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Stuck at the
gates of paradise
Diane
Kuperman, Brazilian journalist and writer |
A vicious circle: poorly educated, Afro-Brazilians are often restricted to low-paid
jobs.
Benedita da Silva, the first black woman elected to the Brazilian Congress.
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Xenophobes
are those who don’t have faith in the virtues of their own people.
Jorge
Luis Borges, Argentine writer
(1899-1986)
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Hotels, restaurants, banks and shops seldom hire blacks, arguing that customers do
not like people of colour to wait on them. |
Brazil
enjoys a reputation as a multiracial haven, but prejudice still has a stranglehold
on society and slavery remains far from a distant memory
In a very short time–what
is 501 years on the scale of human history?–immigrants from around the world have
streamed to Brazil. The mixture of colours and peoples along with the joys of living
in tropical latitudes soon gave rise to the myth that Brazil is a “racial democracy.”
This stereotyped image, so well spread by the media, proclaims that Brazil is a socially
harmonious country where people of different colours always get along.
But behind the smiles that light up in black, white, brown, red and yellow faces
when the first drum is struck in the samba schools, the truth is hidden: racial,
social and economic prejudices exist, and must be denounced.
After Portuguese explorers discovered Brazil in 1500, slavery existed on its soil
for over three centuries. On May 13, 1888, it became the last western country to
abolish the practice. Brazil was also the biggest importer of slaves in modern history:
40 percent of the blacks exported from Africa to the New World ended up there.
As a result, Rio de Janeiro became the world’s largest African city and slave port,
and the Mercado do Valongo the biggest slave market. Today Nigeria is the only country
to have a larger black population.
Bleaching
the society
Sexual relations between whites and their slaves–especially white sons having sex
for the first time with black women–gave rise to a large mixed-race population that
today outnumbers blacks. Sometimes freed slaves were “adopted,” which eased their
plight by sparing them the struggle with a world for which they were unprepared,
but kept them in their erstwhile menial jobs and perpetuated the apparent (and sometimes
genuine) affectionate relations with the “masters in the big house.”
The expression “racial democracy” appeared in the 1930s and was intended to mask
the intentions of the government, which wanted to “bleach” society by encouraging
the “most advanced races”–in other words, white Europeans–to migrate to Brazil. The
country had accepted the myth of black racial and intellectual inferiority, and urgently
wanted to take action to change the racial make-up of the Brazilian population, where
descendants of Africans were in the majority.
The immigrants’ arrival only worsened the plight of blacks: the few jobs they could
aspire to fill became even scarcer. Forty years after emancipation, former slaves
and their descendants swelled the ranks of street people and beggars. Those who did
have a place to live dwelled in shantytowns, and when they had jobs, their skills
and wages were low.
Skewed
job applications
Statistics today point to glaring inequality, starting with child mortality: out
of every thousand children, 62 blacks and 37 whites die at an early age (76 blacks
and 45 whites among children under five). Life expectancy for adult Afro-Brazilians
is six years shorter than it is for whites: 62 years for men and 68 for women.
The illiteracy rate among blacks is 22 percent, the average length of time they spend
in school six years. When they reach the labour market, most are still children or
have a teenager’s schooling. Barely 18 percent have access to higher education, and
among that 18 percent, just 2.3 percent graduate from university. The inadequacy
of their training is reflected in professional life, where blacks are restricted
to low-paid menial jobs.
When looking for work, they know beforehand that if a white person with the same
qualifications is applying for the same position, the odds are hopelessly stacked
against them. And when they do find work, they are often the victims of unfair wage
policies that favour whites in identical jobs. This vicious circle is visible in
statistics on unemployment (the jobless rate is 11 percent for black men and 16.5
percent for black women) and poverty (34 percent of blacks live below the poverty
line and 14 percent are classified as destitute).
Five years ago, O Dia, Rio’s best-selling newspaper, carried out a survey of the
bars and restaurants along the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. The findings revealed
that just one of the 318 employees working in these businesses was black. Hotels,
restaurants, banks and shops seldom hire blacks, arguing that customers do not like
people of colour to wait on them. Discrimination is blatant in the classified ads
of newspapers, where “neat appearance” is actually code for “blacks need not apply.”
Code Four of Brazil’s National Employment System is even more perverse: it requires
job-seekers to mention their skin colour, enabling employers to turn down applications
on the pretext that the position has already been filled.
In recent years, racial hatred, which is blatant in big cities such as São
Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, has unfortunately spread to Jews, Indians, gypsies, gays
and even Nordestins (white Brazilians from the country’s north-eastern region in
search of better living conditions).
The significance of racist activities can no longer be downplayed by calling them
scattered. Though officially prohibited, anti-Semitic and revisionist publications
are legion. The Internet distills hatred of blacks, Jews and gays. Desecration of
Jewish cemeteries and spray-painted swastikas or insults on walls have become everyday
occurrences.
Things are getting out of hand, and tomorrow xenophobes may target any group, regardless
of colour, origins or religion.
Meanwhile, the white population turns a deaf ear. A recent survey by the University
of Brasilia reveals that 35 percent of those polled reluctantly admitted to being
racist, while 65 percent denied it. The insidiousness of invisible racial prejudice
was compared to a B-2 Stealth bomber, which radars cannot detect.
Working
against the grain
In
the 1980s, black community leaders decided it was time to react and began organizing
efforts to combat prejudice, fear and resistance. Overcoming their political and
religious differences, they joined forces to create non-governmental organizations
that defend the rights of blacks and commissioned studies to gain a truthful assessment
of the situation. At the same time, they started working to preserve their African
ancestors’ cultural and religious values. The goal was to strengthen black identity
and make Afro-Brazilians feel proud of their colour and traditions. Publications
of the highest quality sought to create and extol black role models that might replace
white ones.
Publishers, including children’s book publishers, started singing the praises of
real and fictional black heroes. Even cosmetics companies hopped on the bandwagon,
selling beauty products for every skin tone, type of hair and style of dress.
A
government stand
The
government, which until now was concerned by poverty but never by racism, has even
started to address the issue. It must be acknowledged that Brazil has signed the
main international human rights conventions and is on the cutting edge of anti-racist
legislation. The constitution prohibits all forms of prejudice and considers racism
“a crime without statutory limits.” Last year, the state of Rio took a new initiative
by creating “SOS Racism and anti-Semitism,” a hotline set up by the secretariat of
public safety to receive complaints from victims of racism.
But outlawing racism is not enough. Regardless of their colour, Brazilians must take
action to raise each individual’s awareness of social injustice, and incite everyone
to help wipe out inequality. |
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Colombia’s
colour-bar
“But there
aren’t any blacks in Colombia!” exclaimed a Colombian now living in New York after
hearing the ethnologist Luz Riviera discuss her recent research into the country’s
black indigenous communities. “What do you mean there aren’t? They’re over 22 percent
of the population,” replied Riviera. “If there are, then they aren’t Colombians,”
insisted the lady.
Luz Riviera tried to explain that the seven million blacks now living in the country
are not only as Colombian as her, but that it was also highly likely that she had
at least one black ancestor. “God save me from having a black in my family!,” the
aggrieved woman replied.
As in other Latin American countries, racism towards blacks and indigenous peoples
is a fact of life in Colombia. And just as in other countries of the region, victims
of this racism tend to be “invisible” in the eyes of those who practise the discrimination.
Black slaves were introduced into what is now Colombia by the first Spanish conquistadors.
From the very beginning they clustered in communities largely along the northern
coast close to Cartagena, the principle “black port” of the era, as well as on the
western Pacific coastline and the Caribbean archipelago of San Andrés and
Providencia.
The “Afro-Colombians”–as they are officially known–also live in the country’s big
and medium-sized cities, such as Cartagena, Buenaventura, Cali, Turbo, Barranquilla
or Medellín, places where their segregation takes on all the features of marginalization.
“In Cartagena, the only blacks who can enter certain clubs and restaurants are those
who are serving. In Bogotá and Cali, most domestic servants are black, often
dressed in pink uniforms,” explains Luz Riviera.
Over time, continued discrimination has led many to setting up home in rural, isolated
areas, where they live in virtually self-sufficient communities working on small
land-holdings or as employees for large farms. Some simply live on the fish they
can catch.
Life in such communities is not much better than in other parts of the country. According
to the Third report on the Human Rights Situation in Colombia, carried out for the
Organization of American States and published in 1999, “a disproportionate number
of blacks live in conditions of extreme poverty.” Afro-Colombians inhabit some of
the most conflict-ridden parts of the country and earn incomes below the national
per capita average. Illiteracy rates both in rural and urban areas remain extremely
large, while black communities suffer high rates of infant mortality and serious
diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, gastro-enteritis and lung infections. The
report puts this down to a lack of drinking water, electricity and basic medical
services.
Faced with their exclusion from the rest of society, many communities continue to
co-operate closely with groups of indigenous peoples, with whom they first formed
links under slavery when blacks were forced to work in gold and silver mines while
Indians tilled the land. Luz Riviera has studied these inter-ethnic relations in
an isolated village on the banks of the Guayabero river in the region of Serranía
del Baudó.
“Thirty or so black families living there have created ritual family ties with indigenous
families living deeper in the jungle. What frequently happens is that an indigenous
person asks a black man to be the godfather of his son, sealing a relation of compadrazgo
[joint fatherhood] which helps make the lives of both families somewhat easier in
light of the discrimination both suffer.”
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