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August 12, 2014<\/p>\n
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Note from BW of Brazil<\/strong>:\u00a0The journey into blackness in Brazil is often a long-winding, sometimes confusing journey, with stops through self-hatred and denial. In a country in which the vast majority of persons of visible African descent prefer to identify themselves with color-coded terms that distance them from their negritude or blackness, it is often easier or less painful to deceive one\u2019s self into\u00a0Brazil\u2019s national mythical reality of all being\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/em>mesti\u00e7os<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(persons of mixed race) and thus\u00a0\u201call equal\u201d<\/span><\/a>rather than facing the truth of one\u2019s place in a \u201cracial democracy\u201d ruled by\u00a0white supremacy<\/span><\/a>. For those who understand how white supremacy seeks to destroy blackness on every level (including the psychological and physical), the struggle and resistance is not new. But for those on the path to this realization, the road to discovery and acceptance is often fascinating and liberating. Today\u2019s post provides yet another peek into this journey.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n LOOK, I AM OF BLACK SKIN: THANK GOD!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Cec\u00edlia Oliveira \u2013 Photo: Fernando Oliveira (text and photos originally featured at\u00a0Meninas Black Power<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A year and six months ago, I decided to start a new life. A\u00a0balzaquiana<\/em>\u00a0(1), I decided to cut off all my hair, know and recognize myself as a black woman. It was the result of many studies on identity, history, blackness. It would be a\u00a0grand finale<\/em>\u00a0of acceptance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There were months reading about texture, treatments, capillary schedules, etc. It was a world I had no idea existed. First obstacle: how to choose the treatments\/products suited for my hair if I did not know my hair? In readings, I found that there is hair from 2A to 4C. But what was my type? I had no idea. I needed to know what it was to know how to create my hair timeline and learn to moisturize, nourish and rebuild the mass of hair to keep it healthy. And there, before my decision, I heard two questions: \u201cIs it expensive? Will it take more work?\u201d Duh! Expensive and laborious were the\u00a0escova progressivas<\/em>\u00a0(Brazilian Keratin Treatment)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to straighten my hair!<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMe and my black father\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I straightened my hair for the first time \u2013 from what I remember \u2013 at 8 or 9 years old with the then famous and cursed \u201ctouca de gesso\u201d (2). I remember feeling absolutely ridiculous to keeping my head \u201cplastered\u201d for over an hour. It was a stinking thing that left my scalp red and sensitive for a few days. Since then, every three months, I was back to \u201ctame\u201d this insistent hair that took peace away from me \u2013 and beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Beauty: there\u2019s one thing that I\u2019ve \u201cnever had\u201d. I always thought I was very ugly. Thin, \u201ccabelo duro\u201d (hard hair), pimples and \u201cmoreninha\u201d (3). Everything to be deprecated. And it was like this for a long time. I remember clearly when it came time for graduation from the eighth grade and pairs needed to be formed for the ceremony (I will not go into the merits of this sexist social convention now). I remember I had a group of friends and none of them wanted to join me in this ceremony. I heard one of them saying: \u201cI prefer Eduarda. (She\u2019s) prettier.\u201d Eduarda, with her extremely long and straight hair, a little white girl, was prettier. Of course. Today I understand Eduarda\u2019s beauty. And mine (4). I still remember another time I was sweeping the porch of the house and a person, looking for my mother \u2013 who is white and the widow of a black man \u2013 asked if \u201cthe lady of the house was in.\u201d (5) Each in their place, right? Wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBefore\u201d: Cec\u00edlia \u2013 photo: Anderson Fran\u00e7a<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Before \u201cmoreninha\u201d. Now, negra and \u2026.GAY?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Nappy,\u00a0palha de a\u00e7o<\/em>\u00a0(steel wool),\u00a0Bombril<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0(scouring pad), broom,\u00a0sarar\u00e1\u00a0<\/em>(6),\u00a0cabelo duro<\/em>\u00a0(hard hair),\u00a0cabelo ruim<\/em>\u00a0(bad hair),\u00a0pia\u00e7ava<\/em>\u00a0(palm fiber) (7). I heard this all my life, even after straightening my hair, as even straightened, it didn\u2019t have the proper appearance (of being) naturally straight. But, hallelujah, one day came the day of the Big Chop (\u201cBC\u201d to close friends), the time to cut everything. I was so excited I could not stand going through the transition, the way that many girls manage to keep straightened hair until having enough length of natural hair that it\u2019s not necessary to cut the \u201cJo\u00e3ozinho\u201d (\u201cbutch cut\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0So I cut it (in) \u201cJo\u00e3ozinho\u201d (style). And I got another label immediately. I started to get looks, questions about my sexuality and even experienced homophobia when a man shouted, \u201cthat\u2019s shamelessness! It\u2019s the fault of (former president) Lula and the politically correct that we have to see this!\u201d I was drinking a juice with a friend \u2013 also with short hair \u2013 in a diner close to home. I grabbed a chair to \u201ceducate him\u201d but I was contained. It was better that way.<\/span><\/p>\n Acceptance: a political act.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cCan you get a boyfriend now, with that hair?\u201d, \u201ccan you get a job<\/span><\/a>?\u201d, \u201cwill your child be bullied at school?\u201d. I won\u2019t say I didn\u2019t think about these things. But I will say that I thought more about the answers. Would I like to relate to someone that would evaluate me and desire me because of my hair? Would I like to\u00a0work in a place where a person\u2019s capacity was measured by hair<\/span><\/a>? Would I\u00a0enroll my child in a school that ordered him to cut his hair<\/span><\/a>, as if it were a uniform? Would I submit to racism? Do I really want to withdraw myself from these debates and retract myself or do I want to fight with people by for the guarantee of rights for all and for the change of this criminal and mediocre scenario?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAfter\u201d: Cec\u00edlia \u2013 photo: Fernando Oliveira<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The answers to these questions are political. We are political beings. To exist is a political act. To exist as a black woman is a double exercise of struggle for citizenship and full rights. To leave your hair up high, in the place where you decided that it should be, is an affront. An affront to the \u201cnatural order of things\u201d, where the black has\u00a0his place very well delineated<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a place in the corner, over to the side, more\u00a0in the kitchen<\/span><\/a>, a second place. An affront to the Brazilian State, which had\u00a0an official policy ofembranquecimento<\/em>\u00a0(whitening) of its people<\/span><\/a>, focusing on miscegenation and the establishment of a\u00a0morena<\/em>\u00a0(brown\/mixed) population. Not\u00a0negra<\/em>. This bad thing had to be erased.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Accepting yourself is an affront to a State which requires whose\u00a0federal police demands that one tie down their hair to be entitled to get a document<\/span><\/a>. Affront to\u00a0a State that kills mostly blacks<\/span><\/a>. Affront to a State whose\u00a0leading positions<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0occupied overwhelmingly by white men<\/span><\/a>, who earn 36% more than black men and 47.8% more than black women. I was born to defy this rule, since birth and living in this state is an affront.<\/span><\/p>\n Racism with no end<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0How do expect that a child doesn\u2019t reproduce racism or gets used to suffering from it if she does not recognize in her surroundings blacks in positions that aren\u2019t subordinate? How is this possible without there being\u00a0black dolls to play with<\/span><\/a>, dolls with their color, their hair, their mouth and nose, their identity and that shows the child that\u00a0she is beautiful and deserves to be copied<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 How can black be something good, not derogatory, if people of their color don\u2019t even appear in the movies, if they don\u2019t have representation?\u00a0How many black protagonists are there of\u00a0novelas<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0(soap operas) that take place in Leblon (8), are rich, bosses, have beautiful homes on the seashore (senzala<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 slave quarter \u2013 protagonists in\u00a0novelas<\/em>\u00a0of that era don\u2019t count)?\u00a0Black women in film practically don\u2019t exist<\/span><\/a>, even though we are 52% of the female population.<\/span><\/p>\n We will not give up!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0We black women and black men built this and other countries. We carry the Brazil on our backs today, even earning far less for it and dying sooner and in greater numbers. But we learn to resist and, every day, learn to thwart those who think that\u00a0here is not our place<\/span><\/a>. We will battle to live longer and better and\u00a0we will teach our children<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that our hair, our nose, our skin are the characteristics of freedom and strength and that we do have a right to a place in the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n We, black women, will continue procreating, even though white governors call us \u201cbreeders of marginals\u201d. We will face this state and show that our place is not in the kitchen.<\/span><\/p>\n (The title of the text is an allusion to the music \u201cCabelo Pixaim\u201d meaning nappy hair, by samba musician Jorge Arag\u00e3o)<\/span><\/p>\n Cecilia Oliveira is a journalist and researcher, specializing in Crime and Public Safety at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), is the communications coordinator of the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition \u2013 LEAP Brazil. Indicated text, originally posted on the Ano Zero site, to be posted on the blog MBP.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Notes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 1. Refers to a woman approximately 30 years of age. The term refers to the work of French writer Honor\u00e9 de Balzac, who wrote \u201cA mulher de 30 anos\/The 30 year old woman.\u201d Once somewhat pejorative, at a time when the 30 year old woman was already considered \u201cmature\u201d today it\u2019s a compliment to those who, at 30, are in their prime, attractive not only for their beauty but also because they are in the fullness of their womanhood, professional, love, family, financial, and social life, etc! In one\u2019s peak, it is the pinnacle of femininity, hormonal equinox of beauty, experience and independence.<\/span><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0Touca de gesso<\/em>\u00a0is a type of homemade hair treatment that was very popular many years ago. It was made by mixing cornstarch, water and moisturizing cream for the purpose of giving the hair a straighter appearance.<\/span><\/p>\n Ingredients of the \u201cTouca de gesso\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n 3. \u201cMoreninha\u201d, a variation of the term \u201cm0rena\u201d, is a term that many writers use on this blog and represents a major part in the understanding of the concept of race in Brazil. The adding of the suffix \u201cinha\u201d on any term in Portuguese makes the word diminutive thus, in this case, \u201cmoreninha\u201d means \u201clittle morena\u201d. \u201cMorena\u201d can mean several things as well. It could be a white women with dark hair, equal to the English \u201cbrunette\u201d. It also can refer to a black person or a person of mixed race with light or even dark brown skin. It is often used to avoid calling a person a \u201cnegra\u201d, which is often deemed pejorative by Brazilian society, although many Afro-Brazilians after a transformation of consciousness and identity come to assume the term as an affirmation of their black identity.<\/span><\/p>\n 4. What should be noted here is that\u00a0Cec\u00edlia is on the lighter shade of brown when speaking of skin tones. But as we have shown in a number of posts on this blog, in Brazil, whiteness is the standard of which all are judged. As such, while it\u2019s very common to hear Brazilians argue that \u201cracism doesn\u2019t exist\u201d, or \u201cwe\u2019re all mixed\u201d, or that someone is not \u201cnegro\/negra\u201d but rather \u201cmoreno\/morena\u201d or \u201cpardo\/parda\u201d, the fact remains that whiteness remains the standard for which ALL non-whites are compared.<\/span><\/p>\n 5. \u201cIs the lady of the house home?\u201d is a commonly asked question that many Afro-Brazilian women point to as to how racism in Brazil works. Often it is assumed that a black woman cannot own a nice home and, as such, if she answers the door of a such a home, it is automatically assumed that she must be the maid.<\/span><\/p>\n 6.\u00a0Another Brazilian term for describing a certain phenotype. A person described as\u00a0sarar\u00e1\u00a0<\/i>is usually very fair-skinned, with loosely curled, afro-textured hair (color could be light brown, blond or even red), sometimes with freckles but facial features that still denote African ancestry.\u00a0Cultural critic Michaela Angela Davis or activist Angela Davis would be good examples of what a Brazilian would call\u00a0sarar\u00e1<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n 7. Material used to make brooms and baskets.<\/span><\/p>\n 8.\u00a0Leblon is the most affluent neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Neighboring Ipanema is regarded as the second most affluent area in Rio de Janeiro. It is also the name of the local beach. The neighborhood is located in the south zone of the city, between Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, Morro Dois Irm\u00e3os and the Jardim de Al\u00e1 channel, bordering the G\u00e1vea, Ipanema, Lagoa and Vidigal neighborhoods. It is regarded as having the most expensive price per residential square meter in Latin America.\u00a0Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Source:<\/strong>\u00a0Meninas Black Power<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n![\"mbp1\"](\"https:\/\/gatasnegrasbrasileiras.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/mbp1.png\")
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