Race Matters the US Is Becoming More and More Like
Brazil
Written by Mark Wells
Monday, 29 January 2007
As several historical studies have proven,
descriptions of rape and the subsequent effects on its
victims can easily be applied to the Brazilian woman
of color, be she of African or Indian descent. Since
"the very idea of race implies that of inequality"
(1), the treatment of women of color by white men
places them in the category of "other" and thus
"inferior".

Afro-Brazilian women (negras and mulatas) were seen as
being promiscuous and thus sexually available to white
men but not worthy of marriage, which was reserved for
white women (2).

The pioneering work of sociologist Florestan Fernandes
details the nonchalant attitude of São Paulo
authorities towards the "deflowering" of
Afro-Brazilian women. When Afro-Brazilian parents
became outraged when their daughters were deflowered
and even impregnated by white men, the attitude was
that they were of African descent and thus of low
social status and therefore there was no honor to
defend (3).

In his study of the image of female sexuality in 1920s
Rio de Janeiro, Tiago de Melo Gomes writes that the
literature of the time made explicit connections
between African ancestry and excessive sexuality,
becoming quite evident in the vocabulary used to
represent them (negras and mulatas) (4).

This low social status ascribed to the Afro-Brazilian
woman also went beyond matters of the bedroom and has
been an established and accepted part of the racial
hierarchy during and after the era of slavery. This
hierarchy was supported and enforced by social customs
and acts of aggression against the afro-descendente.

For instance, there are newspaper reports of
afrodescendente women being arrested and having their
heads shaved if they were seen walking the streets
elegantly dressed and their hair well-done. If a black
woman was seen wearing a hat she risked the
possibility of having it slapped off of her head
because the use of a hat in those times (1930's) was
"a distinctive mark of a modern person, and the black
woman was not seen as such by whites" (5).

These details elaborate three basic points. One, while
negras and mulatas may represent varying degrees of
African ancestry, it is white Brazilian society's
treatment of these women that place them in the same
category. Two, in patriarchal societies, exploitative
relations of a sexual nature do not give women overall
advantages.

White Brazilian men, like their American counterparts,
may have had a sexual attraction for women of African
descent, but they reserved the security of honor,
marriage and family for white women. And three,
Brazil's mixed race population, with its people of
color at the lowest rungs of all society, are the
result of these illicit, exploitative affairs.

Foreign Studies

In past e-mails and postings online, many Brazilians
have voiced their disagreement with the opinions,
research and studies that have been conducted by
non-Brazilian scholars. While I can certainly respect
the opposition to what some regard as North American
imperialism, there are times when foreign studies are
as equally important as studies made by nationals.

When people are new to an environment, as is the case
of tourists, often-times locals will offer directions,
advice and information about social norms and customs
that anyone from the town or city would already know.

I address this issue because some time ago at this
site, the work of Francis Winddance Twine (Racism in a
Racial Democracy) was not accepted as authentic. I
suspect that the reasoning was because she was
American and presumably hadn't spent years most of her
life in Brazil conducting research for her project.

For those who refuse to respect the work of an
American scholar, many of Twine's findings can be
substantiated in a recent work by Petrônio Domingues.
In Uma História Não Contada (An Untold Story), the
author provides detailed research of race relations in
São Paulo between the years 1889 and 1930. In this
400-plus page book, one will find countless examples
of the hostile, and often-times violent defense of
white privilege in pre-World War I Brazil.

In near exhausting detail, Domingues's book documents
the abysmal state of race relations that has been
hidden from the layperson for decades. After reviewing
this work, no one can claim that Brazil never
practiced any sort of racial segregation in its
history.

The only difference between Brazil, the US and South
Africa is that these social customs were not written
into law. They didn't need to be. These open
manifestations of racial segregation were accepted and
enforced socially. Here are just a few examples that
can be found in Domingues's book:

- There existed streets for whites and streets for
blacks.

- The practice of white families finding black girls
to act as a domestic servants while white children
continued with their education (which still happens
today) was a common practice (Twine also discussed
both of these details in her book).

- White children refusing to be taught by black
professors, parents not wanting their children to be
taught by black teachers.

- Schools not accepting black children even when their
parents were of middle-class status.

- Newspapers advertising for employers that hired
whites (national or foreign) only ("prefere-se
branco").

- Clubs where blacks (dark negro or light mulato) were
not allowed to enter. Research by Edith Piza confirms
that the Venâncio Ayres club in Itapetininga, São
Paulo didn't allow black members until 1979 (6).

- Lynching blacks to protect the honor of white women
was common.

- The journal A Redenção once printed an article
entitled "Killing a preto is not a crime"

Many a reader would naturally assume these things must
have happened in the US if they were not informed that
they actually happened in Brazil. These practices were
the precedent setting guidelines that still govern
race relations today.

The effects of these practices can be noted even today
in the vast majority of domestic servants of African
descent, the countless children who leave school at an
early age, the ruthless murder of afrodescendente men
by police and death squads and the infamous "boa
aparência" (good appearance, a code term for white)
employment preferences.

Brazil: Mestiço Body, White Face

The concept of "whiteness as property" can also be
measured in terms of racial subjugation and
domination. In other words, the ability of one group,
in this case, those considered white, to exert it's
will on another and thus maintaining its privileged
social position. So how does this maintenance of white
supremacy exert itself in Brazil? There are several
factors that contribute to the protection of the
status quo.

The Brazilian media often demonstrates its willingness
to attach measurements of value to racial groups. For
instance, a study recently confirmed that since its
inception, the magazine Veja has released a total
1,852 issues but featured only 58 afrodescendentes on
its front covers.

That equals a dismal 3% of the total. Of the 58, only
45 represented an Afro-Brazilian as the protagonist.
Even further, of those 45 covers featuring negros and
mulatos, there were basically two types of
representation: the athlete and the singer (7).

While the magazine itself has featured articles about
black Brazilian engineers, lawyers, doctors and
businessmen and women, the magazine continuously
chooses to present negros and negro-mestiços in the
same stereotypical position that Brazilian society has
reserved for them.

In other words, even when Afro-Brazilians climb the
ladder of social success beyond the stereotypical
roles reserved for them, they cannot be presented in
this light. Social prestige, power and professional
status are thus associated with the whiteness of one's
skin. When you add the image of the sexually available
mulata, it becomes clear that Brazilian society
continues to see afrodescendentes as "objects of
entertainment"(8).

When faced with the vast amount of evidence that the
Brazilian media seems to be ashamed of the darker side
of its ethnic mix, one might ask what reasons are used
to excuse this obsession with presenting Brazil as a
white country. Some of the common reasons one would
likely hear are:

1) The model used for media propaganda in Brazil is
the middle class in which one doesn't find
afrodescendentes.

2) Blacks are not consumers.

3) Clients don't accept the inclusion of blacks being
associated with various products

4) The publicity is a reflection of a prejudiced,
racist society (9).

While these four statements may represent reasons for
the exclusion of Afro-Brazilians in the media, they
are far from being legitimate excuses. The reasons
are:

1) According to research, of those Brazilians whose
earnings exceed twenty minimum salaries per month, 28%
are black (10).

2) Afro-Brazilian buying power is estimated to be
about US$ 141 billion. The Afro-Brazilian middle class
represents about 8 million people. The cosmetics
market for Afro-Brazilians is estimated to be about
US$ 2 billion (11). The successful run of Raça Brasil
magazine also proves that there is a market for
products specifically aimed at afrodescendente
consumers.

3) In reference to points three and four from the
reasons list, two conclusions can be drawn. Either the
Brazilian media is racist in its exclusion of
afrodescendentes in its propaganda or the media simply
represents a racist society that doesn't accept the
Afro-Brazilian as a symbol of a successful Brazil.

These three points are important to understanding that
today's Brazil still holds the opinions of
post-abolition elites with high regard: i.e. in order
for Brazil to be a successful, respected country on a
global level it must be white or seen as white.

Any visitor who has been to Brazil knows that ethnic
portrayal of Brazil in media does not represent a true
reflection of the racial diversity in the country.
This is no mere coincidence. The white middle and
upper classes of Brazil believe it is their natural
right to be represented as the face of a successful
Brazil.

While there are class issues involved in this
rationale, race issues are intricately connected to
class issues to the degree that they cannot be
separated. Carmen Sílvia Moraes Rial was surprised to
discover this investment in "whiteness as property"
when conducting her research on Brazilian advertising.

Based on a conversation Rial had with an advertiser
who worked in the São Paulo branch of the
McCann-Erickson global advertising firm, she
discovered that the main obstacle to importing US
advertisements to Brazil was that the US ads featured
black people in levels and positions that are
considered "unacceptable" in Brazil.

After comparing television ads from the US and Brazil,
she discovered that while blacks in Brazil were always
portrayed in subservient positions, in US ads, blacks
were shown driving cars and doing everything that
whites did (12).

Imagine that; in such a racist country as the US, TV
commercials featuring black people show them in
middle-class lifestyles on par with white Americans;
in Brazil, the country of the racial democracy, black
people are shown in inferior positions. Why? Because
it would be unacceptable to portray blacks as being
equal to whites on TV. Hmmm...

Rial's discovery is similar to the findings of Heloísa
Buarque de Almeida. When posing the question of why so
few afrodescendentes are seen in Brazilian magazines
or on television, she was consistently told that
"publicity doesn't change the society, it only
reflects its values and attitudes; and as we live in a
racist country, it is reflected in the small quantity
of blacks on TV"(13).

Almeida also points out the deeply ingrained
correlation between blackness and poverty. In one of
her interviews with an advertising agent this ideal
was brought to the fore:

- Have you ever made an advertisement in which you
used blacks?

- I did some years ago. Yes. And they didn't like it,
no. They were removed. But today...

- They didn't like it, who? The customer?

- Yes, the customer...But today I use them, for
example, in Arapuã I always have, I always use them.

- But generally, when it's in a thing that has various
people....?

- Right. Rarely do I put a black guy by himself in a
commercial.

- Or a black guy as the highlight of the commercial.

- Because still the...in Brazil, the color black is
synonymous with poverty. Then you say: "Ah, it's a
thing for poor people!" The public will say that, not
me. They'll think that it's a product for poor people.
For (people of) class C. And no one wants to have
products for poor people.

- And race? Why are there so few black people on
television?

- There are few because...Not even I told
you...Because many a customer says that they don't
want that, the person rejects it. There's a lot of
that, the person sees him/herself...Not even Brahma
has once made an entire campaign with Mussum (14), and
if it has a black guy then it appears that it is not
for (people of) class A. Things like this exist.

- Its really the racism of Brazilian society?

- Yes, of all of Brazilian society. It's not the
publicity agent. People try a lot to put (blacks in
commercials) but sometimes too, it's a problem.
Because you use a guy drinking, from then on they're
gonna say that he is drinking because he is black,
then they're gonna complain (15).

Latin American Exceptionalism: Myth or Reality?

Here the situation has been set up for a vicious
cycle. On the one hand, Brazilian advertisement agents
can place the blame on Brazilian society for its
racist values and on the other, the Brazilian public
can blame the media for its exclusionary practices.

At this point I would like to consider another model
theory that compares racism in Latin America against
that of North America. In a work that put Cuba,
Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico on one side and the
United States on the other, Peña, Sidanius and Sawyer
found on these Caribbean islands the existence of
implicit, strong anti-black attitudes amongst whites
as well as those who possessed visible African
ancestry (16).

They concluded that even though these countries also
proclaimed themselves to be racial democracies, the
people of these small islands exhibited stronger
anti-black prejudice than that that exists in the
United States. The study showed that strong prejudice
can indeed exist even in socialist (i.e. classless)
societies (Cuba) as well as in countries where there
was a high degree of miscegenation (Dominican
Republic) (17). The authors attributed these findings
to several different factors, one of which I think is
relevant to this discussion.

The authors suggested that because of the Civil Rights
Movement, whites in the United States changed their
views about African-Americans and racial justice. The
struggle, along with subsequent affirmative action
policies forced white Americans to deal with blacks in
ways that they had never had to in the past. Over the
years, Americans of all colors had been exposed to the
atrocities that African-Americans had dealt with as
citizens of the United States.

Americans of all colors were made familiar with the
famous speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the
courage of Rosa Parks and the open displays of racist
hatred on the part of southern whites. I would venture
to say that the images of 50s and 60s America changed
the hearts of many white Americans who felt ashamed of
the subhuman actions of their forefathers.

This is not to suggest that racism no longer exists in
today's America. But what it does suggest is that laws
that guaranteed black voting rights, affirmative
action policies and school desegregation at least made
whites aware that there was something drastically
wrong with American society and that they must take
steps to change it so that the United States would
really become the "land of equal opportunity".

While the US still does not represent true equality
for all of its citizens, the Civil Rights Movement at
least served notice to white Americans that
African-Americans were people who deserved access to
everything that America's forefathers promised its
citizens. Of course, some of this "racial healing" may
be attributed to the political correctness of not
wanting to appear to be racist, but in that sense,
this puts Americans on level ground with Brazilians.

The difference here is that countries like Brazil,
Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic have yet to
deal with their own historical racism against its
African descendents, thus they continue to see them as
inferior beings that deserve to remain on the
outskirts of their respective societies. For this
simple fact, maybe all of these nations could benefit
from affirmative action policies.

In my ongoing comparative analysis between Brazil and
the US, the more I research, the more I affirm my
original hypothesis: as far as race relations are
concerned, the countries are much more alike than they
appear at first glance.

There are differences of course, but the amazing thing
is how there can be so many differences yet the end
result still being the same. While I acknowledge those
differences, I also see the two countries meeting at a
common ground.

I have suggested in the past that racial etiquette in
the US is becoming more and more like that of Brazil.
For instance, in 1995, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo
conducted a poll that found that 89% of Brazilians
thought that prejudice against afrodescendentes
existed in Brazil while only 10% admitted to
personally having prejudice (18).

Lilia Mortiz Schwarcz conducted a similar study in
which 97% of the people she interviewed said that they
harbored no prejudicial feelings. Yet, 98% of those
same people confirmed that they knew people who did
harbor prejudicial sentiments. Schwarcz concluded that
Brazilians see themselves as an "island of racial
democracy surrounded by racists on every side"(19).

In comparison, recently, after a racist incident
involving comedian Michael Richards, CNN conducted a
similar poll with Americans. The results found that
84% of blacks and 66% of whites thought racism is
still a serious problem in America.

43% of whites and 48% of blacks knew someone that they
believed were racist, but only 13% of whites and 12%
of blacks thought of themselves as racially biased
(20). CNN concluded that "Most Americans see lingering
racism - in others"(21).

In other words, in both countries, the majority of
people know that racial bias exists, but no one wants
to take personal responsibility of being racist.

In this sense, citizens of the United States, a
country that was once known for its openly racist
sentiments, are becoming more like Brazilians. People
can admit that having racial bias is wrong, so hiding
behind a politically correct façade is the way many
choose of dealing with the issue.

Footnotes

1. Sartre, Jean-Paul. Anti-Semite and Jew: An
Exploration of the Etiology of Hate. Schocken: Reissue
edition 1995.

2. Moreno, Veracley Lima. "Questões de Honra":
Sexualidade Feminina e Sociedade em São Luís na Virada
do Século". Outros Tempos. Vol. 2, 2005. ISSN.
1808-8031.
http://www.outrostempos.uema.br/artigo14.doc.

3. Bastide, Roger and Fernandes, Florestan. Brancos e
negros em São Paulo. São Paulo, 2nd ed., 1959.

4. Gomes, Tiago de Melo. "Massais, mulatas,
meretrizes: imagens da sexualidade feminina no Rio de
Janeiro dos anos 1920". Cadernos Pagu, Campinas, v.
23, 2004.
www.scielo.br/pdf/cpa/n23/n23a05.pdf

5. Domingues, Petrônio. Uma História Não Contada -
negro, racismo e branqueamento em São Paulo no
pós-abolição. São Paulo: Ed. Senac, 2005

6. Piza, Edith. "Branco no Brasil? Ninguém sabe,
ninguém viu" in GUIMARÃES, Antonio Sérgio Alfredo &
HUNTLEY, Lynn. (Orgs.) Tirando a Máscara: Ensaios
sobre o Racismo no Brasil. São Paulo. Paz e Terra/SEF.
2000.

7. Golzio, Derval Gomes. Retratos de Brasil: análisis
de las imágenes de portada publicadas en las revistas
Veja e Isto É. Tese de doutoramento apresentada na
Universidad de Salamanca, 2003. Cited in "O racismo
impregnado no pensamento da sociedade" by Derval Gomes
Golzio, Thiago de Andrade Marinho, Alberto Araújo
Silva, Mayra Brito Ferreira, Cibelle Ferraz Pereira e
Mônica dos Santos Lins in Observatório da Imprensa.
March 27, 2006.
http://observatorio.ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/artigos.asp?cod=374CID006

8. Gonzalez, Lélia. O Lugar de Negro. Editora Marco
Zero Limitada. Rio de Janeiro 1982.

9. Araújo, Joel Zito. A negação do Brasil: O negro na
telenovela brasileira. Editora SENAC São Paulo 2000.

10. Ibid

11. Levy, Patrick. "Afro-Brazilian Market Potential".
U.S. Department of Commerce. Available online April
24, 2006.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri.nsf/en/gr-78701e.html

12. Rial, Carmen Sílvia Moraes. "Racial and ethnic
stereotyping in Brazilian advertising. In: IUAES
Inter-Congress on Metropolitan Ethnic Cultures, 2000,
Beijing. Caderno de Resumos - IUAES Inter-Congress on
Metropolitan Ethnic Cultures. Beijing, 2000. v. 1. p.
15-15. Online September 15, 2006.
www.antropologia.ufsc.br/49.%20Racial%20and%20Ethnic.pdf

13. Almeida, Heloísa Buarque de. "Na TV: pressupostos
de gênero, classe e raça que estruturam a
programação". In: O Desafio da Diferença: articulando
gênero, raça e classe, 2000, Salvador. O Desafio da
Diferença: articulando gênero, raça e classe. Salvador
: UFBa, 2000. Available online September 23, 2004.
http://www.desafio.ufba.br/gt4-008.html

14. Mussum (born Antônio Carlos Bernardes Gomes in
1941) was a black musician and humorist. He died in
1994.

15. Almeida, Heloísa Buarque de. "Na TV: pressupostos
de gênero, classe e raça que estruturam a
programação". In: O Desafio da Diferença: articulando
gênero, raça e classe, 2000, Salvador. O Desafio da
Diferença: articulando gênero, raça e classe. Salvador
: UFBa, 2000. Available online September 23, 2004.
http://www.desafio.ufba.br/gt4-008.html

16. Peña, Yesilernis; Jim Sidanius and Mark Sawyer.
"Racial Democracy in the Americas: A Latin and U.S.
Comparison". Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,
Volume 35, no. 6, 2004.

17. Ibid.

18. Turra, Cleusa; Venturi, Gustavo (editors). Racismo
cordial: a mais completa análise sobre preconceito de
cor no Brasil. Editora Ática, 1995.

19. Schwarcz, Lilia Moritz. "Questão racial no
Brasil". In Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Letícia Vidor de
Sousa Reis (editors), Negras imagens. São Paulo,
EDUSP, 1997.

20. Zahn, Paula. Skin-Deep: Racism in America. CNN.
December 12, 2006. Available online December 17, 2006.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0612/12/pzn.01.html

21. CNN. "Most Americans see lingering racism -- in
others". Available online December 17, 2006.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/12/racism.poll/index.html

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