Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths?

9 The Brazilian Convergence: Toward the U.S. Path

From Racial Dictatorship to Racial Democracy: Antiracism and the Color-Conscious Society On May 11, 1988, two days before the official celebration of the centennial of the abolition of Brazilian slavery, black movement activists organized a public protest several thousand strong, who marched through downtown Rio de Janeiro chanting the slogans “Cem anos sem abolição” (One hundred years without abolition!) and “We are still enslaved! Racial democracy is a lie!” (Burdick 1992a, 23–27). This demonstration was met with the greatest display of police force since the end of the military dictatorship. These and other similar black movement activities in the 1980s attracted significant publicity and garnered support from politically and socially conscious intellectuals, the church, and workers’ organizations concerned about social justice. Yet many of those seeking a more equitable society have viewed African Brazilians as part of a larger transracial working class. Thus, they believe that race-specific policies targeting African Brazilians would deviate from the main course of social reform. In addition, political organizations such as the Unified Black Movement (O Movimento Negro Unificado, mnu) have often drawn comparatively more attention from abroad than in Brazil. Consequently, they have not garnered broad backing from other sectors of the African Brazilian community (Dzidzienyo 1979, 9; Rocha 1988, 21; Skidmore 1992–93, 49–57). The Increasing Significance of Race Although the mnu and similar political organizations have been unsuccessful in amassing broad support for a race-specific political agenda, they are, nonetheless, Toward the U.S. Path nine the brazilian convergence part of a larger black movement encompassing a variety of social, cultural, and political organizations and activities. Prominent African Brazilians have spoken out publicly about their experiences with racial discrimination. Although it seems unlikely that large numbers of individuals will join African Brazilian political organizations, many appear willing to embrace the notion of a distinct African Brazilian culture and experience. For example, Black People (English title, Portuguese text), which was launched in 1993, and Raça: A Revista dos Negros Brasileiros (Race: The Magazine of African Brazilians), which emerged in late October 1996, have been among popular glossy magazines targeting a self-identified African Brazilian audience (Buckley 2000; Burdick 1998a, 3; Nobles 2000, 124). Beauty salons specializing in cabelo crespo (“kinky” hair) have sprung up in urban areas, and on city streets one finds women wearing nontraditional hairstyles, including rasta dreads, braids, and Afro permanents (Wells 2001).1 There has also been a revitalization of African-derived religious and musical expression, as well as a growth in African Brazilian literature (Silva 1992, 12–13; Skidmore 1992–93, 49–57). Yet according to sociologist Livio Sansone, African Brazilians still display a “thin” sense of themselves as a racial collectivity while at the same time articulating a “thick” black cultural identity (which is itself to some extent part of the global flow of black cultural symbols increasingly shared by large numbers of individuals in the African diaspora, particularly the Black Atlantic) (Cornell and Hartmann 1998, 82; Sansone 2003, 5, 16, 87–92, 104). Advertisers who have explored the market for “black” products have become aware of the financial potential of targeting an African Brazilian audience. Other advertisers have increasingly included African Brazilians in television commercials for more mainstream products (Buckley 2000; Cose 1998, 42–46; Luís 2002; Schemo 1996; Telles 2004, 155–56). Even with these gains African Brazilians are noticeably absent from the media, including television, newspapers, and magazines . The same Eurocentric bias that plagues the U.S. media, entertainment industry, and world of high fashion is perhaps even more evident in Brazil, where there are significant advantages for a more European appearance (Moore 1988, 213–26; Telles 2004, 155–56). Women representing Brazil in international beauty pageants such as Miss Universe exemplify this phenomenon. Miss Brazil contestants of “obvious” African descent in the Miss Universe pageant have been rarer than black Miss Americas. In addition, the Brazilian public’s reaction has been decidedly racist, ranging 238 converging paths 1. The hairstyle called Afro Permanente is not a natural in the sense of wearing an Afro. It is more like the “Jheri Curl” of the 1970s and 1980s in the United States. This hairstyle turns naturally “kinky hair” into a wet curly look that is achieved with a chemical treatment similar to that used in hair straightening. from “murmurings of distress” (Thompson 1965, 32) in the case of Vera Lúcia Couto dos Santos (who...