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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Subey
Darker skinned people ending up on the bottom again. You'd think the world would have come up with a new system to divide itself by now. |
Actually, the similarities arose of the same process of slavery, and its end happened in a similar context, although we didn't have a cultural shock between the industrial North and the agricultural South (as in the US), but rather a shock between an industrial Europe and an agricultural Brazil (do correct me if there's any misconception about the American history - this is what we learn down here).
| quote: | Originally posted by Subey
Could you clarify the attitude towards japanese? Are there economic barriers similar to those who are darker skinned? or are they just seen as being outsiders? And as outsiders are they perceived as being dangerous to Brazil? or benign etc? |
As for the Japanese, you have to understand the context in which they came.
- 100 years ago, Japan was going through the Meiji Restauration and, along with those changes, Japan offered poor citizens the opportunity to try their luck in Brazil.
- Brazil had abolished slavery in 1888, so it needed labour force.
Many settlers came here in order to work in the agriculture, and some of them considered it something temporary (i.e. they'd come, make money and return). They formed colonies in rural areas, and the language barrier made contact more difficult.
Naturally, as time passed by, there was more interaction between the communities of Asian origin (mostly Japanese) and the rest of the country, but their presence was still seen as recent, even though most immigrants from European countries (other than Portugal) arrived here just a few decades earlier.
Speculations aside, the fact is that today most Japanese-Brazilians are considered as "different" from other races, in spite of the fact that 75% of them follow Christianism and have Portuguese as their first language. Although they're not really segregated (they're often seen as a model minority because of North American influence and Japan's rise as a major power), I've found myself in pretty odd situations whenever I was among people of Japanese origin, which seemed to show a xenophobic instinct from non-Japanese Brazilians. Economically, they're most often considered "white", by the way.
Back to dark skinned people, yes, there's an economical barrier: their income is usually lower (once again, a consequence of slavery and worse social conditions). There's some official data about it, and the government's been trying to promote racial equality (in the same way it tries to promote gender equality). Even if you watch Cidade de Deus, you can clearly see that the poor characters are dark skinned Brazilians, whereas the wealthy/middle-class ones have lighter skin.
However, they're not seen as outsiders. In fact, they're considered one of the pillars of our society (the European-African-Natives triad), and there's been a great cultural exchange, reason why some African traditions became common among all of us (such as wearing white in the nye, capoeira, and so on). |
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| Subey |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
[*]100 years ago, Japan was going through the Meiji Restauration and, along with those changes, Japan offered poor citizens the opportunity to try their luck in Brazil.
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I have never heard of this. Is the japanese cultural presence directly related to your own interest in Japan?
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
However, they're not seen as outsiders. In fact, they're considered one of the pillars of our society (the European-African-Natives triad), and there's been a great cultural exchange, reason why some African traditions became common among all of us (such as wearing white in the nye, capoeira, and so on). |
Except their religion you stated earlier. But that is interesting, and certainly sounds like it would create an environment where it would be significantly easier to remove any economic barriers than it might be elsewhere. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Subey
I have never heard of this. |
There's some series produced by NHK called Haru to Natsu that illustrates this - unfortunately, everything I've seen on this is exclusively both in Japanese and Portuguese.
| quote: | Originally posted by Subey
Is the japanese cultural presence directly related to your own interest in Japan? |
To an extent, yes. I do live in a city where Bon Odori is a somewhat popular event, after all.
I've always been a language/humanities geek, and the opportunities I had of getting in touch with the language and cuisine had some impact on me.
However, internet culture (and my love for random things :p) has certainly played an even more important role on my interest on modern Japan.
| quote: | Originally posted by Subey
Except their religion you stated earlier. But that is interesting, and certainly sounds like it would create an environment where it would be significantly easier to remove any economic barriers than it might be elsewhere. |
That's true - the government is doing the right thing, in my opinion, figthing racism openly. Probably, with economic growth, this situation will improve. |
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| Subey |
I'm curious how the Law of the Conservation of Information might apply to racism in Brazil (perhaps there is another term for it in the liguistic field)
i'll sum the law up as follows:
"Dave said he won't be joining us for Poker tonight because he has a date"
The Law basically states that we do not provide information when it fits a dominant template. In the example above everyone would assume that Dave's date was with a girl. If it was with a guy then you would add that information because it doesn't fit the template.
Unfortunately what this Law does do is it provides a clear seperation in the mind between the norm and the alternative. And reinforces the differences between things since things which are different have to be introduced into sentences where no words would explicitely exist otherwise.
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So I guess all that is a wordy way of asking the following question:
"In Brazil if you said 'i'm going to the movies with my friend Dave'" would people assume that Dave had a specific skin colour? |
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| Lira |
hmmm... I'd personally expect the person to be either tanned or white. But then again, that's the most common skin colour where I live. If Dave's skin was dark, it wouldn't be mentioned unless I asked who Dave was (just like a red-haired person is easier to stand out, compared to black or brown haired individuals). It would be extremely rude to give this information unless it was requested - just like height and weight.
In fact, people often assume skin colour based on hair colour (since it's hard to find dark skinned blondes :p). |
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