In this, he's not unlike his counterparts in the United States, where black people also have an extensive vocabulary to describe variations in skin tone. In the United States, one can be "high yellow" (i.e., of very light skin); one can be "red" (i.e., with a reddish tint; one of Malcolm X's early nicknames was "Detroit Red"); or one can be any of a number of synonyms for dark. Like, for instance, "Smokey." In fact, the famous (and "high yellow") Motown singer William Robinson was given that nickname in affectionate irony by one of his father's friends - sort of like calling a fat guy Tiny. The same is not true in Brazil. And if the United States is a country where black people with light skin used to sometimes "pass," i.e., pretend to be white, well, in this country "passing is a national institution." So says Elisa Nascimento with a laugh. She is white, American-born and the wife of Abdias do Nascimento, a 90-year-old black Brazilian artist and political icon. And the insistence of some Brazilian blacks on "passing," she says, has political consequences in that it tends to distort statistics on black life. "The way racism works in Brazil . . . there is a hierarchy, and so people tend to identify themselves lighter than they necessarily would be." "It was a rough time," she says in her imperfect English. "For me, was impossible to live there. We could not be married. Why I married with a black guy, you know? So when I say to you that Brazil was different . . . even my first husband didn't think of himself as black. In Brazil, he was a Brazilian, even though he was black. He never thought of himself as someone different from me because he was another color."
Blacks comprise almost half of the country's population, but only 2.2 percent of its college community is Black. Blacks hold none of Brazil's top ministerial positions in government. More than two-thirds of Brazil's poor are Black and whites earn double what Blacks earn.
I am referring to prejudice against those who are both Latino and black, whose ancestors arrived on Spanish or Portuguese Slave ships. Living in Los Angeles, it might be easy to think that most Latinos are brown-skinned and of Mexican descent; after all, the majority of our city's Latino population identify as Mexican. Latin American scholars and historians agree that about 95 percent of the Africans forcibly brought to the Americas were bought to what is now Latin America. They are concentrated in the Caribbean, Colombia and Brazil, where half of the population is of African ancestry. And many dark-skinned Latinos also live in the United States. A black Latina wrote recently in Hispanic Magazine that Latinos see blackness as a liability in this country because the Latino community seems to be perpetuating the long-standing racism in South America. In Peru, blacks are sill being used as ornamental images ... chauffeurs valets and servants and blacks in Brazil are still considered marginal members of society. And it was reported that "Batista's skin was not pink enough to gain membership to some Cuban elite clubs."
"You must understand that we are very different in Cuba," insisted Gabriel Molina Franchossi, director of Gramma newspaper, the official organ of the communist party in Cuba. "To Afro-Cubans, big lips and big backsides are objects of beauty. To us, such images represent the feminine ideal." Under Castro, Blacks are well represented in the country's ruling bodies. Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world and mortality rates comparable to that of Europe and the United States. Successful Afro Cubans are quick to note that they and their children have been afforded opportunities since what they call "the triumph of the Revolution" that they would never have received under the old regime.
History shows close to two million enslaved Africans were taken to South America. A great number of them were taken to Bahia, Brazil, to work on the sugar cane plantations. [Dionisio] has hope for the future of Brazilian Blacks. "If America can elect a Black president, I know that our time will one day come when a Black Brazilian will look after the wellbeing of his or her people. But at the way things are in Brazil, it is only through education that we will one day be equal to the whites, if you know what I mean." At this point, it sounded as if Dionisio was engaged in a monologue. "But many children dream of one day being like Pele, our greatest football star," he continued as he gazed in the distance, his eyes resting on the humming bird doing battle with the sweet nectar. The mention of Pele changed the contour of his face and I could see the veins in his face clearly showing. "Most of our people have let us down. Most, like Pele, can be considered Black, but we have a saying here that 'You are a Black person with a white soul. We say that of Black leaders and football celebrities who do not support any Black agenda."
Just Chillin' continued, "That's one of the reasons why everyone's going to Anancy Restaurant for those tasty fish dishes." Money said, "Alex who is a close friend of Richie, AKA Mr. Music (part of LAB NOISE), has a favourite expression: "That's your opinion..." Da Professor said, "Children should be grateful they even have a school; many children don't. In many parts of the world education is a luxury. Look at what just happened in Haiti. [Don]'t forget what happened there. People have short memories; they're still in dire need. Whatever you have to donate bring it to Montreal North and have the Brothers and the Sisters send it to their relatives in Haiti, bypassing the sticky fingers... Don't forget we arc our brothers' keeper, so we have to show some love to our neighbours (not THE SYSTEM). After all WE are the world."
Cuba's rulers, say activists, see the growing dark face of the opposition as "ingratitude" that requires harsher punishment. They point to the case of Black Communist leader Juan Carlos Robinson, sentenced in 2006 to 12 years in jail for "corruption," an offense for which former foreign minister, Roberto Robaina, who's white, was arrested in 2002 but placed under house arrest. [Orlando Zapata Tamayo]'s ordeal is being spun from the other side of the coin, too - the predominantly white and U.S.-based, right-wing anti-Castro opposition who clearly stand to score political points from the case of a Black martyr. Righteous declarations can be expected from organizations such as Democracy Movement, the Cuban American National Foundation, the Cuban Liberty Council and, especially, the Cuban Democratic Directorate. Many Cuban civil-rights activists accuse these groups of working to corral and control the new internal opposition forces on behalf of interests linked to Cuba's former Jim Crow oligarchy. That's why they see U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart's "indignation" over Zapata's death, as much as president Raul Castro's "regrets," as a double farce. A staunch supporter of the tiny; white elite of wealth that was overthrown in 1959, Diaz-Balart can cry crocodile tears, but during his time in Congress his right-wing, proembargo agenda has only hindered the ability of Black Cubans to improve their lot.
Another established Caribbean tradition runs counter to the claim that racism there is unusual and of recent origin. This is the tendency to account for a person's character by identifying the racial identity of that individual's parents. West Indians, quite spontaneously, account for each other's personality traits with statements such as "Well, after all, his father was white," or "His father was quite dark you know. In Guyana and Trinidad, one hears frequently that East Indians are by nature "cheap". Elsewhere, Syrians and Jews are, reportedly, successful merchants because of their "clannishness". The Caribs of Dominica are described as Creoles as "lazy drunkards", and the Caribs accuse Creoles of being "mean" and "immoral". Throughout the islands, Creoles who are dark are said to be less motivated for success, and those who are lighter are accused of being snobbish and too sober for their own good. Since independence, racial discrimination has been systemically condemned, and with a good deal of success. But racism (at least in the form of the belief that "once we know a person's racial background, we then know much about that persons' abilities and character traits,") is very much ingrained in the thinking of many West Indians. This style of racism has met with no effective challenge comparable to the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. In the absence of racial segregation or the North American type of racial polarization, and with what scholars call the Caribbean "myth of racial harmony," most leaders throughout the region seldom address this insidious racism.
The carnival image of racial harmony When Brazil became a democracy in 1988, the new constitution specified that they should be given land. But in practice, only a handful have. The local priest in Camburi, Father [Alexander Coelho], urges villagers to unite to demand land. He says that Brazil has a race problem which it is only starting to face up to. "Three hundred years of slavery, 300 hundred years of submission - it's hard to teach people to change that mindset," he says. "In Brazil, there was no discussion about race ... there was a pseudo-equality. When we started to talk about it, we were accused of bringing racism to Brazil," he argues.
The issue at hand was brought to our attention by Brazilian activist Ivanir dos Santos - the executive secretary of an organization called CEAP (Center for the Articulation of Outcast Populations) who came to our attention recently to protest a song released by Sony Music/Brazil artist Tiririca called "Look at Her Hair." "It was something for the children ... a carnival song, kind of a joke," a spokesperson for Sony Music/Brazil, Michele Rumchinsky, said of the record. The average White man or woman in Brazil, a nation of 80 million people of African descent that has the world's second-largest population of people of African descent outside of Nigeria - makes three times what the average Afro-Brazilian earns, although Afro-Brazilians make up 44 percent of the nation's population.
