of a traveler is a person who passes through someone else's reality.” Bathroom stall in Salvador
What made me decide to write this paper was a culmination of learning about racial democracy in Brazil, learning that although racial democracy is myth, racism is more subtle in Brazil than the United States, desiring to be like black Brazilians and not experiencing such a harsh form racism, visiting Salvador over the summer and becoming confused about this so-called refinement, discussing social justice and human rights in Latin America, and having even the argument of minor racism exploded upon research of the topic of social justice in Brazil. This was the series of events that brought this paper full circle, and I have decided to reflect on these events in detail.
First of all, I want to say that although I had the time of my life on this trip, I felt completely puzzled when I surveyed the racial atmosphere of the areas of Bahia, Brazil that I visited. I did not understand how anyone could believe that there was more racial harmony there, especially in the areas that I saw. People were poor, black, and hungry. Children were begging for food, houses were falling apart from a lack of sturdy, dependable building materials, and even without visiting other parts of Brazil, the lack of white (or light skin) Brazilians stung my eyes in disbelief because I could not understand why only black people were living like this.
So basically, every journal entry I wrote, I questioned what I saw. How was it that all this time, I managed to believe that race was a more lighthearted concept in Brazil? Why was it that every place I looked, I felt shame for these beautiful but poor black people. The problem was that the only visuals I had for Brazil were those from a beach in Rio in Snoop Dogg’s video Beautiful, and it was not until I actually visited Brazil that I was able to look back and read in between the lines, and critique my previous notions about race, which I later learned were very typical for someone from the United States. Racism in the form that citizens of the United States view it is still a new topic for Brazilians, and in many ways it is still downplayed. But to me racism is inhumane no matter how different it may be across cultures. I wondered what the black Brazilians in the areas I visited thought about race. It could not have been like anything I was thinking; otherwise there would have already been great civil rights movements much like the one’s in the United States in the 1960’s.
From the comments that were made to or about me from people I would consider to be Afro-Brazilian, the assumption was that the United States was a nation of white people. People either thought that I was Brazilian because of my skin color (so I could not be from the U.S): I had someone stop me in the street and compare my arm to his; or they assumed I was white with a really dark tan. If I spoke Portuguese, I would have been able to clarify and expand upon these great discussions, but because my vocabulary was limited at the time, I stuck to depending on my Spanish to get me by.
This frustrated me because I had so many questions I wanted to ask, so many comments I wanted to make, but yet I was unable to communicate effectively the points I wanted to make. It did not make it any easier that I was the only one in my group that had this infatuation and curiosity about race. My questions were usually answered with “that’s not the case” or “that’s just a coincidence” or just ignored because the person translating did not feel like getting into such a deep conversation with the locals about a topic believed to be nonexistent. I am sure you can imagine my frustration by the end of the trip with all of my unanswered questions. But because of this curiosity and dissatisfaction, I was encouraged to do my own research. Of course, I was not surprised at what I found because I believed racial democracy to be a myth for Brazil anyway. However, after my research, I was content to learn that I was not overreacting or hypersensitive to what I saw in Salvador over the summer. Because of that trip, I was inspired to learn Portuguese, research the issue of race relations in Brazil, question my own identity being a woman of African descent in the United States, plan another trip to Salvador in the future, and work locally to explode the myth of racial democracy in Brazil, while making the community that I live in aware of how social justice and human rights abuses are found worldwide. In many ways, despite the tension it may cause, I am blessed to be able to be writing a paper about the discourse of racism in the United States and Brazil.
Conclusion
“Throughout my youth, I felt the color of my skin was the color of evil.” Benedita da Silva
The color black, for so long, has been associated with all thing evil, impure. It is unfortunate that many people, very much like Benedita, are made to feel inadequate, insufficient, because of the color of their skin. My skin, like Bene, like so many of my family and friends in the United States, like the Brazilians I saw in Salvador, like those fighting for their freedom in many countries in Africa, is also dark, black, supposedly impure. But why does it have to be the determining factor for our livelihood? And even more important, why are so many people acting like racism is dead? What I have learned in my time at Miami is even though people choose to ignore the facts, racism is alive and operating in places thought impossible, like Brazil. Racism is not strictly a white man’s disease, nor does only affect those with dark skin. It can be ignored or embraced by anyone with a brain and a heart.
I do not know what will become of the authors of these powerful books, those that are fighting for social justice like Benedita da Silva. Maybe they will make change like so many blacks in the United States did: Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, and all those people fighting on a smaller scale like me. Like it was so eloquently put in Beyond Racism, “The new millennium will increasingly witness the rise of the Afro-Brazilian voice and that of the African peoples in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Their participation in human development will doubtlessly demonstrate the force and weight of their potential to overcome the obstacles of race discrimination,” (Nascimento p.141).
Work Cited
• da Silva, Benedita. Benedita da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman. Oakland: Food First Books, 1997.
• do Nascimento, Abdias and Elisa Larkin Nascimento. "Dance of Deception: A reading of Race Relations in Brazil." Beyond Racism. Ed. Charles V. Hamilton, Lynn Huntly, Neville Alexander, Antonio Sergio Alfredo Guimaraes, Wilmot James. Boulder: Lynn Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2001.
• Rodriguez, Clara. Latin Looks. Boulder: Westview Press, Inc., 1998.
• Paulson, Susan. Research Critique. November 5, 2007.
• Minzenberg, Eric. ATH 426 Journal Entry. 21 July 2007.
• Goldani, Ana Maria. "Racial Inequality in the Lives of Brazilian Women." Race In Contemporary Brazil. Ed. Rebecca Reichmann. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania University Press, 1999.
• Loewen, James W.. Lies My Teacher Told Me. 1. Touchstone, 1996.