Latin American Anthropology: Race & Racism in Brazil: views and positionality

Good Afternoon, I've opened this discussion to focus mostly on the issue of race, racism and colour in Brazil to try to understand how different layers intersect and form unique frameworks. Further, I would like to reflect on how one's opinion about the topic can affect his position as internal/external, depending also on the interlocutor's view.

Black Lives Matter reach Brazil

The debate raised by the Black Lives Matter movement spread throughout the world and reached Brazil, where the question of race and identity is now strongly put back on the table, reaching a very wide public. On Nov 14th the Washington Post released a very interesting article (He grew up White. Now he identifies as Black. Brazil grapples with racial redefinition) that might help us to deep into the discussion. Some questions for you (but please, feel free to bring into the discussion whatever thought comes to your mind)

1. What do you think about this official change in one's identification of his/her self?

2. Do you think that the colour-identification in an official document can be relevant for re-building individual and/or collective identity?

A question of cathegory

In the following video (Couple Share Biggest Cultural Differences) go to minute 07:37 and put attention to what the portuguese woman (black) says about brazilian's habit of defining one person based on the category of "colour" instead of that of "ethnicity".

1. What do you think about it?

2. How would you define yourself if you had to write it on your ID card?

3. How do you think the other defines / would define you? Have you ever had some experience related to the argument?

Last national survey said...

IBGE National Survey, 2012-1019

For those of you who understand portugues, here it as an article of Globo dating back to November 2017 where is reported the already growing tendency of people's self-identification as black.

A song about discrimination, art as category-making or just a reflection of the already existing ones?

The following song is very focused on a claim of what really is "femininity", but in making the argument it refers also to other categories of discrimination widely present in Brazil.

[...]

Não precisa ser Amélia pra ser de verdade
Cê tem a liberdade pra ser quem você quiser
Seja preta, indígena, trans, nordestina
Não se nasce feminina, torna-se mulher

[...]

E não precisa ser Amélia pra ser de verdade
Cê tem a liberdade pra ser quem você quiser
Menos preta, indígena
Não se apropria
Quer ser preta dia a dia
Pra polícia cê num quer

[ENG]

You don’t need to be Amelia (=a housewife) to be valid

You have the freedom to be who you want

Might it be black, indigenous, trans, northeastern

One is not born a woman, one becomes a woman

[...]

You don’t need to be Amelia (=a housewife) to be valid

You have the freedom to be who you want

except black and indigenous, they are not for appropriation

You want to be black on the day to day but you’re not (black) to the police

1. How would you relate the lyrics of this song to the argument of the colour/ethnicity?

Hope to hear from you soon

Ri: Race & Racism in Brazil: views and positionality

SimoneAna Beatrice - 2020年11月24日星期二 15:18

If you're interested, here it is my personal experience

I'm half brazilian and half italian and in Brazil I've always been called "branquela" (whitish), since I have blonde air and white skin. My mother comes from a mostly white family (I have an "indigenous" grandmother) from the North-East of Brazil, precisely the city of Natal (RN). When I've been asking my family about racism, their answer is that "Brazil is not a racist country", because you see "both black and white people in the favelas as much as you see both in other places. The real issue here is related to education and violence". When I've asked a (male) friend from Minas Gerais (a very mixed area) what did he think about racism, his answer was "yes, but the thing is that Brazil is contradictory; there is racism of course, but - you know it - at the end of the day we don't pay attention to someone's skin colour, we like everyone: black, white, pardos... it doesn't matter". These are just a couple of episodes that I find interesting (others happened, also with people openly asserting the existence of racism).

Reflecting on my "positionality", I really struggle in seeing it as driving a different answer, because oftentimes I'm seen as completely capable of understanding the cultural settings even if I'm also perceived as "at the external margin of the group". What I find interesting is that my positionality changes according to what is my opinion: depending on the interlocutor, if I do agree with the issue that racism is not present in Brazil I'm probably going to be seen as "internal" of the group, my Brazilian identity will be accentuated, while whenever I do not agree with the statement, my "being European" is accentuated more, with the argument that I don't live there and therefore I can't know. The exactly opposite happens with those who fully acknowledge the existence of racism in Brazil.

Ri: Race & Racism in Brazil: views and positionality

CerabonaSarah - 2020年11月24日星期二 23:30

Thank you Ana Beatrice! These are materials I had never seen before and they made me think a lot. I have to say that the issues you have dealt with are rather complicated and I think it is not enough to describe them in a few words. I’m afraid my thoughts may be trivial and I’m afraid of falling into colour blindness. So I’ll just share my experience, hopefully in the general interest.

As half Italian and half Peruvian, I have a lot of respect for what you wrote. My family comes from the coast, especially from Trujillo, a city that is 8 hours by bus from Lima. I have always been raised with the importance of accepting others because my family (as a non-EU) has always been discriminated against. However, especially after reading Alcalde’s paper ("Coloniality, belonging and indigeneity in Peruvian migration narratives"), I began to think of many things:

1- First of all, can my family actually be considered "Peruvian" in the strict sense (which makes me think of the concept of "authenticity")? Since most of my relatives are white or tall (and some are blond or light-eyed too), can they actually be defined as "Peruvians" according to the general idea that people have of Peruvians (short, dark-skinned, etc)? And then, if my family is considered Peruvian but with discretion, how would I be perceived?

2- Also, I thought back to some sentences repeated by some members of my family over the years. Among these, there were some who emphasized the importance of not being considered as the Peruvian "cholos" or "paisanos", because they were darker and considered more "ignorant" because they came from the mountains ("We are not from those parts", "we are not those Peruvians", etc). According to those members of my family, these things were not said with "racist" intent, but only to clarify that in Peru there are several people with different ethnicities and therefore, they should not be "mixed" (yeah, I know. This is VERY racist).

3- At the same time, although I was born in Italy, I am considered "gringa" only by people outside my family. This, in particular, because they consider me Peruvian because it's important for them that I do not forget my origins, even if I am white and "half European". It's quite a paradox that they don't want to be compared to "other Peruvians", but accept me, a "half-Peruvian", as a true one. Is it?

That’s why I think it’s really complicated to position yourself, especially within a field of research. We must take into account the cultural background (positionality), our feelings and opinions (subjectivity) and the "examination" of these same opinions during the research process and how this affects the final work (reflexivity). I mean, I don’t know exactly how to position myself. I understand the difficulty of seeing oneself as part of one community or another. Both my cultures are part of me and they make me who I am. I consider it a great privilege to be part of two worlds so different because they allow me to get out of the box and try to get a more original worldview. Unfortunately, I can not even answer this question. I think that, after a lot of study, the different situations in which I'll find myself will help me to have the tools to find the best approach.