Note from BW of Brazil: The historic first national March of Black Women brought a lot of attention to the issues of black Brazilian women. And that includes the nation’s current and first female President, Dilma Rousseff. How could it not? The march that brought thousands of black women from across the country forced police to re-route traffic in the nation’s capital! After the march, Rousseff met with a group of women who were participants in the march who are also leaders of various black women’s organizations.
Re-affirming her commitment to black women’s issues, President Dilma wrote the following in a series of tweets:
“We have a responsibility to perfect our policies promoting racial equality, against violence and for the appreciation of the woman (…) Against violence and for the guarantee of rights and opportunities for black women. #MarchaDasMulheresNegras. I received at the Planalto (Presidential Palace) a group of women and reaffirmed our commitment to the fight against racism (…) The #MarchaDasMulheresNegras (March of Black Women) creates a force of contention of prejudice. Long live the citizenship of the black woman! The fight of #MarchaDasMulheresNegras is against racism, violence and social and gender inequality, an issue that is also that of my government. I congratulate and stand in solidarity w/the thousands of black women throughout the country that came together today in Brasília in the 1st #MarchaDasMulheresNegras”
President Dilma reaffirms commitment to the struggle of black women
President stressed that women’s struggle is against racism, violence and social and gender inequality
Courtesy of Portal Brasil. All photos by Valter Campanato of Agência Brasil and Roberto Stuckert Filho of PR
President Dilma Rousseff wrote on Twitter on Wednesday (18) about the meeting she had with a group of women who were in Brasília for the first edition of the March of Black Women.
Dilma pointed out that women’s struggle is against racism, violence and social and gender inequality a commitment that the government has taken on. “I reaffirmed our commitment to the fight against racism, violence and the guarantee of rights and opportunities for black women,” she wrote.
The president congratulated the movement and said that she will stand in solidarity with the thousands of women throughout the country who gathered in the march. “We have a responsibility to improve our policies promoting racial equality, against violence and for the appreciation of the woman,” she added.
Source: Portal Brasil
I feel like this is a dog & pony show for Dilma. As long as Black people in Brazil have been facing racial issues, she waits NOW to want talk about doing something about it. She’s only doing this to pacify the Black Woman’s movement because the protest/march they had caused a great ruckus.
When all of the ruckus has died down, Dilma will go back to being quiet on Black issues. ALL politicians do this when it comes to Black peoples issues. Just watch and see.
Mike: Once one discovers the truth about politics (as I have), they will also come to the same conclusion. This material is not say I believe it’s more than a show for Dilma (who is at risk of impeachment), it’s simply to report that it happened. It’s up to these women to discover the truth about it!
He’s a “da Silva”. He did not “come from” the white elite. While he may have worked his way up into elite circles by being light skinned and super-duper smart, it seems that he still knows where he comes from. My guess is that if you shake his family tree, you won’t have to go too far back to start seeing the darker shades of his family.
I agree he’s likely descendant of Africans. But his father, Antonio Francisco da Costa e Silva is the most important poet from Piaiu and the one who wrote the anthem of the state. His father was a public servant thanks to a personal request from Getulio Vargas… Having Silva in the name does not necessarily mean not belonging to the elite (e.g. Heitor da Silva Costa, the main engineer of the Christ statue in Rio came from a very important Portuguese, aristocratic family…). Further, his father was at least an acquaintance of Barao do Rio Branco.
In any case, not really so important to me to define if he is elite or not. It’s just that he looks white to me (certainly white by Brazilian standards) but I do like what he says. I was wondering what our host thinks, since one of the themes on this blog is how white people like to be the in the center, even when the subject is the history of Africa…
@PTR – I see your point. I was thinking more along the lines of Lula da Silva, who was president of Brazil, but who had humble beginnings and identifies with his own Black roots, despite being “white” to the naked eye.
And yes, it would be nice to see what Gatas thinks about this “white” dude saying cool shit about African history 🙂
PTR: No problem being off topic! Great article and the link is appreciated!
@PTR and bamabrasileira: Great discussion between you two! I have a few thoughts. 1) I tend to think that many Silvas that come from the northeast may actually have Jewish ancestry. I already knew this but interesting, Rede Record’s “Domingo Spectacular” did a piece on Jews in Brazil and millions of Brazilians could in fact be descendants of Jews. It has long been common knowledge that names such as Silva/da Silva, Pereira, Nunes, Henriques, Mendes), Correia, Lopes and numerous other names connected to nature. Historians like Arnold Wiznitzer reveal that Brazil wasn’t completely colonized by Jews. Interestingly, President Dilma is of Jewish descent and some years again, an uncle of Lula also confirmed the former president’s Jewish ancestry. Not surprising. Lula is from Pernambuco which has a deep Jewish history.
Sorry..Got off topic!
Anyway, here’s my thing. It’s great that the professor Alberto da Costa e Silva speaks on this topic. Many years ago, my first introduction to the true history of Africa was courtesy of the great British historian Basil Davison. There have been a number of white scholars who have spoken the truth about Africa, but I have a few issues with this. It’s great that they do this, but on the other hand, why are black scholars who do the same research ignored? It’s as if scholarship by black scholars isn’t accepted as legitimate. Even among black people, sometimes they won’t accept information by black scholars unless it’s legitimized by whites.
The other thing is, we see how Brazil deals with Law 10.639/03. It is almost completely ignored! This information is out there but Brazil has colonized the minds of Brazilians, black and white, to prefer whiteness. Unless there is a desire to make sure this information is treated equally with the history of Europeans, it won’t matter. Unless black students make a special effort to seek this information, it will remain unknown. As the goal in Brazil is whitening, I don’t expect any wide spread dissemination of this history.
Also, we note that this professor is featured on/around November 20th? Why can black/African History only be offered during “black holidays”? Children are taught/reminded of the “superiority” of whiteness 365 days a year in school, media, government, everywhere. This thing of tossing a few crumbs to black people every now and then is a huge problem and until this attitude is changed, little pieces of information slipping through the cracks doesn’t change anything.
I believe under this system, there should be institutions for black people, run by black people. Brazil will never change its policies and will continue to preach white supremacy. But my idea will be called racist by most Brazilians.