Note from BBT: So, as I’ve been saying for a few weeks now, the question of feminism in Brazil is a topic I’ve been wanting to dive into for a minute and I have good reason. For those of you who have followed me over to YouTube and followed my blog up to about three years ago, you know that the original name of the blog was Black Women of Brazil. Today, the blog as well as this youtube channel is called black brazil today and there numerous reasons of which I felt the need to change the name.

The first reason was because so many people online thought that black women of brazil was actually run by a group of black women from Brazil, which it never was. One thing I’ve known for some time is that, no matter the topic, even if you’re on the same side as your colleagues in the struggle, you’re not going to agree on everything and one of many topics that demonstrated this was the docuseries entitled Surviving R. Kelly. Anyone who knows my opinion on that whole topic and the documentary know that I have never condoned Kelly’s behavior underage girls.

In fact, I regularly maintained that if Kelly, in fact, committed the crimes he was accused of, he should do the time. But what I also pointed out along the way was that there were several of uncomfortable details about that whole scandal that no one seemed to want to acknowledge. Because I pointed these things out, people regularly accused me of defending R.Kelly, which I never did. at that point, I had already been considering changing the name of the blog and after all of the accusations being hurled my way, I decided it was time make the change.

Even though there was a page on my blog that clearly showed who I was, I understood that, because of the name, people continued to believe that the material on the blog was posted by a group of black Brazilian women and thus may have believed that I spoke for black women of brazil in relation to the R.Kelly situation. Again, I never did that and even if I were, the situation proved that many movements don’t allow other points of view that may go against the narrative of that particular movement.

Anyway, somewhere along the way, I began to question some of the goals of Brazil’s feminist movement and specifically the black feminist movement when I began to participate in a few black Brazilian men’s social network groups as well as follow an online magazine by a group of Afro-Brazilian men and women who took issue with many aspects of the feminist movement. Along with my own political development over the past few decades, I’ve come to believe that when there is big money behind leftist movements, they usually don’t have the best interest on issues affecting the black community.

Of course, I could be wrong, but as I always ask those who reject anything I say, what if I’m right? In my own analysis of numerous leftist movements involving the black community, I’ve come to discover that, in many ways, our people and community were and continue to be exploited, manipulated and used for a larger agenda that had nothing to do with advancing the condition of the black community. To this end, I’ve had to analyze movements for civil and black rights, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers, organizations such as the NAACP and the Urban League as well as a recent example in Black Lives Matter, which has taken hold in Brazil as well with an exact translation of the phrase in Portuguese, Vidas Negras Importam. 

My conclusion is that these movements were not what they were reported to be, thus, as funding and support of many women’s groups also comes from the some of the same social engineers, feminism must also be analyzed under this microscope. For years, many activists have questioned the influence of the feminist movement and its affect on the black community. With the rise of black feminism in Brazil, I’ve wondered what the effect would be on Brazil, so in an ongoing analysis, I wanted to consider what was going on with black feminism in Brazil.

Furthermore, I need to point out, that social movements don’t always have 100% support of the groups in which they claim to represent because people have varying opinions on whatever issue. So, just as all black people didn’t support the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, all members of the LGBT community don’t support that movement, and everyone clearly didn’t support Black Lives Matter, the movement, many women also doesn’t support feminism.

In fact, if you search online, you will find many women who were once feminists but have since left the movement.

A quick search on YouTube and you will find Brazilian women making videos entitled

• Porque não sou FEMINISTA! (Why I am not a FEMINIST)

• Ex-feminista explica por que abandonou o feminismo (Ex-feminist explains why she abandoned feminism)

• O mundo não precisa do feminismo? | Isabella Trevisani … (Does the world not need feminism?)

• PQ O FEMINISMO NÃO ME REPRESENTA? (WHY DOESN’T FEMINISM REPRESENT ME?)

Some might argue, “Those women are a minority.” That may or may not be true. Of course, a previous study reported that 51% of Brazilian women define themselves as feminists, but this survey didn’t actually interview every woman in Brazil, but rather a very small number of women when considering there are tens of milions of women in a country with 215 million people.

But even if non-feminists are actually the minority in Brazil, these voices must all be heard because we all have the right to our opinions and the right to change our minds without the threat of shaming, violence or cancellation. For years, when I considered myself a leftist, there were certain points that black conservatives would make that I simply couldn’t dismiss because I knew deep down that sometimes they were right. This is the same way I approach the issue of feminism.

So to introduce the topic, I wanted to continue to report on the growth of feminism in Brazil as I did with a previous report that showed that feminism in Brazil grew from 39 percent of Brazilian women identifying themselves as feminists in 2019, to 51 percent in 2022, with a large parcel of that support coming from the black community. Consider the report below courtesy of Gênero e Número. As the piece below is courtesy of Gênero e Número, I need to point out that the piece doesn’t represent my own views but simply a report that shows the growth of feminism within Brazil’s black community. With that said, let’s check it out.

Black men and women are closer to feminism than white people in Brazil, survey finds

Datafolha also shows that almost half of evangelical men support the movement

By Vitória Régia da Silva of Gênero e Número

Black women are the Brazilians who most consider themselves feminists, among the women who declared adherence to the political cause. Among men, almost half of the practitioners of evangelical religions declare support for the movement. These are some of the results of the first Datafolha survey directed at the theme, released in April of 2019.

The women who declared themselves to be feminists represent 47% of the black women, 37% of the brown women and 36% of the white women surveyed in the study. Overall, 38% of Brazilians consider themselves feminists, while 52% of men say they support feminism.

“If on the one hand we live in a more conservative and reactionary moment, the survey shows that we had transformations in the perception and identification with feminism. The number of black women who identify themselves as feminists shows that, at the least, feminism is not rejected within this group,” Flávia Mateus Rios, researcher and doctor in sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP), tells Gênero e Número.

Datafolha surveyed 2,086 Brazilians with a minimum age of 16. There were 1,095 women and 991 men in 130 cities all over the country, on April 2nd and 3rd of 2019. The margin of error is two percentage points higher or lower.

For Rios, the growth and expansion of black feminism [a strand of feminism that discusses gender and racial issues] is due to affirmative action that has allowed black women to reach universities, have more access to information, and group together in mobilization collectives.

“Black feminists have appropriated technology and communication tools, such as social networks, which also enables a greater diffusion of the discussions most taking place within the periferies of cities and in the black population. It is also important to highlight collectivities such as slams, hip hop and funk culture, which have been asserting themselves in terms of gender and affect mainly black women, who are mostly part of this social stratum,” she highlights.

Another survey conducted on International Women’s Day, March 8, in 2017, and released exclusively by Gênero e Número, meaning Gender and Number, already revealed that most protesters saw the cause of black women as a priority for the feminist movement.

Among evangelical men, support for feminism is significant and reaches 45%. Among the Neopentecostals (from churches such as Universal of the Kingdom of God and Assembly of God), this rate rises to an astonishing 48%. Some leaders of these segments are notorious detractors of the movement, such as Silas Malafaia, pastor of the Assembly of God, and Marcos Feliciano (Podemos/SP), congressman and member of the same church.

Also among the men who declared support for the feminist movement, the proportion of black and brown people is higher (55% and 54%, respectively) than that of white people (50%).

According to the researcher, there is a significant difference in how black feminism deals with black men and how feminism in general deals with men, which could explain the difference in support. “Black feminism has never been radicalized towards the figure of men, precisely because of the experience of oppression common to the racial group, although it has strong critiques, is autonomous, and tackles the gender problem within the black community.”

She further points out that black women have fought for a greater politicization of black men with regard to gender hierarchies and domestic violence. Gradually, this has generated greater awareness and the construction of more recent autonomous debates, such as the discussion of black masculinity.

Violence against women

According to Datafolha, nine out of ten Brazilians totally or partially agree that violence against women has increased in the last year. Black people are the ones who most disagree that the laws in Brazil are adequate to protect women: 61%, against 57% of whites and 55% of browns.

“If public policies on the one hand generate more debate and protective resources regarding violence, they will not necessarily objectively reduce the aggressions to which these women are subjected,” says Rios. “The black population, women in particular, feel very vulnerable in relation to the State due to institutional racism. The different treatment between blacks and whites makes black women feel these differences and all these dimensions of discrimination,” she adds.

Over a decade, between 2007 and 2016, the homicide rate for black women grew by 23%, in the face of a 3% increase in the rate for non-black women, according to information from Datasus’ Mortality Information System.

Source: Gênero e Número

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Note from BBT: I want to start today’s post off with a question. When was the last time you had a discussion or debate with someone whose position you couldn’t see, vehemently disagreed with or you actually agreed with but couldn’t admit? I’ve always had to consider this. I remember maybe about 15 years or so ago, I was having this online debate with a Latino who, if I’m not mistaken, was studying Latin American Studies as well as Anthropology in a well known American university. The debate was a common one. He, like many others I had previously debated, argued that you cannot apply American understandings of race to countries such as Brazil because it simply wouldn’t work. In his view, the US population had long been segregated and not as racially mixed as Brazil. As such, studying the racial situation in Brazil is quite different than doing the same in the United States.

At the time, my position didn’t change. Afro-Brazilian activists had long argued that all pretos e pardos, meaning blacks and browns, in Brazil should be considered one group that represented the country’s black population. I mean, all of the socioeconomic statistics that compared blacks, browns and whites overwhelmingly showed that pretos and and pardos in Brazil had near identical profiles in terms of quality of life stats, which included areas such as level of education, income, chances of being harassed by police or murdered, invisibility in the media, lack of representation in politics and many other subjects. The legendary Afro-Brazilian activist Abdias do Nascimento once estimated that there were about 120 million Afro-Brazilians, which, at the time, would have made them somewhere between 60-75% of the Brazilian population. And that was some time in 1970s or 1980s.

But even with all of these claims, I still had to consder what the other side was saying. The fact is that, you cannot truly maintain your position in any debate unless you are willing to fully explore the position of the person with whom you are debating or arguing. Here it is about 15 years after that debate and I have had to back up at least a little on my position. That’s because, after living in São Paulo for a number of years and also noting some contradictions in the stances of Afro-Brazilian activists, I knew I needed to re-consider where I stood.

This same thing also applied when I started to analyze other topics and movements. For years, people would ask me why I first named the blog I created Black Women of Brazil, I would always say that I noted that it seemed that black Brazilian women had been taking the lead in the Afro-Brazilian struggle. Afro-Brazilian women had organized events, created blogs and organizations specifically devoted to their issues. Nothing wrong with that. But somewhere along the way I started to notice some things that struck me as a bit problematic. I mean, why did it seem that I didn’t see any organizations specifically adressing issues of Afro-Brazilian men? Where were the resources?

Then, some time between 2018 and 2020, I remember getting off of a bus on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo and seeing the title of an article by black feminist-philosopher Djamila Ribeiro which read something like the ‘toxic masculinity’ of black men. I didn’t get a chance to read the material and now, about three years later, I haven’t even been able to find the magazine that featured the article. By that time, I had become aware of the term ‘toxic masculinity’ coming out of leftist and feminist circles in the United States, and as such, as so many terms, movements, buzzwords and business models had made it to Brazil after having started in the US, I shouldn’t have been surprised when the term in Portuguese, ‘masculinidade tóxica’ began to catch on in Brazil.

‘Masculinidade tóxica’? Hmmm…Just out of curiosity, was there a ‘toxic femininity’, I wondered. What made masculinity toxic in the first place? As I started to look into the definitions of the term, I wondered if the definition defined me. Was my masculinity ‘toxic’ in some way? If so, how? Why? After breaking down this term and then reading what the other side had to say on the topic, I began to wonder if the accusations behind this suddenly popular buzzword were actually valid. In fact, as I began to question much of the rhetoric coming out of the left for the past several years, I had to pause and wonder if many of the claims made by the left were actually valid.

For example:

Do women really earn less money than men simply because they are women?

Are most men potential rapists?

Do men really seek to oppress women?

Are women really the more oppressed gender?

I don’t plan to answer or even approach these question in today’s post, but in the piece below, Paulo Gonzaga takes on the question of what many women and feminists have defined as ‘male privilege’. Similar to the idea of ‘toxic masculinity’, I have to ask, does ‘male privilege’ really exist? In some ways, in fact, many ways, the answer may not be as simple as one might think. I will further explore in the future, but for now, let’s check out what Gonzaga has to say on the subject.

The black man and the myth of male privilege

By Paulo Gonzaga

When we hear about male privilege, it is common to put all men in the same package. In this way, it seems that being a man automatically guarantees a condition of power and humanity. Do all men, in fact, exercise this power?

For many years, black people have shown the need to racialize the discussions around public policies, social, economic, environmental and political issues. When it comes to any analysis of society, we need to point out which racial group is being addressed, understanding its plurality and intersectionalities.

In Brazil, it’s not enough to say that we live in a violent country; for example, we need to think, Brazil is violent for whom? From there, we can point out in a racialized way that black men and women, indigenous, quilombolas, native peoples, and riverside dwellers of this country are the most violated and killed. If this point is not made, we end up invisibilizing racism as a fundamental structure that explains the violence and inequalities in society.

In this sense, racialization also needs to be applied when we talk about male privilege. Which man are we talking about when we think about privilege? Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) presents, in his book Black Skin, White Masks (1952), the idea that “… the black man is not a man”. This brings us the understanding that before we are men, we are black, and therefore stripped of the humanity and privileges of the cis-hetero, Christian white man.

When we stop to analyze where black men are in society, we run into them in the ditches, in the trunks of police cars, in jail, on the streets, between the hands and knees of security agents, and on the streets. There is no privilege for the black man, only frustrated attempts to exercise white male power, which we will never have.

According to data from the Map of Violence, published in 2014, every 23 minutes a young black man is murdered in Brazil, when we think about the number of suicides among young people, we observe that black adolescents (10 to 19 years old) had a higher risk (67%) of suicide than white youth in 2016, according to the booklet Óbitos por Suicídio entre Adolescentes e Jovens Negros, meaning Deaths by Suicide among Black Adolescents and Youth (put together by the Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Federal University of Brasília – UNB and released in 2018). The Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security also points out that for every three inmates in Brazil, two are black men and women, and the prison population is composed mostly of men.

Due to the standard of the colonizing white man that we have learned to follow, we construct a masculinity based on practices of violence, domination, competitiveness, and physical virility. These practices, learned by us black men through the educational institutions (school, religion, justice, family, and media), violate our body and that of our community.

According to Henrique Restier, during the colonization period, it was common for white colonizing men to phallicly introduce themselves to women (black and indigenous) after the conquest of territory. With this act, these men demonstrated the power of male virility, the objectification of women, and the inability of the men of the conquered community to protect women.

Based on this logic of power and virility of hegemonic masculinity, patriarchy is organized to produce violence against black men and black women. In a certain way, we reproduce this logic that has been introjected into us. And from a feeling of pseudo-virility and privilege, we continue to produce violence to ourselves, our companions, our fellow men, and our community.

We must not forget that privilege takes place within the social structure, which is not the case for black men! Although there are some advantages within some contexts, and this advantage has nothing to do with the production of violence, because being an aggressor is not an advantage, much less a privilege.

References

Anuário Brasileiro de Segurança Pública 2020 – https://forumseguranca.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/anuario-14-2020-v1-interativo.pdf

FANON, Frantz. Pele negra, máscaras brancas. Salvador: Ed. UFBA, 2008.

Mapa da violência 2014 os jovens no Brasil – https://assets-compromissoeatitude-ipg.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/2014/07/Mapa-Violencia-2014_JovensBrasil.pdf

Óbitos por suicídio entre adolescentes e jovens negros 2012 a 2016 -https://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/obitos_suicidio_adolescentes_negros_2012_2016.pdf

RESTIER, Henrique; SOUZA, Rolf Malungo de (orgs.). Diálogos contemporâneos sobre homens negros e masculinidades. São Paulo: Editora Ciclo Contínuo, 2019.

Source: Negre

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Note from BBT: How fitting it is that the 2022 World Cup is starting in the month of November. I say this because, for those of you who don’t know, November is celebrated as the Month of Black Consciousness in Brazil. Somewhat similar to Black History Month in United States, throughout November across the country, there are perhaps thousands of events happening that emphasize and focus on the contributions of Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Brazilian history, the legacy of the struggle of this population and its importance to the construction of Brazil as well as recognition of other African descendant populations throughout the world.

In my own experiences with Brazil, after having spent the first seven years of my travel back and forth to Brazil in the northeastern state of Bahia, in 2008, I spent nearly a month in the southeastern city and state of São Paulo, the country’s largest city and the economic engine of the country. In my first extended stay in São Paulo, I participated in the yearly March of Black Consciousness after having met a number of great people on the then popular social network known as Orkut.

During that trip in November of 2008, I saw all sorts of seminars, presentations, cultural events as well as the yearly Troféu Raça Negra award ceremony, a sort Brazilian Essence/NAACP Image awards ceremony that recongized the achievements of Afro-Brazilians or those who made some sort of contribution to the struggle. My immersion in Brazil would also introduce me to the sport that is a national passion in the country, soccer, or futebol, as it is called in Brazil. Mind you, it’s not that I wasn’t familiar with the sport, it was simply never a sport that I followed as, in the US, the big three sports were and continue to be American football, basketball and baseball. I must say American football, or futebol americano as Brazilians call it, because outside of US borders, what we call soccer is known as football.

Being introduced to the world of futebol, I came to learn that Afro-Brazilians were some of the greatest stars of the sport in Brazil. How fitting it was that, just two years after I started to explore “all things Brazilian”, the 2002 World Cup would see Brazil win its fifth World Cup title, the only nation in the world to win that many. It was that year that I became aware of superstars such as Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, all players who would win the FIFA futebol player of the year in the late 90s and early 2000s. Even having visited Brazil for about 40 weeks between 2000 and 2012, and having lived there for none years, I still can’t claim to be a big soccer fan, although living there and being surrounded by soccer fans, I watched more there than in all of my years living in the US.

As my blog and now YouTube channel have long been focused on analyzing Brazil rom the perspective of race, the history of the black Brazilian athlete on the soccer fied was far more intriguing than what actually happened on the field. Having learned from the very beginning that Brazil indeed had a racial problem, it was long before I discovered the discrimination that black players faced in the country. Direct exclusion, the necessity of wearing white rice powder on the face to hide one’s blackness, the stigma of having black goalies and the near invisibility of black coaches in Division A Brazilian soccer leagues are just a few of the discriminatory practices I discovered along the way.

With this in mind, how fitting it is that the 2022 World Cup should begin on November 20th, the Day of Black Consciousness in Brazil. For some soccer critics, Brazil’s 2022 squad may have the best chance of bringing back the cup in several years. This year’s team is loaded with talented players who are earning big money in European leagues. This year also represents 20 years since Brazil has raised the cup in victory. The second longest drought since the period between 1970 and 1994, the latter year being the one that Brazil won in the Rose Bowl in the United States.

Will this be the year that Brazil brings home an unprecendented sixth World Cup title? Only time will reveal. For now, let’s understand more about the connection between this year’s World Cup and the Day and Month of Black Consciousness in Brazil.

The piece below is brought to you by Paula Pimenta and Daniel Teixeira

The World Cup on Black Consciousness Day revives memory of anti-racist struggle

There is a symbolic convergence between the beginning of the 2022 World Cup, on November 20th, and Black Consciousness Day, celebrated on the same date. Black Brazilian players are responsible for much of the success of the five-time champion team, in addition to being featured in the most important soccer clubs in the world. Despite all the talent with the ball at their feet, they still face recurrent practices of intolerance and racial discrimination in soccer, on and off the fields.

Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr. has faced numerous racist attacks at games in Spain. Recently, the player Richarlison, of the Tottenham club, one of those called up for the Brazilian National Team, had a banana thrown at him after celebrating his goal scored in Brazil’s match with Tunisia, ending in a 5-1 score. On social networks — where he has also been attacked — he posted: “As long as they are blah blah blah and do not punish, it will continue like this, happening every day and everywhere. I don’t have the time, brother! #racismonão”.

Throughout history, great names of the Brazilian National Team, such as Pelé, Mané Garrincha, Leônidas da Silva, Didi, Djalma Santos, Carlos Alberto Torres and Jairzinho made history and, with undeniable genius, faced racial discrimination. The representation of Brazil has always attracted the attention of the world because it is strongly marked by ethnic diversity and the remarkable skill of its players, many of them black. But not even Pelé, the King of Soccer, considered the “Athlete of the Century”, was immune to racism, whether of the open variety or veiled.

In the recently called Brazilian National Team for the Qatar Cup, several players have come across comments and acts of this nature. In the current list of those called to the team, in addition to Vinícius Jr. and Richarlison, established names such as Daniel Alves and Neymar are among those who have experienced some kind of discrimination or racial injury, often during matches.

As an initiative to curb this practice, in the Senate the expectation is that the bill of the General Law of Sport (PL 1.153/2019), which establishes more severe punishments for the crime of racism in sport, will be voted on soon.

Offenses

Former Minister of Racial Equality and former president of the Palmares Cultural Foundation, and linked to the world of soccer, Eloi Ferreira de Araújo states that all black athletes have already been the target, in some way, of racist offenses.

There is no way to dissociate the achievements in the World Cup and other championships from the contribution of black athletes who acted in these editions. Certainly, all the great black soccer players went through some racist demonstration. Humanity has not yet been educated to love each other as if there were no tomorrow. Loving instead of discriminating or hating depends on changing values.

For Araújo, “racism is all the same”, whether in Brazil or anywhere else in the world:

“It is discrimination, it is intolerance, it is inhumanity, lack of civility. Racism is all the same, from a knee to the neck, to when you throw a banana at the soccer player or when you pay a black man or woman less, who is occupying a position in equality, responsibility and skills with a non-black.”

Denouncements

Data from the Observatory of Racial Discrimination in Soccer indicate 64 complaints in 2021. Since 2014, the beginning of the history series, there were 399 records, according to Senator Paulo Paim (PT-RS), author of the Statute of Racial Equality, sanctioned in 2010 by the then president Lula.

Paim says he hopes that, during the World Cup, the International Football Federation (FIFA) will promote actions to combat racism.

“Brazil is the only team to have played in all competitions and is the greatest champion with five world titles. The World Cup is an extraordinary event that can bring together people of different nationalities, colors, races, religions, sexual orientation, socioeconomic, age and others, for the sake of love for sport, soccer. But, despite so much union and emotion around this beautiful event, we are faced with the crimes of racism,” said Senator Paim.

For Senator Romário (PL-RJ), ex-ace of the Brazilian National Team, racism in soccer exists because it reflects the same practice of society.

“What we see today is an increase in complaints, because there has been more discussion in society about it. It’s a really sad situation. Sport should set an example of respect and racism stains the image in sport.”

Punishment

In May of this year, the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) announced the launch of the Enough campaign! — No more racism in soccer, after recurrent acts of racial discrimination in the Libertadores and South American championship tournaments.

“Conmebol considers absolutely any manifestation of racism and other forms of violence in its tournaments unacceptable. Awareness raising, aimed at players, referees and soccer fans, will be visible through all the media available as a permanent campaign”, said the campaign’s announcement.

Yes, even though Brazilians continue to deny the depths of racism even on a field in which all are said to be equal, racist sentiments persist. This is the reason that we cannot simply ignore the facts and just ‘play ball’ as many have suggested in sports. Many years ago, rarely did anyone say anything about the racist experiences of black Brazilians on the soccer field, but nowadays, with the rise in black consciousness in Brazil, there is simply no way to ignore it.

Black Consciousness Day: What does this date mean?

Black Consciousness is one of those dates established to preserve the memory of the fight for ideals, even if bathed in blood and sedimented by deaths.

After commanding the Quilombo dos Palmares for 15 years, Zumbi was killed on November 20, 1695, in a territory that today belongs to the state of Alagoas. He led the largest stronghold of resistance to slavery in the colonial period, which reached the size of Portugal and had 30 thousand fugitive slaves from plantations, slave quarters and prisons.

When he was killed, Zumbi dos Palmares had his head cut off, salted and exposed in a public square. The Portuguese authorities wanted to disprove the legend that he was immortal. That year, Pedro II of Portugal awarded 50 thousand réis to the captain responsible for the murder.

Since 2011, the date of the quilombola leader’s death has been celebrated as Black Consciousness Day. The date was written into the national calendar on this specific day after the struggle of many people, from activists to intellectuals, who wanted to make Brazil reflect on how it treats the black population and sought to establish their own temporal milestones and references.

What is black consciousness?

The idea of “black consciousness” is related to the valuing of cultures of African origin and the self-esteem of black populations, both of which have been impacted in various ways by processes of racism.

In this way, this permission is connected to “orgulho negro”, “black pride”, a movement for the legitimization of black aesthetics and the recognition of cultures from the African continent that were suffocated by the European colonization process and the forced displacement promoted by slavery.

In addition, the term suggests awareness of racial issues, in opposition to the idea of the superiority of white identity.

Black consciousness: when did it emerge?

There are references to the idea of Black Consciousness in the work of thinkers such as Martiniquan-born psychiatrist, political philosopher, and activist Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) and American sociologist, historian, and activist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963). In Brazil, intellectual Manuel Raimundo Querino (1851-1923), the “father of Afro-Brazilian history”, highlighted Africans as the civilizing force in Brazil carrying out studies on African culture, customs and tradition in the heavily Africanized state of Bahia.

As a movement, the concept took shape with the struggle for independence in the countries of the African continent. In the 1970s, at the peak of apartheid, the racial segregation system that ruled South Africa for almost five decades, the Black Consciousness Movement emerged in the South African country, led by Steve Biko, a black activist who was arrested, tortured, and murdered at the age of 30.

Biko’s group organized strikes and actions that sought to expose and undermine racist politics in South Africa. The movement also defended the self-esteem of the black population with the premise of “black is beautiful”, translated as “o negro é lindo” in Portuguese.

In the same period, the MNU, meaning the Movimento Negro Unificado or Unified Black Movement, was born in Brazil with the goal of acting together to confront violations of the rights of the Afro-descendant population, such as violent and disproportionate police actions that lead to death.

There, the MNU also began to discuss the creation of a date to symbolize resistance to racism in the country and to oppose May 13th, the date that marks the signing of the Lei Áurea, or Golden Law, which extinguished slavery in the country. Activists consider the abolition incomplete, since the freed black population did not receive government assistance or support for access to land, education or work.

Brazil instituted Black Consciousness Day in its official calendar ten years ago. Celebrated on November 20, the date seeks to reflect on the effects of racism and to raise the self-esteem of the black population.

Is Black Consciousness a holiday?

The date was established by Law 12.519, 2011, to draw society’s attention to structural racism and proposes to reflect on its consequences for the black population – such as wage inequality and access to education. In addition, it seeks the recognition of the influence and presence of the culture of African origin in the country.

The holiday, however, is optional and is at the discretion of the states and municipalities. Only five states have adopted the date as a local holiday: Alagoas, Amazonas, Amapá, Mato Grosso and Rio de Janeiro.

Why is November 20th Black Consciousness Day?

The date was chosen to celebrate the memory of Zumbi dos Palmares, who died on November 20, 1695.

Zumbi was the most important leader of the quilombos of Palmares, the largest and most important community experiment formed by escaped, enslaved people. The population of Palmares was estimated at over 30,000 people.

Source: UOL Ecoa, Agência Senado

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Note from BBT: We are all familiar with what many would classify as that notorious class of women known as ‘groupies’ and ‘gold diggers’. For the most part, just hearing these terms, we know what these women are about and what they wants. So whether they make their ways to the backstage areas of their favorite singer or rapper, or on the sidelines of the games of the baseball, basketball, football or soccer player that they desire. As it is usually obvious what they have to offer, they often, or usually, make sure that their best assets are on full display for the object of their desire.

The details and stories that we hear about these types of women, their adventures and sometimes the ways that they manage to attain lifestyles far better than anything they could have earned for themselves have never been as easy to know. In today’s era of social media, some of these women brag about what they do, how they do it and what they do to get it.

What’s funny to me is that, even knowing these types of women can found in probably any city where there is a major professional athletic team, every day, athletes continue to get caught up and losing significant percentages of their income by supporting their female admirers and/or the children that come out of the relationships that these women seek.

Every year we hear stories of athletes who went from rags to riches and then back to rags within only a few years after their professional sports careers ended. Of course it is true that some of these athletes go broke due to poor money management skills and bad business deals, two reasons that are consistently shown to lead athletes to the poor house are child support and alimony payments.

It’s no secret. Think about it. How many athletes have you heard about having losing almost everything after marrying and/or having numerous children with one, two or more women? Now, I’m not here to say that every woman one meets is out to dig into your pockets, but the simple fact is that alimony and child support laws clearly give women an upper hand in the courtroom.

This is the case in the United States and it is also the case in Brazil. So, if you know anything about gold diggers or sack chasers as we used to call them back in the day, if you’ve ever had any interest in getting to know Brazilian women and you’re an athlete, or even if you’re not an athlete, you might be interested in learning about the world of the ‘Maria Chuteira’. In the world of the ‘Maria Chuteira’, you will hear about lavish hotels, expensive gifts, maternity suits, alimony, divorce settlements, one night stands and even murder.

As I’m sure you already know, if a woman happens to snag the right player, it could become a very lucrative relationship. Just how lucrative, you might ask. Well, in nine years, superstar Neymar’s child support reportedly went up from R$30,000 to R$90,000 per month. This amount was established so that the mother of his son, Carol Dantas, could care for their son Davi Lucca.

In 2007, another Brazilian ace and two FIFA Golden Ball player of the year, Ronaldinho Gaúcho, was ordered to pay R$ 30,000 a month to the dancer Janaína Viana Mendes to support his son João. In February of the year, Ronaldo ‘the Phenomenon’ Nazário was ordered to pay R$26,000 after having fallen behind on his child support payments. In 2019, Ronaldo’s ex, Michele requested payment of R$200,000 in child support for their son, Alex. Originally, the payments were set at R$35,000 per month, with R$ 10 thousand being in cash and the other R$25,000 to cover real estate expenses, school and the boy’s security. The player’s ex, Michele Umezu, requested the payment due to the increase of expenses.

In 2014 it was revealed that another top Brazilian player, known as Adriano Imperador, was paying his ex-fiancee, Renata Santos, R$12 thousand per month for his daughter, Lara. Adriano also has two more children from a previous relationship, so it’s anybody’s how much he shells out per momth for the three. FYI, Ronaldo ‘the Phenomenon’ Nazário has a total of four children himself. Don’t know why, but the sound a cash register just keeps ringing in my ear.

To make these numbers make a little more sense, we need to understand that brazilians measure their income according to how many minimum salaries they earn each month. The current minimum salary for Brazilian workers is R$1,212 per month. So, if a worker earns, for example, R$2,424 per month, it is said that the person earns two minimum salaries per month. A worker that earns R$3,636 per month is said to earn three minimum salaries per month and so on.

To put this into context, in late 2021, a report showed that 90% of Brazilians earned up R$3,600, which is just short of three minimum salaries per month. On the other hand, Brazilian workers who earned R$ 10,313.00 per month, or eight and a half minimum salaries, were said to be part of the richest 5% of the country. To really be part of the elite of the country, those earning 20 minimum salaries per month, or R$ 24,240 per month, represent only 1% of all Brazilian workers. I present these numbers to show how difficult it is for workers to enter that class of 10-20 thousand reais in earnings per month.

So, when I speak of the child support payments the so-called ‘Maria Chuteiras’ receive from soccer superstars, I’d say it’s anybody’s guess if these athletes got into these relationships because they felt that they had genuinely found their ‘soul mate’ or if they were the targets in the eyes of various women who had well-developed schemes to reel in millionaire players. In some ways it doesn’t really matter. The bottom line is, these women have done very well because of their relationships with star athletes. Could they have earned this type of money on their own? I can’t and won’t say that they absolutely couldn’t have, but I will say that considering the numbers I presented above, it would be highly unlikely.

I’m curious as to what you think. With 90% of Brazilians earning up to R$3,600 per month, those earning a little over R$ 10,000 per month being part of the richest 5%, and those earning more than R$ 24,000 being part of the top one percent, how many of these women would realistically have had a chance at this jet set lifestyle if they hadn’t hooked up with a rich soccer player.

Jus sayin’…

Wanna know more about a few of these women?

The story below is taken from a 2019 article from the Brazilian magazine Istoé. Today’s piece by the journalist known as Alinne is only an introduction to a topic that I’m sure I will cover again in future videos and articles.

The world of the Marias Chuteiras

Folkloric figures in the Brazilian imagination, women who are mostly interested in and get into relationships with soccer players tell curious stories that can even inspire reflection

By Alinne

Conquering a big star is the dream of many young women who live behind soccer players. The seduction is often for the status and perks that such a relationship can provide, in addition to a fleetinging fame – even if in the gossip columns. For the players, surrounding themselves with these women who dress in short and daring clothes is a symbol of prestige and power. In Portuguese, the term that is constantly used to refer to them is “Maria Chuteira”, women, usually young, who seek at all costs furtive encounters or the famous “escapades” with the soccer players. Usually, they jump from one player to another and don’t miss the opportunity to appear in the spotlight with controversial statements or embarrassing situations. All of them, without exception, want to achieve fame by flirting with athletic celebrities.

Model Dani Sperle doesn’t hide that she has already gone after soccer players – she has no problem admitting that she has already hooked up with Adriano, ex-Flamengo player, and Neymar – but she thinks that the nomination of “Maria Chuteira” (soccer gold digger) is excessively generic. She argues that there are also those who get with musicians or successful businessmen, and that they don’t even have a specific term to designate them. “I don’t care about profession, it can be a player, a businessman, or a mechanic. The important thing is to identify with the person,” she swears.

There are others who openly admit that they seek players – including the most famous ones. Andressa Urach has already been one of them, the former contestant to “Miss Bumbum” was sought by the star Cristiano Ronaldo, in 2013 when he played at Real Madrid. The player saw some pictures of her, and became interested. She traveled there with everything paid for, but the relationship was far from a good experience, as she tells in her book “Morri para viver”, meaning “I died to live”, published in 2015. The meeting between the two lasted less than an hour, in the hotel where the star was staying. She even asked for a photo with him after the meeting, but she was snubbed and stayed locked in the hotel room while waiting for him. Cristiano was married to Russian model Irina Shayk at the time, which caused quite a stir when Andressa revealed the meeting to the international media – which he denies even today that it happened.

Psychologist L.Y, who has been working in the sports world for over ten years, says that players who date a lot of “partners” may have to deal with a little more emotional stress – because of the repercussions of relationships that it to media headlines.

“When my athletes tell me they are dating, I always give them a hint to get to know the girl better, if she really likes them and if she is someone who will support you when the phase on the field is not good. It’s just like anyone else. Among the duties of a psychology professional in soccer is to work on the head of a young person who goes from a minimum wage to thousands of dollars almost instantly.

“I’ve had cases of players who went from a salary of R$800 to R$25,000 in less than a month. This concept is also valid for the aspiring girlfriends of these athletes, since from one moment to another they can enjoy a lifestyle that would be much more difficult to achieve through conventional jobs.

The term ‘Maria Chuteira’ (soccer gold digger) carries with it some predetermined judgments, as if a woman is only interested because of the fame and fortune that a successful relationship with a soccer player can provide. Athletes in this sport often come from precarious socioeconomic backgrounds, which belittles these athletes – “how could anyone fall in love with a poor guy like that?” – in addition to turning women into mere adornments for the players.

Despite this, the women exist and can be found in bars and clubs frequented by the players. They strategically map out the fashionable spots of the athletes and literally go out hunting, in search of minutes of fame and money. Next to a famous star, they find the shortest way to sensual photo shoots and promotion of modeling careers.

This is not a national phenomenon. The marias chuteiras break borders. When he was an athlete, the former Brazilian team player Vampeta confessed that he took six women to Europe when he played in France. All of them paid for entirely by him. “I will be honest. I have taken women to Paris, Milan, and Holland,” he said. Of course, they were not moved by love or passion. The objectives were very pragmatic: money, luxury and fame. Many players enter this game knowing full well what game they are playing. “It’s normal for athletes who play in Europe to take girls from Brazil there. Abnormal is a rape scandal,” said Vampeta, from Bahia.

“It’s not enough to have sporting success, you have to accumulate women as a sign of success” evaluates Gustavo Andrada, researcher of the Education and Gender Relations Study Group of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. He conducts research related to sports “They are used to measure a player’s talent. They are like a trophy,” he says.

For the women who, in the end, end up marrying soccer players, called wags, a mixture of wifes and girlfriends, an English expression for those who date and walk down the aisle with soccer stars, “Maria Chuteira” is nothing more than a label that debases the image of women and ends up being exploited almost always through a macho point of view. For Gustavo Andrada, the increase of female participation in soccer can be an antidote. By playing, they stop being characters behind the scenes of soccer and become protagonists in the sport. The Women’s World Cup in France, which was widely covered by broadcast TV channels in June and July, in some ways, helped this transition. “The greater publicity of the Women’s World Cup tends to bring some questioning. I don’t know if it will be a lot, but it will certainly do something”, he projects.

The case of Eliza Samudio

When we talk about the “Maria Chuteira”, it is common to remember the tragic case between the goalkeeper Bruno (ex-Flamengo) and the model Eliza Samudio. Motivated by an unwanted pregnancy, the goalkeeper ordered the kidnapping of her and her son in June 2010. The investigation concluded that Eliza was killed by strangulation at the player’s farm in Ribeirão das Neves. Her body was butchered and never found by the police. Bruno was sentenced by popular jury to 22 years and seven months in prison for murder, concealment, kidnapping, and private captivity.

In 2017, the goalkeeper got an injunction by habeas corpus, signed a contract with Boa Esporte Clube, from Varginha, and even played five matches with the club. A month later, Bruno had his right to freedom revoked and returned to jail. In 2019, he was working in closed regime prison in an association of assistance to convicts in Varginha, and would try a progression to a semi-open prison facility, but he was caught with two women in a bar during the time he should have been working. As a result, he will only be able to request the progression of his sentence in 2023.

In Brazil, the prison system is considered progressive with various stages and rules applying to the type of prison stay a prisoner will have. In the closed prison regime, prisoners are confined within the prison all day and all night. In the semi-open regime, they are allowed to work outside in the daytime but are required to return to the prison every night.

Source: Istoé

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Note from BBT: A few months back, it hit me that the year we’re in, 2022, was a World Cup year. After another disappointing showing for Brazil in 2018 and my being back in the United States after having lived nine years in Brazil, I didn’t even notice that the months in which the tournament is usually played, June and July, had come and gone with no games. When I finally realized that, I wondered why the games hadn’t been played.

Looking into the situation, I soon discovered that as the games would be held this month in Qatar and the month of November was chosen because it is the time of year when the weather won’t put anyone’s health at risk. You see, in Qatar, in June and July, temperatures easily and regularly surpass the 100 degree mark, not the type of weather for running up and down a socccer field for 90 minutes.

Speaking on this topic, I must admit that it was only due to my interest in Brazil that I even began to follow news out of the soccer world. Soccer, or futebol, as brazilians call it, was never one of my favorite sports. As a child, teenager and into my adult years, I watched the top three sports in terms of popularity in the United States – baseball, football and basketball. The only time I had played soccer in my life was in my middle school and high school years when I was forced to play the game during gym classes and even then, as today, I still didnt understand the rules. 

A few years ago, at a resort in which i stayed in the city of Serra Negra in São Paulo state, I got to know a number of Brazilian families who were on vacation at the same resort. One day, the men of the families decided to have a pickup game of soccer with one of the team captains choosing me as a goalie. ‘Goalie? Me?’, I thought to myself. As I had rarely played soccer, I had also never played the position in my life.

From what I knew, soccer goalies tended to be tall as the width of the net is wide, so as people generally consider me to be a tall guy, the Brasileiros thought it was good idea to get the gringo, me, to guard the net. In the beginning, it seemed to be a good idea as I was able to block a few shots that came my way. But then the other team scored a goal….then another, yet another and then three more. Never having played goalie in my life and not realizing how fast a kicked soccer ball travels, I was clearly not ready to assume this position. I think my team lost something like 12-7, with about eight of the goals scored against us being scored while I was the goalie.

Considering the stigma against black Brazilian goalies in World Cup tournaments, my showing in that game definitely didn’t make a case for black goalies. To put this into context, as I delved into the history of Afro-Brazilians, I came to learn that, for at least sixty years, there has been a type of hesitation against black goalies starting for Brazil’s national teams in World Cup competition.

This stigma apparently started during the 1950 World Cup which was played in Brazil. Brazil’s starting goalie for that tournament was a black man named Moacyr Barbosa. In the World Cup of 1950, Barbosa was in his prime and considered the best goalie in all of South America but this didn’t shield him from being blamed and persecuted for allegedly having allowed a winning goal scored by Uruguay with 11 minutes remaining in the game.

Although soccer experts who have reviewed the play hundreds of times have argued that the goal scored wasn’t Barbosa’s fault, the belief in the supposed ‘bad luck’ of having a black man at one of the game’s most important positions stuck. Not having been a soccer fan for most of my life, that story stuck with me as the intent of the blog was to analyze Brazil from the racial perspective. Since 1950, there have been only two more black goalies who started for Brazil’s World Cup teams.

You add this to the fact that, initially, when the sport arrived in Brazil, black players weren’t allowed to participate on top level teams, and you once again see how the country’s racist origins reared its ugly head. Today and for decades now, a large percentage of the country’s top players have been black, but, unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case. The piece below explores this further.

Today piece is courtesy of the Alma Preta website, Alma Preta meaning ‘black soul’.

From excluded to majority: the history of black Brazilian players in the World Cup

Since the 1994 World Cup in the United States, black players hve been the majority on the Brazilian National Team

By Elias Santana Malê

The World Cup 2022, to be held in Qatar, will be the 22nd edition with the participation of the Brazilian National Team, the only one to take part in every World Cup. The current edition of the tournament will be the eighth in a row with a black majority on the squad, the last one without black majority was the 1990 World Cup, held in Italy.

In the five-time champion history of the Canarinho, as the team is known, black players have always stood out, but the path was never easy. Until names like Pelé achieved international prominence, black players even had to deal with a law that prohibited their performances.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the great name in Brazilian soccer was a black player: Arthur Friedenreich. He was the son of a black Brazilian washerwoman and a white German merchant, from whom he inherited his last name. El Tigre, as he was also known, made history in São Paulo soccer, but ended his career on a Rio de Janeiro club: Flamengo, his favorite team. Unofficially, he is the player with the most goals in soccer history, with 1,329 goals, 46 more than Pelé‘s 1283. However, considering only official matches, Friedenreich has less than 400 goals scored.

Despite these great numbers, Friedenreich’s career was marked by two obstacles. The first one, the result of a racist act, was the prohibition of black athletes playing for the Brazilian National Team. Through a Federal Law, President Epitácio Pessoa prohibited “black and mulattoes” from representing the country with the Canarinho (Little Canary) between 1919 and 1922. The striker had just finished as the top scorer in the 1919 South American Championship, held in Brazil.

Black players were only allowed to play for the national team in 1922, after being disgraced in the 1920 and 1921 South American Championships. In other words, the authorization was again given only for technical needs, since several of the great national standouts were black.

Leonidas, Friedenreich and Pelé

The other problem that Arthur Friedenreich faced occurred on the eve of the 1930 World Cup. When Elpídio de Paiva Azevedo, president of the São Paulo State League, noticed that no member of the national team was from São Paulo, he prevented all the athletes who played in the state from going to the World Cup.

Nowadays, black athletes continue to the standouts in the national team. In the last six World Cups, including the 2022 World Cup, Brazil has had three black players wearing the number 10 jersey in five editions: Rivaldo (2002), Ronaldinho (2006), and Neymar (2014, 2018, and 2022). The exception was Kaká, in the only World Cup held on the African continent, in South Africa in 2010. The player wearing the number 10 jersey is considered the team’s playmaker and is recognized as being the one who scores or sets up scoring opportunities for the green, blue and yellow team.

The 2002 World Cup winning team had black majority

Since the 1994 World Cup, held in the United States, the Seleção has had more than half of its players made up of black athletes. In the last edition where blacks were a minority, in 1990, they made up 41% of the squad.

In this period, black athletes account for 57% of those called to the Brazilian National Team for the World Cup. Among these eight editions, the 2010 team was the most black. Of the 23 players selected, 16 were black, which corresponded to almost 70% of the team.

Almost 70% of the 2010 World Cup squad was made up of black players

The 2022 tournament in Qatar will be the eighth in a row with a black majority. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, FIFA has expanded the roster limit to 26 players, an increase of three names from the 23 possible in the last five World Cups.

Among the 26 names, coach Tite called up 15 black players: Daniel Alves (LAT, Pumas UNAM-MEX), Danilo (LAT, Juventus-ITA), Alex Sandro (LAT, Juventus-ITA), Bremer (ZAG, Juventus-ITA), Éder Militão (ZAG, Real Madrid-ESP), Thiago Silva (ZAG, Chelsea-ING), Casemiro (MEI, Manchester United-ING), Fabinho (MEI, Liverpool-ING), Fred (MEI, Manchester United-ING), Gabriel Jesus (ATA, Arsenal-ING), Neymar (ATA, Paris Saint-Germain-FRA), Raphinha (ATA, Barcelona-ESP), Richarlison (ATA, Tottenham-ING), Rodrygo (ATA, Real Madrid-ESP) and Vinícius Júnior (ATA, Real Madrid-ESP).

Of the 15, eight will make their debuts at the World Cup: defenders Alex Sandro, Bremer, and Éder Militão; midfielder Fabinho; and forwards Raphinha, Richarlison, Rodrygo, and Vinícius Júnior.

Brazil, which is in Group G, opens the World Cup against Serbia on November 24 at Lusail Stadium.

Source: Alma Preta

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Note from BBT: I’ve mentioned in my recent YouTube videos that I’ve been wanting and have started exploring some topics that I hadn’t really considered over the decade plus that I’ve been posting material on the blog. These topics are not totally and specifically focused on race but can be studied through the lens of race. A few of the topics that I really want to get into are the questions of gender inequality, feminism, the manosphere, relationships and the image of Brazilian women.

Debates over these topics have raged in online spaces such as YouTube for several years now and I wanted to address these topics according to some of the things being said in Brazil. I’ve always been the type of person that seeks to uncover the truth on a given topic even if it goes against what I personally believe. In my view, if you believe or think you know something, you should be willing to challenge that particular viewpoint and be accepting of something that turns out to be true when it debunks what you originally believed.

This happens all the time. In the sciences, we have accepted theories and facts and many of these theories and facts wither away as we come into new information. Over the past few decades, I’ve had to change my opinions on a number of things after becoming aware of other facts and new information. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem for me would be believing something and one, not accepting new information on the topic or maintaining a wrong position even after becoming aware of new facts that debunk what you previously or continue to believe.

What I have learned after having had heated debates with various people on a number of topics is that you cannot force anyone to believe what you believe in. It’s a waste of time. When this happens, its better and saves you alot of time and stress when you simply present the facts and let the other person or persons do their own research on the topic, change or decide to stay on their square on that specific topic.

I’ve had these sorts of discussions, debates and arguments on topics such as religion, world history, gender issues, political movements, conspiracy vs. conspiracy theory, the entertainment business, the true movers and shakers in the world and a number of other topics. All I can say is that, along my own journey, I’ve come to see that things are often times not as they appear, which makes it necessary for me to examine my own positions on these subjects.

Last week I had a conversation with a colleague who is about 20 years my senior. Our discussion first centered a hot topic these days concerning a black male athlete who has been the subject of controversy for a few weeks now. After I shared my opinion on the topic, the discussion went in another direction although somewhat related to the topic that we discussed. When this colleague began to ask my views on certain topics, I first told him that I don’t like to really discuss certain topics because my views often goes against popular opinion, which in turn leads to disagreements, heated arguments and sometimes, the end of relationships and friendships.

I told said colleague that I would share my opinion on the particular topic that he brought up, but only if he would listen with an open mind as my thoughts could go against what he believed. After all, I wasnt trying to change his opinion, but rather offer mine, as well as the sources for him to analyze and come to his own conclusion.

This is the same way I want to introduce today’s topic. In a recent video, you could say that I introduced this topic by discussing a question that Brazilians were asking a few years ago: Why does a top male Brazilian soccer player such as Neymar earn so much more money than a top Brazilian female soccer player such as Marta? In a left-leaning world in which we live, we would be led to believe that such differences are due to sexism, but is this simple response really sufficient to answer the question or are there other factors that we must consider?

Let’s expand the debate beyond Neymar and Marta and look at the differences of salary for men and women as a whole and see what the research tells us.

The article below is taken from website for Instituto Mises Brasil, a Brazilian libertarian think tank that focuses on “the production and dissemination of economic and social science studies that promote free market principles and a free society.”

The wage gap between men and women in Brazil

Does it make sense to say that the capitalist puts machismo above profit?

By Leandro Narloch

Editor’s note: the following article was originally published in May 2015. Since the subject has resurfaced and is being debated with much more emotion than with reason and logic, it is worth revisiting.

For one simple reason, I have always been suspicious of the wage gap statistic.

If women in fact earned less than men to perform the same tasks, profit-seeking companies would only hire women. When faced with two candidates with the same potential, the employer would, of course, hire the cheaper one.

But what happens is the opposite: men are still the majority of employees in Brazil.

So, either business owners are fools, and put machismo above profit, or the statistic is flawed.

A new study by the Fundação de Economia e Estatística, meaning the Economics and Statistics Foundation, of the government of Rio Grande do Sul, confirmed this suspicion. Economists Guilherme Stein and Vanessa Sulzbach analyzed 100,000 salaries and concluded that Brazilian women earn 20% less than men – but only 7% cannot be explained by the difference in productivity.

The research infuriated feminists from Rio Grande do Sul, who wrote articles and “big texts” on Facebook accusing the authors of machismo and asked for the dismissal of the Foundation’s directors.

In response, dozens of economists signed a manifesto defending the researchers. “We were surprised by such a strong reaction to a study that has been replicated so many times,” economist Guilherme Stein told me.

The study’s conclusion converges with data from Harvard economist Claudia Goldin, the leading expert on the wage gap. For the United States, Goldin found a slightly smaller percentage (5%) that is not explained by productivity.

According to the Rio Grande do Sul researchers, there are mainly two factors pulling women’s wages up, but there are three others that push them down. See the table.

20150429tabela_recortehem1.png

Women have more years of education on average and start working later. However, they interrupt their careers more often, have a slightly shorter working day than men, and tend to be concentrated in occupations that pay less.

Of the 20% wage gap, 13 are explained by these reasons. In other words: if men and women worked the same hours and had the same profile, women would still earn 7% less. How to explain this difference?

It may be prejudice and discrimination on the part of employers, or some other factor not yet revealed. What can be said is that the machismo of employers decreases women’s wages by 7% at most.

The research does not contradict feminist flags, on the contrary. “The data suggest that the wage gap would narrow if men shared household chores with women,” says Stein.

IMB supplement

In a labor market with freedom of hiring and firing, it is impossible to have wage differences between men and women as a result of discrimination alone.

And this is for a purely economic reason: if there were such discrimination, any employer would make easy profits by hiring women and laying off men, since women could be paid less for doing exactly the same job. Competition among employers would then raise women’s wages and thus abolish any wage gap that might exist.

So whenever and wherever there is any kind of wage discrimination – and this goes not only for gender, but also for skin color, religion, ethnicity, etc. – capitalism will abolish wage discrimination. – capitalism will abolish such a situation, not deepen it. And the essential reason is that an employer who allows his prejudices to cloud his value judgment will thereby be creating a profit opportunity for his competitors.

A woman who produces $75,000 a year in revenue for her employer, but who is paid, say, $20,000 less than an equally productive male employee, might be hired by a competitor for, say, $10,000 more than she is now paid and still allow this new employer to pocket the $10,000 difference.

As this competitive process deepens it will, after all, raise female wages to the point of parity with male wages if wage competition is vigorous enough.

But there are other indelible factors in this issue of wage divergence between men and women. For example, as already said, in general terms, women are more likely than men to leave the labor force for a period of time – because of pregnancy, child rearing and raising, and other tasks (which most men shy away from).

Women are much more likely than men to take time off work for a period of time (years) to devote to their family. And even if they do not do this, they tend to spend much more time than men on childcare and housework. Consequently, they lag behind their male counterparts in terms of capital accumulation, productivity, and wages.

However, much more explosive explanations of the wage gap can be found in the book by Professor James T. Bennett, of George Mason University’s economics department, entitled The Politics of American Feminism: Gender Conflict in Contemporary Society.

In this book, Professor Bennett lists over twenty reasons why men earn more than women. Cumulatively, such explanations completely answer the existence of any “wage disparity,” although Bennett himself believes that wage discrimination by gender is not something non-existent.

The reasons, based on generalizations backed up by voluminous statistics, are:

• Men are more interested in technology and natural sciences than women.

• Men are more likely to take dangerous jobs, and such jobs pay more than more comfortable and secure jobs.

• Men are more willing to be exposed to inclement climates in their work, and are compensated for this (“compensating differences” in economic parlance).

• Men tend to accept more stressful jobs that do not follow the typical eight-hour routine of working conventional hours.

• Many women prefer personal job satisfaction (child and elder care professions, for example) to higher wages.

• Men generally like to take more risks than women. Higher risks lead to higher rewards.

• More atypical working hours pay more, and men are more likely than women to accept working such hours.

• Hazardous jobs (charcoal mining) pay more and are dominated by men.

• Men tend to “upgrade” their job qualifications more often than women.

• Men are more likely to work longer hours, which increases the wage gap.

• Women tend to have more “interruptions” in their careers, mainly because of pregnancy, child rearing, and raising children. And less experience means lower wages.

• Women are nine times more likely than men to leave work for “family reasons. Less length of service leads to lower wages.

• Men work more weeks per year than women.

• Men have half the absenteeism rate of women.

• Men are more willing to put up with long daily commutes to work.

• Men are more likely to transfer to undesirable locations in exchange for jobs that pay more.

• Men are more likely to accept jobs that require constant travel.

• In the corporate world, men are more likely to choose higher paying areas such as finance and sales, while women are more prevalent in lower paying areas such as human resources and public relations.

• When men and women hold the same position, male responsibilities tend to be greater.

• Men are more likely to work on commission; women are more likely to seek jobs that give more stability. The former presents greater earning potentials.

• Women place greater value on flexibility, a more humane work environment, and having more time for children and family.

Therefore, feminist movements genuinely interested in understanding the wage issue should pay more attention to these determinants and focus less on quixotic crusades like “diversity and equality” legislation that demonize male employees and male bosses.

The suggestion that sexual attributes are used in choosing an employee, or that they are determinants of the paycheck, says nothing about the sexual tastes of the employer. It speaks only about scarcity. Why? Employers have no way of knowing what an employee’s productivity is before he or she is hired. The productivity of this employee may not be readily apparent after he or she is hired. Additionally, the testing and adjustment period is costly; it also consumes company resources in the form of monitoring, supervision and materials. And employers have an incentive to save all these costs.

Therefore, a hiring cannot be something that is driven solely by the gender of the individual. Various other possible attributes and possible future occurrences have to be considered by the employer.

However, economic logic is usually suppressed by politically correct groups who find it much easier and more productive to simply vilify those who try to explain that there are economically rational reasons for the existence of any wage differentials between men and women.

Source: Mises

The post The wage gap between men and women in Brazil: Does it make sense to say that the capitalist puts machismo above profit? appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: Once again I’m taking a dive into the question of the image of Brazilian women outside of the country. My first exposure to Brazilian women, like probably millions of other males around the world were the images and videos that I saw coming out perhaps the country’s biggest yearly event, Carnaval. I can’t even say with any certainty when the images came into my consciousness, after all, before the year 2000, I didn’t really even quite understand the difference between Brazil and other countries in Latin America. It’s for this reason that I don’t trip when I come across Americans who still don’t know that Brazilians don’t speak Spanish. The way America’s education system works, I think most of us will just see most countries in South America as one big region without much distinction between each individual country.

I think that what gives Brazil a bit more of an identity, depending on what types of things you’re into, are its history as a soccer powerhouse, its beautiful beaches and the images of the sensuous, scantily clad, gyrating women that are broadcast all over the world. It would only be years later after my official introduction to Brazil that I would discover that this was no accident.

Brazilian women have actually been promoted by the country as one of the greatest attractions. This happened through not only Carnaval videos, usually from Rio de Janeiro, but also advertising campaigns that used bikini clad Brasileiras on tourism brochures in European countries. To add to all of this, because of the globalization of music, nowadays those who enjoy music outside their country are now also exposed to a new generation of funkeiras (funk singers and fans) who are quick to show off the Brazilian version of ‘twerking ‘.

All that aside, the reason that I wanted to discuss this a little more is because of the recent interest in Brazilian women in online communities, particularly the internet space known as the ‘man-o-sphere’, specifically, the ‘black man-o-sphere’. There have been a number of years now that African-American men have been traveling to numerous countries outside of the United States, sometimes participating in sexual tourism, other times genuinely searching for love outside of US borders.

Now, I could spend a lot of time analyzing the reasons leading black American men to search women in other countries, but that’s not the reason for my interest in diving into the topic. I will be exploring that in future videos, but I will simply acknowledge the rift between black American men and black American women as one of the primary reasons that’s leading perhaps thousands of black men to apply form their passports and head to other countries, one of which is Brazil.

Another reason I wanted to explore this topic has been the reaction that many African-American women have had when the topic is the so-called ‘passport bros’ community. This has been the nickname bestowed upon this segment of African-American males who have grown frustrated with trying to develop long-term relationships with African-American women with little success. In fact, Frustrated was the name of a popular 2011 documentary that explored why black American men were exporing other countries for female companionship.

In reaction to this, many African-American women have expressed disdain at seeing the rise of the ‘passport bros’ community. For a number of them, black American men who didn’t date black American women and chose to try their luck overseas were ‘losers’, men who couldn’t ‘handle’ black American women, men who were ‘dusty’, didn’t have the resources to give them the lifestyles they desired or were just plain ‘weak’ men that nobody even wanted. A number of these women have expressed their views that women in other countries were just cheap whores who were in search of an easy ‘ticket’ into the United States and who would deal with all of the BS that black men were serving up in the US.

From my 20 plus years visiting and living in Brazil, I can attest to the fact that there is far more to Brazilian women than the opinions of women who probably, in reality, know nothing about Brazil, much less Brazilian women. I won’t attempt to address this in just one video, but I will get more into this little by little. Today, I want to focus on a question that Brazilian women themselves have asked for awhile. Why is it that many foreigners see Brazilian women as simply sexual objects? There are numerous ways that this question can be discussed and debated. On the one hand, there are plenty of Brazilian women who live and fully participate in the stereotype. On the other, there is another side of Brasileiras that vehemently reject the hypersexual image associated with females that happened to be born in Brazil.

In my own experiences, I can tell you, as I have in several articles on the blog, there are all sorts of women in Brazil. After all, with more than 50 percent of the population being female, there are somewhere between 105-115 million females in Brazil and among them you have middle class, rich and poor, women with doctorate degrees as well as those who never finished elementary school, women who are very shy around men as well as those turn tricks for a living. So the first thing to know is that it’s not a good idea to typecast an entire country of girls and women, even if there is a certain type that seems to be portrayed in the media.

Why do many foreigners see Brazilian women as sexual objects?

“Are you Brazilian? Ah, I love Brazilian women,” says Santarosa Barreto’s work in English, made from the artist’s discomfort with the foreign view

By Aline Takashima for Universa

On a bright pink sign, a text in English outlined in neon says: “Are you Brazilian? Ah, I love Brazilian women.” The Instagrammable work by artist Santarosa Barreto, 34, was a success in the exhibition “Feminist Stories: artists after 2000”, at the São Paulo Art Museum, MASP, last year. The phrase, well known by Brazilian women who live abroad or have traveled abroad, sounds like a kind of flirtation. But it is more than a game of seduction.

The idea for the work came up when Santarosa was doing an artist residency in Paris in 2016. As the only Brazilian woman in the group, she noticed how men reacted when she told them her nationality. “The reactions were quite similar, most of them would say ‘Ah, I love Brazilian women.’ And, as much as I had seen this kind of response in other situations outside Brazil, it started to bother me deeply. It was visible how all the men said it as if it were a compliment.”

If the image of Brazilians outside the country is of a happy and friendly people, the image of women takes on erotic contours, often related to the sex market. This is why the artist chose to use neon, a light often used on the facades of prostitution houses in Paris.

“Frequently, Brazilian women are seen as prostitutes by foreigners. To exercise sex work is to exercise a job, of that I have no doubt, and I respect sex workers a lot. But I see that this association made by men from outside Brazil is full of prejudices, generalizations, and a lot of machismo.” The color pink, on the other hand, was chosen to make mention of the flattering, almost affectionate tone that contaminates these harassment situations. “It’s a pink, let’s say, ironic,” she summarizes.

For Beatriz Padilla, a PhD in sociology, professor at the University of South Florida and specialist in immigration and gender, Brazilian women are often seen and treated as being totally available to men abroad. “Some men don’t even consider that Brazilian women don’t belong to them.”

The Universa website addressed the issue by reporting that a group of Brazilian women in Portugal had banded together to denounce episodes of moral and sexual harassment abroad. After that, the report decided to look into the topic in search of the roots of this stereotype.

Woman as a tourist product

Between the 1960s and 1980s, the Brazilian government itself disseminated the figure of the sensual woman as a national tourist product. In a study based on the advertising campaigns of Embratur, the federal agency responsible for tourism, researcher Kelly Akemi Kajihara indicates that the government contributed to a collective imaginary of a sexualized Brazilian woman.

Posters and postcards showed women with shapely bodies, in bikinis on the beach, or half-naked, dancing the samba at Carnaval. The images didn’t always accompany the models’ faces. Many times only a butt illustrated the campaign.

One point that is quite problematic is the promotion of sexy women as a tourist product to be consumed like the beaches, landscapes, and popular festivals. Until today they are seen in many situations as easy, sensual and provocative Kelly Akemi Kajihara, researcher

These imaginaries generate a variety of social consequences, from unwanted compliments and sexist comments to cases such as child prostitution and trafficking of Brazilian women abroad. “This government incentive has contributed to Brazil entering the sex tourism route, and the most serious point is sex tourism with underage girls,” explains the researcher. Of the almost 2 million boys and girls who are victims of sexual exploitation worldwide, approximately 10% are Brazilian children, according to the Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund).

According to the study, as of 2003, the Brazilian government definitely stopped using the figure of sensual women in its tourism advertising campaigns. However, Kelly says that the current government makes no effort to combat the stereotypes of sexualized Brazilian women.

She recalls a line by President Jair Bolsonaro, said at the Planalto Palace in April 2019: “Whoever wants to come here and have sex with a woman, be my guest. Now, [Brazil] cannot become known as a paradise of the gay world, of gay tourism.” The researcher points out that “such disservices are serious from a social point of view and make it even more difficult to deconstruct stereotypes.”

How a stereotype is born

Brazilian women, just like Brazilian men, are in every corner of the world. But in Portugal, it seems that the prejudice is clear, reports the group of women who created the group “Brasileiras não se calam”. Researcher Beatriz Padilla recovers the colonial imaginary to explain. She cites the novel “Iracema”, written by José de Alencar in 1865, which represents this image in a kind of foundation myth of the Brazilian people.

In the plot, the Indian Iracema seduces Martim, a Portuguese colonizer who explores the lands of the state of Ceará in the 16th century. She is described as the “virgin with honey lips”. In one episode, Iracema leads the Portuguese man into a sacred forest and prepares a hallucinogenic potion for her lover. Martin soon falls unconscious. Iracema then lies in his arms. Afterwards, a subtle indication in the text indicates that they had sex: “Tupã no longer had his virgin in the land of the Tabajaras.”

The figure of the seductive Indian woman is soon replaced by the black woman, in an idea of mestiço harmony. “It’s an idea out of context. Men used women to satisfy their needs, especially black and indigenous women, who would originate the ‘mixed Brazilian people’,” says researcher Beatriz.

Gláucia Assis, a professor at the Santa Catarina State University, a specialist in emigrant women and gender relations, agrees with Beatriz: the colonizers beat and violated black and indigenous women. These past imaginaries are being updated. “Today, this idea that Brazilian women are prostitutes, sinners and available for a sexual encounter is present in the literature and advertisements that circulate in Portugal,” she says.

Based on this imaginary, women are divided between the good and the bad: “The colonizers’ wives are the good ones and the other enslaved and indigenous women are the bad ones,” Beatriz summarizes. Brazilian women, in turn, are seen as mixed women, categorized as “mestiço, mulatto, and non-white,” that is, the bad ones.

“In this sexist and racist culture that exists to this day, Brazilian women are disadvantaged abroad.” It is a common idea that men cannot resist Brazilian women. And, in their eyes, it is the women’s fault. “When the Brazilian woman resists this sexualized image, many times the Europeans don’t recognize their own discrimination.”

What does singer Anitta have to do with it?

As an export product, the rhythmic beat of Brazilian funk appeals to many countries. The United States, Portugal and Argentina are the places where the style is most listened to outside of Brazil, according to Spotify data. But, according to researcher Kelly Akemi Kajihara, funk – and its greatest expression, the all powerful Anitta, is not responsible for the stereotypical image of Brazilian women abroad.

“The sexuality of funk singers goes to a female empowerment side, like ‘I can be sexy, I can have sex if I want to’. It’s different from the image of the easy, eroticized woman seen in tourism campaigns, which has a very macho character and conveys the message that women are a product to be consumed.” (1)

Professor Gláucia Assis endorses Kelly. “The musical genre is a cultural expression of urban popular groups that is seen with many prejudices. Women abroad are definitely not discriminated against because of funk, but because of the stereotypical colonial imaginary of Brazilian women.”

Abroad, gender differences deepen. “These stereotypical views of an imagined Brazilian woman exoticize and insert Brazilian women in a position of inferiority. The sexualized gaze abroad is of a man from the north [hemisphere] to a woman from the south.”

Source: UOL Universa

Note

1. I DO take issue with this sort of argument. If I as a male directed a video by Anitta in which I requested that she show her ass to the camera and gyrate as much as possible, or Anitta herself directed the video and did the same, either way, she becomes sexualized. I’m just curious; if the male gaze is the same in both scenarios, how is there a difference?

The post Why do many foreigners see Brazilian women as sexual objects? appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: Today’s topic has been one that has intrigued me for a number years. In fact, when I first started posting material on this blog back in 2011, I decided to name the blog Black Women of Brazil. Over the course of the first five years, I had a number of people contact me, tell me they liked the blog but also inquire as to why I gave the blog this name.

Faced with this common question, I would always give the same basic response. As I had been following the question of race for a number of years in Brazil, I noted that much of the movement for black rights and the push for organizing around the theme of race was led by Afro-Brazilian women. There were all sorts of blogs and black women’s organizations that seemed to have taken the lead in the demands of the Brazil’s black population.

Black women and men were pushing for the acceptance of a specifically black identity in a country that had indoctrinated most of its African descendants to reject any terminology associated with blackness. Black women were out front calling for the acceptance of cabelo crespo, meaning kinky-curly hair which would lead to tens of thousands of black and brown Brazilian women to throw away the chapinha, or flattening iron, cut their hair to get rid of the harmful chemicals and start rocking their natural kinks, curls and waves. It was a fascinating transition to see.

It would be a few years until Afro-Brazilian men would start to push back against Brazilian standards that told men of African descent that if their hair was kinky or curly, they needed to shave it as close to the scalp as possible to avoid ridicule.

Soon, black women were organzing the first black women’s march in the country. As a spectator, it was amazing to see how quickly the attitudes changed in Brazil’s black community. In my view, the popularity of social networks helped black Brazil organize in about a decade what could arguably taken 20-30 years without social media.

With black women leading the way, it came as no surprise that a growing number of Afro-Brazilian women came to identify themselves as feminists. Knowing that their demands were slightly different from the overall Brazilian women’s movement which was lead by mostly white women, black women carved out their set of goals and agendas. Looking at the situation from somewhat close, it struck that black Brazilian women’s demands and leaderships seemed to coincide with the growth of feminism as a whole.

In 2019, it was estimated that 38% of Brazilian women 16 years of age or older considered themselves feminists while 56% rejecting the ideology. Another 6% didn’t feel one way or another on the topic. Research at the time reported that younger women were more likely to identify themselves as feminists (47%), with women between the ages of 35 to 44 years identify themselves less with the feminist movement (30%). The analysis also figured into women identifying themselves as feminists according to level of education. Women who studied up to high school represented 33% of those identifying as feminists, compared to 42% among those who had attained only an elementary school education and 44% among those who had gone to college.

The study also considered the masculine perspective with 52% of men saying they said they support feminism against 40% who rejected it and another 8% who had no opinion on the topic. Among men, again, it was the youngest who most supported the movement (61%), with lesser support among men over the age of 60 (49%). Similar to the women, there was also a variation when education is taken into consideration (47% within the group of less educated men and 53% among men who went up to just elementary school, but 58% when considering the men who had attended college.

But that was in 2019. In just three short years since that report, the women’s movement seems to have grown significantly according a study released back in March. In fact, it seems that in women are among the nations with the highest percentage of women that identify themselves as feminists.

Check the report below.

More than half of Brazilian women consider themselves feminists, reveals survey

Study conducted with adults from 30 countries also reveals that 23% of Brazilian men consider the feminist movement more harmful than beneficial

Courtesy of Galileo

A study conducted by the Ipsos Institute with adults from 30 countries reveals that 51% of Brazilian women consider themselves feminists. They are above the global average (47%) of women who agreed with the phrase “I define myself as feminist”.

The survey was released to discuss gender issues on International Women’s Day, which is celebrated every March 8th. According to the survey, the nation with the most feminist women is Romania (80%), followed by India, Malaysia, and South Africa (all with 64% affirmative answers). The lowest rates are in Russia (17%), Japan (21%), and South Korea (24%).

The study interviewed more than 20 thousand people online, between January 21 and February 4, 2022, in countries in Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and Oceania. Among the volunteers were more than a thousand Brazilians between the ages of 16 and 74. The survey’s margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.

One of the most striking data in the study regarding the country is that 23% of the Brazilians interviewed agreed that feminism does “more harm than good” to society.

Analyzing the global data, 26% believe that feminism does more harm than good. Russia is the country where most people agree with this idea: 42% of Russians have a dim view of feminist issues. The Netherlands, on the other hand, is where the fewest individuals have this thought: only 12% of Dutch respondents agreed.

Even if we are not in the worst scenario of all, the Brazilian position is alarming, according to Priscilla Branco, Public Affairs manager at Ipsos in Brazil. “Even though it is a minority, having about a quarter of the population believing that feminism brings more harm than good is worrisome, even more so in a country like Brazil, which sadly registers horrible numbers regarding violence against women,” says Branco, in a statement.

Marked by a plurality of agendas and strands, the feminist movement is extremely important. In Brazil, women obtained the right to vote in 1932, an achievement that happened thanks to the organization of feminist movements in the beginning of the 20th century. And since then, women have had access to various rights and places thanks to these initiatives.

Interviewees from Brazil by Ipsos were among those who least believe that feminism has caused political, economic and social losses for men

Still, 12% of Brazilians do not recognize that gender inequality exists. Disbelief in this issue is highest in Saudi Arabia (35%) and Malaysia (28%); in Japan and Belgium the indices are the lowest, 5% and 11%, respectively. The global average is 18%.

Despite this, respondents from Brazil are among those who least believe that feminism has caused political, economic and social losses for men – only 13% think so, the second lowest rate among the 30 nations surveyed, tied with France and only behind Italy (12%). This percentage is highest among the Polish (38%) and Chinese (28%).

Another issue is that, for 75% of the participants from Brazil, companies do not treat both genders equally. If only women’s answers are considered, the rate rises to almost 84%. After our country, those who disagree the most about the equality of men and women at work are Japan and Chile (both with 64%), followed by France (58%).

According to the survey, 27% of Brazilians believe that traditional masculinity is under threat today. The idea that masculine values are being weakened is greater among Russians (55%) and Hungarians (42%), and less present among Italians (16%), Turks (19%) and Dutch (19%).

The study shows that feminism is being discussed a lot recently, which is positive. “But many of these discussions end up falling into a context of polarization,” ponders Priscilla Branco. “The term itself is still controversial for many people, even for some who call themselves progressive. We have made progress in the fight for equality, but there is still a ways to go.”

Source: Revista Galileu

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Note from BBT: In our own timeframes of personal development, there will come times when we must be willing and able to consider opposing opinions that go against our beliefs, better still when such openly opposing beliefs are already part of your train of thought, lurking somewhere in the mental vault. For years, there have been times when I’ve gone along with something even though in the not so deeper areas of my soul I knew I couldn’t co-sign on certain things.

I’ve always felt this way about American gangsta rap. I remember my first experiences with the genre back in the late 80s and early 90s. Some of the violent lyrics I heard were often shocking to my system. I remember many years ago riding in a car with a work colleague, Frank, who was listening to the 1991 classic gangsta rap CD, Efil4zaggin, which, spelled backwards became Niggaz4Life by west coast rap group NWA.

On the way home, the first track I heard in Frank’s car was the song ‘One Less Bitch’ in which rappers Dr. Dre and MC Ren graphically detailed how they killed women. As Frank drove, bobbing his head to the beat, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wassup with these lyrics?’ The groove which featured a classic sample of a Barry White track was sonically hypnotic. That was perhaps the trap with gangsta rap; the lyrics were pure evil, but the beats were slammin’.

The release would go on to become the number one album in America one week after its release, which meant a whole lot of kids, teens and adults, across the color line, were listening to this album. Later that year, another CD’s lyrics would strike me the same way. The first solo album of Geto Boys rapper Scarface entitled Mr. Scarface Is Back. Again, hard funk beats paired with explicit lyrics depicting violence, murder, dope deals and sex.

Before these albums were released in the early 90s, another rap group that pushed the envelope on explicit lyrical content was the Miami-based group known as 2 Live Crew. Anyone who is familiar with 2 Live Crew knows that their music was basically pornography put to music. Whether we’re talking gangsta or sex rap, we all knew that this music was x-rated, definitely not meant for minors and possibly having negative influences on young, impressionable minds.

But more than that, as these types of albums went from being underground to within a few years and certainly within a decade, going mainstream, one has to step back at a certain point and wonder what the effect of such music would have on society as a whole. Clearly, there were those who rejected this type of music and labeled it as trash.

In fact, on the aforementioned Efil4zaggin album, NWA seemed to revel in the manner in which some people vehemently rejected the content of their music. The beginning of the track ‘Niggaz 4 Life’ featured a montage of voices decrying NWA’s music. The voices are heard saying that the music and way it talks about women was ‘bulls*it’ and that they didn’t want their kids listening to this type of music. But the fact is that, in the entertainment business, people who are willing to use vulgarity, present adult-oriented content, dress and talk provocatively are often rewarded with lots of money, fame and rewards.

I’m not gonna front as if I didn’t participate in this slow, moral decadence going on in the music industry as I watched and bobbed my head just like everyone else did, even as my conscience would never really let me fully enjoy it. Some time in the mid 90s, as I started to research politics, journalism, the music, film and television industries, I started to understand what was going on.

Somewhere along the way, I began to catch on to the fact that everything and everyone that were placed in front of our unsuspecting eyes were players in the scheme for destroying the moral fabric of society. That included any sort of social, political, musical or media-oriented movement that seemed to just pop up out of nowhere. Often times, these things are presented as something ‘cool’ or even positive, but upon closer inspection, frequently they were the exact opposite, and if one isn’t careful, the degradation, hedonism, evil, x-rated, foul and deceptive can easily become the norm.

Several weeks ago, I posted a story about the singer Anitta becoming the first Brazilian to win a Video Music Award. I had to admit that Anitta’s commercial success was astounding as she had even managed to outearn a number of prominent American entertainers, no small feat for a woman from a Latin American country. But on the flip side of Anitta’s success and the culture for which she represents, there is a portion of Brazilians who are none too thrilled with the singer’s success.

Funk music in Brazil emerged out of the 1980s black dances in the poor peripheries of large cities such as Rio de Janeiro. These favela slum beats would soon adapt Miami bass style rhythms, mix them with highly sexualized lyrics and become all the rage in these poor communities. As the music and culture originated in mostly black and poor neighborhoods, it was an easy target for a Brazil that belittled and denigrated anything associated with the black population.

Understanding the struggle for recognition and respect of Afro-Brazilians, part of me supported the funk beats and culture, but similar to how my conscience spoke to me as I enjoyed gangsta and sex rhymes in the American music scene, some parts of the funk culture coming out of Brazil didn’t quite sit well with me either. Over the years, I’ve read hundreds of insulting comments about funk, with phrases such as ‘funk é lixo’, meaning ‘funk is trash’ becoming not only a catchphrase, but the names of whole blogs dedicated to trashing the genre.

If you’re honest with yourself and stand by whatever it is that you believe, there comes a time when you must at least hear what opposing views have to say about certain topics. If you’re not willing to challenge your views, perhaps it is true that deep down, you know you really can’t defend your position. I have never been a fan of Brazilian funk in terms of its musical quality, just as I have never been a fan of Miami bass. Besides that, looking at the lifestyles of some of the people that participate in the culture of these genres, I must again ask, where is all of this going and should we allow our children to be seduced by it?

I’m just asking the question. Below, one blog that has consistently pointed out the issues they have with artists such as Anitta and what they represent go in on her. If you’re an Anitta fan, you may not like this critique, but I believe that the more critical side of any analysis should also be heard. Lest someone think I am simply ‘picking on’ Brazil, when I think of what’s going on in the US, there are clearly aspects of the conversation that apply to folks like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion. The point that I’m making here is all the more relevant when we consider the fact that Cardi B. herself won’t even allow her own daughter to listen to her music.

Check it out below…there will be more from where this comes from as I begin to take a deep dive into topics that I hadn’t previously touched upon on this blog.

Anitta’s music video: a terrible example to educate girls but which modern women feminists turn a blind eye

Posted by Mulheres Contra o Feminismo

We posted about the vulgarity of funkeira Anitta in a past post and how we should never be proud of this kind of woman representing us. Once again the feminist funkeira (funk artist) shows her vulgarity, she allies her image to the Brazilian woman and feminists use her commercial success to show off her vulgarity, which even influences younger girls who stop dedicating themselves to their studies and spend more time getting lost with sex clips on social networks. Unfortunately, things from the “empowered and feminine” Brazil.

But as almost always, the ego and collective feminist hysteria of the modern woman causes aunts, mothers-in-law, wives and genitors to push dubious feminine behavior from child murder to supporting vulgarity and sex tourism under the rug. Of course, the support happens as long as the perpetuators are women because many imbeciles believe more in catchphrases like “A girl’s place should be wherever she wants”, “I am against my husband in this sexist society” and support feminists who indoctrinate their daughters, granddaughters and nieces, when in fact they should support their husband, their father and decently educate their daughters away from Instagram and other social networks, without pushing it under the rug for feminists like Anitta and the like.

Unfortunately, it seems that the modern woman’s feminine ego, as always, makes them run away from responsibility and reasoning but instead blame men for the bullshit that the same women do.

Anitta has been supporting feminism for a long time, spewing out the vulgarity of Brazilian women (who worldwide outdo themselves compared to other women) and has been in the spotlight for being popular among women who even complain about being objectified. Of course, sex sells but if a man were so vulgar when objectifying women, he would either be condemned or loved (like the marginals who sing funk songs during the garbage called carnival or at dances in the periphery).

Anitta, who behaves like a badass when she says she wants to hire women for sex, like a good feminist, seems to be defended by modern women who turn a blind eye and let their daughters, granddaughters and nieces watch clips and interviews of the vulgar funkeira.

To no surprise to any rational person, Brazilian women around the world continue to have a reputation as prostitutes. And this with the support of women, some of whom even pretend to be conservative or religious.

This happens abroad where I lived, but here in Brazil, Brazilian feminism is surpassing itself every day.

I must congratulate my fellow Brazilian women, childish, vulgar and lacking in responsibility, who surpass themselves in making me and some others feel ashamed both in Brazil and abroad.

Source: Mulheres Contra o Feminismo

The post Singer Anitta is a superstar, but for some, she is a terrible example with which to educate girls but that modern women feminists turn a blind eye appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: To begin today’s story, I will request that you file this one in the ‘Brazilians aren’t racists’ folder. You’ll see why in a minute. Today’s story actually started 4-5 days ago when I was scrolling down recent posts on my Instagram profile. Where my life is these days, I must say that I simply don’t have the precious time to spend looking at the sometimes mundane videos that people post. Sometimes, I will run across something that makes me laugh or think, but honestly, most of the content doesn’t do that.

The video that caught my eye a few days ago of which I will discuss today, in some ways, wasn’t anything special. I mean, another video of a Brazilian saying or doing something racist. So what else is new? As I’ve seen such incidents for years, I didn’t really even trip on it. And as with other incidents that I see, I wasn’t even really thinking about covering it. But then, after I saw the reaction that the incident provoked as well as the history of what the young man featured in the story had already gone through, I decided that I needed to look into this story.

Before I get into the incident, let me first introduce the young black man involved in the story. Eddy Jr. is a humorist and musician who found fame via social networks with his witty, humorous videos and motivational phrases. Eddy also displays his musical talent in his videos, singing and playing instruments.

28 years old and a resident of the west zone São Paulo, several of his his videos have gone viral with some of them featuring famous Brazilians such as the futebol legend Ronaldinho Gaúcho. Having started posting his videos eqarly in 2020, Eddy Jr. earned a following relatively quickly and today he has more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram and over 2 million on Tik Tok.

So, with such an impressive ascension in social media, you would think my coverage of Eddy Jr. would be for something positive. Well, not quite. To tell you the truth, before this story broke, I didn’t even know who Eddy Jr. was. That was until one particular woman brought him even more fame, and not for a good reason. And if this one incident weren’t enough, as it turned out, Eddy had been the target of one of his neighbor’s harassing actions for some time. In fact, such incidents had been occuring since April of this year. A timeline will show this.

On May 24th, the neighbor who has been harassing him sent an email to building management to issue a complaint about animal urine and security camera issues of the condominium where they lived. She mentions Eddy Jr.’s name and accused him of making all sorts of noise late in the night, distubing her sleep.

The very next day, May 25, the woman sent another text message to management, complaining yet again about noises she said were coming from Eddy Junior’s apartment. The woman said she had also complained to the building janitor and said that she would file a lawsuit against the Eddy Jr.

About a week later, on June 2nd, the same resident, Elizabeth Morrone, complained once again about Eddy, this time claiming that other residents in the building were also bothered and considered going to the police station and filing a report. In fact, no other resident confirmed what she claimed to be true.

The saga continued on June 15th when the woman made an accusation that the night janitor had lied when he stated that she was offending the building’s porters and then going on to make the claim that the records in the condominium’s denunciation book, made against humorist-musician Eddy, had suddenly disappeared.

Then, on September 1, security cameras recorded a sequence of videos in which the woman’s son showed up at the door of Eddy Junior’s apartment. The man was seen welding a knife in his hand with a somewhat disturbed appearance. One has to ask, what was the woman’s son planning on doing with that knife. I’ll leave that for you tho consider, but if someone showed up at your door waving a knife, would you open the door? What would you do?

One week later, on September 7th, images once again taken from the building, show scenes of the same man in front of Eddy’s apartment. Later that same night, he came back with a knife at his waist, this time with his mother who was seen carrying a bottle of wine in her hand. Maybe the bottle of wine wouldn’t be a big deal, but then again, with this history and her son now showing up twice with a knife, I imagine that a bottle of wine could become a weapon, but that’s just me. If that’s not enough, what eddy said happened during the incident in September.

“There was one night when I was lying in bed, and my doorbell rang. It was about 3 o’clock in the morning. I got up, and this neighbor’s son already started screaming, saying, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ He came with a huge knife in his hand, kicking on my door,” he said.

More than a month later, on the night of October 17th, the building’s security cameras recorded the moment when the Eddy Jr. and his dog attempt to enter the elevator but are attacked by the woman, who refused to allow him on the elevator because she didn’t want to be on the same elevator as him. With this reaction, minutes later, in the building’s garage, the woman began yelling a series of insults demaning that he leave.

“Get out, monkey! Move! Get out! You’re filthy. You’re dirty, shit, sucker,” said the aggressor. “I don’t want to be with him,” said the aggressor, saying she didn’t want to share an elevator with the artist. At that point, Eddy Junior decided to post a video on his social networks, speaking out against the resident, telling his followers what he was going through.

Eddy moved into the building in February and said the problems started about two months later. “The neighbor said that I ‘hacked’ the internet of her house, I turned off her stove, that I entered her house and stole things,” says Eddy. As if these baseless accusations weren’t enough, Eddy Jr. also revealed that the woman didn’t think he had the means to be able to pay the rent of the condo through legal means also telling him, “This is a family building, not a bandit building,” as well as asking him where the money to pay the rent came from.

On Wednesday, October 19th the civil police registered the case. Then, on that same day, a number of residents protested in front of the condominium, coming to the defense of Eddy Junior and calling for the exit of the aggressor from the building. During the protests, they were seen carrying signs that read #FORARACISTA, meaning ‘get out, racist’.

With all of this going down, Eddy Junior decided to leave the building, not because he wanted to, but for his own safety. The artist though it would be better to let allow legal and police actions develop, or possible, until the woman leaves the building. According to reports, the aggressor will be forced to pay a fine, and pay an amount corresponding to ten times the value of the condominium’s rent. In addition, if her harassment were to continue, she could be thrown out of the building. Personally, with everything that’s already happened, I would think that she should have already been forced out.

Days after the reports of this story hit the press, another resident in the building, a black woman who works as a lawyer would also weighed in with her own experiences with the aggressor. Nayara Cruz recounted similar incidents as Eddy.

“She approached me asking why I was in the gym, because the use of the gym is restricted to residents. I said I was a resident and then she asked me how much I paid for my apartment,” Nayara told Globo, Brazil’s top television network.

The lawyer went on to say that the woman referred to her son as “a vagabond’’ that he shouldn’t be in the hall of the building”. “There was another episode in which she was aggressive with my son, who was in the hall of the building playing with other children. She called my son a vagabond and said he wasn’t supposed to be in the hall of the building, that he couldn’t stay there.

In this story, once again, what we see is a long time belief on the part of a parcel of Brazil’s white population Afro-Brazilians do not belong in certain areas of which, for decades, white Brazilians had a near complete monopoly. As such, when they encounter black people, the automatic thought is that they are ‘out of place’, a thought that has been covered at Black Brazil Today for years. Note that in the case involving both the comedian and the lawyer, the aggressor questioned their class status and how/why they were there, the notorious question of, ‘what are they doing here?’

The next question should probably be, how did and how should black Brazilians react to this sort of behavior? For those of you not familiar with the Black Brazil Today blog, disrespect of Afro-Brazilians has been a consistent topic. From everyday racist comments and jokes, to an apparent mission of Brazil’s Military Police to significantly decrease the black population with its regular invasions and police actions that have led to the deaths of tens of thousands of black Brazilians.

Now that I have broken down what happened, I now want to focus on perhaps the best part of this whole ordeal and that’s the reaction to the incident. In recent years, we’ve seen Afro-Brazilians rise up against decades, in reality, centuries of oppression. From slowly adapting a specifically black identity, to refusing to continue to acquiesce to standards of beauty that reject natural kinky-curly hair, to protesting in the streets, the slumbering giant, the Afro-Brazilian population, has taken on a stance of NO MORE.

We all know the stats. Every 23 minutes a black or brown man is killed in Brazil, non-whites are the majority in the country’s prisons, they are more likely to be stopped by police, followed around by security in shopping malls and regularly featured as the criminal element in novelas, films and television series. Finally beginning to cut through the fog of confusion which is Brazil’s deceptive methods of covering up or denying racist intent, more and more black Brazilians are standing up and demanding an end to exclusion, genocidal politics, everyday racism and open disrespect.

In reality, much of the push back has been led by Afro-Brazilian women, but we are increasingly beginning to see a call for action from Afro-Brazilian men. Following a movement that was led by black women early in the 21st century, more black men are confidently growing out their hair and proudly rocking braids and afros in numbers that have never been seen before in Brazil.

Some black Brazilian men are calling for the need for Afrocentric love and relationships which is a huge development in the context of a country in which black people were always taught to desire white women for long term relationships. In a show of solidarity, a few years ago, when medal-winning gymnast Ângelo Assunção lost his sponsorship to continue his training after denouncing racist treatment publicly, a group of black men came together to raise funds for the athlete.

In this same spirit, prominent black Brazilian men recently issued a manifesto against the nation’s treatment of the black population, specifically black men. Organizing and participating in the event were a number of prominent black men who came together to issue a strong statement which was spark not by just this recent disrespect of one black man but countless black men in recent years but also in the distant past.

‘‘We will no longer be defeated’’: black men launch a manifesto against racist attacks

In response to the assault on Eddy Junior, a group of black men, formed by intellectuals, artists and activists issued a manifesto against not only the racist attacks against the comedian, also the injustices suffered by the black population in Brazil. The manifesto was issed the day after a protest in front of the building where the comedian had experienced several displays of racism and harassment. The building is located in barra funda region of the city, as area that was a ten minute drive from the house I once lived in in São Paulo.

The manifesto which was titled “Esse é um comunicado de homens negros organizados no Brasil”, meaning, “This is a statement from black men organized in Brazil”, was published on social networks and was presented as a collective statement on the position that black men and black people as a whole would take from that moment on in terms of actions dealing with racism that that have been making headlines for years: “In continuous response to all the chaos produced and maintained by you, which threaten our lives and the well-being of our community, now it’s gonna be like this”, read the message.

The words of the manifesto also stated that black men would come together to take a stand against racism in an organized way: “We, organized black men, will organize with our people and be everywhere, to protect our community from your cowardice. Cowardly racists, we will treat you like this. Cowards”.

Prominent men such as the lawyer Ewerton Carvalho, the comedian Yuri Marçal, the actor Taiguara Nazareth, the social network influencer Roger Cipó and the director of anti-racist organization ID_BR, Tom Mendes, also took part in the act last on Thursday, October 20.

The following is a translation of the manifesto from Portuguese into English

“This is a statement from black men organized in Brazil

Now it’s gonna be like this!

In continual response to all the chaos produced and maintained by you, who threaten our lives and the well-being of our community, it’s gonna be like this.

In fact, this is how it is now.

It’s nothing new, because our people have always fought to exist.

Now, we’ll get more people together. We’ll be more.

It’s over.

We’ll tear up the repudiation notes.

You, agents of our misfortune, will receive all our hatred and no more peace.

Now it’s gonna be like this.

We, organized black men, will organize with our people and be everywhere, to protect our community from your cowardice. Cowardly racists, we’ll treat you like this. Cowards.

We won’t talk. We won’t accept an apology.

There are no negotiations

No more shouting names of our dead.

We will expose you, your homes, your places.

You pose a danger to our existence.

You must receive our hatred and utter contempt, since it is the only feeling this society has for us black men.

You, white criminals who drive the massacre, incarceration, illness of our brothers and sisters, will receive our answers and will have no more peace.

You cowards who rape children, kick teenagers out of schools, and criminalize the existence of young blacks, receive our hatred.

Today, signs, warnings. And when they least expect it, they’ll burn.

It’s not a song sentence, it’s a message, because now it’s gonna be like this.

Understand.

We will stay on the streets and close your doors to expose and disrupt your villainy. In our own way.

We organized black men will not rest and will no longer be defeated by barbarism.

Receive our hatred and our message.

And whoever is not with us, against us, they will be.

Which is nothing new, because we’ve always been on our own.

We’re in the war you created.

Your peace is over!

It’s gonna be like this!.

#AgoraéAssim” – Now it’s like this!

The event attracted hundreds of protesters with the sign that was displayed on the building with the phrase “Agora Vai ser Assim”, a new hashtag created by the movement especially for social networks. The phrase became one of the most shouted phrases of the night.

The host and comedian Paulo Vieira attended the venue and talked about Eddy’s situation and also remembered that singer-actor Seu Jorge, had also recently been in media after being the victim of racism at a show in Porto Alegre, which is the capital city of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul in the same week.

“We had a week with many cases that went to the media and cases against public people. These cases expose to us the cruelty of racism, and it falls once and for all, for those who still believed in some lie of meritocracy, that racism stops crossing you when you gain success, money, fame. If you’re black, racism will always cross you. We know that an act does not change things, but it is another important step in the search for this ‘enough’ that we are so looking forward to,” he said.

Popular standup comedian Yuri Marçal, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, made a trip to São Paulo to parrticipate in the event and called upon the presence of fans in São Paulo on social networks. “We are preparing to make this noise, to do what I am calling retaliation because it will no longer go this way. That’s how we’re fighting. Because now it’s gonna be like this. And whenever this case happens – because we know that racism will not end, we will act this way. Whether with five people or 50,000.”

Attorney Ewerton Carvalho, also participated and expressed legal outrage at letting criminals remain free. “We are experiencing a moment where the Head of the Executive Power gave legitimacy so that people could say what they think under the guise of freedom of expression. This crime happened earlier this week and they haven’t been arrested yet. According to information she (Elisabeth) still went to work out this morning. It is the height of impunity in this Brazil”, he emphasized. The Head of the Executive Power refers to the President Jair Bolsonaro who many feel have emboldened persons with racist sentiments to freely express themselves in the years since he became president.

“This is also a ‘get out Bolsonaro’ act because we have an openly racist president. It was after him that racism became more explicit as well. I still get followed around the mall when I’m walking. Being followed by the police when I’m with my girlfriend. Now it will be an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” says Carolina Iara, the only trans deputy elected in São Paulo, by the Feminist Bench.

With posters that read “#ForaRacista”, neighbors revealed that Elisabeth Morrone’s attacks against residents of the building are commonplace and that they are also worried about their own safety, after the aggressor’s son knocked on the comedian’s door making threats with a knife in hand.

To reiterate, I’ve seen a number of these sorts of attacks just in my time covering the race issue in Brazil, so this is nothing new. What is becoming increasingly common is a collective black Brazilian rage that screams for the end of this disrespect of black life and its very existence, particularly if Afro-Brazilians manage to escape poverty and enter into areas, professions, etc. That have traditionally held by white Brazilians. As this story continues to develop, I will be keeping my eye on it.

Source: Mundo Negro, Wagner FM, Yahoo Vida Estilo, Mídia Ninja

The post “Get out, monkey!’’: In São Paulo, comedian-musician Eddy Jr. leaves his apartment after racist attack; incident triggers protest in front of apartment appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: You know, I always have to applaud Brazilians who manage to make it to the big time. I mean, as hard as it is to make it big in a country such as the United States, it is infinitely more difficult for persons who happened to be born in Latin America. Black Americans certainly know a little bit about what we call ‘the struggle’, but consider being black in Brazil.

While Brazil is considered the leader in Latin America, is the largest and most populous country and owner of the region’s top economy, there are numerous other areas that leave Brazil far behind in terms of being a global force along the lines of the US, England, France and Germany.

According to US News, Brazil ranks number 30 in the world in terms of best countries to raise children, it is number 36 in education, number 22 in terms of international influence, number 30 in terms of having a comfortable retirement and the 27th best place in which the start a business. And these rankings consider the country as a whole.

When we break things down by race, we see how much more difficult it is for black Brazilians to make it. According to a study of the Human Development Index in 2017, the HDI for black Brazilians in the year 2010 was where the white population was in the year 2000, in other words, being born black in Brazil automatically puts one 10 years behind. I’ve said this for years, in terms of opportunities for its black population, Brazil simply can’t compete with the United States, and considering the position of black Americans compared to white Americans, that’s saying something.

The world of fashion is yet another area where Brazil has long tried to keep its black population ‘in its place’. Although Brazil is known for having some of the most beautiful women on earth, if you were to analyze its fashion runways, a casual viewer may think they were in Denmark rather than a country that is reported to have one of the largest black populations in the Americas.

So then, why is this? Well, I know that, generally speaking, no one likes to hear discussions about the infamous ‘R’ word, but it’s been a long time open secret that Brazil has always favored white skin. This has been clear from the time it openly sought the gradual disappearance of the black phenotype through mixed marriages, the vast under-representation of Afro-Brazilians in the media, in the halls of power or even as head coaches of the nation’s top soccer teams.

A few years ago, numerous black models spoke out against the racism they experienced in Brazil’s fashion industry and before that, there was a controversial discussion about the necessity of implementing a system of quotas so that the nation’s top fashion shows, São Paulo Fashion Week and Fashion Rio, featured more black models amongst the ultra-European looks of the standard models. To be recognized, Afro-Brazilian models faced the exclusionary practices of not only its national fashion industry but also scouts and companies on the international level.

With such enormous odds, when someone from a Rio de Janeiro slum is able to attract attention from Brazil and then movers and shakers outside of the country, THAT is an accomplishment. This is precisely the case of model Juliana Nalú. First garnering attention from a fashion show put on by a slum-oriented NGO in Brazil, her star will only shine brighter as she is now collaborating with two of America’s most well-known personalities. Let’s learn a little more about Juliana.

Today’s story is courtesy of the Glamurama and Portal Rap Mais websites.

Juliana Nalú continues as one of the great Brazilian models abroad

Carioca model Juliana Nalú has everything in the United States. Last month, she starred in an international fashion show. After getting attention from Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, Juliana Nalú aims for higher heights: ‘Brazil needs black tops’.

Courtesy of Glamurama and Portal Rap Mais

“A friend says that my life has so many unbelievable stories that it would even make a movie,” says the top model Juliana Nalú as if the rapid rise in the fashion world, of some that left a community in Rio de Janeiro and today stars in a campaign for Kim Kardashian’s brand was not, in fact, worthy of cinema.

For the 24 year old Carioca, who dreamed of becoming a model since she was a child, the ascension is more the fulfillment of these goals. On the runway since she was 14, she got used to drawing attention wherever she went, but before cultivating friendships with celebrities like Lewis Hamilton and Diplo, and being part of the campaign for Skims, Kardashian’s underwear brand, she reports having suffered xenophobia and racism in the United States and England, where she lived before.

“It was all veiled, but I could tell they would do the makeup and hair of the white and blonde girls first, and in the last 5 minutes they would give me a little attention – in reality because they didn’t know how to fix my hair,” she told GLMRM.

“I work so that the new faces don’t suffer this anymore and so that the ‘black’ and curly hair is valued as the straight is.

Juliana’s reality has changed because she has already achieved a certain status in the profession, but she knows that young black and Brazilian women still face the same situations at the beginning of their international careers. “They even told me to reduce my hips, lose weight, but I don’t feel beautiful thinner,” she says.

Like every new face, Juliana cites Gisele Bündchen as a reference of a Brazilian who conquered her space and went beyond fashion, but she makes a reservation: “She opened several doors and put Brazilian models in the ranking, but she is white.

“We also have to have a wonderful black top model, after all, there are many more black people in Brazil,” she says, with the confidence of someone who wants to reach much higher flights than she has already conquered.

Party with Kanye

Living in Los Angeles for the past six years, Juliana started participating in campaigns for giants like Urban Outfitters and American Eagle. But it was a stroke of luck – or the fact of being in the right place at the right time – that made her receive an invitation from the creative director of Kim Kardashian’s brand to be one of the faces of the new campaign.

Some time ago, Juliana was at a party of another Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, when she was noticed by none other than Kanye West, owner of Yeezy and ex-husband of Kim, with whom she has four children.

“I was with a friend at a party that had Justin Bieber, Drake and other famous people, I went to the bathroom and when I came out, I saw that Kanye West was in the hallway looking at me and laughing. For a moment I didn’t understand if he was really looking at me or he had used something,” she recalls, modestly. “When I walked by, he complimented my outfit and asked his assistant to write down my number for future work.”

The campaign with Kanye has not yet taken off – perhaps because of the ups and downs in the rapper’s life recently, with his breakup with Kim and the mental health issues he is facing. But the two talked to each other eventually and Juliana believes that soon he will launch a new collection.

“I really came from the favela and I don’t get dazzled by these things, but I’m very happy with the opportunity that God gives me to reach such high places, you know?” she says.

‘Language of love’

Born and raised in the Complexo do Chapadão favela slum, in Rio de Janeiro, Juliana began to fulfill some of her childhood dreams when she won the CUFA – Solte seu Brilho, a contest held by Rede Globo in partnership with the Central Única das Favelas.

Sidenote

CUFA, mentioned above, means the Central Única das Favelas is a Brazilian non-governmental organization that was originally founded in 1999 by a group of young black men from the famed Cidade de Deus favela.

If you remember, Cidade de Deus is the same favela that was depicted in the 2002 blockbuster film of the same name released as  in the United States. today, the NGO has locations in all Brazilian states and in 15 other countries around the world. the organization that promotes activities in the areas of education, leisure, sports, culture and citizenship, such as graffiti, DJing, break dancing, rapping, and other activities, audiovisual productions, street basketball, literature, and other social projects.

The organization also actively promotes, produces, distributes, and conveys hip hop culture through various publications, records, videos, radio programs, concerts, contests, music festivals, cinema, art workshops, exhibitions, debates, seminars, and other means. These are some of CUFA’s main forms of expression and serve as tools for social integration and inclusion.

From there to jobs in Spain, Greece and the UK was a short hop. With no opportunity to study English during her childhood and adolescence, she started modeling abroad without understanding a word of the language.

“I spent two weeks crying in my room because I didn’t speak English, but I realized I needed to get my head up and throw myself into it.”

It took her only a year and a half to learn good English on a daily basis, without classes. In the meantime, she became the inspiration for the lyrics to the song “Love Language” by Kehlani, a 2016 Grammy nominated artist for “Album of the Year”. The song, inspired by the Brazilian’s romance with Kehlani’s music producer, talks about a couple in love, and makes reference to the model’s Portuguese: “I want to be fluent in your language of love.”

The same girl

Even surrounded by international celebrities and full of stories, Juliana says she manages to be grateful for her achievements and stay true to her essence.

“Thank God, I am in a more comfortable position economically to help my family, this is my luxury,” says the model, who managed to move her family from the Complexo do Chapadão and pays for her mother’s school of psychology and her brother’s school of dentistry.

Before the new season of work, parties in LA and trips around the world, she is enjoying family and friends until the end of August in Rio de Janeiro. The city is where the model recharges her energy to continue opening doors for the next generations of black and Brazilian girls who dream of an international career in fashion.

The new advertisement for “Skims” – Kim Kardashian’s underwear brand. The photo shoot took place recently in Los Angeles, where the Brazilian has been based since 2016, after being discovered in a modeling contest. The images have just been released worldwide.

Now, Juliana Nalú has posted a photo of a print of Kanye West where she reveals that she is currently one of the new stars of the yzy shdz campaign. Through Twitter, a fan exalted the model.

“With insomnia looking Kanye West stories with Yeezy SHDZ photos and suddenly: JULIANA NALU. I looked several times until I believed it because it’s simply between Anna Wintour, Offset, Kim Kardashian and so on,” she said.

It’s worth remembering that this year Kanye West had already praised Juliana Nalu, during a party in Los Angeles. The “look of millions” worn by Nalú consisted of a black top and shorts, combined with leather boots up to the thighs and a coat, also of leather and fur, on top, without leaving the model’s flawless body hidden. “As I was leaving, his assistant came to me again, to make sure I had written down the correct number. Since then, we have been negotiating a partnership for work on Kanye’s fashion projects,” Juliana said at the time.

Considering Juliana’s busy schedule, she must also be commended for finding the time to earn a degree in theater arts. Today, 22, she continus to build brand in the US, where she has been featured in music videos, including “Heat”, by Chris Brown with whom she had a relationship. Before Brown, the model is also known to have been seeing Brazilian rapper L7nnon.

Note from BBT: With that said, congrats are in order to Juliana. The only thing I would warn about is being careful with the company she keeps. I’ve long believed that there was something going on with Kanye West and we all know the scandal that broke Kim Kardashian into the limelight. I think her ex, Ray J. has a few choice things to say about that. Not gonna go there…

Source: Glamurama, Portal Rap Mais

The post Juliana Nalú continues to be one of the great Brazilian models abroad; now being featured in brands of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, she is destined to become a top model appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: Today’s piece incorporates a text written by Vitor Paiva called “Milton Nascimento: Clube da Esquina voted best Brazilian record of all time” as well as a snippet of a Terra article entitled Milton Nascimento receives a call from Quincy Jones: ‘A brother that I have’.

I’ve often said throughout my years of being immersed in ‘all things Brazil’, Brazilian music is another one of the things that contributed to my desire to know more things about this country. In my own ‘discovery’ of Brazil, the music was the soundtrack of my explorations into Brazilian culture and history. I’ve told this story of my introduction to Brazilian music in more than a few posts on the BBT blog, and the rhythms and melodies from my introduction to the genre remain in my head as strong as my memories of hearing the sounds of Soul in my father’s Cadillac Coupe Deville and going down south to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

If you should ever venture into Brazilian music, it will be a journey that you will never forget. In my first decade visiting Brazil, whatever city I would visit, I would always be sure to visit the little sebos, meaning used books and album stores, where I could find all sorts of rarities and classics. In Michigan, the most I could find in the record stores (remember those?) were the most popular Brazilian artists that managed to have some of their albums issued or sold in the United States. Some of those artists included Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes and a few others.

Another of those artists was Milton Nascimento. When I began buying compilation CDs of Brazilian music, I came across his song ‘Milagre dos Peixes’, meaning ‘Miracle of the Fish’ and I remember being instantly mesmorized by the song. Milton’s almost other worldly vocals, the acoustic guitar, string and horn arrangements were something I had never quite heard before. Toward the end of the track, if you were to clsoe your eyes, Milton’s soaring falsetto could give you the feeling that you were soaring the air. Well, at least that’s the feeling it gave me.

I can’t say for sure, but I’d be willing to bet, well, maybe not, but I swear ‘Milagre dos Peixes’ influenced the popular 1994 Pop hit ‘Kiss From a Rose’ by Seal. After hearing ‘Milagre’, I quickly added a number of Nascimento albums to my collection. All of his works from the 1970s, my favorite musical decade, have something to offer. His music can be nostalgic, meloncoly, dramatic as well as uplifting.

There are simply too many Nascimento classics to choose from, but a few of my favorites include “Fazenda”, Milton’s version of the Chico Buarque classic “O que será?”, “Para Lennon E McCartney”, “Tudo Que Você Podia Ser”, “Trem Azul”, “Os Escravos De Jo”, and “Tema dos Deuses”. Another song that always struck a chord with me was his cover of the famous, often covered classic ‘A Felicidade’ by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes. I’ve heard numerous versions of this song over the years, from the upbeat, in a Bossa Nova style, to a Samba style and even in orchestra settings. Nascimento’s version taken from his 1970 LP ‘Milton’ strips the song to its core with only Milton’s heart felt vocals sung with only an acoustic guitar.

As it turned out, I knew Nascimento before I really came to know him. That’s because in the 1990s, during my introduction to Jazz, I came to learn about Milton through the 1975 album Native Dancer by Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Even though I loved this album, with Shorter and Nascimento covering the song ‘Milagre dos Peixes’, on Native Dancer translated here as ‘Miracle of the Fishes’, this version didn’t grab me the same way as Nascimento’s original version. The Shorter-Nascimento album influenced a number of well-known musicians, including bass player Esperanza Spalding and Earth, Wind, and Fire leader Maurice White.

Another well-known music figure who admires Nascimento is long-time producer Quincy Jones. On July 27th of last year, Nascimento surprised his fans when he published, via his social networks, a photo of a video call he had with Jones. In the image, posted on Instagram, the artists appear smiling, making the heart symbol with their hands.”I received last Monday night a more than special call, unexpected, to tell you the truth: from my friend Quincy Jones!”, he wrote in the caption. Milton also remembered the time when he met the American producer, who was being honored at the Montreux Jazz Festival: “How many beautiful memories I have with this guy, a brother I’ve had since 1967! I hope things get better soon and we can meet again,” he concluded in reference to the pandemic.

Milton’s music recently earned another noteworthy honor. Nascimento’s classic 1972 album Clube da Esquina was recently voted the best Brazilian record of all time. The election of the album to the number one spot was held by the podcast Discoteca Básica, and announced as “the largest and most comprehensive election ever made in the country regarding LPs and CDs”. According to the site, to elect the 10 best Brazilian records of all time, 162 experts from different areas within music were gathered, such as “journalists, youtubers, podcasters, musicians, producers etc.”, and each one presented his personal list with the 50 best records in Brazil.

Names like journalists Nelson Motta, Jotabê Medeiros, Mauro Ferreira and Sergio Martins joined a list of well-known producers and musicians and others to agree on the Top 10 albums of Brazilian music history – and placed Clube da Esquina at the top. Coming in second place was Acabou Chorare, released by the group Novos Baianos in 1972, and Chega de Saudade, João Gilberto’s historic album released in 1959, came in third, to complete Brazilian popular music’s top three.

When you listen to the clube album from beginning to end, you will clearly understand why this has long been considered a milestone in Brazilian Popular Music. From the first track, “Tudo Que Você Podia Ser” to the last, “Ao Que Vai Nascer”, the Clube de Esquina album takes a listener on a musical journey that incorporates elements of Rock and Roll, Progressive Rock, Bossa Nova and Jazz styles, perfectly mixed with Brazilian folk music and even snippets of Classical Music.

Nascimento is currently on his farewell tour this year. The launch of the tour was accompanied by the news about the classic album that shed light on the importance of the singer and composer’s work. The album, released in 1972, brought together a luminous generation of musicians from the state of Minas Gerais.

Milton led the record and the “clube” meaning ‘club’, alongside musician Lô Borges, along with names like Ronaldo Bastos, Beto Guedes and Fernando Brandt. For the tour, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the career of one of the greatest voices in world music of all times, in May, dates were confirmed for the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte, in addition to the US and Europe.

I had the pleasure of seeing Nascimento perform live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, several years ago, I would say some time between 2005 and 2008. I couldn’t help but note that Nascimento’s health had begun to decline as his movement on stage was noticeably slower. Today, at age 79, he will be 80 in October, Nascimento has cut his off signature braids of which he was seen wearing for much of his career. Already on the US leg of his tour, cities where fans can see Nascimento until October 16th include Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Alexandria, Virginia, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Berkeley, California.

It’s a shame that tour won’t reach me here in Michigan because, being his last hoo-rah, it’s sure to be a memorable affair.

Source: Hypeness, Terra

The post Musician Milton Nascimento’s 1972 album ‘Clube da Esquina’ voted best Brazilian record of all time! appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: By now, most of you have probably already heard all of the hoopla surrounding the new Viola Davis film The Woman King. Let me first say that I have yet to watch this film although I have read and heard numerous reviews about the film. As I haven’t seen this film and don’t know if I plan to watch it before the month is out, I wanted to only focus on one thing that most of the American media is probably not discussing and that is that Viola davis recently traveled to Brazil for the first time to promote the film.

Now why would Davis go to Brazil to promote this film you might ask. Well, I don’t know the exact reason, but I can take a few educated guesses as to why the star is in Brazil. First, there has been much chatter over the past few decades about Brazil having one of the largest, if not the largest populations of African descent in the Americas. Second, with the rise of black consciousness politics in recent years, Afro-Brazilians are starving for representation in the media.

Brazilians of various colors, races and social classes consume a lot of American media including films and television series and specifically speaking of black Brazilians, feeling neglected in their own media, they often look to american media that features black Americans in prominent roles.

Third, black Brazilians have been receiving all sorts of recognition in recent years in a myriad of ways. Afro-brazilians are regularly named some of the most influential black people in the world by the directors of MIPAD, the Most Influential People of African Descent, which is a global civil society initiative in support of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. Several Afro-Brazilians have been nominated in recent editions of the BET Awards and BET Hip Hop Awards and a number of Afro-Brazilians music artists have been prominently featured in digital displays in New York’s famed Times Square.

Fourth, while Brazil doesn’t figure prominently in The Woman King film, it is part of the backdrop in the story as many of the enslaved Africans sent to Brazil came from the Dahomey tribe featured in the film. A bit of Portuguese is even heard spoken in the film.

Fifth, Davis herself is apparently impressed with Brazil as she formed a friendship with one of the country’s top black actresses, Taís Araújo, when she came to the United States in 2019 and participated in the 47th American Film Lifetime Achievement gala honoring actor Denzel Washington. Davis invited Araújo to her home in Beverly Hills and two have been ‘sisters’ ever since. Last year, Davis also shared a post by a young Afro-Brazilian woman who caught her eye by posting a video of herself showing the diversity of hairstyles afro-textured hair can be made into.

If this were all of the connections Between Davis and Brazil, that would be enough, but there’s still more.

Number six. The 20th season of Brazil’s ever popular Big Brother Brasil reality show was historic when anesthesiologist, digital influencer, samba school dancer, television host and youtuber Thelma Assis took the prize. Davis declared her support for Thelma after learning about the show. On Twitter, Viola shared a post by Tais Araújo defending that Thelma Assis should be the champion of the reality show for the sake of representation. Impressed with the American actress’ attitude, Tais Araújo posted: “When Viola Davis ‘retweets’ you on the final day of Big Brother Brasil, what do you do, Brazil?

Seventh, on Twitter, when a Brazilian fan fan wrote in English asking for the actress to send a message to Brazil adding: “We love you very much”, Davis not only replied to the post, but she surprised Brazilians she wrote her response in Portuguese: “Oi Brazil, tudo bem?’’, she wrote. The actress even added two hearts with the colors of the national flag – one green and one yellow.

Thelma Assis, again, the champion of “BBB 20”, answered the actress’ question: “Hi, Viola Davis. Despite all the difficulties brought on by the virus, we are doing well.”

Number eight, Davis seems to appreciate Brazil’s art. According to sources, in the actress and producer, along with her husband Julius Tennon, expressed interest in adapting the Brazilian play “O Beijo no Asfalto”, by Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues. The project will be produced in the United States with Wise Entertainment, a company co-founded by the playwright’s grandson, Mauricio Mota. The adaptations are expected to be made in the theater, in the cinema, and also on television.

And ninth, as the #EleNão hashtag, meaning ‘not him’ was trending on twitter, as soon as Jair Bolsonaro won the brazil’s presidential election in 2018, Davis showed that she was in the know about what was happening politically in Brazil. She posted on her Instagram an image with an illustration of five people hugging – a woman, a representative of the LGBTQ+ community, a black man, a Northeasterner, and an indigenous man – with the following phrase: “Stay united and strong. In the caption, she added: “Brazil, I am with you.”

From everything I’ve read, both on the positive side and the negative, I will eventually have to see this film just to come to my own conclusion, but if what some people are saying is true, I almost feel as though i need to save my money to send a message to Hollywood of the types of film depicting black people that we will and will not accept.

So, as I said, this report will not go into aspects of the film itself, but simply report on Davis’ activities since she arrived in Brazil, I would say, some time during the third week of September.

For the first time in Brazil, Viola Davis learns Afro-Brazilian history, visits a samba school and records an interview to promote ‘The Woman King’ film

Courtesy of O Liberal, Yahoo Notícias, Update Charts

Viola Davis is in Brazil to promote her movie The Woman King, in which she plays a Nanisca, the general of the Amazons of Dahomey. Sunday, September 18, the actress stopped in Rio de Janeiro and visited important places in the history of black Brazilians.

She went to the Cais do Valongo, meaning the Valongo Pier, in the Museu da Historia e da Cultura Afro-Brasileira (Afro-Brazilian History And Culture Museum or Muhcab) for an event entitled “The impact of women in Afro-Brazilian culture”, inspired by the feature film directed by filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood. Davis was accompanied by her husband, Julius Tenon.

“The Woman King” had a preview at the Copacabana Palace on Monday the 19 but wasn’t to be released until Thursday in Brazil under the title A Mulher Rei. In the United States, the title brought in US$19 million at the box office in its first weekend, surpassing Sony’s own expectations, which expected a return of US$12 million.

The $50 million production was filmed in Africa, with black protagonists, and from the perspective of the Agojie, warriors from ancient Dahome, in 1823. Located in present-day Benin, in West Africa, the kingdom was marked by centuries of enslavement of black people, most of them destined to Brazilian ports. Two characters (played by the Brits Jordan Bolger and Hero Fiennes Tiffin) speak Portuguese and traffic slaves to Brazil. Again, we must remember that Brazil was the recipient of the largest number of enslaved Africans sent to the Americas. Between 10-15 times more Africans were shipped to Brazil than to the United States.

Davis and her husband Julius Tennon (who is an associate producer on the film) were welcomed by director Leandro Santanna and museologist Larissa Machado. The event was shared on the museum’s website, where the show will be on display until October 1st. Among the items on display are photos of scenes from the feature film, original costumes and production information inspired by African culture and the relationship with Afro-Brazilian culture.

The Cais do Valongo is located in the port zone of Rio de Janeiro, in the downtown area of the city. As it is the only material trace of the arrival of enslaved Africans on the American continent, it was awarded the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2017. It was the largest receiving port of slaves on the planet. It is part of the Historical and Archaeological Circuit of the Celebration of African Heritage, along with 5 other places located in downtown Rio de Janeiro.

Constructed in 1811, Cais do Valongo became a site for the arrival and trade of enslaved Africans until 1831, when the Transatlantic Slave Trade was officially prohibited. During the twenty years of its operation, it is estimated that somewhere between a half a million and one million enslaved Africans entered Brazil through Valongo.

Between 1850 and 1920, the area around the Valongo became an area occupied by those enslaved in brazil or blacks who had been freed. the area became so associated with black people and culture that Heitor dos Prazeres, one of original creators of Brazil’s most popular music style, samba, nicknamed the region Pequena África, meaning Little Africa. Elements of Rio’s Little Africa community were featured in the 2021 Globo TV novela, Nos Tempos do Imperador.

Davis also checked out a rehearsal at the famed Estação Primeira da Mangueira samba school, in the northern zone of the city. The last carnaval title won by the school was in 2019, entitled “História pra ninar gente grande”, meaning ‘Bedtime story for grown-ups’, in which it talked about those marginalized by the history of Brazil and it became one of the most popular sambas of Rio’s carnival, in its chorus it quotes: “Hail the caboclos of July / Who was made of steel in the years of lead / Brazil, the time has come / To listen to the Marias, Mahins, Marielles, Malês”.

Allow me explain what some of these lyrics mean. The word caboclo is a term used to define Native Brazilians. ‘Anos de chumbo’, or ‘years of the lead’ refers to the hardest years of Brazil’s 21-year dictatorship between 1964 and 1985 when there were numerous clashes between the military government and left-wing revolutionaries that lead to the disappearance and torture of thousands of brazilians.

Maria refers to Maria Felipa who was known as the “Black Heroine of Independence”, a woman that played a important role in the clashes with the Portuguese during the Independence war in the state of Bahia, from February 1822 to July 1823.

Mahin refers to Luíza Mahin, the mother of famed abolitionist Luis Gama, Mahin was a former slave and played a instrumental role in the black uprisings that took place, also in the state of Bahia in the 19th century, the most well known being that 1835 Malês Revolt of black Muslims.

Marielle refers to Marielle Franco, the Rio-based city councilwoman denounced atrocities committed against residents of poor, mostly black communities. Black and bisexual, Franco stood for LGBT rights, racial equality, and human rights. Marielle was murdered in a brutal, still unsolved assassination in 2018 that made headlines around the world.

The previously mentioned Malês were a group of Muslims that led one of the most infamous slave revolts in Salvador, Bahia, in the country’s northeast, in 1835.

Besides visiting the exhibition and the court of the samba school, the actress gave an interview to journalist Maria Júlia Coutinho, which was shown on on Globo TV’s Sunday evening news journal Fantástico. Coutinho is one of Brazil’s most well-known journalist as she has worked her way to hosting the popular sunday evening news program years after being the target of a spectacle of racist comments upon assuming the role of weather girl on the television station’s top daily evening news program.

Davis also continued her friendship with actress Taís Araújo who invited her to her home for a special meeting with a number of prominent Afro-Brazilian entertainers. Among those present to greet davis were araújo’s husband, actor Lázaro Ramos, singer Iza, actor Ícaro Silva, philosopher Djamila Ribeiro, actress Zezé Motta and actor-singer Seu Jorge. Araújo defined the meet and greet as ‘a more than special night’

On social media, Taís shared a sequence of photos alongside the artists, including videos of the event. “Receiving friends. Beautiful and more than special night,” she said. See:

In 2019, during a passage through the United States to represent Brazil in an award ceremony honoring Denzel Washington, Taís visited Viola Davis’ house and also recorded the moment. “Having this time with you and talking about the life of a mother, actress, producer…. It was great! Thank you Viola Davis and Julius for receiving me in your home and in your hearts and for being so kind,” Taís said at the time. Viola released a video and called the Brazilian ‘sister’.

The super-production, estimated to cost $50 million, is directed by and has a cast of black protagonists. The narrative is told from the perspective of the agojie warriors, from ancient Dahome, in the year 1823. Located in present-day Benin, in West Africa, the kingdom was marked by centuries of enslavement of black people, most of them destined to Brazilian ports. Two characters even speak Portuguese and traffic slaves to Brazil.

“Brazil and the Portuguese are an important part of the film,” Viola points out. “What I feel is this connection between all of us, between black people. We are only one port away. There is this impression that we are distant, but in reality we are not,” she adds.

Note from BBT: By the time this story is posted, the Davis film will have finally been released in Brazil. As I wrote above, today’s post wasn’t meant to discuss the actual film, but I am curious to know how Brazil’s black media will address the film. Preliminary articles have all praised the film due to its majority black cast, black director and a story taken directly from African history. I’ve long argued that the presence of black people doesn’t always mean we should support something, and given the controversy surrounding the true and fictional elements of this film, its writers and other issues, I do hope Brazil’s black media gives an honest review about this film.

Source: O Liberal, Yahoo Notícias, Update Charts

The post For the first time in Brazil, Viola Davis learns Afro-Brazilian history, visits a samba school and records an interview to promote ‘The Woman King’ film appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: For those of you who are familiar with my blog, Black Brazil Today, the images featured in today’s post are probably not shocking because, if you’ve followed the site for more than a few years, you know these sorts of displays are pretty much the norm in Brazil. In past posts, I’ve already shown how black children in Brazil aren’t spared from racist actions, gestures, comments and jokes and this recent display that was recorded on a city’s government website for all the world to see is just another example of this.

Besides the cruel jokes and racist insults that black children regularly report from all over Brazil, they also have to deal with the fact that in history textbooks, black Brazilians are often only mentioned in the context of slavery. For those of you that don’t know, Brazil was the recipient of the largest number of enslaved Africans in the Americas, shipping about 5 million Africans to the land that would come to be known as Brazil. In comparison, the United States received less than 400 thousands enslaved africans. This means that Brazil received somewhere between 10 and 15 times more enslaved Africans than the US did.

What I’ve noted in covering Brazil for more than two decades is the manner in which Brazil’s media, politicians, advertising industry, business community and nearly every other sector in society continues to commit racist acts and then either deny that such acts were in fact racist, downplay them or label those who reject such acts as whiners. Just keep in mind, the act that I am featuring today was actually posted on the official website of a city’s government as if there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Let me get into the story and then you can judge for yourself if there’s anything inappropriate here.

Today’s report is courtesy of the Noticia Preta, Revista Fórum websites as well as the Revista Ebano Brasil IG page where i first became aware of the story.

Black children are dressed as slaves in the civic parade in Paraná state in southern Brazil

In the images of the public event, which was attended by several politicians campaigning, students who represented the discoverers and the royal family are white

A revolting video had repercussions on social networks last Sunday, September 18. Black children who participated in a civic parade in the municipality of Piraí do Sul in Paraná state were dressed as slaves for the staging of historical passages in the country. In the case of the colonizers and the group that represented the Portuguese royal family, the children appearing in the scenes were white. The act was in recognition of September 7th, Brazil’s Independence Day and this year, the date of the Bicentennial of that Independence, which was postponed in the city in the interior of Paraná, and rescheduled for that morning.

The city of Piraí do Sul is about 180 km or 112 miles from the state capital city of Curitiba. The event in commemoration of the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil was attended by local authorities, politicians, religious representatives, municipal schools, state schools, philanthropic associations, troopers and business organizations.

In the video, it is possible to see the moment of the parade where there is a boat simulating the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil in the 15th century. Soon after, black children appear dressed as if they were enslaved people. Next, white children appear carrying signs with the words “Royal Family” (família real) and “Independence of Brazil”.

The videos circulating on the internet show at first a boat being towed by a car. Inside the boat are white children dressed as “discoverers”, as one of them even uses a simulacrum of a lunette, an instrument widely used by Iberian navigators in the 15th and 16th centuries. Behind this group, black children in costumes alluding to the captives, shamefully exploited for over 300 years in the country, walk around in chains.

Then, in another part of the parade, a small group of children walk down the street, one of them holding a sign identifying the Portuguese royal family, which arrived in Brazil while still in the colony, in 1808. These members are also white.

The case generated revolt on social networks, with requests for the video to be taken down due to the racism shown. Searching the web pages of the Piraí City Hall, it is no longer possible to find the video, but there are still records of the parade in which the case happened.

The founder of Rio De Janeiro based Voz da Comunidade newspaper, René Silva, for example, commented on his networks. “Whoever had the brilliant idea of putting children on as enslaved people in the civic parade in Piraí do Sul, Paraná, should be in prison. What madness!” he wrote.

Also outraged, an internet user commented “Slavery in its various forms continues to be present in education, police violence, health, justice, the state, in the HR departments of companies, in history, in culture, in short, in society as a whole.”

“Can anyone tell me if there is any other name besides RACISM for putting on BLACK CHILDREN to parade dressed as SLAVES? Those responsible NEED TO BE PUNISHED!”, commented an outraged user.

The Revista Ébano Brasil IG page responded in the following manner.

It’s really hard… Every single one…In Piraí do Sul, a city 180 kilometers from Curitiba, a civic parade places black children dressed as enslaved people. IS IT IN THIS PLACE OF “REPRESENTATION” THAT WE WANT TO LEAVE OUR CHILDREN? THAT TALK OF “DESCENDANTS OF SLAVES”, THE MARGINALIZED OF HISTORY. If you really want to represent our children, REPRESENT them as ROYALTY, as they are all descendants of KINGS and QUEENS who were taken from their African Lands. That’s how we want to see representation. We will not tolerate this!

The images in this video were made available on the official profile of the Municipality of Piraí do Sul on Instagram. In response to the markings on the networks but without yet issuing an official note, the Paraná Public Prosecutor’s Office said. “The Paraná Public Prosecutor’s Office, through the Piraí do Sul Prosecutor’s Office, informs that it was aware of the facts and a procedure will be initiated to investigate the incident.

Contact was made with the city hall of Piraí do Sul to know their position regarding the racist practice organized by the school during the parade, but until the closing of this report there was no return.

Note from BBT: So tell me, how would you react if this incident had happened at the school your child attended? Is it not a big deal? Nothing to lose sleep over? Would you be outraged? Well, maybe you wouldn’t want your child going to a school in Brazil because this is just the tip of the iceberg of things I’ve read that happen in that school system. Combine this with the fact that Brazil was the largest recipient of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was the last country of the Americas to abolish slavery and a place where people are regularly working or freed from working in conditions that are similar to slavery today and you can begin to understand why incidents such as this cannot be tolerated. So tell me, if this would have happened at your child’s school, what would you have done? If your child was dressed as the colonizer in this display, would it have bothered you? And what if your child was dressed as one of the slaves?

Drop a comment and let me know.

Source: Noticia Preta, Revista Fórum

The post Black children are dressed as slaves in Independence Day civic parade in Paraná state in southern Brazil appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: We’ll file today’s story in the full folder of racist incidents against Afro-Brazilian children. And believe me, the file is enormous. I’ve covered stories about racist incidents experienced by black children in Brazil since nearly the beginning of the Black Brazil Today blog, so for people who have followed the blog even casually, these types of stories are nothing new. No, racism doesn’t take a day off or spare black children. But yet you will still have Brazilians say that “we are all equal” or that “racismo não existe no Brasil” meaning, ‘racism doesn’t exist in Brazil’.

Even in the face of clear incidents of racist comments, jokes or incidents, many Brazilians will simply dismiss it when someone is victimized as ‘mimimi’, meaning ‘whining’. It’s like the dirt that Brazil has tried to push and hide under the rug for decades, only that this dirt keeps re-surfacing. When you hear how such incidents regularly occur against black children, and the way that authorities regularly do nothing about about, is there any wonder why so many black Brazilians grow up a lack of self-esteem, confidence or a positive racial identity?

Incidents such as the one I share today once again provide an example of why I believe Brazilian style racism is more effective than that of the United States. You see, in the US, due to the segregation of black and white, black American children, in some ways, had a sort of shield against this sort of treatment at the hands of white chidren.

In the US, black children are taught very early on that there are people out there who don’t like them simply because of their skin color. Not only do millions of black children have some sort of shield against these sorts of aggressions because of lingering results of segregation, but they also have their own way of dealing with such incidents when they do happen.

On the other hand, as black Brazilian children are usually brought up in mixed race environments and taught that there is no difference between them and their colleagues with paler skin, they often times enter such environments totally unprepared for such encounters. In recent years, more and more Afro-Brazilian parents are having what we call “the talk” with their children. And as this and thousands of previous incidents shown, ‘the talk’ is long overdue.

I learned of this story from the Revista Ébano Brasil IG page. Commenting on this story, writers of the IG page reported feeling “a mixture of revolt and sadness”. Writing about the incident on the social network, the profile’s comment read: “Our fight is for our children to strengthen, love each other and not go through situations like these anymore, that we can have better days…”

So then, what exactly happened?

revistaebanobrasil: “Our fight is for our children to strengthen, love each other and not go through situations like these anymore, that we can have better days…” ✊🏾

A MIXTURE OF REVOLT AND SADNESS

‘Mommy, am I going to be white one day?’, asks black child who was called feces

5-year-old boy suffered racism at school in São Paulo and the case was shared by his mother on social networks

By Simon Nascimento

“Mommy, I will become white one day?”. The question was asked by a 5-year-old boy, living in São Paulo, to his mother, the fashion designer Claudete Alphonsus, after being called ‘ish’ by schoolmates. Just so you know, when I say ‘ish’, I’m using the censored way of saying the word that starts with ‘s’ and refers to fecal matter. The case was shared by Claudete on social networks this Friday.

“Mommy, am I going to turn white one day?”. The question was asked by a boy, 5 years old, a resident of São Paulo, to his mother, the fashion designer Claudete Alphonsus, after being called feces by schoolmates. The case was shared by Claudete on social networks this Friday.

Using Instagram’s stories tool, she posted images of her son crying and questioning her about the black color of his skin, which ended up becoming a target of debauchery at school. “Mommy, I’m not beautiful. I am a piece of sh-t, a chocolate,” the crying little one told his mother. To try to calm her son down, Claudete told her son that he was beautiful and that it was okay to be black.

In the videos, Claudete also mentioned that she would go to her son’s school to talk to the teachers and even told her son that she would “burn the racists” – an expression that became popular after the rapper Djonga’s song in protest against racism. After the comment, the son even got scared and asked his mother not to burn down the school. “I calmed him down, explained what I meant. Of course I’m not going to set anyone on fire, but I’m going to have to take an attitude about this,” she wrote.

Claudene also wrote that she can’t stand feeling this pain anymore, when referring to what happened to her son. “He doesn’t know how to defend himself. The children don’t know it’s wrong. But the parents know, the teachers know. And this can’t become routine,” she added. Finally, Claudene said that the wound they opened on her is hard to heal.

Racism at school in BH

“Take care of your children’s mental health, whether they are white or brown like mine,” the woman posted. O TEMPO tried to contact Claudene, but phone calls were not answered and messages were not returned.

Racism in Belo Horizonte school

A history teacher at a public school in the Coração Eucarístico neighborhood in the northwest region of Belo Horizonte is being investigated for racism after asking an 11-year-old student to tie up her curly hair. The teacher said she looked like “a crazy person who just left the mental hospital.

The case, reported this Friday by O TEMPO, happened inside the classroom of the Odilon Behrens State School last Wednesday (14), and was reported to the police by the girl’s family the next day.

Source: O Tempo

The post ‘Mommy, am I going to be white one day?’, asks black child after being called feces by classmates appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: The origins of today’s post started with a video that I watched on YouTube, I guess a couple months ago now. You gotta love comedians, especially those who know how to break down a current debate or analyze a social issue that many people are thinking out. I like comedians who have the nerve to say things outloud that many of us were simply thinking but didn’t say outloud or perhaps did say and got mad pushback from others who couldn’t believe you said it. The latter has been me more times than I can remember for at least the last 15 years of my life.

I always love it when people looked at me in shock, don’t want to hear what I’m saying, can’t debate the topic or, my favorite, label me a conspiracy theorist. My thing is, NO, I don’t believe in every conspiracy theory that’s out there but, then again, when you do enough research on a certain topic and can back up your claims with facts, at some point, the topic leaves from the realm of conspiracy theory and becomes, simply conspiracy. Don’t bother asking me what conspiracies I’m talking about because this is not the platform for such discussions. But today, I will discuss a type of conspiracy theory that we’ve long heard about for years.

Let me just say, for years, I have supported the idea that certain groups of people are victims of an enormous conspiracy whose goal is to keep them in ‘their place’. I’ve discussed this much on thos blog in terms of the position of black Brazilians in Brazilian society. Don’t get me wrong, I am not completely backpeddling on my position, it’s just that I know that everytime you believe in something, you must be willing to test your conclusions even if the results show that what you believe is completely wrong. To be specific, we must question the idea of how certain groups are being legitimately ‘held back’, other explanations for their situations amd also question how many of them are at least partially to blame for their own condition.

Let’s take the question of salary differences according to gender. The obvious argument here is that women earn, on average, less money that men simply because they are women. But does the gender question really explain why men earn more money than women, or are there other factors to consider? When comedian Bill Burr brought up the issue of why female soccer and basketball players earn significantly less money than their male counterparts, he drove this point home. It’s not simply a question of skill or gender and this should be quite obvious.

After having heard the bit a few times, I remembered that this same topic had been debated in Brazil several years before, which what I want to discuss today. Some years ago, there was a discussion going on online that asked the question, “Why does Marta make so much less money than Neymar?” If you’re not a fan of soccer, or what Brazilians call futebol, you may not even know who Marta and Neymar are.

For years now, Neymar (hard to believe the guy just turned 30) has been one of the highest paid soccer players in world and his name has appeared on a number of posts on this very blog. On the other hand, Marta, one of the greatest women to ever kick a soccer ball around, is still a personality that I haven’t really discussed at length, even though she has appeared in a few posts.

Clearly being one of the best to ever lace up a pair of cleats, a lack of talent or influence are obviously not reasons why I haven’t written a full piece on her. But as much as I’ve covered on this blog since 2011, there are still numerous topics having to due with the issue of race that I simply haven’t gotten to.

Marta’s case is intriguing in terms of race as well. I wasn’t sure how Marta identified herself in terms of race. She has appeared on the cover of Raça Brasil magazine and people within Brazil’s movement for black rights also see her as black. Regardless of how she defines herself, her accomplishments place her among the best of all-time, of any team sport, male or female. Once called ‘Pelé in a skirt’, even ‘The King’ himself agreed the comparison. Maybe after this article, I will really need to set aside time to give Marta her flowers.

For now, let’s get into the discussion. Whether you know who Marta is, or Neymar for that matter, you’re sure to learn a little something about them in today’s post.

So, why does Marta earn so much less Neymar?

Why does Neymar earn 175 times more than Marta? It may surprise you, but it’s not because of gender discrimination

Courtesy of Brasil Paralelo, Geração de Valor, Estratégia Concursos

Both Neymar and Marta are standouts in what they do. Voted best player in the world six times by FIFA, Marta has a longer career, more titles, awards and honors. Even so, she is paid less than Neymar, who is younger and has no awards like hers.

Is this difference in their salaries a result of machismo and discrimination against women?

In Enem (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio or National High School Exam) 2020, a question addressed the difference between Neymar’s and Marta’s salary. It is a great example for the salary difference between men and women.

To answer it, we have to resort to philosophy. According to Karl Marx, the value of a good or service is determined by the amount of labor employed. But this has not been verified in reality.

According to Marx, the value of a good/asset is determined by the amount of labor employed in its production. If there is more labor, there is more value; if there is less labor, the value is less.

Based on this reasoning, value, for Marx, is linked to the cost of producing a good. Since the labor factor is a cost in the production process (represented by the wage), goods that employ more labor in their production must cost more.

Based on this reasoning, Marx reached several conclusions. The most important of these was the exploitation of labor. For him, since only a portion of the income from the good was paid to the worker, the workers were exploited by their employers. Workers of the world, unite…

Marx also concluded on this premise that capitalism was doomed to fail. As there was a tendency for wages to fall, due to the “industrial reserve army” and increase of profits, capitalism would suffer a crisis of overproduction, which would lead to its end.

Marx was wrong on absolutely everything! The Marxist theory of value is a kind of “terraplanism” in economics.

Price is linked to value, not to the amount of labor. People’s willingness to purchase something changes, and as that willingness changes, so does the price.

When an institution pays Neymar more, it expects to make more profit from him. This, in fact, happens. If he didn’t give a return, he wouldn’t receive such a high salary. If they pay Marta less, it is because she brings less profit in comparison.

Even so, Marta is the second highest paid woman in women’s soccer. The comparison with Neymar, who is paid more than his male colleagues, is disproportionate and gives the impression that she is paid less because she is a woman. To evaluate only the number of goals and awards and compare the salary is insufficient and does not lead to the conclusion that there is discrimination. We need to go further.

Consider these questions:

How many fans watch Neymar’s game and how many watch Marta’s games?

Does she sell her sponsors’ products as well as he does?

Are the ticket prices for her matches sold in the same quantity and at the same value?

In general, are the audiences for men’s soccer proportional to those for women’s soccer?

Is the reality of women’s soccer as strong in Brazil as the men’s?

These are factors to be considered as well.

Exemplifying Marx’s theory even further, if two hours are used in the creation of a product, both should have the same price. But what about who made the product, the rarity, people’s desire to have it, and the art involved? This is not considered in his theory.

To talk about salary is not to talk about male and female sex, but about market. For example, PSG (Neymar’s team, Paris Saint-Germain) sells 1 million euros worth of shirts in one day, through Neymar. His high salary is not a male enhancement. The player brings profit and pays himself.

Marta earns 400 thousand dollars a year, according to an agreement between her sponsors and the team where she plays in Sweden. She has the second highest salary in the world of women’s soccer, second only to American star Alex Morgan, who currently plays for the San Diego Wave and has a salary of $450,000 per year.

In the face of all this controversy, some flags were raised, among them that Marta earned badly because she is a woman. However, it is worth making it clear that Marta earns more than 99% of the professional male players who play in Brazil, according to data from CBF (Confederação Brasileira de Futebol or Brazilian Football Confederation). By the way, 96% of the players who play in the country of soccer earn less than 5 thousand reais per month (source: CBF).

Therefore, we bust two myths in one shot:

1. Does a soccer player earn well in Brazil? It is quite different from what people fantasize. The average salary of soccer players in Brazil is lower than the average salary of teachers.

2. Does Marta earn poorly because she is a woman? No. First of all, she earns very well and still earns more than 99% of the male soccer athletes who play in Brazil.

But what if we compare her to Neymar?

1. Does she attract the same public as Neymar?

2. Does she sell her sponsors’ products as Neymar does?

3. Neymar plays for 77 thousand fans on average per game. Marta, despite her genius, plays for 1,000 fans per game in her club.

We need to understand that we earn proportionally for our rarity, for what we are capable of producing, and for the impact we generate in the market. Often, as in the case of athletes, depending on the impact that a particular sport has on the country, an athlete can be valued more or less. Rugby players are not even professionalized in Brazil, while in New Zealand they are national heroes. Therefore, if a Brazilian is a Rugby phenomenon, there is no point in complaining that he earns poorly in Brazil. It’s better that he moves to New Zealand, where the market gives him more value.

Alex Morgan, San Diego’s athlete, besides her salary, receives a few million dollars a year in advertising contracts signed with big companies. They compete for her image, because Morgan sells well, conveys good credibility, and, on the field, she is a national star. She wins by the impact she generates in the market, by what she sells, and by the attributes of her image that companies want to incorporate in their brands. She also earns more than the overwhelming majority of male soccer players playing in the USA.

So when it comes to talking about athlete salaries, we need to talk about market, not gender. After all, these two talented female players are at the top of the pyramid. Both Marta and Neymar are outstanding and nobody dares to disagree with that. However, they are paid differently and, in this respect, Neymar beats Marta by a landslide.

In his transfer to PSG, Neymar was valued at 600 million dollars for a period of 5 years. 250 million dollars went to Barcelona (his former club), while the former Santos player will receive 350 million dollars for the period. In addition, Forbes[1] estimates that Neymar receives around $17 million per year from advertising and sponsorships.

In other words, Neymar earns approximately 175 times more than Marta, if we consider only their salaries as soccer players.

It is a big difference, isn’t it?

And here comes the economic analysis. So, again, is this difference really the result of machismo or discrimination against women? Or is the difference driven by economic issues?

Are you still wondering why PSG pays so much for Neymar, while Orlando Pride pays so little (comparatively speaking) for Marta?

By paying that amount to Neymar, PSG believes they will be able to maximize profits, have a higher level of utility when compared to the scenario without Neymar.

After closing the deal with Barcelona and the Brazilian player, PSG’s manager, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, stated that the club became worth €300 million more. The club also increased its revenue with tickets, products, image rights, among other forms of income linked to the Brazilian player.

The same rationale applies to Marta, but with different values, as we have seen.

Since the male soccer audience is much larger than the female soccer audience, the marginal gain obtained by PSG with Neymar is much higher than the marginal gain obtained by Orlando Pride with Marta.

Conclusion: in economic terms, Neymar is worth more than Marta!

This is not a question of gender, discrimination against women, or misogyny. It is an economic issue: the higher the marginal utility of a good/asset, the higher its price/value.

We can apply the same reasoning to any market. If, for example, we consider the value of models (male and female), we will see that female models earn much more than male models. Go Gisele Bundchen!

By the way, it is interesting to note that Gisele Bundchen, a supermodel, earned twice as much (or more) than her husband, the superathlete Tom Brady, during his career.

Can anyone help me answer why?

Source: Brasil Paralelo, Geração de Valor, Estratégia Concursos

The post Salary inequality in soccer: Why does Neymar earn 175 times more than Marta? It may surprise you, but it’s not because of gender discrimination appeared first on Black Brazil Today.

Note from BBT: I can’t pretend to be a fan of her music, but I can admit that I admire and am impressed by her ascension in the world of global pop music. If you don’t who I’m talking about, it is the Brazilian pop/funk sensation Anitta. I’ll say it a hundred times, music today, at least the pop stuff, simply doesn’t have the same soul and feel of the music of decades gone by. I mean, how much of today’s music uses the classic lineup of piano/keyboard, rhythm/lead guitar, bass and drums? I remember a musician friend of mine saying how he noted how artificial the music has sounded since the disappearance of horns in popular music.

Very true.

It seems that all of today’s music seems to be created on computers, which doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but at the same time, it really depends on how much the music is computer generated. Even in the 1990s, when rappers could go into a studio and create full CDs with nothing with a vinyl album, a sampler and a drum machine. At least then, they were sampling real music which brought an authenticity to the sounds.

In reality, Anitta’s meteoric rise to pop stardom coincides with the rise and dominance of social media where everyone is going overboard, doing any and everything to get more eyes and ears to see and hear their products. It seems that right along with the popularity of Anitta’s music came an interest in everything the woman did, from the type of clothing she wore, how many plastic surgeries she’s undergone and which partner, male or female, she may or may not be sleeping with.

I vividly remember when Anitta made her debut with the hit ‘Show das Poderosas’ almost a decade ago. Yes, it was actually a catchy little ditty accompanied by a tightly choreographed black and white music video featuring the singer and her crew of dancers. Don’t get me wrong, by pop music standards, it was cool, but it didn’t really strike me as anything that was totally groundbreaking.

Maybe it was the idea and demand for female empowerment that had been rising in Brazil for some time, much of it led by the black womens’ movement. The word ‘poderosas’ itself translates into ‘the powerful ones’. Perhaps Brazilians saw in Anitta an image and package that nibbled just a bit off of the Queen B’s mystique. I mean, didn’t Beyonce have a hit, just a few years previously, called ‘Run The World (Girls)’? For some time, it seemed to me that Brazil was in search of a woman who could be marketed as the ‘Brazilian Beyonce’.

Anitta seemed to have the right package. She could step. She was pretty. She was willing to be ‘bootylicious’. She was racially ambiguous, something that Brazil has long prided itself on in an almost obsessive pursuit of whiteness. And whatever flaws she thought she might have, she was willing to ‘fix’ them, as it has been reported that the artist has undergone at least 50 of them. In december of 2021, Anitta was quoted as saying

“I accept myself, but I like to change. For me, having plastic surgery is like changing my hair. I think of young people looking at a magazine or Instagram and saying ‘How I wish I was born that way. She is beautiful. Her life is perfect,’ and feeling bad. For me, there are two options: either my fans will know the truth – for example, that I am full of plastics – or they will know that I am a liar.”

Yes, there are many things that must be done, many sacrifices to make to get to pop superstardom, and it seems that Anitta is willing to do just about any and everything to get there and remain there. Perhaps another piece will be necessary to really get into the Anitta mystique and some of the controversies that have come along her path to superstardom, but for now, let’s focus on a recent huge career achievement in her pursuit of international stardom.

Anitta wins a VMA becoming the first Brazilian to win the award

The singer won as Best Latin Music Video with her hit song ‘Envolver’. Earlier in the night, she performed the song live onstage

Anitta won the Best Latin Music video award at the Video Music Awards 2022 with ‘Envolver’. The singer was the first Brazilian to win the award and was surprised by the victory.

“I really wasn’t expecting this, I think I’m gonna cry. Okay, so I just want to say, for whoever doesn’t know, tonight it’s history. It’s the first time of Brazil here, it’s the first in my country to receive an award like this and I want to thank my family and my fans,” Anitta said after receiving the award.

Anitta shared her look and stated that it is “the heart of Brazil”

In red at VMAs, Anitta says: “Let’s fight for the improvement of Brazil”

She highlighted that, on the VMA stage, she performed a rhythm that “was considered a crime” for many years and recalled her origins. “I was born and raised in the ghetto in Brazil and for those who were born there, we would never have imagined that this would be possible. So thank you very much!”

Note from BBT: So what does Anitta mean by a rhythm that ‘was considered a crime’? What the artist refers to is the fact that funk music in Brazil has always been criminalized in the minds of a large segment of Brazilian society. For the more conservative elements, funk culture represents criminality, drug trafficking, loose sexual morals and the degeneration of society. The desire to shut down funk became so strong that in 2017, there was actually a bill introduced in the Brazilian senate to ban funk music and the popular dances where this genre was wildly popular among Brazilian youth. The bill was actually struck down in the senate, but the criminalization of the genre continues to this day.

Just so you know, when I speak of genre known as Brazilian funk, which arose out funk carioca, or funk that emerged in Rio De Janeiro, I must make it clear that Brazilian funk is not the same as what we call funk in the US. In the 1970s, when black American soul and funk was at its peak, Brazilian DJs began organizing huge dances called bailes where they played much of the American black music scene that was coming out the United States. A little of this was depicted in the 2002 Brazilian film Cidade De Deus, or City Of God, where the images of the dances were re-created. Watching that scene in the film when I first saw it brought back memories of the era for me.

Even as the 70s birthed a number of Brazilian artists who were either doing their own takes on american funk and soul or mixing it with elements of Brazilian samba, by the 1990s, Brazilian funk seemed to be much more inspired by the Miami bass sound that blew up some time in the 90s. Brazilian funk lyrics often contained sexually explicit lyrics in the vain of groups like the 2 Live Crew or discussed the realities of favela life, favelas referring to the slums mounted on the outskirts and on the hills of major cities.

At the 2022 video music awards, Anitta competed for the award with Bad Bunny, Becky G and Karol G, Daddy Yankee, Farruko and J Balvin and Skrillex. 

Wearing a red leotard, the singer took Brazilian funk to the VMAs and also made the audience dance to her hit “Envolver” and finalized her performance with a medley of her funk hits. On stage, she asked the question, “VMA, did you think I wasn’t going to shake my ass tonight?”, which can be translated as “VMA, você achou que eu não ia balançar minha bunda hoje à noite?”.

The singer then proceded to shake what her mamma gave her to songs such as ‘Vai Malandra’, ‘Movimento da Sanfoninha’ and ‘Bola Rebola’.

As I’ve pointed out in other articles, Anitta clearly has her eyes on capturing the international music scene as are other artists, such as Ludmilla and Iza. Even being in the United States for the event, the artist showed that she was following the first debate between presidential candidates. In Brazil, it is election season, as right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro seeks re-election as former President Lula Da Silva has been leading in the polls form several months now. When interviewed, the singer explained that it wasn’t a coincidence that she chose a red dress, which is the color of the Lula’s PT, meaning the Workers’ Party. The artists even published a photo on her Instagram profile with the number 13, Lula’s candidacy number and also made the symbol of the letter L as she was being interviewed.

Note from BBT: Although I am not a great fan of funk or Anitta, I must admit that I admire her ascension onto the world music scene. Anitta speaks spanish and english, has made appearance on international talk shows and is quickly growing her brand. She also has no problem with seeing salacious rumors about her sexuality, and sex life as there are constantly rumors in the headlines claiming that the singer slept with this woman, man or men.

Another issue that has been hotly debated, particularly amongst black Brazilians, is the way that Anitta has always skirted the race issue or even defined herself racially. While some black brazilians see anitta as a light-skinned black woman, others refer to her as a parda or mestiça, meaning brown or mixed, while still others classify her as branca, meaning white.

The intriguing this is that, as Anitta has not clearly defined herself as black, although claiming her father as a black man, Anitta has been the target of accusations of ‘cultural appropriation’, as critics accuse her of borrowing the funk and favela culture that is strongly connected to the Afro-Brazilian population. When asked about her racial identity, anitta has never publicly defined herself as black, although she once claimed, in posting a photo of herself wearing braids, that she spends time in the sun, she becomes a ‘neguinha’, apparently seeing blackness as something she put on or take off as if it were a hat.

Carioca nata

Larissa de Macedo Machado, or just Anitta, was born in Honório Gurgel, a neighborhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, on March 30, 1993. Her relationship with music began as a child. Ever since she was little, she knew she wanted to be a singer. At the age of 8, encouraged by her grandparents, she began singing in the choir of the Santa Luzia church, located in her neighborhood.

Beginning of career

One day, just for fun, Anitta posted a video on YouTube singing funk and using a bottle of perfume as a microphone. In 2010, the video caught the attention of a Furacão 2000 music producer, who invited her to some auditions. After being approved, she signed a contract with the label.

Released in 2013, her debut album, “Anitta,” reached the top of the Brazilian music charts and was responsible for establishing her as an artist. That year, the hit “Show das Poderosas” won in the categories of música chiclete and best clip, at the Multishow Award for Brazilian Music.

International career

For years working to expand her career around the world, in June 2020, Anitta announced the signing of a contract with Warner Records in the United States. “Tócame”, with the participation of Arcangel & De La Ghetto, and “Me Gusta”, in partnership with Cardi B and rapper Myke Towers, were two of the releases of this new phase of the artist.

“Versions of Me”, released in April 2022, was the singer’s first album with an international label. In addition to the song “Girl From Rio”, the work also features the songs “Envolver”, “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Faking Love”.

With her chart-topping career in the era of streams and downloads, the Brazilian has amassed a fortune that is larger than an impressive list of well-known American entertainers.

Already on the listing of Brazil’s most powerful women, Anitta has a fortune worth more than 100 million US dollars, which, at the time of the estimate, was equal to about 553 million Brazilian reais, according to Forbes magazine. With the American dollar being worth more than five Brazilian reais for a few years now, in her native Brazil, Anitta is more than halfway to billionaire status.

On March 24 of this year, Anitta added another important accomplishment to her already impressive resume when she became the first solo Latin artist to reach No. 1 on Spotify. In about 120 days after the release of “Envolver”, the song had already reached 6.39 million streams worldwide.

Regularly ranking atop Spotify’s Global Top, the most used music player and podcasts in the world, is not the only ranking in which Anitta comes in ahead of other musicians. Making a comparison with some singers, the Brazilian singer has a larger net worth than several artists with international careers.

Anitta is the most played Brazilian singer on streaming platforms and has more than 60 million followers on Instagram. Currently, the singer is investing in her international career and is also part of numerous advertising campaigns. The resounding success of the hit ‘Envolver’ was another step for Anitta in strengthening her brand as an international singer.

To get an idea, consider a few artists. The rapper Eminem has a career spanning more than 20 years and several big hits around the world, but his fortune is estimated to be equal to that of Anitta. Eminem’s fortune is also estimated at US$ 100 million.

A singer and guitarist for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder has a fortune of about $90 million.

With an award-winning international career, Nicki Minaj is considered as the most influential rapper of all time by the New York Times but even with all of her success, her fortune is estimated to be at about $25 million less than that of Anitta. The Trinidad-born rapper has a net worth of $75 million.

With worldwide success in the 2000s, the American singer Nelly was one of the rap artists who sold the most records in history. However, this didn’t reflect in a fortune greater than Anitta’s. Nelly owns a fortune of $60 million.

There’s a whole lot more than I could say about Anitta, specifically in terms of the race issue, but you’ll have to stay tuned to another episode for that breakdown. That’s all I got for now, but make sure to subscribe, share, and comment on this post. With that said, see you all next time.

Source: Exame, Metropoles, Em Tempo, Terra

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Note from BBT: The more Brazil changes, the more it stays the same. Today’s piece i’m covering not so much because it’s shocking or anything, but because it continues a theme of other articles I’ve posted over the years. It is often said that there within little sneaky jokes, sometimes, if not often times, there something in there of which the person telling the joke really means, even saying it in a joking manner. I’ve heard these sort of jokes myself from white colleagues.

I remember one particular incident while working at a popular grocery story several years ago. In the backroom of the grocery area, I walked past a crate of outdated watermelons that a produce worker was preparing to the throw away. As I walked past with my flattop cart, a white employee, a guy probably 10-15 years older than I, looked and said ‘Yeah, Marques, I know you black guys go crazy at the site of so many watermelons,’ then he started laughing with that irritating laugh of his. Most of us knew this guy had racist tendencies and at that moment he pretty much confirmed what we all already knew.

In another incident from that same store, I was talking to another black stocker on the salesfloor about a scene in 1992 film Eddie Murphy film Boomerang. The guy I was talking to hadn’t seen the film so I began telling him about a scene in which actor Martin Lawrence was describing the racist origins of the game of pool.

In Lawrence’s break down, the white ball, representing the white man, dominates the whole game. On a green table, representing the earth, it knocks the red ball off of the table, the red ball referring to the Native American. He knocks the yellow ball off the table, representing the Asian man. Then, to win the game, he knocks the black ball off of the table, this ball representing the black man.

About 10 feet away from us, there was this white guy named Darren who was listening to the whole break down. After hearing how knocking the black ball/man off the table signified ‘game over’ and signalling the white ball/man’s dominance over the whole earth, Darren smugly said, ‘that’s the name of the game’. As the two of us looked into his eyes, it was obvious what he meant and how he felt.

In the piece below, we have another example of someone saying something that was supposedly a joke. The jokes that were told play on the fact that, similar to other comments in other articles on this blog, the association between black Brazilians, low-skilled labor and slavery remains strong in Brazil’s collective consciousness. So funny. I just can’t stop laughing…

Young woman denounces racism in the Navy: ‘She said I had to wash dishes because I’m black’

Courtesy of Pragmatismo Político

“I don’t like to remember because it makes me cry, it makes me tremble, it makes me want to run away because it hurts, it hurts a lot,” says a young black woman who denounced racism on the part of her colleague in the Navy. Racial aggressions have occurred on more than one occasion

Young woman denounces racism in the Navy had to wash dishes because I’m black

According to information from the G1 website, Marcelle reported that episodes of racism have happened twice, committed by the same person in the pantry of the Naval District, her name being Ticiany, 18 years old.

About a month ago the colleague refused to wash the dishes, saying that Marcelle should do it under the justification that she was black.

“So I told her: ‘today we are going to see who is going to wash the dishes’. She took it and said to me: ‘I’m not going to do the dishes. I said: ‘but I did the dishes the other day. I think it’s your turn to do the dishes. Do I always have to do them every day?” Then she said: “Yes, because you are black. Then she laughed and said she was kidding, that she was joking,” reported Marcelle.

According to the intern, again under the excuse that it was just ‘a joke’ the intern made racist comments again on Thursday (25).

“The intern Ticiany said: ‘there is such a store that is giving a job opening’. I said: ‘well, this place is a little heavy for me, it’s slavery for me. And she said: ‘What’s the matter, you’re black,’ says the young woman.

After the episode Marcelle remembers crying in the bathroom and remembering the traumas of her childhood, where she was “teased” because of her color.

Marcelle also says that remembering the episodes causes her pain and that it hurts a lot.

“I don’t even like to remember because it makes me cry, it makes me tremble, it makes me want to run away because it hurts, it hurts a lot.

The two instances of racism were committed near other people, however, Ticiany, was only given a verbal warning.

In view of this, a friend of Marcelle’s encouraged her to report the cases of racial intolerance at the Racial Crimes Police Station, in the Center. She also created a group to fight the crime inside the Pedro II school.

“I hope this will change someday because as it happened to me today, tomorrow I might have a child and it happen to him too.”

The young woman started her internship in the Navy in February of this year and intends to study pedagogy and join the military.

Source: Pragmatismo Político

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Note from BBT: It’s been a minute since I first reported on this story. Well, actually, as it turns out, it’s been more than a minute. It’s actually been a little over two years. Although I haven’t written about the case since that article from July of 2020, the image never left my mind. I think anyone who saw the image was instantly appalled. Not shocked, but appalled. After all, as often as Brazilians see police violence against citizens, I don’t think people were totally shocked. Let’s also remember that this happened a little less than two months after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Another reason I would say that it wasn’t shocking was because, as is often said, in Brazil, there’s a George Floyd incident almost everyday.

Now that the case has re-surfaced after a verdict on the conduct and actions of the police, it’s the talk of the internet once again. And once again, black Brazilians are shaking their heads with the way justice never seems to be served when it involves police, black Brazilians and violence. Again, you really can’t be surprised by this stuff. After having seen so many videos of police violence, now in an era when everyone has cell phone cameras and social networks where they can share them. Makes me wonder how many brutal beatings were simply relegated to ‘hood legends’ back in the day.

Anyway, let’s get to the facts about this story, because something came out of the report that caught my attention that I wasn’t aware of at the time these images came out. Let’s get to it.

Ashamed to be Brazilian,’ says black woman who had her neck stepped on by acquitted MP

By Jeniffer Mendonça via Ponte

The video showed the victim being beaten on the outskirts of São Paulo in 2020: “carte blanche to barbarism,” says lawyer

Maria*, 53, answers the phone with a downcast voice. “I am sad, indignant, I am ashamed to be Brazilian, I expected justice,” she laments. Two months ago she got a job, still in a trial phase, as a cook after having closed the bar she used to run and moved to another address out of fear. She is the one who appears in the video having her neck stepped on by MP João Paulo Servato, who was acquitted on Tuesday (August 23) by the Military Court of Justice (TJM) of the State of São Paulo.

Servato was accused of serious bodily harm, misrepresentation of identity, failure to comply with laws, regulations or instructions, and violent harassment of the owner of a bar in Parelheiros, in the southern part of the city of São Paulo, in 2020. Military Police Corporal Ricardo de Morais Lopes, who participated in the action, was also acquitted of misrepresentation and failure to obey the law, regulation or instruction.

Images revealed by TV Globo’s Fantástico program, on July 2020, showed that the police officer stepped on the neck of the victim, a black woman, who was surrendered helpless on the ground. She was also punched in the chest and kicked in the leg during the act, in May of that year.

According to the TJM, the result was decided by a five-person sentencing council. Judge José Álvaro Machado Marques, of the 4th Military Audit, and a captain voted for the conviction of the pair, but had their votes defeated by three other captains. The decision document is not yet available and should be read and published on August 30th.

Attorney Felipe Morandini, who represents the victim of the assaults, said he was “incredulous” at the acquittal and will appeal. “The images are clear, and demonstrate the brutal and abusive aggressions suffered,” he criticized. “Much was said yesterday, by both sides, [at the trial] about the message that would be passed on to society and the military police in that process, and, it seems, the message is that the military police officer can do anything. He can assault, he can lie, and he can kill. It is a carte blanche given to barbarism. No one in their right mind can consider normal what we saw in the images, and the impunity of the policemen reduces society’s confidence in the police institution,” she added.

Maria says that she is traumatized, but that she did not receive any psychological help: “I kept doing physiotherapy, but I didn’t get psychological treatment because nothing will erase what I suffered. In spite of this, she categorically states that she will continue to seek justice: “I had to move because I was afraid. But I will go all the way because we can’t remain silent, otherwise the laws won’t change and other people will have to go through this.

The result of the trial was announced on Tuesday night (23) on the social networks of the office responsible for defending the MPs. To the Bridge, lawyer João Carlos Campanini said that the policemen were attacked and “needed to defend themselves.” “For me, justice has given a message: ‘don’t go up against a military police officer, don’t attack him and don’t assault him, he represents the state,'” he said.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office informed that the Military Prosecutor’s Office “deeply regrets that this was the outcome of the first instance decision” and that it will appeal the sentence as soon as it is published.

The aggressions

In the complaint against the officers, prosecutor Giovana Ortolano Guerreiro considered that the MPs, stationed in the 2nd Company of the 50th Metropolitan Battalion, did not follow the approach procedures and based the complaint on the images, which showed the aggressions, and that proved that the pair lied when they went to the police station, claiming that they had been beaten with an iron bar and called “worms”.

“Thus, the accused inserted and caused a false statement to be entered, different from the one that should be written, in order to alter the truth about a legally relevant fact, violating the administration and military service,” Guerreiro wrote.

The case began to be investigated by the Civil Police as a crime of abuse of authority by coercing a prisoner or detainee under serious threat and subjecting him to a vexatious situation not authorized by law, soon after the repercussion of the case, when the victim filed a police report on July 12, 2020, but ended up being referred to the Military Justice 12 days later by order of Judge Adriana Barrea, of the Criminal Forum of Barra Funda of the São Paulo Court of Justice (TJ-SP), accepting the understanding of Police Chief Julio Jesus Encarnação.

According to the Civil Police investigation, to which the Ponte website had access, the bar owner said that she has lived in the neighborhood for 29 years and that she opened her bar around 1 pm. She said that there were two customers, José and Luís (fictitious names) who were in the place and that, at a certain moment, she asked one of them to turn down the volume of the car’s sounds, which was done. Afterwards, she reported that she heard noises outside the establishment and went outside, squeegee in hand, to see what was going on. She claims that she saw José was bloodied and was being beaten by a policeman.

To the Ponte website, at the time, she said that she was not even approached and that she was beaten as soon as she tried to intervene against the aggression against the customer, and that she hit the policeman three times with a squeegee, as the recording also shows. “The guy had already been beaten enough, he was down. I asked the policeman [Ricardo] to stop, then the other [João] threw me twice against the bar’s railing,” she said on the occasion, citing having received three blows before having her neck stepped on. “I was dizzy from the blows, he kicked me. The kick caught my shin and broke my tibia. When I said that, he said ‘you broke my shin’ and stomped on my neck,” reported the woman.

Traumatized, she said at the time that she couldn’t remember exactly how long the MP kept the boot on her neck and that she even fainted. “It was not little, no. He put the whole weight of his body on it. My face rubbed the asphalt while he handcuffed me,” he explained. Afterwards, the policeman put his knee on her neck and her ribs while she was lying on the sidewalk. The bar owner was taken to the emergency room of Hospital Balneário São José and then to the 101st Police Station (Jardim Imbuias), along with the other two customers.

At the police station, the officers gave a completely different version. Ricardo and João claimed that they received a call about a bar that was not in quarantine and as soon as they arrived they said that there were four people drinking in the establishment, but before they could talk to the owner, one of them ran away. When they tried to tell him to get against the wall, the cops claim that Luis said “I’m not going to put my hand on my head, no uncle! Fuck you”, and he even pushed them and resisted being handcuffed.

The pair claimed that at that moment they felt “blows to the head and kicks” and that “an uncontrollable lady appeared, using an iron bar to hit them, accompanied by two other guys, who also hit them with kicks and punches. Ricardo said that he managed to pull the iron bar out of the woman’s hand and while they tried to restrain the others the surrounding population called them “vermin”. He said that the bar owner returned with a squeegee and resumed the verbal offenses and physical aggression against the military police, and that the situation only calmed down when they requested reinforcement. On the occasion, as the bar owner was not released from the hospital, she remained under escort and didn’t issue a statement that day.

About the aggressions committed by the officers, the bar owner said that she became aware of the videos between five and six days after the event and said that she went to the Military Police Internal Procedures Office, but was not heard “under the allegation that they couldn’t get to her immediately due to the Covid-19 pandemic”. She claims that the police officers went back to the neighborhood to search for images.

Both Ricardo and João were summoned to the Civil Police to testify, but both remained silent and said they would speak in court. With this, Delegate Julio Jesus Encarnação understood, based on Law 13.491/2017, sanctioned by then-President Michel Temer and which transfers the investigation of felonious crimes against life committed by military personnel against civilians to the Military court, that it is “the competence of the State Military Justice and related criminal investigative attribution of the internal affairs department of the state militia institution to investigate infractions of special criminal legislation committed by military police, especially crimes of abuse of authority”.

Accused of assaulting police officers

Delegate Isabela Pereira Bahia understood that the woman and her two clients had committed bodily harm against the police officers, as well as disobedience, resisting arrest and contempt, and also requested the arrests of the three. In a custody hearing at the time, Judge Fabrizio Sena Fuzari determined that the bar owner and her two clients should be released from jail, but should comply with precautionary measures (monthly court appearances, not being out of the house between 10 pm and 6 am, not leaving the city without authorization), since the three have no criminal record, have a fixed residence, and work.

This case is still under separate investigation, in the Common Court, and the prosecutor Flavia Lias Sgobi denounced the woman and the two men for bodily harm, contempt, resistance, and violation of sanitary measures (bar open during the pandemic), in October 2021, without making any mention of the images in which the victim appears being assaulted and stepped on.

Note from BBT: So, according to the report that I saw from the Rede Record television network, new images from the incident that occurred before the officer got aggressive with the woman shows a little detail that I wasn’t aware of when this story first broke two years ago. In the video, we see a lot going on. At the beginning of the video, to the left, we see one police officer subdue a man on the ground. In the middle of the street, we see another cop with his gun pointed at a man who removes his shirt, back turned, with his arms extended. Besides all of this confusion, at a certain point of the video, we also see a black woman appear and begin to strike a police soldier with what she acknowledged was a squeegee. We see the woman strike the police officer at least three times during the melee. (In the video, see the 00:15-00:20 mark)

This is a key point. In the video I saw two years ago, all I saw was the moment in which the cop was seen standing on the back of the woman’s neck. So, allow me to say this. I have long argued that Brazilian police regularly use excessive force when approaching citizens. This is absolutely true. They regularly invade poor, mostly black communities spraying bullets with little to no regard as to whom these bullets may strike. Too many cases to mention here, but I’ve said it before, there are enough incidents of police brutality and citizens killed by police that I could dedicate a blog or YouTube channel to this topic alone.

It seems that every day, some report of police brutality or some death occurs due to police action, usually followed by citizens protesting, marching or setting buses on fire. Often times, the police force will also look into the criminal records of any citizen who was killed during the action and use these records in an attempt to justify their death in response to public outcry. This current case seems to fall into this category as well. By releasing the video showing the woman attacking the police, it’s almost as if the police are suggesting that the woman got what she deserved for her interference and aggression against an officer of the law.

I would never accept justification of someone’s death in a violent police action because the person stole a package of cookies or a bag of potato chips. In fact, a person would have to have done something very serious for me to even partially accept such justification. But there is another side to all of this as well. I’ve seen too many instances in which a man or even a woman didn’t comply with police orders which caused police to apply force to the citizen.

There was recently an incident here in the US that was a perfect example of this. A woman refused to sign a citation and was physically forced to the ground and arrested and being repeatedly told to sign the ticket. After refusing to sign the citation, she also refused follow the order of the officer to put her hands behind her back, which led to forceful actions by the police. No one wants to see police take force against anyone, but if she had simply followed orders of a request that was clearly reasonable, the take down would have never happened.

In the case from São Paulo, by assaulting Military Police, the woman opened herself up for violent retaliation. I was disgusted by the end result of seeing a Military Police soldier with his full weight on a woman’s neck, but now, seeing the context in which it happened, I still don’t condone the level of violence inflicted upon her, but this is what happens when you choose to disobey authority. Seriously, if you challenge police, especially physically, you should fully expect to be retaliated against. And with the level of violence and frequency of violence of Brazil’s police, why would you even provoke them? If you’re gonna challenge the police, you better come with a crew, because police are ready and trained to back each other up plus they pack heat.

The point here? Police already treat black populations with excessive force simply due to the color which is stigmatized as a dangerous threat to society. So, knowing that minding your own business doesn’t guarantee the wrath of police, it’s better to heed the words of sociologist Neely Fuller: Don’t fuss, don’t fight and don’t flee.

Source: Ponte

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Note from BBT: So, today’s topic is one that I’ve been wanting cover for years, but just never got around to it. I mean, threre’s so much to cover when it comes to the issue of race in Brazil, and even having posted more than 3,700 articles on this blog, being only one person, sometimes I come up short in terms of time to discuss all of the topics that I would like cover. I don’t remember exactly know when I became aware of today’s topic, but I know that it was courtesy of the work of professor Petrônio Domingues.

Looking back, it must have been some times between 2006 and 2007 when he academic articles began to attract my attention. In the past century, there have been a number of noteworthy interactions between black Americans and black Brazilians, or perhaps, black Americans first becoming interested in Brazil.

First, in the 1920s being fooled by Brazil’s so-called racial democracy, then questioning the racial democracy myth from the 1940s to the 1960s, to finally rejecting the myth completely by the 1960s and 70s. Today, even as black American scholarship on racial issues in Brazil continues, there is a whole other interest in Brazil that goes beyond academic scholarship as thousands of African-American males pour into the country in search of female companionship.

I find this new found interest in Brazil intriguing especially considering that about a century ago, Brazil’s government didn everything it could to deter black americans from settling in the country. What could have been the reason for not wanting black Americans to settle in Brazil? Well, considering that this is a blog about how race works in Brazil, I’ll give you one guess and two seconds to guess. Time’s up.

The history of black American migration to Brazil back in the 1920s is far too fascinating to cover in just one post, so I will introduce today’s piece as just an intro to the topic that is intertwined with the way that Brazil has treated recent immigrants from Haiti and the African continent. As the title of the article suggests, Brazil has historically opened its door to immigrants, but only if they have the right skin color and phenotype. Read on because this is deep.

Immigrants yes, but what color?

By Alex Castro

Brazil likes to imagine itself as an open, hospitable nation, without prejudice. Its record, however, tells another story. Today, richer and more important, assuming a place of greater weight in the world, there is still time for Brazil to change its attitudes.

Our attitudes.

Immigrants yesterday and today.

Not all people who immigrate are equal

In the beginning of the 20th century, in an attempt to whiten the population, boost the economy and occupy regions which until then were almost uninhabited, the Brazilian government strongly stimulated foreign immigration. With limits, of course.

Already in 1891, it prohibited the immigration of natives from Africa and Asia. After fierce debates, the law was revoked in 1907, opening the way for Japanese immigration, but other “undesirable” groups, such as Arabs from North Africa or Chinese, encountered strong resistance.

In 1921, in response to an advertisement in several newspapers promising passage, accommodation and long-term credit to farmers from the United States who wished to settle in Brazil, a colonization company called the Brazilian American Colonization Sindicate (BACS) was formed. The government of Mato Grosso had even granted them huge land concessions, which were promptly cancelled when an unpleasant detail was discovered:

The people in the group, amazingly, were black!

Suffocated by the racist segregationist atmosphere in the US, these poor people were convinced that Brazil was the true racial democracy it claimed to be, where there were no color lines and where black and white people were equal before the law.

Obviously, they had never been to Brazil – and they never would: The Itamaraty denied visas to all the people in the company. Itamaraty is the name of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Since Brazil and the US had an immigration treaty that gave US persons, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion, the right to enter and settle in Brazil, BACS demanded that Brazil’s government justify the ban.

In public, the Itamaraty took refuge in the statement that the Brazilian immigration policy was sovereign and could not be questioned by foreign governments or people.

In private, however, the Itamaraty sent confidential memos to all Brazilian consulates in the US making it clear which type of immigrant from the US was desirable and which was not.

It is almost anti-Brazilian that the government had to be so explicit in its racism!

Captions in photos above

Haitians are killed in protests against high food prices

Newspaper headline: ‘Brazil promises to send 14 tons of food’

‘While they don’t send food…We’re sending bullets’

That rare moment when you say what you really think

Our elected representatives, however, were not so diplomatic.

Fidélis Reis, congressman from the state of Minas Gerais, proposed a bill vetoing immigration of black people, limiting immigration of Asians and encouraging immigration of white people. Here is what he said, in the plenary session, in 1923:

“When we then think … … in the near or remote possibility of the immigration of the American Negro to Brazil, it is that we came to admit the eventuality of the disturbance of peace on the continent. … Our African black man, who came here under very different conditions, fought with us the hardest battles of the formation of nationality, worked, suffered and with his dedication helped us to create Brazil. … The case is now imminently different. And it must constitute for us a motive of serious apprehension, as an imminent danger weighing upon our destiny.” (emphasis of the author)

From the congressman’s speech, one really gets the impression that “our black African” came to Brazil willingly, voluntarily to work and suffer for our homeland; and that the so-called “imminent danger” that caused “apprehension” was precisely the fact that North-American black people, these scoundrels, were coming in search of a racial democracy, where have you seen this?!

The illustrious novelist and president of the Brazilian Association of Letters Afrânio Peixoto also gave his opinion on Congressman Fidélis’ project, in the same year:

“Is it at this time that America intends to get rid of its core of 15 million blacks in Brazil? How many centuries will it take to purify all that brown human matter? Will we have enough albumin to refine all this scum? Liberia was not enough, did they discover Brazil?” (emphasis of the author)

For the great and generous academic, it’s enough for a person to be black to be scum, but, all right, nothing that albumin can’t solve. A farmer by the name of Antonio Americano do Brasil, states:

“We would no longer have the simple people for farming, who were the African primitives of slavery, easily identifying with the land. Today’s blacks would come from the United States, … elements full of defects, carrying the hatred of the white man who has persecuted them, possessing sharp vices that the former slaves didn’t have.” (emphasis of the author)

Leaving aside the patent nostalgia for slavery, what are these “defects” and “vices” that this North American “masked scum” possesses? Who answers is the great historian Oliveira Lima, also a promoter of European immigration as a way to whiten Brazil

“… these, who threaten to come to us from America, find themselves modeled by a superior civilization, speaking their own language and having a feeling of haughtiness and aggressiveness, natural in the environment in which they live and which the Africans who came here, in other times from the coast of Africa, did not possess. The latter, because of the inferiority of their civilization, merged with the superior whites; who can tell us that the American Negroes will do the same? But if they remain “infusible,” then we will have one more political danger overshadowing our destinies. If they mix, then we will have increased the formless mass of inferior mixed breeds that so retards our progress.” (emphasis of the author)

That is, according to the sensitive and worthy intellectual, the “defects” and “vices” that American black people bring with them is precisely to be proud and proud citizens, aware of their rights.

God, Brazil wants to distance itself from these people!

(The source of the story above is the article “Dos Males que Vem com o Sangue: as Representações Raciais e a Categoria do Imigrante Indesejável nas Concepções sobre Imigração da Década de 20”, meaning ‘Of the evils that come with blood: racial representations and the category of undesirable immigrant in the conceptions of immigration in the 20s’ by Jair Souza Ramos, in the book Raça, Ciência e Sociedade (Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz, 1996), organized by Marco Chor Maio).

Note from BBT: I want to address the above quotes made by Brazilian politicians about a century ago when the discussion of black americans possibly settling in Brazil. As I have stated in previous articles, there are numerous examples of the problem Brazilian statesmen had with black Americans. As you can surmise from the above comments, many elite Brazilians thought of black Brazilians as being docile, easy to control and totally on board with elite desires for the black population to disappear within a few generations through the process of miscegenation.

As black Americans were accustomed to segregation, building community and being able to support themselves, the last thing these elites wanted was for a population that was considered much more resistant and militant to influence black Brazilians. It was if they were saying, ”We here in Brazil have our negros under control and there’s no way we’re going to allow these rabble-rousing negro Americans to come here, wake up our negros and mess up our plan to mix themselves about of the nation.” 

What other way would you interpret the above comments?

And Brazil never had racist laws. Right?

Brazil has always needed foreign arms, but there are arms and arms. Who until yesterday were imported and bought for a lot of money today are not wanted even for free.

Already in 1890, a mere two years after Abolition and in the first year of the new democratic and citizen’s republic, Brazil explicitly prohibited the immigration of African people. The law would be complemented and reinforced in 1920 and 1930 to prohibit not only African people, but also anyone who looked like them.

In Brazil, as the racist saying goes, we never need racial segregation laws because “the blacks know their place.” In fact, our country has always been so racist that laws never needed to be: just put things vaguely and trust our historical racism. (As in the case of the Itamaraty’s confidential memos, it is only in the last case that it is necessary to be explicit and, even in those, discreetly).

Text of a 1945 decree-law, only revoked in the 1980s

Art. 1 – every foreigner may, enter Brazil as long as he satisfies the conditions established by this law.

Art. 2 – in admitting immigrants, consideration shall be given to the need to preserve and develop, in the ethnic composition of the population, the most convenient characteristics of their European ancestry, as well as the defense of the national worker. (emphasis of the author)

(The information in the excerpt above came from the article “A Caixa Econômica Federal, a política do branqueamento e a poupança dos escravos”, meaning ‘Caixa Econômica Federal, the policy of whitening and the saving of slaves’ by Ana Maria Gonçalves, author of the masterful novel Um defeito de Cor. I recommend reading the novel, the article and everything else that Ana writes.)

Haiti in Brazil today

If you are breathing a sigh of relief, thinking, “whew, it’s a good thing Brazil is not like this anymore,” think twice, kind reader.

In 2010, Haiti was destroyed by an earthquake and subsequently occupied by UN troops led by Brazil. The post-earthquake difficulties, a closer contact with the Brazilian armed forces and the good phase of our economy caused the largest migration wave to the country in more than a century.

Haiti, it is worth remembering, was the second independent nation in the Americas, when enslaved black people led the first and only successful large-scale slave rebellion in history, burned down the sugar mills, killed all the white people, and defeated the armies of Britain, France and Spain. (Text about it here.)

In recent years the number of people immigrating to Brazil is only increasing: the main nationalities include Bolivians, Chinese, Peruvians, Paraguayans and Koreans, mostly unskilled laborers.

Meanwhile, thousands of Haitians, many of them skilled, are barred at our borders, generating clearly sensationalist headlines, full of negative words like “illegal,” “crisis,” “suffer,” “invasion,” etc.: “Illegals cause humanitarian crisis in Acre,” and “Acre suffers from invasion of immigrants from Haiti”.

Our deep-rooted anti-black racism manages to beat even our constitutive anti-Hispanic disgust.

(For more information, I recommend the graduation monograph by Jenny Télémaque for the communication course at UFRJ, “Haitian immigration in the Brazilian media: between facts and representations”. The author, who has already been the subject of an article in the Extra newspaper, is Haitian and studied in Brazil thanks to an agreement between UFRJ and the Brazilian embassy in Haiti).

Captions of photo above

Meanwhile, in the ‘elite squad’…

‘Did you know that Brazil has already spent 370 million with the troops in Haiti?’

‘Wow, with this money we could buy more plastic bags’

Everyone should be allowed to be Brazilian

Are we or are we not the country of the future, hospitable and desirable, where the birds don’t chirp as they do there, a racial democracy where everything grows if you plant it? Do we or do we not have a low population density and gigantic empty and unexplored areas?

We have the same area as the continental United States, and 100 million fewer people.

More people in Brazil does not mean “more people sucking on the “bolsa familia” (Brazil’s universal basic income program), but more people generating wealth for all.

We are a country of immigrants. Anyone who wants to be Brazilian should be allowed to be.

Time to open the gates.

Source: Papo de Homem

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