Here Ain't There, but oh How It Is

I used to listen, cordially, as people, self- and professionally-identified intellectuals, would explain how one cannot apply North American racial hierarchies to Brazilian society, that Brazilian society has its own particular issues and that it is sheer North American arrogance to attempt to apply lessons learned from the Black struggle in the US to Brazil. This came from the mouths of folks from either side of the equator, all them white. Like I said, at first I would listen and accept, for after all, these people have studied the issue and knew more than I could.

Today, I no longer listen.

In these the days of post-modernism (which no one seems to be able to explain, but everyone wants to talk about), talk of globalization as if it were developed yesterday, and a heightened interest in the racial compositions of Latin America, the intellectual incompetence of the Academy is becoming more and more clear.

No longer able to outright deny the genocidal racism in place in Brazil (since the days of the dictator…no, the crown…no, in place since the days of slavery) and subtly acknowledging that racial hierarchies do indeed exist, these intellectuals attempt to ascribe an innovative racial paradigm based on the (long outdated) idea of the racial democracy, that mythical paradise in which there are racial differences that by no means inhibit equal participation in society for all citizens.

They say that Brazil is not the United States. That here everyone is mixed. That the root of social inequality is class. That race doesn’t exist as anything more than a means of distinguishing folks. For instance: “that little Black boy,” “that white gentleman,” “the Black maid,” “the white young lady.” Yeah, you know, distinguish the people.

And what about the common saying known by every good Brazilian citizen, teaching young men how to navigate their social relationships with women in case they ever forget?:

“White woman to marry,
Mulata to fuck,
Black woman to work.”

In the States we would call that racism, and its social manifestation racial oppression. But Brazil ain’t the States. Here, race doesn’t exist.

Just silly. I mean really. It is.

White hegemony is a global phenomenon. As such it manifests itself...how?…globally! This means, naturally, that wherever we may find the destructive presence of white hegemony in the world, it will appear in such forms as racism, capitalism, imperialism and so forth.

And how do the Black people of Brazil feel about this idea of the raceless society? You know, those human beings socially, politically and economically marginalized (understating it); the ones who until today are denied jobs for failure to possess a “good appearance;” that majority of the Brazilian population who are rare to occupy public positions that don’t involve kicking a ball or singing a song. What do they think about racial democracy? These white intellectuals, niggerologists they’re called, can’t tell you because they never ask. After all, if race doesn’t exist, there is no need.

But I’ve lived here for some time. While I may not be from here, while I may not have been raised here and always have the choice to leave, I know what I’ve experienced. Me, a tall, slim man with locks who, for as raceless as this society may want to believe it is, no one fails to acknowledge as Black. I have lived here.

And the situations in which I’ve found myself ring stunningly familiar; the conversations I’ve held echo themes that know only one language: the hatred of white hegemony. This fascination with globalization is nothing new. The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade was the product of globalization. It was a means to facilitate the greedy expansion of destruction’s white hatred. We have not yet overthrown this system; we have not yet executed destruction’s destruction, neither in the United States nor in Brazil.

Of course we can apply North American racial hierarchies to Brazilian society. While acknowledging “cultural peculiarities,” we are talking about white hegemony, the common root. And as such, its defenders, the Academy’s intellectuals, tell us that we have no connection, that our experiences are too different to reconcile, that we are not one people.

We know better than that. Thank God, we know better than that.

-Amari