Brazil Won't Know Democracy Before 44% in Power Are Black
Written by Alzira Rufino
Monday, 02 January 2006
Just recently we remembered Zumbi of Palmares, on Black Consciousness Day (November 20). He did not fight for territory or glory, but in legitimate self-defense, for the right "to be," for the right to recover our dignity. Palmares and all other quilombos, today some even urban, discard this hypocritical and cynical society. which today sees the black race as something passive, trying to take away from the black person his or her pride in his/her blackness.
We honor the resistance of Zumbi of Palmares and countless unnamed ancestors and survivors of a war of terror and deception.
Dates like this one make me reflect and write on the roles that we Afro-Brazilians have in this great drama. In the end, we are the owners of our emancipation cards and we are coming out from behind the curtains not to clean the stage but to be the principal actors in this new millennium.
Does power have color? Where are the colors of Brazil at the desks of decision-making? The electoral process shows us the truth. The UN considers that a country has democracy when the racial breakdown of those in government positions is the same as the racial breakdown among the general population.
So, Brazil will only be a true democracy when at least 44% of authorities are black women and men. Municipal, state and federal governments are the mirrors in which we can see our face. There continues to be very few blacks in this mirror.
And we have called this country a racial democracy. The one thing necessary for the racial discrimination to continue is for all of us (blacks and whites) to remain passive. Our passivity is a form of approval, because to do nothing is to cooperate with racism.
What is it to be passive in the schools and universities? What expectations do teachers have in relation to black children and adolescents? Very low expectations there is a subtle message that if things get difficult, the black kids will quit.
And what about means of communication? The media, because of its power to influence public opinion, should be used in a responsible manner to promote respect among races.
To those who say that one century after abolition we are still unprepared for skilled jobs, we respond that blacks receive 30-40% less money than whites with the same amount of schooling and experience in performing the same jobs.
Dieese (a non-governmental research organization) conducted a study which demonstrates how racial democracy is not functioning in the Brazilian workplace. The worst place in the study was the city of Salvador where unemployment among blacks is 50% higher than whites.
In our daily experience, we have to "confront the lion." We have to use strategies to rest, retreat, advance so that we can remain in one piece.
At the time of Palmares, to flee was to be free. Not today.
Today's quilombo is to stay exactly where you are, resisting, organizing, demanding.
Today's quilombo is to know that the moment has come to turn the table, the table where we used to just receive scraps....
We must turn our eyes and hearts back to Africa, the birth of civilization, the drum that keeps us united. Our gods and goddesses dance and are very near to our joys and victories.
If we use our colored clothes, our hair in braids, it is not because we are exotic. It is because we are part of a history, a culture. We have roots.
We begin every new year at ocean's front, honoring our ancestors who came across the sea. We know that we must heal our pain, looking to children, women, our people.
Black is not only beautiful, but competent. We know politics. The quilombo experience, the Palmares school.
We pass our bigwig ring to the next generation. In spite of the strong winds of discrimination, the cold inequities we have suffered in all these years, we must do more than talk. We have little to commemorate and much to do.
Today, we more urgently need to denounce the veiled discrimination, this psychological aggression that we breathe.
The time for mountain-climbing has come! We are the heirs of Zumbi, Dandara, Luiza Mahin, Quintino de Lacerda, Esmeraldo Tarquínio, Lélia Gonzalez, Beatriz do Nascimento.
To resist will always be worthwhile.
Alzira Rufino is Director-President of Casa de Cultura da Mulher Negra, writer and editor for Eparrei magazine.
Brazil Won't Know Democracy Before 44% in Power Are Black
Written by Alzira Rufino
Monday, 02 January 2006
Just recently we remembered Zumbi of Palmares, on Black Consciousness Day (November 20). He did not fight for territory or glory, but in legitimate self-defense, for the right "to be," for the right to recover our dignity. Palmares and all other quilombos, today some even urban, discard this hypocritical and cynical society. which today sees the black race as something passive, trying to take away from the black person his or her pride in his/her blackness.
We honor the resistance of Zumbi of Palmares and countless unnamed ancestors and survivors of a war of terror and deception.
Dates like this one make me reflect and write on the roles that we Afro-Brazilians have in this great drama. In the end, we are the owners of our emancipation cards and we are coming out from behind the curtains not to clean the stage but to be the principal actors in this new millennium.
Does power have color? Where are the colors of Brazil at the desks of decision-making? The electoral process shows us the truth. The UN considers that a country has democracy when the racial breakdown of those in government positions is the same as the racial breakdown among the general population.
So, Brazil will only be a true democracy when at least 44% of authorities are black women and men. Municipal, state and federal governments are the mirrors in which we can see our face. There continues to be very few blacks in this mirror.
And we have called this country a racial democracy. The one thing necessary for the racial discrimination to continue is for all of us (blacks and whites) to remain passive. Our passivity is a form of approval, because to do nothing is to cooperate with racism.
What is it to be passive in the schools and universities? What expectations do teachers have in relation to black children and adolescents? Very low expectations there is a subtle message that if things get difficult, the black kids will quit.
And what about means of communication? The media, because of its power to influence public opinion, should be used in a responsible manner to promote respect among races.
To those who say that one century after abolition we are still unprepared for skilled jobs, we respond that blacks receive 30-40% less money than whites with the same amount of schooling and experience in performing the same jobs.
Dieese (a non-governmental research organization) conducted a study which demonstrates how racial democracy is not functioning in the Brazilian workplace. The worst place in the study was the city of Salvador where unemployment among blacks is 50% higher than whites.
In our daily experience, we have to "confront the lion." We have to use strategies to rest, retreat, advance so that we can remain in one piece.
At the time of Palmares, to flee was to be free. Not today.
Today's quilombo is to stay exactly where you are, resisting, organizing, demanding.
Today's quilombo is to know that the moment has come to turn the table, the table where we used to just receive scraps....
We must turn our eyes and hearts back to Africa, the birth of civilization, the drum that keeps us united. Our gods and goddesses dance and are very near to our joys and victories.
If we use our colored clothes, our hair in braids, it is not because we are exotic. It is because we are part of a history, a culture. We have roots.
We begin every new year at ocean's front, honoring our ancestors who came across the sea. We know that we must heal our pain, looking to children, women, our people.
Black is not only beautiful, but competent. We know politics. The quilombo experience, the Palmares school.
We pass our bigwig ring to the next generation. In spite of the strong winds of discrimination, the cold inequities we have suffered in all these years, we must do more than talk. We have little to commemorate and much to do.
Today, we more urgently need to denounce the veiled discrimination, this psychological aggression that we breathe.
The time for mountain-climbing has come! We are the heirs of Zumbi, Dandara, Luiza Mahin, Quintino de Lacerda, Esmeraldo Tarquínio, Lélia Gonzalez, Beatriz do Nascimento.
To resist will always be worthwhile.
Alzira Rufino is Director-President of Casa de Cultura da Mulher Negra, writer and editor for Eparrei magazine.
I know that they were going for the one drop rule, but, I was under the impression that the one drop rule doesn't exist in Brasil. That at times it was the opposite, if a black person has white blood (ie. mulatto) they themselves can consider themselves white.
oevega wrote:
The writer is applying the one drop rule.
If a Brazilian has a drop of Black blood, then is Black.
44% of Brazilians have one drop, at least. (But only 6% are considered Black people.)
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Fri 09 Mar 2007 02:34 Post subject:
In Latin America, people is not classified by ancestry but by looks. No chance to self identify. People will tell you what you are, based on what you look.
If you look pure Black African, very dark skin and the most exagerated facial features, you are Black.
If you have light sking, a very long face and a thin but huge nose, you are White.
If you are more on the Black than White side you are called Mulatto. If you are more in the White side than Black (or Indian) side you are a Moreno (Moorish)
The same goes between Indians and European. And Indian is pure Indian looking (copper skin-asian features). Mestizo is usually more Indian than White. And White includes both light Mestizos and Whites.
A special cathegory is for Nordics, that are different from the average Mediterranean looking White. (Between Europeans, in Latin America the Mediterranean people predominate over Nordics by 6 to 1 at least).
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Fri 09 Mar 2007 02:52 Post subject:
Dragon Horse wrote:
What about Arabs, there are a lot of Lebanese in Brazil and Mexico for instance...are they assumed to be white or Mestizo.
Depends on the Arabs. Many Arabs are White, particularly some Palestineans and many Lebaneses and Syrians, that were one of the leading immigrants to Lat. America. (Remember that in Lat. America most Arab immigrants were Christians)
However, the common saying for Arab is Moreno (Moorish or "looks like a Moor" or "like a Berber"). The word Moreno also applies to Gypsies, Semites, brown Whites, and any person that has "European" facial features and average brown skin, particularly if they are curly.
Sharika, (without her artificial blond hair) is what we call a Morena. Shakira ancestry is Middle Eastern.
And Arab can be White or Moreno, not Mestizo, because they don't have Native blood.
Posted: Fri 09 Mar 2007 03:13 Post subject: Re: Brazil Won't Know Democracy Before 44% in Power Are Black
Jay wrote:
44% is a high percentage for a country that identifies as 53.7% white, 38% mulatto, and only 6.2% black(source: CIA World Factbook).
1. The CIA World Factbook is not a reliable source for "racial" data. For one thing, it does not claim to represent how people self-identity. Please see Introduction to Science-As-Process for details on this.
2. Brazilians do not self-identify in the above three "racial" categories. They have about a dozen different designations for skin tone, but these do not reflect endogamous groups, the way that the U.S. labels "Black" and "White" do, and any one individual's skin-tone often changes with the seasons. The Brazilian census uses four skin-tone designations, but these are related to socio-economic status. See George Reid Andrews, Racial Inequality in Brazil and the United States: A Statistical ComparisonJournal of Social History 26, no. 2 (1992): 229-63 for details.
I'm quite familiar with these terms. But it seems what the author is supporting, is the reclassification of "mulattos" as blacks. That is ridiculous. Mixed race people shouldn't be pressured into identifying as black to increase the size of the blacks lobbying power. If your mixed that is what you are, just that, not one race or the other. The fact that 38.4% of Brazilians have accepted a mixed race, and not "one or the other", as this author would, like speaks volumes. No one should have to do that. Like I said 44% is a disproportionate number.
oevega wrote:
In Latin America, people is not classified by ancestry but by looks. No chance to self identify. People will tell you what you are, based on what you look.
If you look pure Black African, very dark skin and the most exagerated facial features, you are Black.
If you have light sking, a very long face and a thin but huge nose, you are White.
If you are more on the Black than White side you are called Mulatto. If you are more in the White side than Black (or Indian) side you are a Moreno (Moorish)
The same goes between Indians and European. And Indian is pure Indian looking (copper skin-asian features). Mestizo is usually more Indian than White. And White includes both light Mestizos and Whites.
A special cathegory is for Nordics, that are different from the average Mediterranean looking White. (Between Europeans, in Latin America the Mediterranean people predominate over Nordics by 6 to 1 at least).
Es muy interesante que usted menciona Shakira. Yo estaba en Colombia, en 2006, ¡país hermoso! En mi experiencia, alguien como a ella, sería considerada blanco. Obviamente, no la considerarían nórdica, sino que ella es blanca por los estándares colombianos. En Colombia una morena es MORENA. Una morena colombiana tendría piel más marrón.
oevega wrote:
Sharika, (without her artificial blond hair) is what we call a Morena. Shakira ancestry is Middle Eastern.
Last edited by Jay on Fri 09 Mar 2007 10:10; edited 3 times in total
Usted no puede mirar seriamente un esta foto, y luego me dice usted piense que ella es morena. Su piel es tan blanquita. Pero ella tiene un poquito de color.[/img]
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Fri 09 Mar 2007 11:20 Post subject:
Jay wrote:
Es muy interesante que usted menciona Shakira. Yo estaba en Colombia, en 2006, ¡país hermoso! En mi experiencia, alguien como a ella, sería considerada blanco. Obviamente, no la considerarían nórdica, sino que ella es blanca por los estándares colombianos. En Colombia una morena es MORENA. Una morena colombiana tendría piel más marrón.
oevega wrote:
Sharika, (without her artificial blond hair) is what we call a Morena. Shakira ancestry is Middle Eastern.
In Chile, my country, she would be considered Morena -like myself .
Besides, in here a Moreno is used in the same sense that in Spain: Moroccan-Looking. We don't apply that terms to Blacks or Mulatto persons.
That's interesting to note, because even those words are quite of flexible and fuzzy sometimes.
Es muy interesante que usted menciona Shakira. Yo estaba en Colombia, en 2006, ¡país hermoso! En mi experiencia, alguien como a ella, sería considerada blanco. Obviamente, no la considerarían nórdica, sino que ella es blanca por los estándares colombianos. En Colombia una morena es MORENA. Una morena colombiana tendría piel más marrón.
oevega wrote:
Sharika, (without her artificial blond hair) is what we call a Morena. Shakira ancestry is Middle Eastern.
Interesting...She looks mestiza to me. Are the differences between morena and blanca subtle in that country? I assume because of Colombia's colonial history, many Europeans of Spanish origen have dark-colored hair as well.
Joined: 02 May 2006 {Posts: 442 } Location: Île-de-France
Posted: Fri 09 Mar 2007 15:13 Post subject:
You can't really generalize skin color terms in Spanish speaking Latin America as a whole, because the same terms mean one thing in the Southern Cone and another in the Caribbean. Shakira may be morena in Chile, but she is white -blanca, blanquita- in the Caribbean basin, including northern colombia. Celia Cruz was morena in those parts. And the Dominican Republic is its own thing, with indio claro and indo oscuro not meaning what you might expect. And it is more complicated. You may think someone is one color, then they move to the Northen U.S. for a few years, working 24/7 and getting no sun, and they come back 2 shades lighter. A little off topic, but as someone with very light skin who dosen't tan very well, I am repeatedly astonished on how what I would call light brown skin has the capacity to turn nearly ebony with daily tropical sun.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Fri 09 Mar 2007 19:24 Post subject:
G-Man wrote:
...
Interesting...She looks mestiza to me. Are the differences between morena and blanca subtle in that country? I assume because of Colombia's colonial history, many Europeans of Spanish origen have dark-colored hair as well.
Mestiza is a racial term, most times mean Euro-indigenous, but also is applied somewhere to any mixings.
Moreno is a term that has to do with phenotype. Darks eyes and hair that constrast with a lighter skin is a Moreno. usually light brown skin. Of any racial origin. It could be translated like "tanned". An Asian or any European could be Moreno as well.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Sat 10 Mar 2007 02:52 Post subject:
MisterLawyer wrote:
... A little off topic, but as someone with very light skin who dosen't tan very well, I am repeatedly astonished on how what I would call light brown skin has the capacity to turn nearly ebony with daily tropical sun.
Most of the Mediterranean peoples (Spanish, Portugueses, Italians, Moors, Algerians) and Native Americans have the capacity of changing skin color from light brown to Black, real tanned Black. They look exactly like dark East Indians sometimes.
You can go to many beaches in Latin America and find people that look Black during the Hollydays. Then they return to work or study and turn back to the original color. Nothing strange at all. Country people and fishermen are usually a lot darker than the rest.
In my country, at least, today people don't tan as much because of the hole in the ozone layer and cancer awareness, but when I was a kid it was widespread to see real dark kinds swimming all the day long in the sunny beaches in summer.
'
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in
.