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As some one who is black, and falls into the out group (what they will call dark mulatto as part of their divide and rule, but will treat no better than some one who they consider black) I felt much more aware of being black in Brazil than I did in the USA. Reason. Because Brazilians have a tough time seeing some one of predominant African descent as an upper middle class professional, and usually assume that they are poor. In Brazil being poor can be a disaster.
White people in Latin America are usually from recent European immigration. Of course, there are mixed people that try to pass as white, just as in the US.
As some one who is black, and falls into the out group (what they will call dark mulatto as part of their divide and rule, but will treat no better than some one who they consider black) I felt much more aware of being black in Brazil than I did in the USA. Reason. Because Brazilians have a tough time seeing some one of predominant African descent as an upper middle class professional, and usually assume that they are poor. In Brazil being poor can be a disaster.
I think it really depends. If your a foreigner in Brazil(particularly American or European) your generally going to be perceived as "having money" regardless if your African American, European American, Asian American, etc.
I think it really depends. If your a foreigner in Brazil(particularly American or European) your generally going to be perceived as "having money" regardless if your African American, European American, Asian American, etc.
This is true which is why I quickly learned to speak English and not bother trying to learn Portuguese.
And just to show what Brazil is like, at least 20 years ago (I assume that it has evolved since). I was approached by some sales touts for one of the malls in Copacabana. They were all black, and approached me speaking English. I asked them how come. They responded that a Brazilian looking like me wouldn't be casually walking into jewelry/precious stone stores the way that I was.
We got into a lengthy discussion and they revealed to me that there were discouraged from approaching white tourists by the owner of the store. I asked how they survived, given that few black tourists were around. They shrugged their shoulders and I was left astounded that this was happening in a major city in the 1990s.
My point is that as a black person (classified as dark mulato, as if it makes a difference, which is doesn't) I had to be much more aware of the need to present myself as tourist. Usually a tourist would want to appear as local looking as possible to avoid being ripped off. Blacks visiting many parts of Latin America can't. I will suggest that PR and DR are different for reasons that we can debate, and Panama as well.
But I will suggest, despite what some Brazilians like Malaman will perpetrate, that the visible presence of black tourists from the USA, Caribbean and to a degree Africa, made black Brazilians begin to challenge the assumptions that Brazil was a racial paradise. They saw us having money to visit Rio and Salvador and stay in decent, even if not the most expensive hotels. This not something that they saw many black Brazilians being able to do. The result being that there has been increasing pressure to get Brazilian society to begin to become more open.
I don't think you can apply American racial standards to Latin Americans. I'm Brazilian, and I am completely white. All of my family originates from somewhere in Eastern Europe except for my maternal grandmother's family, who were Italian. I'm blond and blue-eyed. I'm also not rich at all and some of my relatives still live on farms. The idea of race in the US is different from the idea of race in Latin America.
If anything, I think that applying the racial history of the US to Latin America is quite racist in itself.
I've tried to argue some points here but then a I realized that this forum is made by the same robots in most of the topics, you´ll soon realize it too...
As you mentioned, Brazil is a totally different society from US because poverty united the "races". Europeans immigrants that got here in the end of slavory and the next dacades have in great part been explored, kept uneducated, etc...
It´s true that until today in many cities there's very feel people with strong african descendence among the very rich, but if you look at B C D classes you'll find people of all colours living in the same neighbourhoods, getting he same crap buses, studing in the same crap schools, being disrespected by our governors in all ways. What they call "inter-racial" marriages and affairs are commom place here a long before they are becoming more natural just mowdays in US.
Ethnic neighbourhoods are until today something normal there...
Probably with the increase of what they call "inter-racial" marriages this attitude of proclaiming white descendents "nonwhite", black "culture"(not reffering to culture but to the gheto) will become something folcloric in US for the next dacades.
Last edited by Mr.Falcon; 04-20-2014 at 12:12 AM..
If anything, I think that applying the racial history of the US to Latin America is quite racist in itself.
Why is it racist? And by the way I hope you aren't implying that there isn't a heck of amount of racism against people of African descent in Brazil.
The problem that you are going to have is that many of us have been to Brazil and have seen how that country operates. Some of us have also seen how treatment improves once they discover that we aren't Brazilian.
I've tried to argue some points here but then a I realized that this forum is made by the same robots in most of the topics, you´ll soon realize it too...
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Tell you what. More than a few of the descendants of those "poor" European immigrants made it up the ladder. Very of the descendants of African slaves have.
Odd isn't it for a country where they spend lots of time talking about how "racist" the USA is!
I've tried to argue some points here but then a I realized that this forum is made by the same robots in most of the topics, you´ll soon realize it too...
Your right its the same race obsessed few that don't contribute anything too the forum, they only comment on the race related topics (Can we say obsessed?), and there are way too many of those on here.
They claim Latin America is racist yet, most of the race obsessed post on here are started and continued by people in the U.S. Odd isn't it?
They claim Latin America is racist yet, most of the race obsessed post on here are started and continued by people in the U.S. Odd isn't it?
And then there are folks like you who wish to hide the levels of racism in Latin America, even as they accuse the USA of being raced obsessed. And they are unable to furnish proof that the socio economic condition of people with obvious African ancestry is better in Latin America. This even as an increasingly vocal Afrodescendant movement has emerged in places like Brazil, Colombia, and elsewhere.
Odd isn't it?
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