A new study concludes that 53.5% of Brazilian Blacks and 47.3% of those with a mixed Black and White heritage belong now to the middle class (which includes the so-called A, B and C classes).
According to economist Marcelo Neri, interviewed this week by daily O Estado de S. Paulo, these numbers show a very positive evolution in the last 15 years. In 1993, less than a quarter of the Blacks (23.8%) and just a little over one fifth of those with mixed heritages (21.7%) were in the middle and upper classes. Also, he verified that the mobility of Whites in this period was, in comparison, less accentuated.
Neri, who works for the Centro de Políticas Sociais of Fundação Getúlio Vargas (a respected university and think tank), based his info in data collected in the 2008 edition of Pnad, a reduced version of the census, with a limited sample of interviews, produced by IBGE, the federal bureau of statistics.
Naturally, we can argue that the Pnad – which asks the interviewees to define their own color – may be misguided by those who prefer to see themselves as whiter than they effectively are. Census interviewers have been reporting for decades that many people refuse to be classified as Blacks, preferring to state that they are tanned or morenos (a word with a slightly vague meaning, that normally applies for a brunette or maybe someone of Mediterranean origin). But, if that is the case, there is a good chance the presence of Blacks in the middle classes might be even higher.
The slow ascension of the Afro-descendants is still very far from solving the Brazilian disparities (racism was the topic of a recent post), but it deserves to be celebrated, anyway.
They were not canonized. They are controversial. There is even doubt if some of them really existed. Nevertheless, Brazilian popular saints generate deep devotion, pilgrimages and flourishing commerce.
Take, for example, Escrava Anastácia. This beautiful slave of blue eyes, that supposedly lived in the 18th century, was obliged by her master to wear a mask covering her mouth, because she refused to, you know, accept his sweet love. Apparently, this device was commonly used in the gold mines, so the slaves wouldn’t ingest (and steal) the metal. There is almost no evidence that Anastácia really existed, but she is still considered a big miracle worker.
Another powerful popular saint is Padre (Father) Cícero, a priest, landowner and conservative political leader of Juazeiro, in the Northeastern state of Ceará. Also known as Padim Ciço, he was excommunicated in the late 19th century by the local bishop after a series of supposed miracles that his superior considered a fraud: the host offered by Cícero would systematically turn into blood when ingested by one of the priest’s followers. Later his excommunication was invalidated by the Vatican but he was never allowed to return to his parish. His popularity never diminished, though. He amassed a huge fortune, including 34 rural properties, and became the state’s vice-governor.
Financial Times – Heading in opposite directions ( a great article about the resistance Brazilian mining group Vale faced when it bought Canadian nickel miner Inco, in 2006) – (depends on free subscription)
BBC – BP in $7bn deal to explore for oil in Brazil
The girl who´s on the cover of Playboy´s Brazilian edition sat today by my side at the theatre – she took her three daughters to watch a children´s play, “Os Saltimbancos“, a version of the “Four Musicians of Bremen” with songs by Chico Buarque. Fernanda Young, a foul-mouthed writer and TV hostess is definitely not your conventional pin-up. She is almost forty, all covered in tattoos, extremely pale, with short dark hair, with a tendence of dropping names of depressing German philosophers. Her cover picture is also unusually discreet for Playboy´s standards in the country.
Brazilian beauty for export – Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrósio, Isabeli F0ntana, you name it – represents a very small fraction of the diversity of looks of a country of extremely varied genetics. For decades, Brazilian press and soap operas were also blind to this variety. Slender blondes are still disproportionately present on the video and magazines.
This is slowly changing. At this exact moment, black actresses star three soap operas broadcasted by Globo, the dominant media conglomerate. This is huge in a country where TV is crucial in the definition of trends, habits, beliefs and preferences.
Maybe Brazil is ready to export its “out-of-the-box” beauty.
Neguinho da Beija-Flor, photo alexdecarvalho/Flickr
In Brazil, unlike other countries, different ethnic groups interact a lot – sometimes peacefully, sometimes not. This interaction leads frequently to mixed marriages and a blend of genes and cultural heritage.
This healthy mix gets more evident when geneticists investigate our origins. Neguinho da Beija-Flor, a famous samba composer from Rio, is mostly white, genetically – even if his nickname stresses his very dark complexion. On the other hand, Daiane dos Santos – Olympic gymnastic gold medalist recently involved in a doping scandal – represents what could be a “typical” brasileira: 39,7% African, 40,8% European and 19,6% Native Brazilian.
Both celebrities had their genes analyzed in a study promoted two years ago by the British news conglomerate BBC with several prominent Brazilians of different backgrounds.
This mix didn’t, necessarily, produce a racial democracy. In an interview to the BBC on this subject, sociologist Ronaldo Sales, from Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, in the city of Recife, points out that miscegenation doesn’t create a homogeneous mixed race group, but a hierarchy – the whiter you are, the better your chances of social integration.
The underlying racism is particularly evident in bank branches. Most of the banks that operate in large cities install revolving doors, conceived to block the passage of costumers holding metal objects or bulky volumes. The following video, just released by Circo Voador, a very engaged theater and cultural movement in Rio, shows how this mechanism is used to avoid the entry of black Brazilians in banks. Two guys try to enter the same bank, dressed similarly, carrying the same bag. One is black, one is white. Guess who entered immediately and who had to remove his tee shirt and drop his belongings before being sent home, without entering the bank?
The girl who´s on the cover of Playboy´s Brazilian edition sat today by my side at the theatre – she took her three daughters to watch a children´s play, “Os Saltimbancos“, a version of the “Four Musicians of Bremen” with songs by Chico Buarque. Fernanda Young, a foul-mouthed writer and TV hostess is definitely not your conventional pin-up. She is almost forty, all covered in tattoos, extremely pale, with short dark hair, with a tendence of dropping names of depressing German philosophers. Her cover picture is also unusually discreet for Playboy´s standards in the country.
