After watching the PBS film in class, I had learned a lot about the racial elements of Brazil’s population. I was completely unaware that there were so many people from African descent living in Brazil. I found this interesting, and decided to research further to see what I could learn about this major population. I found a BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/719134.stm that discussed the “truth” about the black population of Brazil. It states that the racial democracy in Brazil is just a myth. Blacks feel invisible in Brazil, they make up half of the population- but they don’t occupy important political and social positions. Benedita da Silva, the first black woman elected to the Brazilian Senate states, “We live on the margins, in the ghettos where people can’t see us.” http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/brazil/brazil-race.htm The population of blacks have brought with them their traditions in music and dance- as we saw in the video. They excel in Brazilian sports (for example, Pele). However, they complain of social insults and police harassment constantly. Carnival season is a particular season where Brazil’s social rules are pushed aside. However, outside the Carnival season, according to the Latin American Studies website, “Black women accompanied by white men are often assumed to be prostitutes and black visitors to wealthy condos or high-rise office buildings are still often sent to the ‘service’ elevators.” After continuing to read both of these articles, I was shocked to hear about what truly is happening in Brazil in terms of the lack of a racial democracy. It made me question what was being done in order to potentially reach equality- because clearly, it has not been met yet. I found that there was a meeting on June 13, 2011 between the US and Brazil to produce a joint action plan in promoting racial and ethnic equality. According to this website (http://www.raceequality.org/current-news-and-events/83-meeting-of-us-brazil-joint-action-plan-to-promote-racial-and-ethnic-equality.html) there are many more meetings to follow, and I hope that they lead to a long-term solution to the inequality that Brazil is facing.
You raise some interesting issues Emily.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting to compare Brazil's history of race relations to our own here in the United States. Many like to think that we live in post-racial society but I have a hard time believing that is true.