Racism In Brazil

Professor Henry Louis Gates’ “Brazil: A Racial Paradise”, a documentary that focuses on the Afro-Brazilian population of Brazil, explored and exposed the concept of Racial Democracy; touted by the Brazilian government, it’s influence is largely overrated. (“Brazil: A Racial Paradise”, Black In Latin America, 2011, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting Service, Web) While the institution of Racial Democracy has brought upon a certain amount of integration between Brazil and its 75 million Afro-Brazilians, the not so distant past-coupled with the realities of modern day racism-has left Afro-Brazilians alienated and discriminated against by mainstream society. However, since the abolition of slavery in 1888, coupled with the declaration of a Racial Democracy in the 1930’s and the leadership of influential Afro-Brazilians, Brazil has been quietly successful, albeit

Imagine living in a country where you know you could die at any moment but don’t know how much longer till it happens. That was how much of the population of El Salvador used to feel when the government could not control the big coffee corporations. These out of control corporations, highly feared that the people would want to revolt against them so they hired murderers to kill innocent people to spread fear in the minds of the people of El Salvador. Fear, hate, and sorrow were the common feelings felt by the poor and innocent major population of El Salvador caused by the evil wrongdoings of the government during October 1979 – 16 January 1992. This is how the main character, Jose Luis, of the novel “Mother Tongue” by Demetria Martinez, felt before escaping his beautiful yet over constantly dangerous country, which depended on its cash crop, coffee beans to sell on a foreign market as the country’s main income. However, following the stock-market crash of 1929, a drop in coffee prices became apparent and affected everyone in El Salvador, but the poor especially. Making things worse, the glorious United States was funding the men whom were doing all the innocent killings with more weapons and money to increase their military power. So for Jose Luis the safe haven that he had escaped to was also blatantly funding the war that was killing so many innocent people he knew and had forced him to escape for his own safety. With nowhere else to go in order to find safety the United

The police in Rio de Janeiro regularly takes bribes from drug lords, abuses favela citizens, and sells back drugs and firearms to the drug trade. Because of this, the favela becomes scared of the police, which can make some places dangerous to be at which can make it easier for people to be killed.

In conclusion, reading about Carolina’s life has had a huge impact on my learnings of Brazil. While reading this book, I was able to reflect on what we learned and discussed about life in the favelas in class. When I hear of Brazil, I always hear of the wealthy places, pretty women and beautiful sites to visit. However, the favelas and life of the poor people living in Brazil is rarely mentioned and talked about. Reading Carolina’s diary gave me a different image of the country and showed Brazil in another light. Carolina’s diary gave me more insight on what the daily life of a favelado is like and what people who live in the favelas experience on a daily

. Before the first Africans arrived in British North America in 1619, more than half a million African captives had already been transported and enslaved in Brazil. By the end of the nineteenth century, that number had risen to more than 4 million. Northern European powers soon followed Portugal and Spain into the transatlantic slave trade. The majority of African captives were carried by the Portuguese, Brazilians, the British, French, and Dutch. British slave traders alone transported 3.5 million Africans to the Americas.

The transatlantic slave trade was a primary structuring force of brazilian society. When Brazil became independent in 1822 from portugal, the slave trade was perceived as a dominant activity in the country's economy because it involved so much formation and investments. Slavery played a significant role in the structure of Brazil considering that the system of involuntary labor was the biggest and most extended of all the slave societies in the Atlantic world. This molded Brazilian ways of life including jobs, transportation, economic concerns, political factors and culture in many ways.

Afro Brazilians have had to deal with centuries of oppression. During these times, Afro-Brazilians have had to deal with various methods, and strategies designed to keep entire communities oppressed. Many of these methods have had effects so profound, they are still affecting many Brazilians till this day. Political oppression is one of the oldest methods known to man, along with unleashing a forceful police force mimicking military forces. Authoritarian rule also played a major role in the shaping of the country. Furthermore, an inept biased justice system will fail those who need protections, and justice the most. These four key modes will be objectively examined, as well as the efficacy of each of these repressive strategies, and the impact that they have had or still have in the Afro-Brazilian communities.

Poverty is like an empty room; they both lack something in it. Brazil's favelas are ridden with poverty, disease, and murder. Gordon Parks was the first black male photographer for both Life Magazine and Vogue who knew what it was like growing up poor. As Parks grew older he wrote an autobiography titled Voices in the Mirror, first published in 1990, in it, he reminisces about when he first met Flavio. Parks writes “Flavio’s Home” by capturing the struggles of an impoverished family in the favelas of Brazil. In this article, Parks goes to Brazil to witness the da Silvas family struggles in Rio De Janeiro; he also shines a light on the topic of poverty and why it’s a subject that should be more known in the world. When “Flavio’s Home” was published it was meant to inform the inconsiderate rich, knowing this is happening in the world. Although “Flavio’s Home” is outstanding the reader is left to wonder what he can do to help the cause.

Brazil is one of the most visited place in the world and also one of the most diverse countries in the world. More than 75millon people of African decent live in Brazil, this makes it the second largest black population in the world. Its attracts a large number of people because of it architecture, slums and rainforest. Brazil is contradictory because its was the last country to abolish slavery but also the first to claim that it was a racial democracy. Most people might not know that Brazil has its racial problems and that it has been going on for a long time. Brazilian race relations and conceptions of race are somewhat different from the United States. In Brazil most African descendents are people live in

One important reason for the increase in people identifying as black in Brazil is the Quilombo Clause in the 1988

While coming up with a topic for this paper, one of my questions dealt with war and cultural groups. I will be the first to admit, Racism was the last thing on my mind. The original question being, “How does war affect a Social Culture and how does it stand today?” When I started thinking about Cultures that had been so deeply affected by war, one of the first that came to mind were the Japanese in World War II. Then I recalled what one person had told me of their younger days at college, when they were attending school. Their name will remain anonymous; I do not want to make the victim’s name public as it has a very personal nature.

Brazil has some of the most violent cities in the world. The murder rate in Brazil has been going through the roof each year. Some cities have a murder rate of 50 per 50,000 people. Most murder victims are usually male, poor and teenagers. Most of these crimes take place in the infamous favelas of Brazil. Murder is not the only crime leaking in the shallow streets of the favelas. High-profile rape cases, kidnapping, drugs, and weapons dealing in the favelas are the common headlines in Brazil (Griffin, Jo). These crimes are born in the favelas and spread through the streets of Brazil. The economic growth of Brazil over the years has benefited the rich puppeteers of the society, but it has made life more miserable for the poor (McCann, Bryan). Not just in Rio, but favelas have spread throughout many cities in Brazil and now they are the number one birthplace of different types of crimes in the country. In this paper, we will analyze an article published on the online version of ‘The Guardians” regarding the lives of people living in Brazilian slums (favelas).

Racism is a socially constructed concept used by multiple groups of people and creates a hierarchy of sorts based purely on the color of a person’s skin or their cultural origins. It has been an idea that has existed since the beginnings of civilization. A more modern iteration of this concept was made prominent in the 16th century as European settlers began to explore different areas of the world, specifically areas in or around Africa. But slavery can be seen back in the 1500s all the way to 1880 and was most likely a leading example of what helped define racism up to the 20th century. In Ali Rattansi’s book, “Racism: A Very Short Introduction” , the author connects how slavery and race are closely tied together. European explorers would ignore the cultures the invaded in order to see these people as nothing more than native groups that were meant to be seen in a subservient role. Slavery would continue to grow across the Atlantic and seen as an institution that created large amounts of wealth for those who could reap the benefits from it. As long as money was being made, slavery persisted and was justified. Race and racism was conceived the way it was because the slave owning system was controlled by European colonizers.

The author’s understanding of violence is extended beyond the text and into the political history of Latin America, full of neo-colonial repression, racial discrimination and struggles.

The purpose of this paper is to recognize, study and analyze the race relations in Brazil. Race relations are relations between two groups of different races; it is how these two different races connect to each other in their environment. Since Brazil is racially diverse, this study is focused on how Brazilians relate to each other. Throughout the essay, it will become clear that there exists a conflict between two race groups. Afro-Brazilians and White-Brazilians are not connected and though these two groups converse with each other, discrimination still lies within the society. This discrimination has created inequality within the society for Afro-Brazilians. Thus, this paper will not only focus on racism and discrimination that