I was reading Mira's post on her page about the impact of a previous post which subject was race. It's extremely boring to me taking about race, prejudice and racism because I'm king of bombed with the subject all the time. Still, living where I live it's REALLY necessary because a big part of our people is black or "mixed".
Let me make some things clear here before I start:
I'm not racist. I CAN'T be racist. It's like a latin american wating to be Nazi. I'm "mixed", "half-breeded" or whatever is the correct word. My grandfather is black. I have black relatives. I have black friends. I have black idols. (Yeah, I know that rock'n'roll started with black people!)
Still... I'm sure this post will have an impact.
Let me start:
I was thinking about writing something about it but as I said, the subject bores me. Then today after lunch, I was walking around the university and in a hall in the Geography school there was a wall recently painted with graffitti art. Stopped to see it and I read on the wall: "Power to the black people". I thought to myself, what the hell that means?
The first thing that came to my mind was: "Nazism backwards". In other times, black people was slaved, they suffered because white people thought that they were better, that they were a superior race. Now, world has agreed that we are all humans, all the same before the law and God and whatsoever. Mankind has been working to convince people that we're equals, no matter the "race", black, white, asian, jew... Now "Power to the black people" means to me that they don't want to be equal. They want to do just the same, that if they could they would slave white people to revenge they ancestors. What the hell?Is that kind of power they want? They already have! The most powerful man in the world IS black!
I'm not racist, I say again. I just can't stand the talking about how much injustice black people suffered all around. Slavery ended 121 years ago, in Brazil. They suffered a lot after that, I know. Of course they still suffer a lot due to prejudice but it's time for them to change their attitude about themselves and stop playing the "victim" role. Take the power, slowly but try it like any other person would do. We have black politicians, we have black rich people. I just don't think that "black power" is the way. It just shows that they want to prove the supremacy of the "black race" and not achieve equality.
Why not "Power to PEOPLE"? Why the thing has to be "Power to the black people"?
I hope I won't be misunderstood. But that's almost impossible since when the subject causes too much polemic people understand what you said they way they want to.
Have a nice day!
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5 comentários:
Eis uma questão política. Você pode até não concordar, mas é uma luta por empoderamento, por conquista de espaço. Quando o Movimento Negro no Brasil re-afirma o slogan do "black power" estadunidense ele está reinvindicando um lugar justo para um país que como você afirma seria não-racista, enfim, uma democracia racial. Mas veja, nos EUA, um país racista, segregacionista, lembra do Jim Crown? Elege um negro para presidente. No Brasil, o maior país de população negra fora da África e "sem segregação", onde estão os negros? Para alguns pode parecer ressentimento, para outros nada mais que justiça. Para mim é importante que possamos pensar e discutir sobre um tema tabu como este, pois hipócrita é um Ali Kamel dizer que não somos racistas, mas todos sabem quem deve subir pelo elevador de serviço, ou quem deverá dormir na senzala moderna: o quarto de empregada.
Infelizmente somos racistas e é importante sim discutir por que se não somos capazes de aceitar completamente as diferenças (sejam elas quais forem) temos no mínimo que aprender a conviver com elas.
Eu fiquei assustada quando li que a população negra do Brasil é de 6%, eu podia jurar que era pelo menos uns 30%. É fato que essa população é muito concentrada, dentro das cidades e em alguns pontos do país. Quando eu morava no Maranhão tinha muito mais colegas de sala negros do que aqui.
I forgot to comment here. Sorry for being late.
t's extremely boring to me taking about race, prejudice and racism because I'm king of bombed with the subject all the time.
On the other hand, I find the subject really interesting. It's not really an issue in my country or region, since we're all white. We differentiate people and hate each other based on other things, such as religion, nationality, ethnicity, history... Perhaps that's why is so interesting to me to learn about other possible ways for people to hate each other.
I'm not racist. I CAN'T be racist. It's like a latin american wating to be Nazi. I'm "mixed", "half-breeded" or whatever is the correct word.
So, there is a "mixed" race in Brazil recognized? And eh, there are Nazis everywhere, including in those countries whose people suffered Nazi regime the most. But I get what you're saying.
Black people and non-black people seem like they don't understand each other, at all (that's my impression). When black people see words "power to black people", they read "we want to be treated as equal". To non-white people, however, it means "we are superior and want to do to you all those nasty things you did to us for centuries".
One thing I learned: Black people do not think society treats them as equals. While most of them agree times are better than in the past, they still don't think whites treat them as equals. This is especially true for America.
I am not saying there's no racism in Brazil, but it seems to me that it's a racism of a different kind. Also, racism in UK, Brazil, France, etc does seem to be less strong than in the US. At least it's perfectly ok to see an European film where someone's interest is a black person, and the film isn't about the race. I am not saying it's all nice and racism free in Europe and South America, because it isn't, but I do think some things are not as much of an issue there as they are in America.
I don't really know about how things work in Europe but the main difference between racism in Brazil and the US is that we don't say we're racist here. (Mainly because you can be arrested and racism is a Non-bailable crime) In the US people just say: I'm racist. So what?
Whatever... these discussions bores me to death. I always get really pissed off.
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