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The Brazilians share a trait with the Americans in that they do not like outsiders telling them what is wrong with their country.  They might know it, discuss it and moan about it but as soon as an outsider says the same thing, they close ranks and defend the system and so it is with racism and Brazil.

A sizeable number of Brazilians will not accept their society is racist even though there are institutions such as the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) stating that ‘despite improvements in the past decade, the racial gap in Brazil remains considerably wide’ (Roundup: Racial inequality persists in Brazil).  However, I feel with the Brazilians as most of the accusations do indeed originate from outsiders, even those who live in Brazil.

What appears to be the problem is that many people mix class with race as in many cases these do in fact correspond, but not always.   For example in this article -Who’s Black? – there is a number of examples of people changing race suggests they actually changed class based on their wealth.  Unlike many other societies, class appears to be a dynamic social construct in Brazil.

The scenario described by the author of Black and White: Marveling at a Brazil Where Racial Rules Are Learned Early in Life is one that is recognisable by anyone who has lived or lived in Southern Africa for example.  The scene happens all over Southern Africa with middle class Africans and African servants, in some countries the scene might have been a little bit less cordial, for example, the owner’s children would never be allowed in the servants’ quarters. The place that that little girl understands is class not race – in Brazil that is, unfortunately, nearly always equated to skin colour.

Historically, the white/European was the land and slave owner and therefore his descendants have already got an advantage in life.  Reversing the benefits of ‘old’ money is difficult, for instance, there are generations of (white) working class people in the UK that cannot see their way out of their circumstances.  For centuries, miners begat miners, blacksmiths begat blacksmiths etc. This issue goes very deep.  President Robert Mugabe, in Zimbabwe, attempted (ignoring the manner in which it was done) to reverse this status quo with the redistribution of land, an issue Brazil itself is facing in the West and one that Namibia is attempting to address and one that South Africa will face in the very near future.

This argument of class versus race can be applied to quite a number of ex-colony non-European countries, especially where power remains in ‘white’ hands.  That is not to say that those societies do not have any racism – all humans have prejudices but it does more harm to claim racism in areas where little or none exists.

Poverty is difficult to reverse and that it is why it is the duty of the state to provide the opportunities to allow those who wish to change their social status the opportunity to do so.

Feel free to disagree in the comments

Links

• It’s our class, not our colour, that screws us up
• Anthropologist Schwarcz discusses race in Brazil
• Racism in my Brazil
• Black and White: Marveling at a Brazil Where Racial Rules Are Learned Early in Life
• Who’s Black?
• Roundup: Racial inequality persists in Brazil

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