Barack Obama inspires Black Brazilians

[Ms-trustme]

"Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - What struck the Brazilian woman most forcibly as she watched U.S. election-night returns on television was seeing Barack Obama's two young daughters.

"I can't believe those two little girls with hair like mine will be in the White House," said Carolina Iootty Dias.

Black Brazilians like Dias, 31, a human rights worker, celebrated Obama's election as giving hope worldwide. But the country that prides itself on racial mixing and tolerance is also being forced to take a reality check.

Though half of Brazil's 190 million people are black — the world's largest black population outside Nigeria — power remains firmly in the hands of whites. The country has few blacks in top political positions, and government studies consistently show blacks in Brazil earn half as much as whites.

"This Brazilian hypocrisy that says racism does not exist is one of the things that keeps the nation from advancing," said Stepan Nercessian, an actor and Rio de Janeiro city councilman, who is white.

Latin America's largest country has long looked down its nose at the racial discord in the United States. But Obama's election is making Brazilians look inward, with some arguing that an American-style struggle is exactly what Brazil is missing.

"I think it is important for young black Brazilians to know how the civil rights movement progressed in the U.S. and how it produced not just Obama, but blacks at the highest levels of American businesses," said Edson Santos, Brazil's minister of racial equality, who is black. "It is important that they have contact with this reality."

Glaucia Carvalho Oliveira is one of those young people.

"All of a sudden, Obama has arrived and taken us to the next level," she said as she assembled her snack stand on Rio's Copacabana beach. "We black Brazilians need him as much as the Americans do."

Brazil and the United States were two of the largest slave-owning societies in the Americas. Brazil freed its slaves in 1888, the last country in the Americas to do so. In that year it abolished all its race laws, while American blacks had to fight for more than 100 years after they were freed to gain full rights as citizens.

Black and white Brazilians mix easily in both marriage and social venues, from soccer matches to samba clubs. Beyond the half of the population that is black, most Brazilians are of mixed ancestry and have a census category, parda.

No such category exists in the U.S. census. Obama, who is half white and identifies as black, could call himself parda if he were Brazilian.

Despite Brazil's social ease around race, many argue that its blacks simply moved from the slave quarters to the slums.

They are only 3 percent of Brazil's college graduates. Only one senator among 81 is black, which mirrors the U.S. breakdown, except that blacks are only 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Blacks only started organizing in the past 40 years, said Reginaldo Lima, who is black and directs AfroReggae, which works on race and violence issues in Rio's slums.

Six years ago the country elected its first blue-collar president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a white man who enjoys huge support among blacks. Only two of his 28 government ministers are black.

Many whites play down the prejudice in Brazil, saying the inequalities are economic.

"We see people not as black or white. We don't look at a black person and think they are not as capable as whites," said medical secretary Liliane Lyra, 43. "It is more a social problem that separates the races here, a lack of opportunity for the poor."

But Alannah Xavier, 26, says her black skin, not her economic status, keeps her from getting work as a model in Brazil.

"You know where I work the most? In Germany ... a nation that is supposedly so racist with its Nazi past," said Xavier. "Here in Brazil they only have work for blondes."

Since Silva took office, there have been positive changes, notably affirmative action in the university system.

Lima says Obama's election will help.

"Barack Obama represents what every black person in the world has been hoping for: that the fight of the dream for racial equality in North America can spread to the entire world," he said.

Others doubt there will be an "Obama effect."

"This is a very racially mixed country, but all the elites are white. Things have been so bad for so long, I think people just accept it," said Carlos Eduardo Antones, 21, a waiter who is black."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nation ... 1955.story

[Macunaima]

But the country that prides itself on racial mixing and tolerance is also being forced to take a reality check.

Yet again, another (presumably white) gringo author arrives to tell us what we have known since the 1970s at least: Brazil is a racist country. The only people who need to "wake up" here are the folks who think that this is news.

However, the article is a classic example of how to twist Brazilian racial realities.

For example, the author claims that 50% of Brazil is black. That's only tru if you count all "pardos" as "black". If we only count "negros" it's 6%.

But fair go, right? Wrong. Because in all the other stats he cites, he uses stats that are concocted by only counting that 6% of self-described "negros". Frex, that 3% of college grads only pertains to the 6% negro population, not to the 50% pardo and negro population. Likewise, that "1 out of 81 sentators is black" bit only counts self-described negros, not pardos.

Finally, that 'blacks only started organizing in the last 40 years" is TOTAL horseshit. Quoting AfroReggae on Black Brazilian political history is like quoting FlavorFlav on Black American political history: you're sure to get good sounsbites, but they're not going to be all that reliable in terms of facts.

Not to try to moralize our Senate which is, of course, a racist institution, but to claim that the U.S. is somehow light-years beyond Brazil on this issue is nuts. Here's our one "real" black senator:



...and here are a bunch of Brazilian senators who The Sentinel obviously considers to be "white":









Now let's look at Black American sentaors, shall we?

In the last ten years, there has been precisely ONE: Barack Obama. And you know DAMNED well that there are no mestiços in that august body passing as white.

So which country needs to wake up again...?

[Micaal]

mac are u suggesting brazil has more black politicians in power then US ?

brazil has more blacks who are involved in influencing public decision in brazil?

or your being specific to this article??


Mac

Here's our one "real" black senator:

???..what do u mean real ?..like real as in he is true black or real to the causes in brazil?

[Micaal]

i noticed the other topic is locked why???

mac u know the game in politics...all i see in images of mixed men with ties ...do u mind sharing process have been made with them in office or laws they have passed that brazilians benifit from?... they could be pawns to please bruthas and sistas in brazil...
just seat fillers just putting some darker or black faces in office don't mean shit unless they making it happend....movements..turn outs..progress...

every brutha aint a brutha cause of his skin or hair/features
could be house niggas
(like onces u named calling themselves white)

[frank4000]

well brasil has a long way to go before things get better

[Macunaima]

mac are u suggesting brazil has more black politicians in power then US ?

brazil has more blacks who are involved in influencing public decision in brazil?

or your being specific to this article??

What I'm saying is that it's interesteing how the authors of articles like these always wind up calling "white", in Brazil, people whom they'd never call "white" in the States.

Now, I'm pretty sure Tuma and Souto consider themselves to be "white". But if it became politically expedient for them to do so, they could call themselves "pardo" at the drop of a hat and no one would challenge it.

I don't know what Magno Malta and Heloisa Helena clal themselves, but again, they can obviously go either way as the political winds take them.

This is the problem with American analyses of Brazilian race: Americans presume that people are "really" black or white. There's no question about it in their eyes.

Here in Brazil, however, we have a lot of people who are brown, even in the top ranks of government. Where do these folks get slotted it?

It's indicative of me that the author of the Sentinel piece doesn't seem to know himself, being that in one part of the article he uses "black and brown" as a synonym for "black" while in another part of the article, he quotes stats which only make sense if we were to presume that "black" does NOT include brown.

[Micaal]

Mac

What I'm saying is that it's interesteing how the authors of articles like these always wind up calling "white", in Brazil, people whom they'd never call "white" in the States.

Now, I'm pretty sure Tuma and Souto consider themselves to be "white". But if it became politically expedient for them to do so, they could call themselves "pardo" at the drop of a hat and no one would challenge it.

I don't know what Magno Malta and Heloisa Helena clal themselves, but again, they can obviously go either way as the political winds take them.

This is the problem with American analyses of Brazilian race: Americans presume that people are "really" black or white. There's no question about it in their eyes.

Here in Brazil, however, we have a lot of people who are brown, even in the top ranks of government. Where do these folks get slotted it?

It's indicative of me that the author of the Sentinel piece doesn't seem to know himself, being that in one part of the article he uses "black and brown" as a synonym for "black" while in another part of the article, he quotes stats which only make sense if we were to presume that "black" does NOT include brown.

_________________
some of those writters maybe doing it out of respect to that regions definition of what race is
or could be culture ignorance in lots of cases..

Their are lots of brazilians who consider themselves white in brazil, but carry strong indian latin/hispanic features,
in which would be consider any of those elsewhere
and thats where the problem is with outsiders looking in at brazilians
along with brazilians leaving to US/Europe/Asia etc then moving back
to latin-america with their feelings hurt.
(if race looks is an issue with them)

None of the people in those images look of the Indo-European of the Caucasus region, so why would any of them consider or suggest their white?
is this a mental state of many brazilians to uplift the self confidence....?
a advantage to benefit the brazilian society?

[frank4000]

mac are u suggesting brazil has more black politicians in power then US ?

brazil has more blacks who are involved in influencing public decision in brazil?

or your being specific to this article??

What I'm saying is that it's interesteing how the authors of articles like these always wind up calling "white", in Brazil, people whom they'd never call "white" in the States.

Now, I'm pretty sure Tuma and Souto consider themselves to be "white". But if it became politically expedient for them to do so, they could call themselves "pardo" at the drop of a hat and no one would challenge it.

I don't know what Magno Malta and Heloisa Helena clal themselves, but again, they can obviously go either way as the political winds take them.

This is the problem with American analyses of Brazilian race: Americans presume that people are "really" black or white. There's no question about it in their eyes.

Here in Brazil, however, we have a lot of people who are brown, even in the top ranks of government. Where do these folks get slotted it?

It's indicative of me that the author of the Sentinel piece doesn't seem to know himself, being that in one part of the article he uses "black and brown" as a synonym for "black" while in another part of the article, he quotes stats which only make sense if we were to presume that "black" does NOT include brown.

agreed mac brasil is reason why mormons starting taking in blacks in the congregation

[Comandante]

*** DOUBLE F*CKING POST ***

delet this shit Mods.

[Comandante]

But the country that prides itself on racial mixing and tolerance is also being forced to take a reality check.

Yet again, another (presumably white) gringo author arrives to tell us what we have known since the 1970s at least: Brazil is a racist country. The only people who need to "wake up" here are the folks who think that this is news.

However, the article is a classic example of how to twist Brazilian racial realities.

For example, the author claims that 50% of Brazil is black. That's only tru if you count all "pardos" as "black". If we only count "negros" it's 6%.

But fair go, right? Wrong. Because in all the other stats he cites, he uses stats that are concocted by only counting that 6% of self-described "negros". Frex, that 3% of college grads only pertains to the 6% negro population, not to the 50% pardo and negro population. Likewise, that "1 out of 81 sentators is black" bit only counts self-described negros, not pardos.

Finally, that 'blacks only started organizing in the last 40 years" is TOTAL horseshit. Quoting AfroReggae on Black Brazilian political history is like quoting FlavorFlav on Black American political history: you're sure to get good sounsbites, but they're not going to be all that reliable in terms of facts.

Not to try to moralize our Senate which is, of course, a racist institution, but to claim that the U.S. is somehow light-years beyond Brazil on this issue is nuts. Here's our one "real" black senator:



...and here are a bunch of Brazilian senators who The Sentinel obviously considers to be "white":









Now let's look at Black American sentaors, shall we?

In the last ten years, there has been precisely ONE: Barack Obama. And you know DAMNED well that there are no mestiços in that august body passing as white.

So which country needs to wake up again...?

Yet again, another (presumably white) gringo author arrives to tell us what we have known since the 1970s at least: Brazil is a racist country.

Yeah right. 99% of the brazilian media and the popular mentality still claims that there is no racism in Brazil, onlt class division. Even though some "know" that is bull. The problem here Mac, is that you're so blindly anti-US that it makes you forget your pro-black militancy.

For example, the author claims that 50% of Brazil is black. That's only tru if you count all "pardos" as "black". If we only count "negros" it's 6%.

You know damn well that "pardo" is only a way most parents found of escaping from the "black stigma" when registering their children. NONE, absoletely ZERO of those with pardo on their birth certificates would be mistaken by anything other than BLACK-- or at least mulato. My maid is parda and she ain't not even half a shade lighter than Idi Amin.

But fair go, right? Wrong. Because in all the other stats he cites, he uses stats that are concocted by only counting that 6% of self-described "negros". Frex, that 3% of college grads only pertains to the 6% negro population, not to the 50% pardo and negro population. Likewise, that "1 out of 81 sentators is black" bit only counts self-described negros, not pardos.

Bullshit again. I've been to USP, PUC, FGV and IBEMEC and I could count the pardos 'ive seen there using only one hand. And you can tune on TV SENADO any time, just try to find a pardo there too....

Last but not least, you tried to classify ROMEU TUMA as pardo!

I know his family intimately, I've studied with Daniel Tuma in secondary school, his family is from LEBANON and PORTUGAL, and he is member of the very ELITE of São Paulo, a resident of Vila Nova Conceição and owner of one of Brazil's biggest factories. Not to mention Heloísa Helena, brazilians would NEVER see her as pardo or anything other than white.

Not to try to moralize our Senate which is, of course, a racist institution, but to claim that the U.S. is somehow light-years beyond Brazil on this issue is nuts. Here's our one "real" black senator:

The U.S IS light-years ahead of Brazil despite having only 1/4 of Brazil's black population. Half of the Southern U.S Mayors and County Sheriffs are black, how many counterparts of those in Brazil again? Shall I mention the number of blacks in high job positions in a multitude of major private companies, as executives, lawyers, directors, CEOs, managers, doctors, scientists, researchers, engineers, producers, etc etc etc. But that's only "fancy shit", let's talk average joes now: how many black/pardo brazilians can you find working or shopping at nice malls, stores, restaurants, nightclubs? And I ain't talking about bouncers , toilet cleaners and parking lot guards...

[Comandante]

Mac

What I'm saying is that it's interesteing how the authors of articles like these always wind up calling "white", in Brazil, people whom they'd never call "white" in the States.

Now, I'm pretty sure Tuma and Souto consider themselves to be "white". But if it became politically expedient for them to do so, they could call themselves "pardo" at the drop of a hat and no one would challenge it.

I don't know what Magno Malta and Heloisa Helena clal themselves, but again, they can obviously go either way as the political winds take them.

This is the problem with American analyses of Brazilian race: Americans presume that people are "really" black or white. There's no question about it in their eyes.

Here in Brazil, however, we have a lot of people who are brown, even in the top ranks of government. Where do these folks get slotted it?

It's indicative of me that the author of the Sentinel piece doesn't seem to know himself, being that in one part of the article he uses "black and brown" as a synonym for "black" while in another part of the article, he quotes stats which only make sense if we were to presume that "black" does NOT include brown.

_________________
some of those writters maybe doing it out of respect to that regions definition of what race is
or could be culture ignorance in lots of cases..

Their are lots of brazilians who consider themselves white in brazil, but carry strong indian latin/hispanic features,
in which would be consider any of those elsewhere
and thats where the problem is with outsiders looking in at brazilians
along with brazilians leaving to US/Europe/Asia etc then moving back
to latin-america with their feelings hurt.
(if race looks is an issue with them)

None of the people in those images look of the Indo-European of the Caucasus region, so why would any of them consider or suggest their white?
is this a mental state of many brazilians to uplift the self confidence....?
a advantage to benefit the brazilian society?

The problem is that you think like an average American with their narrow-minded, origin defined classification system. You hear "brazilian" than you automatically assume "dayum, that can't be white, they must the "hispanic/latin". Because in the American mainstream system, white status is carved in stone as being only WASP/Germanic/Scandinavian, born in First World Countries only.

If you see this guy in a brazilian Congress, would you say he is white, or would you say he was "hispanic" or some stupid shit like that?




Well, as you probably know, this bastard is British and consider to be white anywhere in Europe or in the United States. However, if he was from Brazil, most Americans would say he was spanish/latin, therefore, NOT WHITE.

Mainstream America classify place of ORIGIN before any other thing, not simply race as pure racialists view it. That's why we can not say America is really racist, but rather just a bit xenophobic (which Brazil is guilty as well). Because you care more about birthplace than actual race.

Some of you are so dumb with this idea, that you might doubt that someone like CHARLIZE THERON could actually be from SOUTH AFRICA.



You say Andy Garcia is hispanic, thus non-white:



Is he really less white than Rowan Atkinson from the UK? Shit, that's right, Andy is from CUBA! Not UK.

Same for Gloria Stefan...




"Shiat dawgg, bitch can't be whitey, she speak SPANISH and is from CUBA!"


What about Gabriela Spanic?



"Dude, I saw her in one of those Televisa Soup-Opera channels, so she have got to be spanic". (it doens't matter that she Croatian, if she comes from Venezuela, then to the USA, she is just "spanish).

[Micaal]

are u mad?..lol u mad com?..ahahahaah

dawg!! how is that?......well let me say this ..
those latin actors/actresses u mentioned consider themselves latino....not me not america they do!! go hit their websites read their bio
(except that slavic girl never seen her don't know who she is)

i didn't say brazil or other countries don't have whites.

people derived from a origin of an area or earlier form is what i mean with those people in the photo

and please don't call me or any other person narrow minded it is about decant fool or brazilians wouldn't call all asians japas no matter what ..even if their second generation born brazilians so please da f**k outa here with that.,,shit do braZilians even call japas from out of town gringos??

is this a mental state of many brazilians to uplift the self confidence....?
a advantage to benefit the brazilian society?

answer that shit homeboy!! or ill make it simple..so u wont take it outa text

in brazil what is it looks or orgin that defines who and what you are?

i see people that look like my mother, sister calling themselves all these names everything under the sun other then black ..lol..that doest happend in other countries...so thats why i ask how does brazil base who is if so why?

im negro,white. mixed ..pardo etc cause i look like this?
or im this cause of my family or ancestral descent

[Young Buck]

sounds like the arguments Mac use to have with Spinarooni.

[Micaal]

lol@ youn-B
nah mines is a question not a statment.
.gringo spin e-man or whoever he was was trying to tell mac how people are in fact...

im curious so i ask questions
I dont care what people think about me
just don't try and tell me how I think!!

thats the issue i have with some people :tell me how I am or think a certain way cause I'm american and or black..
.fuckah u don't know me!!( how i feel when folks do it)

[aracici]

Micaal little flufy:

I know who you are. Snoop Dog!!!

[Comandante]

are u mad?..lol u mad com?..ahahahaah

dawg!! how is that?......well let me say this ..
those latin actors/actresses u mentioned consider themselves latino....not me not america they do!! go hit their websites read their bio
(except that slavic girl never seen her don't know who she is)

i didn't say brazil or other countries don't have whites.

people derived from a origin of an area or earlier form is what i mean with those people in the photo

and please don't call me or any other person narrow minded it is about decant fool or brazilians wouldn't call all asians japas no matter what ..even if their second generation born brazilians so please da f**k outa here with that.,,shit do braZilians even call japas from out of town gringos??

is this a mental state of many brazilians to uplift the self confidence....?
a advantage to benefit the brazilian society?

answer that shit homeboy!! or ill make it simple..so u wont take it outa text

in brazil what is it looks or orgin that defines who and what you are?

i see people that look like my mother, sister calling themselves all these names everything under the sun other then black ..lol..that doest happend in other countries...so thats why i ask how does brazil base who is if so why?

im negro,white. mixed ..pardo etc cause i look like this?
or im this cause of my family or ancestral descent

awg!! how is that?......well let me say this ..
those latin actors/actresses u mentioned consider themselves latino....not me not america they do!! go hit their websites read their bio
(except that slavic girl never seen her don't know who she is)

Dude, get this in your thick black head: There is NO race/ethnicity/ category called "latino" nor "spanic" neither "spanish" OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES. Those actors didn't choose to become "latin" when they moved or were born in the U.S, it was their ONLY option, given the fact that only WASPs/germanics/Scands etc can be Caucasian in the official U.S Census. TRY TO UNDERSTAND THIS YOU IDIOT!

By the way: that slavic girl is a Venezuelan citizen, but guess what??? SHE IS CONSIDERED TO BE LATIN/SPANISH IN THE U.S, but not where she lives now (Mexico). Why do you think that is, genius?

is this a mental state of many brazilians to uplift the self confidence....?
a advantage to benefit the brazilian society?

It is not a secret that most brazilians of color tend to whitewash themselves. Heck, the country officially had a whitewashing policy. We've been telling this shit for years around here.

in brazil what is it looks or orgin that defines who and what you are?

Looks is the most important. Specially skin tone and facial/hair features.
You may have half your family of German/Irish origin, but if you look dark of with big potato nose, steel sponge hair and all that blackness, people you call you black/mulatto no matter your ancestry. The inverse is also real. If you look white but your whole family looks like Slaves getting out of the ship straight from Gabon, you are still white in Brazil.

i see people that look like my mother, sister calling themselves all these names everything under the sun other then black ..lol..that doest happend in other countries...so thats why i ask how does brazil base who is if so why?

Because most brazilians are scared shitless of the "black stigma", they don't want to associate with blacks, and much less assume to be black. That's why you'll see them saying watered down terms like "moreno", "bronzeado", "café com leite" and mulato but never BLACK, or negro/preto. Only the more enlightened blacks, the wealthier blacks, celebrities and singers in general seem to assume their race and have some pride in that. Not to general population. This is very understandable though, In Brazil the richer or the more famous you get, you lose "black stigma" points.

[frank4000]

everybody what to classify themselves as something else

[Comandante]

everybody what to classify themselves as something else

That's extremely ignorant. You're basically saying that all the humans in the planet earth want to change their race/ethnicity.

Hey, but that's Frank, as ignorant as a Christmas tree.

What do you even bother posting in serious topics? Go back to the Prostitute Section. Let's keep this one half-intelligent.

Thanks in advance.

[frank4000]

everybody what to classify themselves as something else

That's extremely ignorant. You're basically saying that all the humans in the planet earth want to change their race/ethnicity.

Hey, but that's Frank, as ignorant as a Christmas tree.

What do you even bother posting in serious topics? Go back to the Prostitute Section. Let's keep this one half-intelligent.

Thanks in advance.

then you have to go with me offspring

[e harmony]

It's indicative of me that the author of the Sentinel piece doesn't seem to know himself, being that in one part of the article he uses "black and brown" as a synonym for "black" while in another part of the article, he quotes stats which only make sense if we were to presume that "black" does NOT include brown.

Isn't that a fairly common game play in statistics?

I'm starting to think some of these studies in the U.S. regarding Black-American's white genome pool, when utilizing averages (mew), are including Mulatto biracials and maybe even mixed people who have one White parent and one Mulatto parent.

Perhaps I'm wrong, I do realize there are some *clearly*, multigenerational, mixed Black-Americans. But how does one come up with an *average* like the average Black-American in a given city has 20% to 35% white genome? To come up with an average that high would seem to suggest there is sample date as high as 80% white genome.

It would be helpful if these studies reported their max and min's and not just their means.

I dunno... I'm off topic anyways and perhaps I just don't understand well enough some of these statistics or the human DNA. Then again, people can skew up stats any way they want. [shrug]