sou negrao

rappin hood, one of brazil’s premier hip hop artists, states simply, “i’m black”. it seems an unremarkable assertion in a land where more than half of brazilians can claim african descent; where samba and capoeira have heavy doses of african influence. the largest population of african descendants outside africa lives in brazil. we all believe the mantra repeated, unchallenged, across latin america “there is no racism”. but after watching the latest episode of “wide angle” on PBS brazil in black and white, that turns out to be a profoundly complex statement. brazil is finally waking up to the realization that poverty in brazil has a color: that color is black. the government under luiz inacio lula da silva is trying to right that wrong by instituting affirmative action to get more blacks in colleges/universities and in the corporate world. but while the problem is clear, the solution isn’t; who is “black” in a country that is so racially mixed? how do you decide who is black, without creating arbitrary standards?

and this is not just a brazilian problem. a multimedia presentation from the miami herald “a rising voice: afro-latin americans” shows that things are changing all across latin america, as this most racially diverse region re-examines the notion of identity and its effect on social and economic equality.

racial identity and racism in latin america are quite different from the brand that i am familiar with that splits cleanly along the black/white divide and affects all on the wrong side of that line equally (badly). in africa or america you are black or white (which confuses some mixed race kids as they are neither). but in latin america being black is sometimes a choice; based on social/cultural factors as well as pigmentation. this means more nuanced definitions of darkness. to wit:

“To many Dominicans, to be black is to be Haitian. So dark-skinned Dominicans tend to describe themselves as any of the dozen or so racial categories that date back hundreds of years — Indian, burned Indian, dirty Indian, washed Indian, dark Indian, cinnamon, moreno or mulatto, but rarely negro.

The Dominican Republic is not the only nation with so many words to describe skin color. Asked in a 1976 census survey to describe their own complexions, Brazilians came up with 136 different terms, including café au lait, sunburned, morena, Malaysian woman, singed and “toasted.”"

whatever the labels, the resulting racism means that black people are overrepresented in the favelas and jails, and underrepresented in the corporate world, and in colleges/universities.

black latin americans are starting to re-assert their blackness/africanness. in addition to fighting for affirmative action afro-brazileiros, it includes doing things like preserving garifuna culture in honduras or activism to ensure land where quilombos or freed slave settlements were established are preserved as such.

“i’m black”. it’s a simple label, but it is a label that belies the the mind-boggling diversity of the people who claim it. also it doesn’t highlight the often conflicted relationship black people all over the diaspora have with that label and its connotations. i am most fascinated to see how public policy in places like brazil will be used to re-dress black racism and inequality.