Number 24 in our series the “Faces of Afro Brazil”, today we feature three lovely young ladies, Lucia Maria de Souza, Ciane Cláudia dos Santos and Geisiani Nascimento, were once featured on the cover of Brazil’s only magazine dedicated to the Afro-Brazilian population, Raça Brasil. The three teens were chosen from 4,500 young ladies who entered a contest to be featured on the magazine’s cover. See the entire series of “Faces of Afro Brazil” here.
It’s more than ridiculous to call these women black or any mulatto or mixed-raced person for that matter. Do black Americans feel better about themselves when they promote these ideas in other countries? Now that the one-drop rule, an old eugenist concept, is no longer automatically accepted in the US, they need to export racist concepts like this I guess.
Gira,
I always thank people for visiting and taking the time to make comments. I thank you as well. But on a more critical level, I don’t know if you’ve actually read any of the posts on this blog or you simply took a look at the photo where you posted this comment, but I DO know that many Brazilians who identify themselves as negros/negras would be offended by your comment.
Although you are not the first to take the liberty to come on this blog with the “black American, one drop rule” rhetoric, I will reply to you as I have to others.
1) Where on this blog do you get the idea that black Americans are “promoting these ideas in other countries”? The idea of this blog is to share the thoughts/experiences of black BRAZILIANS. The names of the writers of the articles are clearly presented in every article and I would estimate that 99% have Portuguese surnames and are Brazilian.
2) I have written before and I will clarify for you as well. No one adheres to the ridiculous “one drop” rule. I personally find it ridiculous. If a person has no outward physical characteristics of African ancestry, for me, that person is white. On the other hand, if a person’s physical appearance denotes African ancestry and thus subjects said person to discrimination based on the concept of race, this person can be classified as black/negro, even if they don’t personally accept a black identity.
3) It offends me that you or anybody else comes on this blog, totally ignores the often complex journey of the development of black identity in Brazil and simply disregard it as a “black American” “old eugenist concept”. If you take the time to read the posts here, you will see that most people who once identified themselves as “morenas”, “mulatas” or other such terms, assumed black identities after having been subjected to racist incidents or after discovering black history/culture or elements of the black experience that apply to their own lives.
4) It seems that most people that adhere to your position don’t seem to know, but I will educate you on the fact that back in the 1930s, members of the Frente Negra Brasileira, a black Brazilian rights organization, saw the black population as the combination of “pretos” and “pardos”, as does the current Movimento Negro.
In a word, do your research first before you come here making such accusations. Giving black Americans the sole credit for the development of black identity in Brazil totally disregards a contextually different history that has been the fruit of years of struggle in the black Brazilian community and makes the assertion that these people cannot think and rationalize their own experiences independently.
Perhaps that was not your intent. But that is how it comes across and as such, this is the response.
Thanks again for your comment.