Paula,Marilene de (Author), Heringer,Rosana (Author), and Arruti,José Maurício A. (Author)
Format:
Book, Edited
Language:
Portuguese
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Heinrich Böll Stiftung : Actionaid
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
292 p., Contents: Evolução e contexto atual das políticas públicas no Brasil : educação, desigualdade e reconhecimento / Valter Roberto Silvério -- Limites e possibilidades da implementação da lei 10.639/03 no contexto das políticas públicas em educação / Nilma Lino Gomes -- Políticas públicas para quilombos : terra, saúde e educação / José Maurício Arruti -- Mulheres negras brasileiras e os resultados de Durban / Jurema Werneck -- Análise das principais políticas de inclusão de estudantes negros no ensino superior no Brasil no período 2001-2008 / Rosana Heringer e Renato Ferreira -- Direitos, cidadania e reparações pelos erros do passado escravista : perspectivas do movimento negro no Brasil / Francine Saillant -- Política negra e democracia no Brasil contemporâneo : reflexões sobre os movimentos negros / Marcio André de O. dos Santos -- Construção e desconstrução do silêncio : reflexões sobre o racismo e o antirracismo na sociedade brasileira / Átila Roque -- Negro drama / Silvia Ramos.
Investigates the interface between gender, color/race and public health in Brazil, focusing on the importance of reproductive health for the formation of a black feminism in the country, between the years 1975 to 1993.
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.
Afro-descendant civil society organizations in Latin America have pursued an important strand of advocacy on reforming national censuses. The aim has been to increase the visibility of Afro-descendant populations through disaggregated data and thus to improve recognition of their distinct identity. Brazil is leading the way on such data collection while other countries are taking first steps, like Argentina and Chile.
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."
