Racism in Brazil
1. Races in Brazil
2. Racism in Brazil
3. Foreigners in Brazil
1. Races in Brazil
One of our greates comediants - although he's dark skinned, he's got green eyes. He's considered black nonetheless. | 
Our president: His face shows both European and African features. He's considered white. |
Here's a quote from Wikipedia, that would give an insight in the concept of "race" in the country
| quote: | Race in Brazil
Compared to 19th century United States, 20th century Brazil was characterized by a relative absence of sharply defined racial groups. This pattern reflects a different history and different social relations. Basically, race in Brazil was biologized, but in a way that recognized the difference between ancestry (which determines genotype) and phenotypic differences. There, racial identity was not governed by a rigid descent rule. A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both parents, nor were there only two categories to chose from. Over a dozen racial categories would be recognized in conformity with the combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum and no one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. That is, race referred to appearance, not heredity.
One of the most striking consequences of the Brazilian system of racial identification was that parents and children and even brothers and sisters were frequently accepted as representatives of opposite racial types. In a fishing village in the state of Bahia an investigator showed 100 people pictures of three sisters and were asked to identify the races of each. In only six responses were the sisters identified by the same racial term. Fourteen responses used a different term for each sister. In another experiment nine portraits were shown to a hundred people. Forty different racial types were elicited. It was found, in addition, that a given Brazilian might be called by as many as thirteen different terms by other members of the community. These terms are spread out across practically the entire spectrum of theoretical racial types. A further consequence of the absence of a descent rule was that Brazilians apparently not only disagreed about the racial identity of specific individuals, but they also seemed to be in disagreement about the abstract meaning of the racial terms as defined by words and phrases. For example, 40% of a sample ranked moreno claro as a lighter type than mulato claro, while 60% reversed this order. A further note of confusion is that one person might employ different racial terms for another person over a short time. The use of term varies with the personal relationship and mood. The Brazilian census admits one's race by the title the person gives to her or himself, and as a consequence hundreds of races appeared in the research, varying from blue (which is blacker than usual black) and green (which is whiter than usual white).
Consequently, people change their racial identity over their lifetimes. This is not the same as "passing" in the USA. It does not require secrecy and the agonizing withdrawal from friends and family that are necessary in the United States and among Indians of highland Latin America. In Brazil passing from one race to another occurs with changes in education and economic status. A light skinned person of low status is considered darker than a dark skinned person of high status.
So, although the identification of a person by race is far more fluid and flexible in Brazil than in the USA, there still are racial stereotypes and prejudices. African features were considered less desirable; blacks were considered inferior, and whites superior. These white supremacist values are an obvious legacy of European colonization and the slave-based plantation system. The complexity of racial classifications in Brazil is reflective of the extent of miscegenation in Brazilian society, which remains, highly, but not strictly, stratified along color lines. |
So, in Brazil, quite differently than most other places, there are no actual "ethnicities". Although we (are supposed to) have the 2nd largest Black community in the world, dividing the groups is as tough as extracting the ingredients of a cake. I'm not sure how they calculated it but the average white Brazilian usually has 35% of African genetic heritage, whereas the average black Brazilian usually has 45% of European genetic heritage. If you think that's complicated, both white and black Brazilians have about 15% of Native Brazilian heritage... this is clearly shown in our culture, where we have European traditions with heavy African influences (such as carnival) and vice-versa (Candomblé and other African religions that became "Christianised"). Most Native Brazilians were "absorbed" by the other groups or slaughtered by the European. Asian immigrants just got here 100 years ago, and slowly seem to be absorbed (although there's some prejudice as they "don't look Brazilian"... ironically, some people believe the tanned ones are actually Native Brazilians  ).
I'm myself of Afro-Euro-Native Brazilian heritage, and I'm considered white in our society (ironically enough, my father was "black" till his 30's... he's "white" now ).
Racism in Brazil
Here lies the irony - an individual of both European and African heritage might discriminate another individual of both European and African heritage simply because he shows more traces of one of the groups (i.e. someone who looks white might discriminate someone who looks black). A rational explanation is that, after the slavery, most white people were wealthy, but we can't say the same think about those whose parents were brought from Africa. Result: the social and racial exclusion merged. "Looking black" meant "looking poor". To make things worse, this racism is "hidden", as we always believed ourselves to be a racial democracy when we're clearly not. In fact, the Brazilian nazis accepted Black people as part of their party, for example This new stance towards racism is quite recent (20 years old at most), so we don't have much experience dealing with this issue.
Foreigners in Brazil
Someone whose parents are foreigners wouldn't be consider a foreigner. In fact, no one would ever guess. It's such a mess here that everybody looks Brazilian to us (which is quite contradictory with the belief I mentioned before that "Japs don't look Brazilian" - they're just easier to spot because of the low inter-breeding among them and other groups so far). I mean, except Argentinians... they sport tacky mullets. As for the foreigners themselves, most problems lies on lack of communication because of the language barrier and the distinct fashion sense of some visitors. Probably a foreigner would be able to tell more about it. Argentinians don't count, they lie.
Americans might have minor problems because of the recent international policy of their government. And Argentinians because... they're Argentinians 
(I'd continue, but I gotta go now)
| quote: | Originally posted by Slylee
why is it that the majority of soldiers who died in war were black?
because when everyone yelled, "GET DOWN!!!" all the black people jumped up and started dancing |
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