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 In my last essay I cited João Vargas's term "the hyperconsciousness of race" to describe how racial denial and consciousness can occur simultaneously. Pedagogue Eliane Cavalleiro cites several examples of how values attached to race affect the daily interactions of Brazilian children.
For example, two children, one black, the other white, participate in a game in which they tease each other about which of them smells badly. As the game goes back and forth, the white child plays a "trump card" by saying, "I don't stink, I am white. You're the one who's black!!" At this point, the black child is shocked into silence (1). As the accepted belief is that black people have a natural, unpleasant smell, the white child continues on her way secured in her whiteness and superiority, while the black child has been traumatized. Another black child in Cavalleiro's research told a teacher that she didn't want to be black but wanted to be like Angélica (2) because "she is pretty" (3). Then there is the story of the blond grandmother who found her grandchild in the bathtub vigorously scrubbing her skin with soap and water. When the grandmother asked why, the child replied, "I don't want to have the color of my father. I want to be like my mother". Both the grandmother and the mother of the child were white women with blond hair while the father of the child was black (4). Examples such as these are common occurrences in Brazil and affect children, as well as adults, of African descent. Like examples I provided in my previous essay, the example of the mixed-race child provides more evidence to support my view that whether one has dark brown skin or some intermediary color between black and white (or better, brown and beige, peach and pink) the stigma of not being white can affect all who come short of the white ideal.
As I wrote in my previous essay, there is always a dispute about how to categorize Brazil's non-whites. There have been hundreds of studies that show that Brazil's whites and non-whites don't necessarily see intermediary colors between the black and white extremes as black as it happens in the US. While on the surface, this certainly does appear to be true, it is necessary to look beneath the surface and between the lines to investigate the implications of such racial ideologies. My argument here is that while common, everyday Brazilians subscribe more to grades of color rather than race, white Brazilian elites or the middle and upper classes do indeed see things in terms of black and white. In fact, I have seen enough examples that suggest that average Brazilians also adhere to such classifications if they are challenged. As whiteness is positioned at the top of the racial hierarchy and embodies the status that many desire, in order for a person to perceive themselves as white, others must be defined as non-white. In this sense, it does not matter whether that person perceives him or herself as black, mixed race or Asian. With whiteness being the racial paradigm, it is fitting to understand the words of Muniz Sodré who tells us that "for such a paradigm, there is only white and the others...race is always the other" (5). With the rise of scientific racism, it was the European who defined himself as white and superior while others were black or Oriental and thus inferior. Taking another example from Sodré, one would not classify a person as a mestiço if they were descended from Italians and French but would be classified as such if they descended from Nigerians and French (6). To further elaborate on this point, I would like to consider an essay called "Whiteness as Property" by Cheryl Harris. Harris found "reputational interest in being regarded as white as a thing of significant value", a "form of status property"(7). Harris further states that:
"The concept of whiteness was premised on white supremacy rather than mere difference. "White" was defined and constructed in ways that increased its value by reinforcing its exclusivity. Indeed, just as whiteness as property embraced the right to exclude, whiteness as a theoretical construct evolved for the very purpose of racial exclusion. Thus, the concept of whiteness is built on both exclusion and racial subjugation." (8)
Keeping this definition of whiteness in mind, the Brazilian situation will be analyzed according to this definition in order to ascertain whether the power structure, race relations and racial representation conform to such a definition. As I wrote in a previous essay, only 12 members of Brazil's 513 member Congress are black while only two of 81 senators are of African ancestry. And as it is well known among those who follow Brazilian social inequality, afrodescendentes earn approximately half the income of Brazilian whites, get less education and die younger. Truth be told, Brazilians of color significantly lag behind those identified as white in nearly every category that is used to determine quality of life and social inequality (9), but here I would like to focus on racial representation and how it conforms to Harris's "whiteness as property" model.
Considering the lengths people go to differentiate between pretos and pardos, I have taken account of the way that Rede Globo portrays Brazilian people on its programming and have come to the conclusion that it doesn't seem to matter whether one is preto or pardo: they are both excluded. This trend not only applies to Brazilian television, but is also blatantly apparent when one studies Brazil's mainstream print media. In my own research, I came across some very disturbing statistics. When I looked at the women's monthly magazine Marie Claire, I found that between February 2001 and October 2004, actress Taís Araújo (issue #158, May 2004) was the only woman with clearly African features that appeared on the magazine's cover. Continuing my research, I also discovered that in 101 issues (August, 1996 to December 2004) of the magazine Corpo a Corpo, Araújo was again the only woman of clearly African descent. I stress here that there may have been more than a few women appearing on these covers that can count some African ancestry in their genetic make-up, but following Brazil's racial criteria of appearance over ancestry, Araújo would be the only black woman that graced the covers.
Following this same line of research, I decided to challenge the well-known Brazilian myth of the mulata as the national symbol of Brazilian beauty and most desirable sex partner for both Brazilian men and foreigners. Jorge Amado's classic novels have consistently implied that the only thing that the Brazilian mulata has going for her is her beauty and her bedroom performances. As this ideal is so thoroughly ingrained in Brazilian culture, surely the sex appeal of the so-called mulata would earn such recognition in Brazil's print media. The results paint a different picture. Every year the magazine Isto É Gente publishes its "25 Most Sexy" men and women issue proclaiming Brazil's most sexy men and women in the entertainment field. Of the 200 people selected as "most sexy" over a four year period between the years 2002 and 2005, only 12 black men and women were voted into this select group. Of these 12, singer Preta Gil, daughter of musician and Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, may be the one that raises the most eye brows when considering who is black in this group. While there are those who fall into the category of the much celebrated morena/moreno category, many of the white Brazilians on the list represent a whiteness that would not be out of place in Europe. Perhaps they represent the "authentic whiteness" that the Portuguese could not quite provide (10).
In challenging this myth of the mulata, I also discovered that, in the blueprint magazine for the standard of female sensuality, beauty and sexuality, Playboy Brasil, of 94 issues from January of 1999 to October 2006, only one light-skinned mulata (Janaína dos Santos, October 2002) appeared on the cover of the Brazilian version of Playboy. Some may also consider Mônica Carvalho (July 2001), but in the Brazilian context, she wouldn't count because, although her mother is black, phenotype takes precedence over ancestry in Brazil and she is most likely accepted as a branca de terra, a term that signifies a person who looks mostly white but is known to have black ancestors or some physical feature that is associated with blackness. If the mulata is the symbol of female sexuality, one wouldn't know it by looking at the covers of Playboy magazine. Thus, judging Brazil by its most widely circulating magazine covers, the pride of mestiçagem has no place in this white ideal except as a necessary sacrifice on the way to official whiteness.
Mestiçagem: A Source of Pride or Transition into Whiteness?
While whiteness may be thought of in terms of skin color, as a representation of power, it is psychological consciousness. It represents the modern while everything else is seen as the past or primitive. While the white Brazilian may proclaim himself to be proud of his racial mixture while in Brazil or in the presence of those who simply cannot pass for white, when he goes overseas, he cannot hide his true sentiments on the issue. With Portugal's improved position as part of the European Union, Brazilian immigration has continued to increase to the former mother country. But Portugal is indeed part of Europe and racial mixture is not seen as a source of pride, neither in the real sense nor in the Gilberto Freyre "transition to whiteness" sense. According to Igor José de Renó Machado:
"In the reconstruction of imperial thought in Portugal there was no veiled intention to insert the idea of whitening in the racial classification system. This is due to the fact that racism is a given reality in the premises of the system which is clearly antimiscegenation." (11)
This last paragraph is important to understand because while racial mixture was deemed necessary to improve Brazil's racial portrait, thus erasing the "stain" of Africa (as well as native) that is prominent in the physical attributes of a large percentage of the Brazilian population, in Portugal, an acknowledged white country, this mixture is not necessary and not celebrated. Gilberto Freyre (among others) coyly constructed and celebrated the idea of racial mixture as a prelude to the ultimate goal, a gradual process of whitening. This new celebration of mestiçagem worked to the advantage of the Brazilian elites who were eager to be accepted on the global stage as a white country. But in Portugal, mestiçagem is a disadvantage to the Brazilian who has hopes of being accepted as white in Europe. Machado clarifies this point further when he states that:
"On the one hand, there is the Portuguese Lusophony order, which is openly hierarchical and considers Brazil as Mestizo, in an intermediary place between Black and White. On the other, there is the racial order in which Brazilians in Brazil are classed and which privileges the Mestizo category to the degree that it serves the concept of "Whitening"...(12)
Here Machado tells us that the Brazilian of mixed descent is hailed as being better than the "pure" afrodescendente, but only because they represent a closer step to the ideal of whiteness. In a genetic, and presumably phenotypic sense, the mestiço is only valuable as a step away from the blackness that the Brazilian is ashamed of. In general terms, the mestiço is still seen as degenerate. While many Brazilians are quick to proclaim their whiteness, lurking in the shadows of consciousness, there is a fear that this "Brazilian whiteness" is not quite enough. These fears become reality in Portugal. Again, citing Machado:
"The clash between the two orders, both of which were legitimized by the same theory (created by Gilberto Freyre) arose from the fact that White Brazilians are seen as Mestizos in Portugal, suffering a lower status along with non-White Brazilians. The opposite happens with non-White Brazilians because they have a higher status than in Brazil, and they use this to justify their position in disputes between Brazilians.... Whitening does not exist in Portugal; once Mestizo, always Mestizo. In Brazil, miscegenation is the other face of a racial ideology of Whitening." (13)
Thus, in Portugal, the white Brazilian who in Brazil proclaims that "we are all mestiços", does not want to be recognized as such when he comes face to face with "true" whiteness. All the rhetoric about "we're all the same", and "I have black blood, too", goes out the window when he realizes that he is not accepted as white. Suddenly, the white Brazilian who couldn't tell who was black or white in Brazil becomes very conscious of race when his own whiteness is brought into question or outright rejected. I can imagine his reaction: "No, no...I'm not mixed, I'm white!! That Brazilian over there, he's BLACK!!" Machado brings light to this scenario when he explains that:
"The conflict between the two different racial orders is the cause of the greater number of disputes of Brazilians among themselves and with the Portuguese. While in Brazil, miscegenation is an ambiguous strategy that makes racial classifications more flexible and disguises deep racism, in Portugal there is no ambiguity whatsoever: the racial order might be seen as Mestizo for the populations of the ex-colonies, but inside the Portuguese metropolis, you are either White or not. "In the Portuguese order, Brazilians are Mestizos, but below White Portuguese and above Blacks and Africans. The problem is that the White Brazilian immigrants do not see themselves in this order and do not align themselves in the supposed racial Brazilian democracy with Blacks of their own proper nationality. But in Portugal, Brazilian Mestizos and Blacks have a chance to be "equal" to Brazilian Whites and more distant from African Blacks, the most discriminated class (emphasis mine). (14)
Thus, the white Brazilian who claims to disagree with the bi-polar, black/white racial model is ready to conform to it as long as he can be on the "winning team". If he truly accepted the idea that all Brazilians are mestiços (in the social, as well as, the genetic sense) he wouldn't voice such violent rejection of the established racial order in Portugal. He would see himself and his more obviously afrodescendente countryman as brothers. On the other hand, the afrodescendente finally has his chance to be on equal footing with his whiter Brazilian brother as they are both seen as mestiços in the former colonizing country. Again, if mestiçagem was the source of pride that it is proclaimed to be, why wouldn't the "white Brazilian" accept his position in the Portuguese racial hierarchy?
While inter-racial relations are proclaimed to be proof of a "racial democracy", there appear to be cracks in the armor of defense that expose themselves when closely scrutinized. For instance, Laura Moutinho (15), in her investigation of inter-racial relationships in middle-class Rio de Janeiro, finds that there is often times an unspoken discomfort in white middle-class environments when a white male or female introduces their black partner into their social circles. The stares and sudden disassociations put the black partner on notice that their relationship is not as accepted as Brazilian society would have one believe. One guy interviewed by Moutinho expresses the opinion that "patricinhas" (16) of Rio would not consider going out with a black guy if a white guy was available (17).
During twenty months of ethnographic research in Rio, Alexander Edmonds was told by various informants that they would have "more difficulty dating a black man than a white man of an inferior social class" implying that race influences one's mate selection more than class within middle-class Carioca social cliques (18). Kabengele Munanga, professor of anthropology at Universidade de São Paulo acknowledges the stares his family attracts in public places when he appears with his white wife, mulato children and black children from a previous marriage (19).
The historic reality of interracial relations in Brazil is another facet of social and racial inequality. Comparing official statistics from 1960 to 1991, interracial marriages have increased from 12.6% in 1960 to 23.1% in 1991 (20). What this means is that the majority of miscegenation that occurred in Brazil over the centuries is due to mainly two factors. 1) White male sexual exploitation of black and Indian women and, 2) The Afro-Brazilian obsession with whitening the skin color of their descendents. In reality, the overwhelming majority of miscegenation has occurred among the lower classes and outside the confines of marriage.
The sexual exploitation of black women is yet another weapon of domination and exploitation of white supremacy in Brazil. While many Brazilian historians would like to sugarcoat the past, the simple truth is that miscegenation is the result of the widespread rape of black and Indian women. Thus it is utterly shocking, repugnantly chauvinistic and lacking of any kind of regard for human decency to read the words of an Argentine found in the Brazzil forum section. The author is apparently trying to argue why the Portuguese were less racist than the British during the slavery eras in the US and Brazil:
"....the Portuguese whites simply fucked more with their slaves than the U.S. whites. Even in such a case, they were less racist than the US. whites because they showed less repugnance to fuck with black females. To avoid fuck with blacks is a symbol of racism, a symbol of repugnance to other races. I' m not saying I feel repugnance about fucking with blacks, do not misunderstand me, I only say that if a white man does accept less to fuck with a black woman, surely it is because he feel repugnance to that race, or at least more repugnance than a white that fucks as much black woman as he can." (21)
Justifying the rape of black women as a means of legitimizing a "racial democracy" is not only sick, it is subhuman, lacking in any sort of critical thinking and typical of the patriarchal, Western male's view of women. There is nothing democratic about rape. It is a means of exerting power and dominance over another human being. This has nothing to do with proving a lack of racism. In fact, it is another example of racism and "racial democracy" coming together. Allow me to also point out the fact that men have been known to have sexual relations with not only women, but other men, children and even animals. Is this some proof of sexual attraction or a serious deprivation of human, as well as moral consciousness? Rape during wars or colonization is nothing new. The treatment of women of color in pre-Republic Brazil can be legitimately compared to that of women of colonized countries by the male members of the colonizing country. Whether one is to speak of the rape of Algerian women by French men during colonization, or Americans in Vietnam, rape is a means of one group displaying and maintaining dominance over another group (22). It is also based on "traditional views of women as property and often as sexual objects"(23). Women may also be targets of rape because they are members of racial, ethnic or religious groups (24), confined to simple roles of reproductive organs in order to bear children of the enemy (25). Let us keep this in mind when we consider Brazil's population of mestiços.
Footnotes 1. Cavalleiro, Eliane. Do Silêncio do Lar ao Silêncio Escolar: Racismo, preconceito e discriminação na educação infantil. 2nd Printing. Editora Contexto. São Paulo. 2003. 2. Angélica Ksyvickis, a popular blonde who has been host of several children's variety programs on television networks TV Manchete, SBT and Rede Globo. She currently hosts the Rede Globo Saturday morning variety show Estrelas. She is also the wife of popular TV show host Luciano Huck. 3. Cavalleiro, Eliane. Do Silêncio do Lar ao Silêncio Escolar: Racismo, preconceito e discriminação na educação infantil. 2nd Printing. Editora Contexto. São Paulo. 2003. 4. Faustino, Oswaldo. "Consciência Negra começa cedo". Raça Brasil. Issue 80. November 2004. http://www2.uol.com.br/simbolo/raca/080/materia5a_80.htm 5. Sodré, Muniz. Claros e Escuros: Identidade, povo e mídia no Brasil. Editora Vozes. Editora Vozes. Petrópolis. 1999 6. Ibid 7. Harris, Cheryl. "Whiteness as Property". Harvard Law Review, Vol. 106, No. 8, June 1993. 8. Ibid 9. There are literally hundreds of studies that have documented the depths of social inequality in Brazil according to race (see for example, Edward Telles, 2004, Jacques d'Adesky, 2001, Elisa Larkin Nascimento, 2003, Michael Hanchard, 1999, Rebecca Reichmann, 1999) 10. Souza, Maria Adélia Aparecida de. "Milton por Maria Adélia" in Souza, Maria Adélia Aparecida de (editor). O mundo do cidadão. Um cidadão do mundo. Hucitec, 1996. Nossa Casa website. Available online April 23, 2004. http://nossacasa.net/dire/texto.asp?texto=68l 11. Machado, Igor José de Renó. "Brazilian Immigration and the Reconstruction of Racial Hierarchies of the Portuguese Empire". Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology. Volume 1. Número 1/2 Janeiro a Dezembro de 2004 12. Ibid 13. Ibid 14. Ibid 15. Moutinho, Laura. "Zonas de sombra e silêncio". Revista Democracia Viva (online). IBASE-online - No 6, Rio de Janeiro, January 30, 2004. http://www.ibase.br/pubibase/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?infoid=546&sid=140 16. Term somewhat equivalent to the American "Valley girl". The 1995 film Clueless starring actress Alicia Silverstone is a good example. The movie was also translated as As Patricinhas de Beverly Hills for its Brazilian film release. 17. Moutinho, Laura. Zonas de sombra e silêncio. Revista Democracia Viva (online). IBASE-online - No. 19, Rio de Janeiro, January 30, 2004. http://www.ibase.br/pubibase/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?infoid=546&sid=140 18. Edmonds, Alexander. "No Universo da Beleza: Notas de Campo sobre Cirurgia Plástica no Rio de Janeiro," in M. Goldenberg (ed). Nu & Vestido: dez antropólogos revelam a cultura do corpo carioca. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2002 19. Estudos Avançados. "A difícil tarefa de definir quem é negro no Brasil": Entrevista de Kabengele Munanga". Estudos Avançados. 18 (50), 2004. http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ea/v18n50/a05v1850.pdf 20. Censo Brasileiro de 1991 and IBGE Censo Demográfico (1960) as cited in Edward Telles's Racismo à brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, Lumará. 2003. I would also like to consider the findings of Luisa Farah Schwartzman who suggested in her essay "Does Money Whiten? Educational Mobility of Parents and Racial Classification of Children in Brazil", interracial marriage statistics, like Brazilian color/race statistics, cannot be taken as 100% accurate. Brazilians often classify themselves and their spouses according to their own perceptions of "race" and color. Research has shown that two Brazilians of African descent may classify themselves in two different "racial"/color categories depending on which partner has lighter skin color, straighter hair, etc. Thus, if two "pardos" are classified as a "branco/parda" couple, it would affect intermarriage statistics. 21. Diaz, Pablo. "A Response to Mark Wells." Brazzil. Forum. http://www.brazzilrace.com/viewtopic.php?t=6 22. Hoglund, Dr. Anna T. "Gender and War". Whydah: Information and Policy Magazine. Volume 11, Nos. 1 & 2. January - June 2002. ISSN 1015-4957. http://www.aasciences.org/whydah/feature3.htm 23. Amnesty International USA. "Stop Violence Against Women: Rape as a Tool of War". http://www.amnestyusa.org/stopviolence/factsheets/rapeinwartime.html 24. Ibid 25. Zajovic, Stasa. "The political uses of religion, culture and ethnicity". Women Against Fundamentalisms. Journal number 7. 1995. http://waf.gn.apc.org/journal7p13.htm
This is part six of a multi-piece article.
Mark Wells holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and is currently working on a Master's Degree in Social Justice at Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. He can be reached at quilombhoje72@yahoo. © 2007 Mark Wells
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? And now Brazil has evolved the most in many aspects relating to racial, not social class issues. We should be careful not to feed into any kind of discrimination, I can’t help but feel as if this forum has caused unrest amongst some Brazilian and American participants. My message to you all is "tolerance" take the progress in the US in regards to race and utilize it and vice versa. Our enemy is this false pride! Let’s take what doesn’t/ didn’t work and scrap it...and most importantly move on!! Brazil is beautiful because of the unity amongst each other, example: Anybody born in Brazil being any color is Brazilian, period!. There is no Italian Brazilian, Mexican Brazilian etc. At least it is not obsessed upon because of an identity crises or for whatever reason. The result is less discrimination! This is the reason that on the black market the Brazilian passport is worth the most, because Brazilians can look like any "race" or ethnicity. 
