Note from BW of Brazil: It’s been nearly a week since President Dilma Rousseff was suspended for a period that could last up to 180 days while it is decided if she should be removed permanently. Rousseff’s suspension was approved after the Federal Government’s Lower House voted in support of impeachment procedures and then, last week, 55 of 81 senators also voted in favor of the process. But in a true example of Brazil’s history having been and continuing to be based on corruption, 12 of the 13 ministers nominated for interim President Michel Temer’s cabinet have been found to have accepted donations from companies involved in one of the biggest corruption scandals in the nation’s history, the so-called Lava Jato case. This besides the fact that yesterday, the STF (Supreme Court) initiated a process that would also open an impeachment against Temer himself!
Considering another case involving Federal Deputy and Speaker of the Lower House Eduardo Cunha (who led the charge for the impeachment of Rousseff) being suspended on May 5th due to the obstruction of investigations into bribery allegations and we can see that Brazilian politics is truly in a state of chaos right now.
As if all of this weren’t enough, many Brazilians and the international press also picked up on the lack of diversity of Temer’s cabinet, which features all white males. But if you’ve been a reader of this blog for more than a few months, an all-white cabinet at the highest level of power should be nothing at all surprising in a country where white supremacy is absolute!
A government of white men
by Marcio André dos Santos*
May 13, 2016. A day that should be of reflection because it is the official date that slavery in Brazil was abolished, much more for the convenience of the circumstances at the time than for alleged humanitarian gestures. Still it is an important date from the historical point of view, since it reminds us of one of the founding milestones of the Brazilian racial order and all that this entails.
Movimentos negros (black movements) and the most leftist segments of Brazilian civil society celebrate the 20th day of November as a day of struggle and permanent resistance of the black population. The day (in 1695) that Zumbi was killed and entered national history as a hero of black people and all Brazilians. At the same time, the resistance of the quilombolas (maroon society inhabitants) and all the enslaved as a reference in combating racism and racial discrimination practiced in the present is celebrated.
However, on this May 13th date, we have nothing to celebrate. We, blacks, women, the LGBT community, college students, high school students, cotistas (quota students), non-cotistas, formal informal, unemployed workers, social movements, in short, all those fighting for the expansion of rights and maintenance of an effective democratic country embitter a sense of outrage at the inauguration of the internal government of Michel Temer.
We are all mourning. All those who believe in republican institutions and bet on democracy as a guaranteeing foundation of social justice, racial and gender equality, development and solidarity in diversity. All those that recognize important social advances in recent years in the country, especially for the poorest.
The Dilma government has many problems and imperfections, this no one doubts. And a substantial part of these problems and imperfections is due to the supporters of the coup within the Congresso Nacional (National Congress) and the Câmara dos Deputados (House of Representatives), barring and making difficult and laws proposed by President Dilma. In other words, we can not only blame the lack of policy and slow decision-making ability to Dilma in order to dialogue with the opposition and with the government’s support base. We need to analyze the active role of right-wing opposition in the orchestration of the GOLPE (coup d’etat).
Despite several setbacks and numerous concessions made to opposition in the name of governability, the last governments of the Workers Party (PT) guaranteed a series of public policies of interest of the majority of the Brazilian people. It’s evident that all areas would need new adjustments, realignments, program improvements and investments.
The GOLPE perpetrated against President Dilma is actually an act of treason against all of us, against the Brazilian people in their totality and diversity. It is an act of betrayal of a political elite that didn’t know how to lose the elections in 2014 and in a purposeful way decided to boycott all government political processes to simply erode Rousseff’s legitimacy with members of parliament, voters and public opinion. This elite represented now by Michel Temer and his ministers, all male and all white, if it could, would re-establish slavery in one stroke of the pen in the same way that it extinguished on the first day of its coup government key ministries for the most vulnerable segments of the population (Ministry of Women, Racial Equality, Human Rights, Culture …).
Temer and his ultra-neoliberal would re-establish (or will re-establish?) the same inhuman conditions of the time of the military dictatorship, persecuting political opponents, blacks, the landless, women, homosexuals, lesbians and the poor in general. Morover this elite already does all of this, it’s not new!! The difference is that now, a consummate part of the GOLPE, this organized gang will have all the institutional conditions to roll back decades of progress.
The story repeats itself as a farce of the farce
In the country where the myth of racial democracy and hatred of political ascension of women are deeply rooted ideologies and values in the minds and in institutional practices of the Brazilian elites, racism and sexism reappear depending on the movement of the waves.
In another setback exposed by this illegitimate government (since it’s a coup, we cannot stop stressing this), no woman (white or black or indigenous) and no black or indigenous are among the ministers that make up the new government. Why would this be?
Michel Temer and his team chose only white men! It is the Governo dos Homens Brancos (Government of the White Men). A Ku Klux Klan supported by the oligopolies of communication with Globo (TV) organizations in front of the process and the big businessmen, landowners, large farmers, evangelical block, the bullet block and the whole gang of deputados (congressmen) and senators who want the return of darkness in the name of God.
It is now up to social movements and all of us, citizens who know exactly what the value of democracy, free voting and the Constitution are, resist and fight against the parliamentary GLOPE that we have seen on national television. It is the time that the left need to reorganize around social progress, human rights, racial equality, gender, and finally, guarantee the cidadanização (citizenship).
Temer has the support of business elites, bankers, large farmers, ruralists, the coup-supporting media and sectors of the white middle class. We have the substantive support of the oppressed sectors of the quilombolas, women and minorities. All these segments know full well that we cannot give up democracy.
- Marcio Andre Santos is a professor of Political Science at UNILAB (Malês campus), a poet, teacher, political scientist and activist of the black movement
Source: Medium
These men are ALL White Supremacists, plain and simple. In one of the pictures above, one of the men is saying that all of those different types of people are of no use. If he is saying that about those people, what do you think he thinks about Black Brazilians?
The Brazilian government is no different than the US government when it comes to Black people. They both completely ignore the needs of Black people and are both establishments of White Supremacy.
I hope Black Brazilians are learning a lesson from Obama’s presidency.
Because if a Black Brazilian president is ever elected, you can best believe
they aren’t going to do jack shit for Black Brazilians.
Well with 51% of the population identifying as “Afro-descendente”, I am hoping that Black Brazilians will realize their political power (as theirs is the support that is truly needed for anyone to be elected to the presidency).
We need more Joaquim Barbosas to stand up to be counted, rather than expecting “the government” to go out into the various nooks and crannies to find some token Blacks to put into meaningless positions that can be easily cut out in times of austerity. Such a thing must start locally. The Black community must produce Black electable Black politicians locally who can go on to bigger and better things when the time comes. 51% people!!!
They must also understand that they will have to work with people who do not like them and not get overly butthurt every time someone calls them a monkey. The population must also support them in their efforts, rather than being upset that this one polititian could not cure racism by being elected to a position of power. They must also fight the urge to have a defeatist attitude and lay the last 500 years of Black struggle at the feet of this politician and say “here..you fix it” without also doing their part to remedy the situation (read OBAMA)…
I must add that Brazil is one of the most openly and unabashedly gay and bisexual places that I have ever been. I typically only read about gay bashings/murders in situations where a transvestite tries to have sex with a client without first disclosing that “she” is, in fact a “he”. Gay marriage is also legal in Brazil, and I have never seen a gay pride parade in my city that did not have whole families coming out to enjoy the fun. The city is full of gay saunas and motels for gay men to go and have their fun, and these places are hardly being protested against! In fact, Homosexuality/Bisexuality is so prolific and accepted here (at least in my city and all the other cities that I have been to) that it is hard for women here to find men who identify as “heterosexual”, or who are not on the down low. Because of this, it does not seem correct to lump Black issues in with gay issues.
I, too, mourn the death of democracy in Brazil 🙁
BRAZIL IS 48-49% WHITE ALMOST HALF THE POPULATION IS WHITE BRAZIL IS NOT A BLACK COUNTRY ITS A DIVERSE COUNTRY THERE IS WHITE PEOPLE , BLACK PEOPLE , AND MIXED RACE OR PARDOS
BRAZIL RECIEVED THE LARGEST EUROPEAN DIASPORA AFTER THENUITED STATES MANY GERMANS , ITALIANS , POLISH , ARABS , PORTUGESE IMMIGRANTES IMMIGRATED TO THE SOUTH OF BRAZIL HEAVY EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION POPULATED THE COUNTRY THANKS TO EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION FROM 1820 TO 1934 BRAZIL IS NOT BLACK COUNTRY LIKE AFRICA OR HAITI AND YES BRAZIL HAS THE LARGEST BLACK POPULATION OUTSIDE AFRICA BUT THE FACT IS THAT BRAZIL HAS THE LARGEST WHITE POPULATION IN LATIN AMERICA BRAZIL HAS MORE WHITES THAN MANY SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES THANKS TO EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION
LOOK AT THIS VIDEO FROM SOUTHERN BRAZIL SOUTHERN BRAZIL IS MAJORITY WHITE LOOK AT THIS CONCERT FROM SOUTHERN BRAZIL
I hate to break it to u sweet pea, but a lot of these people would not be considered “white” in the rest of the world – particularly the ones who have conspicuously tried to blot out their “non-white-ness” with bad hair dye. Those of us who grew up in segregated societies will ALWAYS be able to spot African hair (no matter how processed it is), nose, mouth, and body.
These people do not represent “the entire south of Brazil”…rather, they just represent a bunch of people who have a taste for subpar music…
sorry honey brazil is not a black country now 49% of brazil is white weather you like it or not i know you hate european immigration from 1920 to 1945 i’m a white brazilian i’m blonde with blue eyes my ancestry is german and portugese my great great great great great grand parents came from germany and portugal during the great european immigration to the south of brazil during the 1800s
guess what the majority of southern brazilains are white blacks and mixed race people are minoirty in the south 85% of southern brazil is white hahahah we are the majority in the south and we are 49% of the population almost half
thanks to european immigration braazil has the largest white population in south america
BRAZIL HAS THE LARGEST GERMAN POPULATION IN LATIN AMERICA BRAZIL HAS THE 2ND LAEGEST GERMAN POPULATION IN THE WORLD THATS WHY MAN GERMANS FROM GERMANY ARE INVESTING IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL
VIDEO BELOW
@Wayne Gio – I am STILL not understanding how YOU do not understand that “51% of Brazil is composed of Afrodescendentes” is the same as saying “The MAJORITY of the country is BLACK!” Were you absent the day they taught math in math class??
Just look at all the Black people in this video (since we are using random youtube videos to illustrate what we are saying):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bpFAfc38a0
Notice how the number of Black people in this video outnumber the the “white” people in your videos, those proving that the majority of Brazilians are, in fact, along the spectrum of BLACK 😀
hahahahahah that carnival is only in rio not in the south rio is in the southeast
want to see the real brazil ?????
look at the streets of sao paulo you dont see alot of black people you see more whites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zng9nmFZcic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZeHdMezgLs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cb-0K1dbDI
LISTEN I HAVE A LIFE OK MY MAIN POINT IS THAT BRAZIL IS NOT A BLACK COUNTRY KEEP DREAMING ITS A DIVERSE COUNTRY ITS BIG ALMOST HALF THE POPULATION IS WHITE 49% AND ANOTHER THING LOOK AT THE MEDIA YOU DONT SEE BLACK PEOPLE AND MIXED RACE PEOPLE YOU SEE WHITE PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA SOAP OPERAS MOVIES AND MODELS ETC. BLACK BRAZILIANS DONT HAVE A VOICE IN THE THE GOVERNEMENT THERE IS MORE WHITE PEOPLE THAN BLACK PEOPLE
GOOD BYE HONEY I HAVE A LIFE AND A CAREER WONT TALK TO YOU ANYMORE ITS GETTING TIRING
@Wayne Gio: “AND ANOTHER THING LOOK AT THE MEDIA YOU DONT SEE BLACK PEOPLE AND MIXED RACE PEOPLE YOU SEE WHITE PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA SOAP OPERAS MOVIES AND MODELS ETC.”
Any one who has followed this blog for any amount of time already knows about the white supremacy factor in Brazil. Yes, the media and nearly everything else in Brazil is dominated by white people or people who consider themselves white. This is in fact the main reason that this blog exists. You scream about whitew this and white that, which tells me you totally in agreement that white people should represent Brazil’s face but you youself wrote that Brazil is a “A DIVERSE COUNTRY”. That is true so why aren’t you screaming just as loud to have this diversity represented in media, politics, academia, dance and so many other areas where white Brazilians see it as normal that a diverse country is represented by white bodies?
If you believe that media representation should be represented by primarily white faces, why are you so interested in promoting these ideas on this blog? This is not the place for that. If you don’t like the content on this blog, why not go to another blog where white people can enjoy white supremacy? The intent of this blog is to highlight this “diversity” that you insist on speaking on but remain silent (or in favor) of a lack of diversity in every area of Brazilian society.
Glad to see that we both agree that racism is an epidemic in Brazil (hence this very website) and that 51% Black is definitely more than 49% white. You go ahead and go back to your “career” and I will leave you with these videos of all these Black Brazilians walking around Sao Paulo (which you seem to think is exclusively white because it’s in the south). Bye Felicia!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpEzJLjo3ZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_XnGezMRgA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekluf91ufPk
Er…one last thing…the southeast is, in fact, in the south…that is all…
DO YOU WANT FACTS AND SOURCES ???? I WILL GIVE IT TO YOU SAO PAULO IS 60% WHITE WHITES ARE MAJORITY IN SAO PAULO THE SOUTHEAST AND SOUTH OF BRAZIL IS MAJORITY WHITE AND MINORITY BLACK AND MIXED YOU WANT SOURCES HERE IT IS BELOW WHATS YOUR OPINION I’M WAITING RIGHT NOW IF YOU DONT RESPOND THAN THAT MEANS I WON THE BATTLE IT OPEN THE BLUE LINK BELOW
SAO PAULO STATE DEMOGRAPHICS :
According to the IBGE estimates for 2014, there were 44,035,304 people residing in the state. The population density was 177.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (459/sq mi).
The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) research revealed the following numbers: 27,612,000 White people (63.1%), 12,842,000 Brown (Multiracial) people (29.3%), 2,810,000 Black people (6.4%), 451,000 Asian people (1%), and 54,000 Amerindian people (0.1%).[5]
SAO PAULO CITY DEMOGRAPHICS :
In 2013, São Paulo was the most populous city in Brazil and in South America.[36] According to the 2010 IBGE Census, there were 11,244,369 people residing in the city of São Paulo.[37] The census found 6,824,668 White people (60.6%), 3,433,218 Pardo (multiracial) people (30.5%), 736,083 Black people (6.5%), 246,244 Asian people (2.2%) and 21,318 Amerindian people (0.2%).[38]
HERE ARE THE SOURCES FROM WIKIPEDIA BRAZIL SOUTHEAST AND SOUTH ARE MAJORITY WHITE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo#Demographics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo_(state)#Demographics
@Wayne Gio: What is your point is publishing these stats? From what I’ve seen in SP state it is a white majority. So what? And while many of these people are indisputably white, many are people who consider themselves white but would only be so in Brazil. So what? What is your point?
The point, I think, is what Bama said and that I’m still laughing my as off
“we are using random youtube videos to illustrate what we are saying”
It’s very difficult to impossible to argue with this.