New Sociological Perspectives 2021, Vol. 1, No. 1, 147–159 https://nsp.lse.ac.uk

Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Culture

Lélia Gonzalez* Translated by Maria Júlia Venâncio, Mateus Mendonça and Gustavo Segat1

Translator’s Summary

This is a translation of Racismo e Sexismo na Cultura Brasileira, an oral presentation given at the meeting of the Working Group “Themes and Problems of the Black Population in ”, at the IV Annual Meeting of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Social Sciences (ANPOCS), , 31 October 1980. It was later transcribed and originally published in the first issue of the collectionCiências Sociais Hoje, p. 223–244, in 1984, organized and published by the same association. Using political-cultural categories and concepts, such as Amefricanity, Pretoguês, Brazilian cultural neurosis and myth of , Lélia Gonzalez, from an inter- sectional perspective, develops on the dynamics and specificities of racial relations in Brazil and the country’s social and cultural formation, marked by and colonization. As a precursor of Afro-Latin American Feminism, the author analyzes the social and subjective condition of the Afro-Brazilian population, more specifically the material and symbolic bases of the oppression and exploitation of Black women, impacted by the double phenomenon of racism and sexism, and their role in resisting the pressures of erasing Brazil’s African roots.

Keywords Brazil, race, feminism, knowledge production, gender

* Lélia Gonzalez (1935–1994) – historian, philosopher, anthropologist and teacher, pioneered black feminism and Afro-Brazilian culture, overcom- ing the barriers of Brazilian social thought which traditionally had been dominated by white men. Her theoretical work offers us perspectives on the interplay of gender, race, and class relations and the formation of Brazil’s class society. In addition, she was an influential activist in the black women’s movements, being one of the founders of the Movimento Negro Unificado (Unified Black Movement), Instituto de Pesquisas da Cultura Negra - IPCN (Black Culture Research Institute), Coletivo de Mulheres Negras N’Zinga (N’Zinga Black Women’s Collective) and Olodum. She served on the Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher (National Council for Women’s Rights) and ran for federal and state representative twice in the 1980s.

¹ Maria Júlia Venâncio is a Social Sciences student at the University of São Paulo and a research assistant at Afro/CEBRAP - Center for Research and Training in Gender, Race and Racial Justice, where she participates in “Afro Memória”, a project that promotes the recovery and dissemi- nation of collections that portray the memory and history of contemporary Brazilian black activism. Mateus Mendonça is a graduate student at the University of Sao Paulo (USP, Brazil) and MSc student in Political Sociology at the School of Economics and Political Science (LSE, UK), where he is a Chevening Scholar. He also works as an organiser in a trade union focused on precarious and migrant workers in the UK. His main research interests are political sociology, social movements, trade unions and political processes. Gustavo Segat is a graduate Sociology student at LSE and Research Assistant at the Department of Organisations at the Copenhagen Business School. His research interests entangle STS, economic sociology and urban studies. We are especially thankful to ANPOCS and Rubens Rufino, Lélia Gonzalez’s son, for granting us the copyrights to publish this translation in open source. We also extend our sincere thanks to Dr David Brookshaw and Gabriela Ramos Sarmet for the precious reviews. Responsibility for any mistakes or imprecision lies with us. Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 148

I – So what do we do now, folks?2

2 [Translator’s Note: TN] ... It was then that a really cool bunch of Whites invited us to their party, saying it Informed by Martins (2018), we attempted to was for us too. It was all about a book on us, we were given a great welcome and intervene as little as possi- treated very kindly. They even called us to sit at the table where they were sitting ble in style and grammat- while they were making a nice speech saying that we were oppressed, discriminated ical choices made by the original author. against, exploited. They were all fine, educated people who’d travelled through this God-given world; they knew about things. And we got to sit there at the table. Only it was so full of people that we couldn’t sit with them. But we sorted ourselves out, we looked for some chairs and sat right behind them. They were so busy, teaching 3 [TN] In the original: “cri- a lot of things to the Black3 audience, that they didn’t even notice it was possible to oléu”. We are translating here as “Black” once the squeeze more people around the table so that everyone could sit down together. word in English “Creole” But they were the hosts, and we couldn’t mess it up by suggesting people move often refers to several languages originally from here or there. We had to be polite. And there was speech after speech, all with lots the Caribbean, Central of applause. and North America. In the text, as in the Brazilian That was when the Black woman who was sitting with us took a bold step. They context, the term is used to refer to any group of asked her to answer a question. She got up, went over to the microphone and began Black people. to complain about certain things that were happening at the party. That set the tone for the quizumba.4 It looked like Black folks were just waiting for the chance to mess 4 [TN] An African-Portu- guese word for “mess”. everything up. And there was so much yelling, booing, that you couldn’t even hear what was being said anymore. It was clear as day that the Whites were turning white with anger, and with good reason. They’d invited us to a party about a book that

5 [TN] The idea that Bra- talked about us and we were behaving like that, interfering with their speeches… zil was able to overcome What on earth was going on? They knew more about us than we did, didn’t they? any form of racial conflict Weren’t they here, with all the good will in the world, teaching us a whole bunch of through miscegenation and harmonious coexist- stuff? It got to a point when they couldn’t put up with all the racket those ignorant, ence between White, Black unruly Blacks were making. It was all too much. At some point, an angry White man and Indigenous people. picked a fight with a Black who had taken the microphone to speak against the Whites. And the party ended in a fight... Now, let’s be honest, who was to blame? 6 [TN] All underlined words in the text were so That sassy little Black woman, now. If she hadn’t babbled... She’s burnt her bridges in the original. as far as White folk are concerned. They’ve been badmouthing her ever since. Who told her not to know how to behave? That’s why they say “if Blacks don’t take a dump 7 [TN] “Mulata” has two meanings. The first, more on their way in, they’ll shit on their way out”... traditional, of a woman descended from a per- This long epigraph says more than one thinks at first glance. At the outset, we can per- son of African origin and ceive the identification of the dominated with the dominator. And this has already been one of European origin. The other, developed by very well analyzed by Fanon, for example. What we shall attempt to do here is to establish the author, highlights the why this identification was made. In other words, what happened to make the myth of strong sexual connotation racial democracy5 so acceptable and easy to disseminate? What were the processes that that is central to the ste- reotype attached to the would have determined its construction? What does it hide, other than what it shows? “mulata” in Brazilian his- How is the Black woman situated in its discourse? tory and culture. For this reason, we decided not to The place6 in which we find ourselves will shape our interpretation of the double phenom- translate the term to “mu- enon of racism and sexism. For us, racism is the symptom that characterizes the Brazil- latto woman” or “mulatta”. ian cultural neurosis. In this sense, we will see that its articulation with sexism produces 8 [TN] “Doméstica” is a violent effects particularly on Black women. Consequently, the standpoint from which common name used we speak suggests a further factor, one that we have regularly discussed in earlier texts. for housemaids who do household cleaning and Change started to take place when certain notions, upon breaking into our discourse, organizing activities, and led us back to the question of the Black woman from another perspective. These are the often take care of the chil- notions of the mulata,7 the doméstica8 and the mãe preta.9 dren as well. In a presentation at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) National Meeting, in 9 [TN] “Mãe preta” (Black April 1979 (Gonzalez 1979a), we spoke about the mulata, even if only briefly, contesting mother) was the name given to enslaved en- its grounding in ethnic identity, and instead suggesting that it should be understood as a slaved Black women who profession. We tried to develop this concept a little more in another paper, presented at a fulfilled the functions of care and wet nurse of symposium held at the University of California Los Angeles in May 1979 (Gonzalez 1979c). White children during the There, we talked about this double image of today’s Black woman: mulata and doméstica. period of enslavery, simi- The notion of the Black mother also emerged there, placed in a new perspective. But we lar to the “mammy” figure in the US. did not go any further. Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 149

In the meantime, we participated in a series of international meetings dealing with the issue of sexism as the central theme, which certainly opened up a space for the discus- sion of racism as well. Our experience was very enriching. It is worth mentioning that the political activism in the Movimento Negro Unificado – MNU (Unified Black Movement) was a determining factor in our understanding of the racial issue. On the other hand, our ex- perience as a member of the Grêmio Recreativo de Arte Negra (Black Art Recreational Club) and Escola de Quilombo (Quilombo Samba-School) helped us perceive several as- pects that would constitute very important elements for the accomplishment of this work. From this, what could be called internal contradictions began to take shape. The fact is that, as Black women, we feel the need to deepen this reflection, instead of continuing to reproduce and repeat the models that were offered to us by social science research. The texts only told us about Black women from a socio-economic perspective that elucidated a series of problems posed by racial relations. But there remained (and will remain) a re- sidual issue that defied explanations. And it started to bother us. Precisely because of the notions of mulata, doméstica and mãe preta which persistently troubled us… Our epistemological backing comes from Freud and Lacan, that is, from Psychoanalysis. As Miller tells us in his theory of language and discourse (Miller 1976: 17): What began with Freud’s discovery was another approach to language, another ap- proach to a language whose meaning only came to light with Lacan’s retake. To say more than you know, not knowing what to say, to say something other than what is said, speak to say nothing, these are no longer, within the Freudian tradition, the de- fects of language that justify the creation of formal languages. These are inescapable and positive properties of the act of speaking. Psychoanalysis and Logic, one is based on what the other eliminates. The analysis finds its assets in the trash cans of logic. Or still: the analysis triggers what the logic domesticates”. [translated from Portuguese].

Now, given that we Blacks are in the trash can of Brazilian society, as the logic of dom- ination establishes, an inquiry via psychoanalysis would be appropriate. And precisely based on the alternative proposed by Miller, that is: why is the Black the one that the logic of domination tries (and often manages, as we know) to domesticate? And the risk we take here is that of speaking, with all its implications. It is exactly because we have been spoken for, infantilized (from Latin infans, one who does not have its own speech, the child is the one who speaks in the third person because it speaks through adults), that, in this work, we are assuming our own speech. That is, the garbage will speak, and it’s all good. The first thing we notice in this talk about racism is that everyone thinks it is natural. That the Black man deserves to live in misery. Why? Well, because his qualities are worth nothing: irresponsibility, intellectual incapability, childishness, etc. Hence, it is natural for him to be chased by the police, because he doesn’t like to work, you know? If he doesn’t work, he’s a trickster and if he is a trickster he is a thief. So, of course, he has to be arrested. Like father, like son: a Black minor can only be an urchin or pick- pocket (Gonzalez 1979b). A Black woman, of course, is a cook, cleaning lady, servant, the woman at the turnstile or a prostitute. We just need to read the newspaper, listen to the radio and watch television. They don’t aim for anything. Their place is in the favelas. Racism? In Brazil? Who said that? This is an American thing. Here there are no differ- ences because everyone is Brazilian above all, thank God. Here Blacks are well treated, have the same rights as we have. So much so that, when they make an effort, they can move upwards in life. I know one who is a doctor; very polite, cultured, elegant and with such fine features... doesn’t even seem Black. Through this, you can see that it’s all about domesticating. And if we look at certain as- pects of the so-called Brazilian culture, we know that in its more or less conscious man- ifestations it hides, while revealing, the hallmarks of Africanity that constitute it. (How come?). Following on, we can also point out the place of the Black woman in this process of cultural formation, as well as the different ways of rejecting/integrating their role. Therefore, we will work with two notions that will help us to understand what we in- tend to characterize. We are talking about notions of consciousness and memory. By Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 150

9 The best example of its consciousness, we mean the awareness of the position of not-knowing, concealment, effectiveness lies in -whit ening ideology. It was a alienation, forgetfulness and even knowledge. That is where the ideological discourse Black man, labelled as a takes shape. By memory, on the other hand, we mean the not-knowing that we know, mulato, who was the first this place of inscriptions that restitute a history that was not written, the place of the to articulate this idea in a “scientific” discourse. We emergence of truth, of that truth structured as fiction. Consciousness excludes what are talking about “Mr.” Ol- memory includes. Hence, insofar as it is the place of rejection, consciousness expresses iveira Vianna. Whitening, itself as the dominant discourse (or effects of that discourse) in a given culture, conceal- no matter at what level, is what consciousness ing memory by imposing what consciousness affirms as the truth. But memory has its demands of us, to barely cunning qualities, it has its knacks: for this reason, it speaks through the blunders of the accept our presence. If we discourse of consciousness. What we are going to try is to understand this game that behave “like Blacks”, it im- mediately devises a plan both play, also called a dialectic. And when it comes to us Black folks, we understand for us to “behave like peo- that consciousness does everything for our history to be forgotten, eliminated from the ple”. And there are a lot of 9 people who embrace this. scene. And everything works in such direction. Nevertheless, it’s there… and it speaks.

10 [TN] Events typical of Brazilian street carni- II - The Active Black Woman val where improvization and disorganization are Mulata, mulatinha my love predominant: a group of people with improvized I was appointed your Lieutenant Interventor costumes, or even ordi- (Lamartine Babo) nary clothes, gather to the sound of improvized instru- . Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The usual slogans: Alcohol, Women and Samba. Everyone ments and parade through 10 11 12 the streets of the city. obeys and complies. Blocos de sujo, banhos a fantasia, frevos, ranchos, big balls in big clubs, in small ones too. Joy, madness, general liberation. But there is one moment that 11 [TN] The word frevo concentração 13 comes from the verb “fer- imposes itself. Everyone gathers: in the , in the stands, in front of the TV. ver” (to boil). It is a fast- The Samba Schools will parade their double or triple colours. The predominant pairs: blue paced musical rhythm and an original Brazilian and white, green and pink, red and white, yellow and black, green and white and so on. dance from the state of A fierce spectacle, say the commentators: feathers, sequins, a lot of luxury and wealth. . Emperors, uiaras,14 bandeirantes (colonial explorers) and pioneers, princesses, orixás,15 12 [TN] A type of carnival animals, gay people, males, females, Solomons and queens of Sheba, Maharajas, slaves, association, typical of the soldiers, sols and luns, baianas, gypsies, Hawaiians. All under the command of the rhythm city of Rio de Janeiro, wide- spread in the most neglect- of the drums and the movement of the mulatas who, some say, are out of this world. ed sections of the popu- “Look at that carnival float group over there. Just look at those thighs, man.” “Look at that lation, especially between passista15 over there; what an ass, my God! Look at how she moves her tummy. You can the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th eat crackers in my bed, hottie!” “These women drive me crazy, man”. century. It had considera- ble African influence, pos- And there they go, queens of the show with their wriggles and smiles, blowing kisses as if sibly brought by Africans of they were blessings to their avid subjects in this parade of fairies ... And fairy comes from Bantu and Sudanese origin “fée”, fairy, in the civilized French language. Fairy tale? and from Portuguese pop- ular musical traditions. The myth that we are trying to re-enact here is that of racial democracy. And it is through 13 [TN] Agglomeration the carnival ritual that the myth is updated with all its symbolic strength. It is at that mo- of people in Carnival Pa- ment that the Black woman becomes the queen, exclusively “the mulata goddess of my rades waiting for their samba”, “who passes with grace / making fun of / pretending to be innocent / taking away Samba School to perform. our peace”. It is in the parades of the premier-league Samba Schools that we see it in its 14 [TN] A Brazilian indig- maximum exaltation. There, she loses her anonymity and transforms herself into the Cin- enous word of Tupi roots derella of the asphalt, adored, desired, devoured by the eyes of tall, blond princes, coming that refers to a beautiful mermaid who lives in the from distant lands just to see her. These, in turn, try to grasp her image, strangely seduc- waters of the Amazon. tive, in all its anatomical details; and “flashes” follow, like electronic fireworks. She gives

15 [TN] Name attributed what she has, because she knows that tomorrow she will be on the pages of national and to the African deities who international magazines, seen and admired by the whole world, not to mention cinema were brought to Brazil by and television. There she goes, fairy bright and illuminated, in the fairy parade. the enslaved and were incorporated by various Every young Black woman, who parades in the most humble Carnival block of the most religious denominations. distant suburb, dreams of the Marquês de Sapucaí strip.17 She dreams of that golden 16 [TN] Samba school dancer. dream, a fairy tale in which “The Moon envying you, made a face / Because, mulata, you are out of this world”. And why not? 17 [TN] Located on Marquês de Sapucaí Avenue, stage of Like every myth, that of racial democracy hides something beyond what it shows. At first the Rio de Janeiro Samba Schools Parade during the glance, we find that it exercises symbolic violence in a special way on Black women. For Carnival holiday. the other side of carnival deification takes place in this woman’s daily life, at the moment Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 151

when she becomes a housemaid. That is where the culpability engendered by her deifica- tion is exercised with strong charges of aggression. It is also there that it appears that the terms mulata and housemaid are attributions of the same subject. The nomenclature will 18 [TN] It is worth pointing depend on the situation in which we are seen.18 to a very common type of experience. I refer to the If we embark on a journey through the time of , we can find a lot of interesting salesmen who knocks on my door and, when I open things. Things that explain all the confusion that White people have with us because we it, they ask gently: “Is mad- are Black. Needless to say to us, Black women. Did our mucamas grandmothers do any- am there today?” I always thing to them to treat us like that? By the way, what was a mucama? The Aurélio Dictionary answer that madam has left and, once again, I see defines it like this: how we are seen by Bra- zilian cordiality. Another Mucama. (From quimbundo mu’kama ‘slave mistress’). The young, domesticated and type of question that is enslaved black woman who was chosen to assist with housework or follow family usually asked, but then members and who sometimes was a wet nurse. in public places: “Do you work in television?” or “Are you an artist?” And It seems that the first aspect to be observed is the name itself, a signifier from the Kim- we know what this “work” bundu language, and the meaning it holds. An African name, given by Africans and that and this “art” means. remained as an inscription not only in the dictionary. Another interesting aspect is the dis- placement of the meaning in the dictionary, that is, in the official code. We see there a kind of neutralization, of emptying in the original sense. The passing reference to “sometimes”, reveals something of what Africans knew, but needed to be forgotten, hidden. Let’s take a look at what other texts tell us about the mucama, June E. Hahner, in A Mulher no Brasil (The Woman in Brazil) expresses the following: “The coloured enslaved woman created for the white women, in their large and smaller houses, a pleasant, easy and for the most part idle living condition. She cooked, washed, ironed, scrubbed the floors in the rooms and bedrooms on her knees, took care of the lady’s children and satisfied the master’s demands. She had her own children, the duty and the fatal solidarity to support her partner, to suffer with the other slaves from the slave quarters and the plantation, and to submit to the corporal punishments that were personally destined to her. (...) Love, for the enslaved woman, (...) had aspects of a true nightmare. The bold and debasing incursions of the master, children and relatives through the slave quarters, the imprudence of the priests whom the Philippine Ordina- tions, with their pecuniary punishments and exile to Africa, did not intimidate or make them abandon concubinage and the sexual pursuit of enslaved black women”. (Hahner 1978: 120–121) [translated from Portuguese]

Further on, citing José Honório Rodrigues, she refers to a document from the end of the 18th century by which the Viceroy of Brazil at the time excluded from his duties a cap- tain-general who had expressed “low feelings” and had stained his blood by marrying a Black woman. Already back then, it was observed how consciousness (coated with au- thority, in this case) sought to impose its rules of the game: taking a concubine is fine; but marriage is too much. When characterizing the role of the enslaved woman in the productive system of the slave society (provision of goods and services), Heleieth Saffioti demonstrates its artic- ulation with the provision of sexual services. Through this, she points out that the Black woman ended up becoming the “unconscious instrument that gradually undermined the established order, both in its economic dimension and in its family dimension” (Saffioti 1976: 165). This is because the slave master ended up assuming uneconomic positions, determined by his sexual posture; as if there were Black men who competed with him in the love arena, he resorted to torture and the sale of competitors. And the disorder was established precisely because “sexual relations between masters and enslaved women, no matter how primitive or animalistic they were, triggered processes of social interaction incongruent with the expected behaviour, which ruled over caste stratification. Thus, not only white and black men became competitors in the dispute for the black women, but also white and black women vied for the attention of the white man.” (Saffioti 1976: 165) Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 152

We found that in the two texts, the framing of the mulata and the doméstica derived from the figure of themucama . It seems like it is not by chance that in the Aurélio Dictionary the other function of the mucama is in parentheses. It must be hidden, repressed, removed from the scene. But that does not mean that it is not there, with its disturbing sway. And the privileged moment in which her presence becomes manifest is precisely that of the mythical exaltation of the mulata in this parenthesis that is the Carnival. As for the doméstica, she is nothing more than the accepted mucama, the one provision- ing goods and services, that is, the dogsbody that carries her family and that of others on her back. Hence, she is the opposite of exaltation, because she is in everyday life. And it is in this daily life that we can notice that we are seen as doméstica. The best ex- ample of this are the cases of discrimination against middle-class Black women, which are becoming increasingly common. There is no point in being “polite” or being “well dressed” (after all, “good looks”, as seen in job ads is a “White” category, solely attrib- utable to “White” or “light” women). Concierges force us to enter through the buildings’ service door, obeying instructions from the White managers (the same ones who ogle us at the carnival and other kinds of fuss). After all, if she is a Black woman, she can only be a doméstica, therefore, service entrance. And, on second thought, the service entry is a bit ambiguous, a bit rakish, because it unintentionally refers us to other entrances (isn’t that so Mr Building Manager?). That’s how we realize that it is impossible to pretend that the other function of the mucama had been forgotten. There it is. But it is that anonymous Black woman, inhabitant of the outskirts, in the lowlands of life, who most tragically suffers from the effects of the terrible White guilt. She is the one who survives on the basis of service provision, holding it together for the family practically alone. This is because her man, her brothers or her children are the subjects of systematic police harassment (death squads, “White hands” are there killing Blacks at will; and one notes that these are young Black men, under the age of thirty. In addition, see who is the majority of the incarcerated population in this country). It is worth asking again: how did we arrive at this state of affairs, with abolition and everything else on top of that? The answer comes from a very important White man (well, because he is a social scientist) named Caio Prado Junior. In a book called For- mação do Brasil Contemporâneo (The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil), he says a lot of interesting things on the subject of slavery: “Indeed, slavery in the two functions it plays in colonial society, labor and sexual fac- tors, will only determine elementary to very simple relations. (...) The other function of the slave, or better, the enslaved woman, an instrument for satisfying the sexual needs of her masters and dominators, does not have a less elementary effect. It does not go beyond the primary and purely animal level of sexual contact, and only re- motely approaches the very human sphere of love, in which the sexual act involves a whole complex of emotions and feelings so wide that they even put the act that ulti- mately gave rise to them into the background”. (Prado Junior 1967: 342–343) [trans- lated from Portuguese]

After we read such things, we don’t even want to say anything because it’s a done deal. But here we go. As for the two facts pointed out and conjugated, just take a look, once again, at Heleieth’s text. She teaches the author a lesson within the same discursive space in which he places himself. However, given that our framework is different, let’s join the party too. The text gives us the impression that White people don’t fuck, but commit a sexual act, and that they call lust a “need”. And on top of that, they say animals only take the mickey. It’s not understandable, is it? Actually, it is. The text has a wealth of meanings, insofar as it is a privileged expression of what we would call Brazilian cultural neurosis. Now, we know that the neurotic develops ways of hiding the symptom because it brings him certain benefits. This construction sets him free from the anguish of facing repres- sion. In fact, the text in question reveals far more than it intends to analyze. The moment it speaks of something, denying it, it reveals its total lack of self-awareness. Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 153

In this perspective, he would have little to say about this Black woman, her man, her brothers and her children, of which we have been speaking. This is because he denies them the status of a human being, treats them always as an object. Even as an object of knowledge. That is how we understand the resistance of certain analyses that, by insisting on the priority of class struggle, refuse to incorporate the categories of race and sex. That 19 [TN] Read Jornal do is, insisting on forgetting them (Freud 1925).19 Brasil of 28 October 1980 to get an idea of how this And returning to the question of the Black woman, we are going to reproduce something “forgetfulness” occurs. This is yet another case of that we wrote some time ago. racial discrimination of a “The conditions of material existence of the Black community refer to psychological Black woman; in this case, a teacher. The story end- conditionings that have to be attacked and unmasked. The different indexes of dom- ed in death; while going to ination of the different forms of economic production existing in Brazil seem to meet court, the criminal, along with his “accomplices” at the same point: the reinterpretation of Aristotle’s theory of the “natural place”. claim that the cause of the From colonial times to the present day, there is an evident separation in terms of crime was not his racism, the physical space occupied by dominators and dominated. The natural place of the but the teacher’s incom- petence. dominant White group is healthy housing, located in the most beautiful corners of the city or in the countryside and properly protected by different forms of policing rang- ing from the overseers, bounty hunters, henchmen, etc., to the formally constituted police. From the Big House and the townhouse to the beautiful buildings and current residences, the criterion has always been the same. The natural place of the Black, on the other hand, is the opposite, of course: from the slave quarters to the slums, tenements, invasions, wetlands and housing estates (...) today, the criterion has been symmetrically the same: the racial division of space (...) In the case of the dominated group, what can be seen are whole families huddled in cubicles whose hygiene and health conditions are the most precarious. In addition, there is also the presence of the police here; only it’s not to protect, but to repress, violate and frighten. That is how we can understand why the other natural place for the Black man is in jail. The systematic police repression, given its racist character, has as its main goal the es- 20 [TN] In 1979, a young tablishment of psychological submission through fear. In the long run, the aim is to Black woman called Mar- prevent any form of unity of the dominated group, by using all means that perpetuate li Pereira da Silva, later its internal division. Meanwhile, the dominant discourse justifies the performance of known as “brave Marli”, witnessed the killing of this repressive apparatus, speaking of social order and security”. (Gonzalez 1979c) her 19-year-old brother, Paulo Pereira da Silva, by Apparently, and answering the question we asked a little while ago, it seems that we have the police. In the midst of the military dictatorship, not reached this state of affairs. In fact, it looks as if we have never left it. All we have to she decided to find and do is reread what Hahner and Heleieth said. It turns out that the “accepted” mucama, press charges against her the doméstica, only causes White guilt because she remains the mucama right down to brother’s murderers. Marli went to dozens of police the last letter. That is why she is violently and concretely repressed. There is no lack of stations to face crowds of examples in this regard; if we articulate racial and sexual division of labor, it is even too police officers profiled in simple. Why is it that she only performs activities that do not involve “dealing with the the courtyard trying to rec- ognize them. This case was public’’? That is, activities where she cannot be seen? Why do job ads talk so much about extensively covered by the “good looks’’? Why is it that, in the madams’ houses, she can only be a cook, a maid or a media. She was only 27 cleaner and rarely a housekeeper? Why is it “natural” for her to be the servant in schools, years old. After years fac- ing many death threats supermarkets, hospitals, etc.? and trying to hide, her 20 21 15-year-old son, Sandro, And when, as in the famous “Marli case” (which has its counterpart in the “Aézio case”, was killed by the police. and you know, the rest is history), she blows the whistle, denouncing what they are doing with men of her race? Then as coisas ficam realmente pretas22 and we’ve got to find a way 21 [TN] The “Aézio Case” out of it. Either one resorts to ridicule or one takes the blame with the strategy of not as- happened in Barra da Tiju- ca, Rio de Janeiro, in 1979. suming it. Do you get it? Let us explain: the so-called popular radio shows use and abuse A construction worker the art of ridiculing the Black woman who defends her Black man from police attacks (she called Aézio was killed by torture while incarcerated knows what will happen to him, right? The “Aézio case” proves that). Just listen to the crime at a police station. and police segment in these programs. After all, one of the most efficient ways to escape anguish is to ridicule it, to laugh at what causes it. The “Marli case”, on the other hand, is 22 [TN] In English, “things taken seriously, so seriously that she has to hide. It is serious because it is her brother get really Black” as in “things get ugly”. A Por- (and not her man); therefore, nothing better to neutralize the guilt aroused by her act tuguese popular expres- than the gesture of folklorizing her, transforming her into a “Black Antigone”, the heroine, sion of racist connotation unique and unparalleled. With that, the anonymous mass of Arles is forgotten, repressed. that attributes a negative meaning to Blackness. And then everything is still fine in this tropical country. Elementary, my dear Watson. Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 154

That’s how we understand why they say certain things, thinking that they are cursing us. There is an old song called Nega do cabelo duro (Black woman with bad hair) that shows exactly why they want our hair to look good, smooth and soft, right? That is why they say that we have pouts, not lips, a furnace instead of a nose and bad hair (because it is “hard” or “kinky”). And when they want to praise us, they say we have fine features (fine as -op posed to thick, right?). There are people who believe in it so much that they end up using lightening cream, straightening their hair, turning it into a “lady’s” hair and are ashamed of being Black. Pure nonsense. Ultimately, we don’t even have to defend ourselves from the insults that refer directly to our Blackness. And we can even give examples that set the record straight. It was not long ago that we were talking to other women, in a conversation about the sit- uation of women in Brazil. It was then that one of them told a very revealing story, which complements what we already know about the sexual life of the White men until not too long ago: initiation and practice with Black women. That’s where the story we were told comes in (thanks for this story, Ione). When the time came for the wedding with the pure, fragile and innocent White virgin, time to consummate the marriage, some guys just couldn’t get it up. Can you imagine the embarrassment? Where was the providential remedy that enabled the marriage to be consummated? It was enough for the groom to sniff a piece of clothing from the Black woman, to get his “stuff” together again. And we kept thinking about this practice, so common between the walls of the Master’s House using this holy remedy called black stench (later shifted to body odour or simply “BO”). It’s easy to understand why they call us dirty negro women, right? For these and other reasons we want to laugh when we continue to read “Mr.” Caio Prado Júnior’s book (1976: 343). That excerpt, which we reproduced here, ends with a footnote, where he reinforces all the gibberish he says about us, quoting a French author in French (but we translate): “The miracle of human love is that, out of such simple instinct, desire, the most complex, delicate feelings are built” (André Maurois). This is the miracle that the love of the slave quarters did not and could not happen in colonial Brazil. Based on the above, it seems that not even Freud was able to define neurosis better than André Maurois. Regarding the denial of “Mr.” Caio Prado Junior, unfortunately, we know what he is forgetfully affirming: the love of the slave quarter only achieved the miracle of the Brazilian neurosis, thanks to this super simple thing that is desire. So simple that Freud spent his whole life writing about it (maybe because he had nothing else to do, right Lacan?). Definitely, Caio Prado Jr. “hates” our people. The only break he gives us is when he speaks of Gilberto Freyre’s “good Black wet nurse figure/character”, the “mammy”, the “nanny”, who “surrounds the crib of the Brazilian child with an atmosphere of goodness and tenderness” (Freyre 1951: 343). That is when we are seen as a good figure/character and become someone. But then he starts to discuss the difference between the slave (thing/object) and the Black (people) to arrive, again, at a pessimistic conclusion about both. It is interesting to see how, through the “Black mother” figure, the truth arises from the equivocation (Lacan 1979). Exactly this figure, who is given a bit of a leg up, is the one who will undermine the dominant race. It is through her that the “obscure object of de- sire” (Buñuel’s film), in Portuguese, ends up becoming the “Black desire to eat meat” in the mouth of White people who speak Portuguese. What we mean is that she is not this extraordinary example of total love and dedication as the Whites want, nor is she this sell- out, this traitor to the race, like some Black folks say who are very hasty in their judgment. She is simply the mother. That’s right, she’s the mother. Because the White woman, in fact, is the other. If that’s not the case, we ask: who breastfeeds, who bathes, who cleans poop, who puts to sleep, who wakes up at night to take care, who teaches how to speak, who tells stories and so on? She’s the mother, isn’t she? That’s it then. She is the mother in the topsy-turvy world of Brazilian culture. While the mucama is the woman, the “nanny” is the mother. The White woman, the so-called legitimate wife, is precisely the other who, impossible as it may seem, only serves to give birth to the master’s children. She does not exercise the maternal role. This is done by the Black woman. That is why the “Black mother” is the mother. Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 155

And when we talk about the maternal role, we are saying that the Black mother, when exer- cising it, has passed all the values that concern her to the Brazilian child, as pointed out by Caio Prado Júnior. This child, this infant, is the so-called Brazilian culture, whose language is 23 [TN] The combina- “Pretuguês” (“Blackuguese”).23 The maternal function concerns the internalization of values, tion of the words “preto” (Black) and “português” the teaching of the mother tongue and a series of other things that will be part of our imag- (Portuguese). inary (Gonzalez 1979c). It passes on to us this world of things that we will call language. And thanks to her, to what she goes through, we enter the order of culture, exactly because she is the one who names the father. We understand why, today, nobody wants a Black nanny, only a Portuguese one. But it’s a little late, isn’t it? The blow has already been dealt.

24 [TN] In Portuguese, 24 “Muita Milonga pra uma III. Too much Milonga, for only one Mironga Mironga só” means a lot of talk for only one fight/ Only one word devours me battle. The one my hearts doesn’t say (Abel Silva)

When we read the declarations of Dom Avelar Brandão, Archbishop of Bahia, saying that the africanization of Brazilian culture is a form of regression, one has to have some sus- picions. Because after all, what’s done, is done. And that’s when the Bishop went tits up. He woke up too late because Brazil was and is already africanized. M. D. Magno has a text that impressed us, exactly because he discusses this. He doubts Brazilian Latinity stating that this thing called Brazil is nothing more than an African America, that is, an Améfrica 25 [TN] Category creat- Ladina.25 To those who know Black folks, the text points to a gold mine that europeanizing ed by Lélia Gonzalez to question the Eurocen- gibberish does everything to hide, to take out of the scene. tric construction of Latin American (América Latina), And that is precisely why we are here, using our wits to try to understand ourselves. Al- presenting a notion of though we are speaking out loud, we, like everyone else, are into writing. That is why we ethnic-racial and trans- are going to try to point out to the one who put his signature, his mark, his seal (appar- national unity based on African and Indigenous ently without being one), his rubric, his surname as the father of this neurotic “teenager” culture, language and that we know as Brazilian culture. And when talking about the father we are talking about people. a symbolic function par excellence. As the popular saying goes: “My daughter’s children are my grandchildren; my son’s children may or may not be”. That’s what the paternal role is. It is much more a matter of taking on than of being sure. It is nothing other than the absentification function that promotes castration. That is why, thanks to Freyre, we can say that, like the zero, it is characterized as the writing of an absence. It is the name of an absence. The name of this absence, let’s say, is the name attributed to castration. And what is missing for this absence not to be ab- sent, to complete this series? An object that doesn’t exist, that is taken out. However, the myths and the cultural constructions, etc, will build something, some fiction to put in that place; that is, what is the name of the Father and what is the name of the lieutenant of the Name of the Father? For an important reason, because if I know the

name of the lieutenant of the Father’s Name, I will find the one (S1) that is perhaps none other than the name of the Father’s Name.

That is why we talked about the surname (supernomen), that is about the S1 that inau- gurates the significant order of our culture. Following Magno’s insights, we agree with

him by assigning the Black signifier the place of 1S . For that, we only need to think about the myth of origin elaborated by Mário de Andrade, which is Macunaíma. As everyone knows, Macunaíma was born Black, “dark Black and son of the fear of the night”. Later he whitens like many Blacks we know, who might even want to become Nordic. This is 26 The great thing about how we can understand the whitening ideology, the logic of domination that aims at Magno is to call Macunaí- the domination of Black people through the internalization and reproduction of White ma Máquina-íman (Ma- chine-magnet), the hero Western values. But we must not forget that Macunaíma is the hero of our people. And without H. Got it? no one better than a hero to exercise the paternal function.26 Not to mention others Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 156

27 Let us be aware of the like Zumbi,27 Ganga-Zumba and even Pelé. Let one think of this other hero called Alegria fact that Zumbi remains in the popular imaginary of do Povo (People’s Joy), born in Pau-Grande. They are there like the repetition of S1, as the Northeast as one that popular representations of the hero. The official heroes have nothing to do with this, makes naughty children they are products of the logic of domination, they have nothing to do with “the soul of behave better. “If you don’t keep quiet, Zumbi will come our people”. to get you”. This reminds us not only of the fear the It is in this way that we can understand a series of discourses against the Black indi- plantation owners had in vidual that are like modes of concealment, of not assuming one’s own castration. Who the face of a surprise attack wonders why they say that a running Black man is a thief? Thief of what? Perhaps of a by the great Black general, but also the words of the phallic omnipotence. Why is it that they say that when a Black doesn’t take a dump on mothers who, referring to the way in, he shits on the way out? Why is it that one of the torture instruments used by the father who is coming, the police of the Baixada28 is called “naughty mulata” (a broomstick that they introduce threaten their children to tell him (the father) about into the prisoners’ anus?) Why is it that anything that is bothersome is referred to as a their foolishness. Let us Black thing? Why is it that when reading the Aurélio,29 in the entry “negro” (Black), we find also pay attention to the a polysemy marked by the pejorative and the negative? Why is it that “Mr” Bishop is so symbolic strength of Zumbi as a signifier that nudges terrified by the threat of the africanization of Brazil? Why does he call this a regression? Black consciousness into its Why do people keep telling us to “stay in our lane”? What is this place? Why is it that awakening. It is no accident that the 20th of November, Brazilian racism is ashamed of itself? Why is it that there is “the prejudice of not having the day of his death in 1695, prejudice” and at the same time it is natural that the place of the Black is in the favelas, is considered the National slums and wetlands? Day of Black Consciousness and that it has nothing to do It’s funny how they make fun of us when we say we’re Framengo.30 They call us ignorant, with the 13th of May. This shift in dates (from the 13th saying that we speak wrong. And suddenly they ignore that the presence of this r in place to the 20th) is still a way of of the l is nothing more than the linguistic mark of an African language, in which the l does assuming Zumbi’s paternity not exist. After all, who is ignorant? At the same time, they think the so-called Brazilian and denouncing Princess Isabel’s false motherhood. speech is the greatest thing, which cuts the errors of the verbal infinitives, which condens- After all, we know that the es “você” in “cê”,31 “está” in “tá”32 and so on. They don’t realize they are speaking Pretoguês. mother is the Black mother. And speaking of Pretoguês, it is important to highlight that the partial object par excellence 28 [TN] Baixada Flumin- of Brazilian culture is the bunda (this term comes from the Kimbundu which, in turn, and ense is a geographical re- gion of the state of Rio de along with the Ambundo, comes from the Bantu linguistic trunk that is “casually” called 34 Janeiro, belonging to the bunda). And they say the signifier doesn’t mark... Foolish are those who think this way. Metropolitan Region of Suddenly, bunda is language, it is feeling, it is something. Suddenly it is overwhelming to the city of Rio de Janeiro, called Grande Rio. realize that the discourse of consciousness, the discourse of the dominant power, wants to make us believe that we are all Brazilian, and of European descent, very civilized, and 29 [TN] Famous Brazilian so on and so forth. dictionary. But when it comes to showing what they call “our things”, they talk about samba, tutu, 30 [TN] The correct spell- maracatu, frevo, Candomblé, Umbanda, samba schools, and so on and so forth. ing is “Flamengo”, the big- gest soccer club from Rio When they want to talk about the charm, the beauty of the Brazilian woman, the image de Janeiro. of tanned people from the beach appears immediately,35 of the swaying of the hips, the 31 [TN] Abbreviation of “you”. flirtatious looks, the wiggling and demonstrations of joy. And to top it all, there is this silly pride in saying that we are a racial democracy. But when Black people say that we are not, 32 [TN] Abbreviation of “is”. they come down on us, cursing us as racists. Contradictory, isn’t it? In fact, besides other 33 [TN] “Bunda” means “butt”. reasons, they react this way exactly because we touch a sore spot, we say that the king is naked. And that the king’s body is Black and the king is a Slave. 34 Just look at the TV and see how the multi articu- And then the question pops up. How come? What kind of inversion is this? What kind of late well signifiers take us subversion is this? The Master and Slave dialectic can explain the thing. by surprise. U.S. Top has an ad for jeans that only And it is precisely at carnival that the reign of this king manifestly takes place. We know shows people shaking their butts and that is not that carnival is a Christian celebration that takes place in a Christian space, but what we to mention Sardinha 88, call has, in its specificity, an aspect of subversion, of going beyond the “the hottest in Brazil”. limits allowed by the dominant discourse, by the order of consciousness. This subversion,

35 An ad for a suntan lo- in its specificity, has only to do with Blacks. It is not by chance that at that moment, we tion used on buses that leave the police columns and are promoted to magazine covers, the main focus on TV, in travel in the southern films, and so on. Suddenly, we stop being marginalized to become the symbol of joy, of zone of Rio de Janeiro, reproduces a Freudian unwinding, of the special enchantment of the people of this land called Brazil. It is at this slip, a lapse in conscious moment that Oropa,36 France and Bahia are much more Bahia than anything else. It is at speech, by stating: First this moment that the Black people go to the street to live their joy and have fun. Expres- the color, then the love. Flag, right? sions such as: “botá o bloco na rua”, “botá prá frevê” (which became the name of a dance Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 157

36 [TN] The way “Europa”, in the “fervour” of Northeastern carnival), botá prá derretê, deixa sangrá, dá um suó,37 etc. Europe, is commonly pro- nounced in Brazilian Por- are proof of this. It is also at this moment that the non-Blacks salute and open the way tuguese. for the Master-Slave, for the master, in the manifest recognition of his royalty. It is also at this moment that the non-Blacks salute and open the way for the Master-Slave, for the 37 [TN] Brazilian expres- master, in the manifest recognition of his royalty. It is at this moment that the exaltation sions related to Carnaval of American culture takes place through the mulata, this “export product” (which brings us festivities and traditions that convey the idea of international recognition, to an acceptance that goes beyond economic, social interests, joy, communion and peo- etc., although it is articulated along with them). It is not by chance that the Black woman, ple taking the streets to as a mulata, as if aware of this, for of course she knows it only too well, kills it with a sway celebrate in the hot Sum- mer. of her hips. When it is said that the Portuguese invented the mulata, we are brought ex- actly to the fact that they instituted the Black race as an object; and a mulata is a crioula, that is, a Black woman born in Brazil, regardless of constructions based on different skin tones. This has more to do with the explanations of constituted knowledge than with knowledge itself. It is also during carnival that the myth of racial democracy is exalted, precisely because in this short period of the manifestation of his reign, the Master-Slave shows that he does have sex and that he knows racial democracy. This is exactly why for the rest of the year there are reinforcements of the myth as such, precisely by those who do not want to look at where it points. The truth that is hidden in it, and that only manifests itself during the Slave’s reign, has to be repressed, removed from the scene, leaving in its place the illusions that consciousness creates for itself. Otherwise, how would you explain the fact that White people forbid the presence of people like us in those places they call fancy, while we don’t make the same fuss with them? And it is in trying to deepen his insights that Magno asks himself if In the Master–Slave dialectic, because it is the dialectic of our foundation (...), where the master always appropriates the slave’s knowledge, the insemination, through this

appropriated knowledge, as a mark that will give in relation to S2, was not produced by the slave, who in the dialectic, takes back the place of the master surreptitiously, like every slave. (…) that is to say, the master’s place belonged to someone else, but the production and appropriation of the lieutenant of the father’s name was marked, after all, by this African element. (Magno 1980)

Different places in Brazilian culture are characterized by the presence of this element. In the case of the macumba, for example, we should pay attention to 31 December on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, to the dispatches that multiply in every corner (or crossroads) of the metropolises such as Rio and São Paulo, not to mention football. We must pay at- tention to the large square parties in Salvador (which are so threatening to the insecure Euro-centrist Bishop of that city). But let’s look at the hospices, the prisons, and the fave- las, as privileged places of guilt as domination and repression. Let’s look at the practices of this guilt through so-called police action. Only because the Master-Signifier was stolen by the slave who imposed himself as master. Let us pay attention, finally, to Portela’s samba when it speaks of Macunaíma: “I’m going away/I’m going away/ I’m not coming back here anymore/ I’m going to live in the infinite and become a constellation”. And what does constellation mean, if not a place of inscription, of marking the Name of the Father? If the discursive battle, in terms of Brazilian culture, was won by the Black individual, what will have happened to the one who, according to their calculations, would occupy the place of the master? We are talking about the European, the White, the dominator. Taking over the father’s place, he can only be, as Magno says, the uncle or the cuckold; in the same way that the European woman ended up being the other. Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Society – New Sociological Perspectives 158

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