What Color Are You?

Sitting at the airport in Rio de Janeiro awaiting our flight back to the US, I can’t help but think back on the past 48 hours and what was perhaps the most moving part of our two weeks in Brazil. On Wednesday evening we visited UniPalmares, the first, and to my understanding, only Afro-Brazilian university in Brazil. Even though we were late to this meeting, the smiling faces and enthusiasm that greeted us were readily apparent. After a tour of the school, including a lesson in “Samba Rock”, a dance program offered at the school, we sat down for a discussion with students, faculty and administrators from the school.

One thing we had learned through our experiences in Brazil is that most Brazilians don’t understand, or don’t know, the complicated means by which Americans racially classify one another. Of the nine students who attended the program from UCLA, only three, and perhaps myself as a fourth, identify as “white”. We tried to share this with the group we met with at UniPalmares. We wanted to describe that unlike in Brazil, where people identify as either black or white (despite the tremendous amounts of ambiguity we thought we saw), in the US many other groups are marginalized or discriminated against within our “colorblind” system.

After each of the UCLA students shared their own experiences with race and identification, a student from UniPalmares raised his hand and said that it was obvious how discrimination in the US must exist equally as in Brazil because our group consisted of eight white students and only one black student. Each of us kind of looked around at one another, wondering how we should respond. I think we all thought it was a bit humorous and perhaps ironic that even though many of the students shared their stories of racial discrimination we were still just seen as black and white. However, it also speaks to an important element of this project that we should work on in the future. Each of us was in Brazil not only to gather information for our own individual comparative research analyses, but also to exchange information and to offer our counterparts in Brazil the same opportunity to learn about us that we hoped to gain from them. This was not the first time we were looked at as eight white students and one black one – and it seems that a key to making this project a success, is to identifying a way to frame our experiences in a way people who have never been visited our country can understand.

The Right to Belong

Our visit at the University of Zumbi dos Palmares in Sao Paolo was an interesting contrast to our other campus meetings. Palmares enrolled its first class five years ago and is the only Black university in Brazil. We learned that Palmares recently graduated its first class of twenty one students, which constituted the largest number of Afro-Brazilian students to graduate from any university in Brazil. This statistic shows the dire inequality among races in Brazil given that nearly half of the population is Afro-Brazilian.

This visit was different because the Palmares students did not talk about feeling isolated in the classroom or feeling like they had to fight to show they had a right to be on campus. This is not to say that there is widespread support for this university. The President, Dr. Jose Vicente, told us that there is a lot of resistance to the university because it enrolls almost all Black students. It was a big challenge just to get the university established and to graduate its first class last year. Nonetheless, on the Palmares campus the students have a much greater sense of belonging and camaraderie than the Afro-Brazilian students we talked to at primarily white schools.

In Salvador, Afro-Brazilian students spoke of feeling alone and ostracized in the classroom and on campus generally until they began participating in workshops and programs through Black NGOs that aim to increase Black enrollment and create an environment in which these students have an entire network of support behind them. This support allowed the students to speak up in class and challenge racist behavior and comments, which significantly improved their experience. While these students felt more supported through their involvement with these NGOs, they still did not feel as welcomed and at home as the Palmares students.

Many of our own students of color could relate to the experiences of the Salvador students. Spending time at Palmares was personally important for them because it showed that their isolating experience at UCLA Law could have been different if higher numbers of students of color were enrolled here. While supporters of affirmative action, whether people of color or white, know that being part of a small minority on campus makes it more difficult for the students to learn because of racial isolation and discrimination, visiting a campus where challenges exist but that being entitled to attend school is not one of them, brought home this point in a new and powerful way. We need affirmative action back in California.

Education, Power, Respect

On Monday, we attended a mini-seminar with Professor Flavia Piovesan and students during her class at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Sao Paulo (PUC-SP). There, a young woman from Mozambique brought up the fact that all of the three blacks in the class were from Africa. Sadly, there were no Afro-Brazilians enrolled in the course. But, what I was more intrigued by was the impact of an affirmative action type program in Mozambique described by the young lady. Mozambique is 99% indigenous tribal groups, but people in power still found a way to discriminate and oppress others. Here, they used geography to exclude people from the university. As a result of groups from the north and east’s exclusion, the people in the south were perceived as ‘smarter’. However, when the University began opening up to more people from the north and east, those students were able to debunk the myth of “south superiority” and gain greater access.

This shows how power can be used to oppress others in order to maintain that power in any context. I think power goes beyond race since there is always potential for intra-group oppression, but racism is the strongest tool used in maintaining power. Education and exclusion from education have always been tools for maintaining power. Nevertheless, technology and globalization may alter the desire for domination and subordination of weaker groups. This combination requires the involvement of a higher percentage of the population for the creation, innovation and adoption of new technologies; using less than the full potential of human capital may cause a nation to slip behind others. Hopefully, this need will incentivize countries to provide equal opportunity and access to education to all of their people.

A Seat at the Table

     Yesterday’s interviews brought forth some interesting questions and highlighted some contradictions about the anti-violence against women movement. I prepared all evening for a meeting with Geledes, a twenty-year old Black women’s organization that fights racism and gender discrimination in Brazil. During this research I learned about their provocative approach to addressing violence against women of color; it was very similar to the radical feminist of color strategies in the US. Geledes organizers suggest that anti violence strategies must address the specific way in which Afro-Brazilian women experience violence. They suggest that efforts to remedy interpersonal violence must coincide with strategies that address the institutionalized violence that Black women face (including lack of education, violence associated with the drug trade, poverty, and the violence that Black women face in the domestic labor employment sector). Serendipitously and after learning about their efforts to address violence, one of the self-identified feminists invited us to an event that discussed the barriers to implementing the Maria de Pena law, a new anti-violence against women law. I was so excited to attend an event that was co-sponsored by Geledes, a radical women of color feminist organization because I assumed it would directly discuss the issues that I study. I thought I had found an allied network of movement organizers.

     In Geledes I did. However, the event as a whole reminded me of the white liberal feminist approach rather than that put forth by Geledes. I was disappointed, yet, unsurprised by what I saw. For example, while the event was cosponsored by many women of color organizations, a white feminist politic dominated the scene. Perhaps most obvious was that the six women chosen to speak at the event were all white women, yet most glaring was that at the last minute – indeed, at the event itself – one women of color was asked to join. The scene was eerily reminiscent of Audre Lorde’s famous feminist narrative in “The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” where women of color were asked last minute to speak at a conference in order to provide a façade of multiculturalism but not to truly address issues pertaining specifically to women of color. (The idea is that using the master’s tools, tools of oppression, will not bring down the master’s house, dominant power structures). Furthermore the sole women of color represented the state-owned oil company that sponsors many organizations in the name of “social responsibility.”  This lone Black woman literally did not have a “seat at the table.” The metaphor is glaring; she sat in a folding chair off the end of the table. At the event, violence against women of color was never mentioned, nor were the terms race or poverty uttered. While I am not surprised by this organizational methodology, it brings forth questions regarding the pivotal crossroads at which the Brazilian anti- violence movement stands.

     This movement has a lot of resources and they are at a moment in which the their work could be co-opted by state interests and lose its social justice grassroots footing.  Rather than propose strategies that address the way in which institutionalized and interpersonal violence compound on the lives of women of color, as I hypothesized, a professionalized state-sponsored movement in Brazil assuages violence against women in band-aid type reforms that neither address root causes of violence nor heal the community wounds caused by violence – in all of its forms.  During my visit to the all women police station, for example, I was both excited by how the movement was using a law and simultaneously providing social services that holistically addresses violence. Most importantly, the Sao Paulo station, unlike others, combines social services like health care, child care, psychological services, and mediation type reforms, yet women do not have to use the police stations to utilize these services. However, the anti-violence movement in the US also started this way.  It was at this pivotal stage that the US anti-violence against women movement turned to strategies that prevented the type of organized, funded, and sustainable movement that could end violence against women of color – as well as white women. How might Brazilian feminists learn from the mistakes of the US feminist movement?  How can we start this radical movement with these hopeful foundations? 

Our Heroes

Yesterday, we met Claudete Alves. During our time with her, she brought up many American figures including Barack Obama and Martin Luther King, Jr. While Obama has been discussed often as a sign of hope, several people have cited King and Malcolm X as heroes and inspirations to the black movements in Brazil. Inspirational figures have not only been American but from several countries, including Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela from South Africa and Che Guevara from Argentina. Aside from our discussions, I have seen their images on walls, t-shirts, and even tattooed on somebody’s back.

The importance of the importation of their ideas cannot be understated. What is interesting is how Brazil gained exposure to some of these individuals. Similar to hip-hop, the media played an instrumental role in exporting these figures and what they represent. While we were still in Salvador, we met with CEAFRO, an Afro-Brazilian Community-Based Educational Initiative. The meeting comprised of several groups under the CEAFRO umbrella, including the Cultural Institute of Steve Biko. After the meeting, I asked its representative the impact Steve Biko, famous for spearheading the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa until Apartheid prison guards beat him to death in 1977, had on the black movement and how well known he was throughout Brazil. He told me that the movie Cry Freedom, starring Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline and based on Donald Woods’ biography of Biko, introduced Brazil to Biko. After seeing the movie, they read his speeches and essays and noticed that Black Consciousness fit into the Brazilian context.

It is clear that all people and groups across the globe in the struggle for human rights have much to gain from each other and can better achieve their goals through cooperation. Our heroes may easily become the heroes of some other country, just as their history may serve to inspire us for something greater. Activists need to share their experiences with one another; even though occurrences in one context may not transfer neatly to another, they may still serve as useful illustrations. I think that this is what GAAPP aims to do, to serve as a vehicle to initiate and maintain the communication necessary to collaborate. As this project is only in its second year, there is not telling what contribution it can make to this movement.

Student Exchange

On Monday we visited Professor Flavia’s human rights class. This class was filled with teachers, professors, activists, organizers, lawyers, and law students. The students were eager to ask questions and learn more about the unfortunate growing movement against affirmative action in the U.S. One student was going to be participating in a debate defending affirmative action and asked for help preparing her arguments. After 40 years of defending these programs we were more than happy to share our views on the subject. In listening to the students ask their questions about the status of affirmative action in the U.S. and the problems that Brazil is currently facing. I realized how important it is to share with them the reality in the U.S. This was especially important when the question of the presidential race and Obama came up. In Brazil, Obama’s candidacy is being deployed in support of the myth of racial democracy. Some argue that Obama is “beyond race.” His race, they argue, does not make him a winning candidate – it is simply his charisma or his leadership, they argue. However, many people we have visited have voiced that Obama gives them hope. His success this far symbolizes possibility for the rest of the world. This is unarguable because he is Black man.
Discussing these issues in Professor Flavia’s class was fruitful for all of us. For example, although there appeared to be great diversity in the room, one of the Black students was quick to point out that all the Black students in the room were from Africa. It was glaring that there were no Afro-Brazilian students in this class. The absence of any Afro-Brazilian students in this class, in a country where almost half the population is Afro-Brazilian, is simply unacceptable. This only further illustrates the need for continued affirmative action programs and speaks to the importance of continuing dialogues between the US and Brazil.

Afro-Brazilian Women and Inexplicit Racism

Yesterday we met with Claudete Alves, currently one (1) of only five (5) women on the Sao Paolo City Council, and the only female Afro-Brazilian councilwoman in the City of Sao Paolo in the last 450 years (with the exception of another Afro-Brazilian woman who didn’t finish her term).  She described her experience in this position as a lonely and challenging fight against racism and sexism, through which she has been accused of promoting reverse discrimination.  During our conversation with the councilwoman, she described an experience that she had coming to the United States in 2004.  She visited various cities including New York, Washington D.C., Seattle, Atlanta, and New Orleans, and through her experience she said that although racial discrimination was much more explicit and clear, she never felt so much like a citizen.  In Brazil, she said that in any state, she can go to a middle class restaurant and if she is just waiting to meet someone, standing alone she will get suspicious glances from the waiters, who assume that she is a prostitute simply because she is an Afro-Brazilian.  It is not a new phenomenon that Afro-Brazilian women in Brazil don’t have access to their rights, nor are they guaranteed protection from domestic or state violence. 

In fact, during our meeting today with Geledes, the President of the program, Solymar Carneiro, spoke to us about the implementation of the Ministry of Women and the Ministry of Race in the Brazilian government and how both of these positions were created to people from discrimination based on gender and race, but how they fail to protect Afro-Brazilian women.  The Ministry of Women and the Ministry of Race both fail to address the needs of Afro-Brazilian women, and instead focus on the needs and issues affecting white women and Afro-Brazilian men.

During this trip, I have come to understand that countries are the same in that racial discrimination is a real occurrence, however in the U.S. minorities are more apt to admit to being discriminated against by virtue of their race than in Brazil.  Afro-Brazilian women are fighting this fight in Brazil with the help of organizations like Geledes, however, just as they face discrimination in everyday life, they experience this type of discrimination in securing fundamental protections and rights from the state.  This story is not too different from story of African American women in the United States, who often in guise are represented by the Women’s Movement, even though their needs are not fully understood and addressed.  Part of my project looks at discrimination and the various forms it takes.  The failure to address the issues affecting Afro-Brazilian women’s rights is one of the main facets of discrimination that is predominant in Brazil.  The fact that women play a central role in the family in Brazil makes this situation even more important to focus on, because if their potential is shunted systematically, the decisions they make and the reality that they implant in their children is essentially affecting generations of people.  

Better schools is not enough

I have learned a number of things about the way prestige/rankings work in Brazil, that I feel will contribute to my comparative analysis of how diversity affects prestige, reputation, and rankings in the United States.

To begin with, there are evaluations and rankings in Brazil, their impact is much greater than what I had previously thought. Before the year 2000, the only formalized evaluative mechanism was implemented by Playboy Magazine. Playboy had sent surveys to various professors to create a comparative evaluation of educational quality. The results have been used by those trying to decide where to disseminate their funds.

In the year 2000, the ministry of education began to institute a much more thorough ranking/evaluative system that takes into account a number of various measures in order to compare the relative strength and value of different educational institutions. What is interesting about these new evaluations is that schools depend on a good evaluation for funding, and students care about the evaluations when deciding what school to go to.

What I repeatedly hear from Brazilian students is that the best way to influence diversity and the way it is perceived and decided upon by universities and students, is to influence public education before the university level. I have gathered that we are at a crossroads with Brazil, and I believe we are going to have to learn from each other if we are both going to become more equal in the future. Rankings and evaluations are becoming more important in Brazil, while people are beginning to realize and accept that discrimination exists, and are even beginning to take some affirmative steps to remedy it. In the United States these rankings are already all important and we are moving towards a society that does not recognize that discrimination exists and are taking away affirmative steps to combat racism.

In both countries there is the seduction of colorblindness and racial democracy. Advocating for better public education is a great thing to struggle for, however, it seems to be too assuaging to those who desire the colorblind. They can simply say they want better schools, and then turn away from recognizing the influence of racism in creating the disparities and maintaining an educational gap between blacks and whites. Better elementary and high schools are necessary, but they are not enough and this road alone would take too long to travel down. We need better universities to close the educational gap, and in order to do that, we need to convince people that affirmative action makes universities better.

Meeting with Claudete Alves

Today we visited Claudete Alves, the only black woman member of Sao Paulo’s city council. The fact that she is the only black female councilwoman is remarkable given that the city of Sao Paulo is 33% Afro-Brazilian, and that Brazil is 45% Afro-Brazilian. Unlike many of the other politicians in Sao Paulo, she was raised in the favelas (slums). She recounted that her mom worked several jobs to send her to a private boarding school, and that she was the only Afro-Brazilian student in this school. The teachers discriminated against her because she was black, and punished her more severely than her classmates, burning her with a branding iron if she overslept (she took off her watch and showed us her scars). It was the injustice she experienced in school, she says, that instilled in her the desire to combat racism and sexism.

Thus far, she has introduced 79 bills, 4 of which have become laws. All the laws aim to help Sao Paulo’s Afro-Brazilians population. She has improved public school teacher training (where almost all Afro-Brazilian students study), established November 20 to honor Zumbi dos Palmares and celebrate Sao Paulo’s Afro-Brazilian heritage, created the Municipal Program to combat racism and promote affirmative action in Sao Paulo City Hall, and renamed the day care center after an Afro-Brazilian woman. She says that it is difficult to pass laws that combat racism because the other council members are eager to uphold the myth of racial democracy and deny that racism exists.

Our meeting with Claudete Alves reaffirmed the how important it is to have minority voices in public office. Due to her own experiences with racism and sexism, she spoke passionately about these topics and has become an agent for change. Furthermore, she serves as a role model for other women of color (such as myself) and affirms that a high-powered career is both possible and desirable.

Hippy Hoppy Brasil!

Again, I am investigating the impact of Brazilian government funding in hip-hop and social movements. I have learned a lot about the issue in the past few days. First, let me give some context to the hip-hop scene in Brazil.

One cannot talk about hip-hop in Brazil without mentioning Racionais MC's. Racionais are the most well known and respected artists in the history of Brazilian hip-hop. The group formed in 1988 and each member hails from the ring of favelas around São Paulo, Brazil locally called the periferia. Their lyrics combine themes of social justice with gangster imagery. Brazil hip-hop artists basically copycatted Racionais and adopted social justice themes, which is a good thing. A lot of the music challenges the idea of a racial democracy and talks about issues ranging from police brutality to support for affirmative action quotas surprisingly! Artists like Racionais and Rappin Hood have are the most well known artists to rap about such issues. The artists here can be seen as a mix between Tupac, NWA, and Public Enemy with regard to their message.

Liza and I spoke with several industry insiders including a hip-hop writer for Rolling Stone Brazil and an MC who once hosted Yo MTV Raps Brazil. Both gave similar descriptions of the hip-hop scene in Brazil with much praise of Racionais as the leaders of the hip-hop movement. With regard to the government funding of hip-hop, it all began when Lula became President of Brazil in 2002. Lula is the first President of Brazil to come from a poor and working class background. When Lula became President the working class believed that they all became President. Many progressive programs and policies have been started under Lula and the funding of music and cultural development was one of them. One of the things I found very interesting was the meeting President Lula had with the leaders of the hip-hop movement; including Racionais, MV Bill, Rappin Hood, and others. During this meeting, President Lula listened to the needs of the hip-hop movement and this is how the program was started.

However, the people with whom I talked to about the government programs had a few responses. One artist stated that 97% of the people involved in the hip-hop movement don’t have access to the funds because 1) they don’t know how to write projects and 2) the criteria is ambiguous. Others stated that the program is strictly to take students out of crime life and give them an alternative and not about the music most of the time. Therefore, mainly NGO’s seek funding to give poor kids an alternative to crime life. But, the music they make is not usually good because the people teaching the music don’t know how to make music themselves.

At minimum, the acknowledgement by the government that hip-hop is a culture point of Brazil is symbolic. Because popular hip-hop music in Brazil offers messages that engage race and discrimination, public and government recognition of the music can constantly encourage debate of these issues.

Check this out. "Favela Rising":

Ending Violence without Ending Violence?

Yay! Today I was able to speak with someone who works directly on my project. We met with Congress person Claudete Alves, one of four women on Sao Paulo’s city council and the only Black woman (and the first in four-hundred years). Since my work examines police violence, women’s police stations and anti-violence against women movements, meeting with Claudete was very important. Her narrative confirmed many of suspicions, yet, I was surprised by one of major differences between the US and Brazil. In the US, incarcerated people are disproportionately Black, Latino or Indigenous, however, most of the imprisoned men in Brazil are mixed race people. I assumed that the majority of imprisoned people in Brazil would be the same people who are denied access to resources. They are not Black, however, because as Alves said, when it comes to young Black men, “cops shoot to kill.” In fact, it is only after they have been killed that police check ID’s to see if these young men were their intended targets, Alves noted. One of the members of Afro Reggae organization corroborated this practically axiomatic position by saying, “if you are poor, Black, male and over 25 in Brazil, you are a survivor.” However, the vast majority of women prisoners are Black women, whom the police treat less harshly than Black men, but are subject to numerous forms of racialized state violence. This is a position worth investigated tomorrow with the Geledes organization.

After explaining the racism and cruelty of the police in Brazil, I asked Alves how many men are imprisoned for committing violence against women vis-à-vis the women’s police stations (which all-women stations that prosecute violence against women). In response, she explained her work to implement the Maria de Pena law, aimed at protecting women from violence. While I was excited to here the evolution of this law, I am still left wondering how using the police, whom commit such atrocious violence against Black communities, can protect Black women from violence. During our fortuitous luncheon with Alves and an attorney comrade, one of my initial assumptions was confirmed. She said that aside from this one case, she could not think of any other violence against women cases that have even been prosecuted, akin to Black police stations where no white person has ever been convicted for committing racism, an illegal act in Brazil. After I asked her if Black women use these police stations she answered with a resounding “no.” They don’t use them, she postulated, because they view the police as hostile and because they think that the police will not listen to them.

If Black women are not using women’s police stations, then how can they be seen as a medium to end violence against women? What underlying ideologies legitimize the antiviolence against women movement’s use of these stations if only white women are using them? What other remedies might be used? We must imagine alternative ways to address violence – if we really want it to end it.

US Politics in Brazil

Today we met with Sao Paolo Councilwoman, Claudette Alves, the only black woman to serve as a councilwoman in 450 years of Brazilian history. Mrs. Alves was an inspiration to many women in our group. As we sat at lunch with her discussing her perspectives of the black experience in Brazil, from her own experiences of torture as the only black student in her school, to the strength of the black hip hop movement in Brazil, our conversation inevitably turned to the upcoming election in the US and the question that seems to be on the minds of almost every person we have met since arriving in Brazil 10 days ago – what do we think of Barack Obama.

Interestingly, as I sat down to write this blog tonight, I opened my Internet to MSN.com and found an article discussing the affirmative action debate in the US and implications of having both a female and an African American vying for the presidential race. The article explained the “basics” of the affirmative action debate, citing Ward Connerly’s campaign to end affirmative action as part of his self-described “civil rights initiative”. It went on to mention one of his leading anti-affirmative action claims right now, that the struggle between a man of color and a woman as our nations leader shows that affirmative action is unnecessary to “compensate for institutional racism and institutional sexism.”

Whether visiting with the head of Olodum or Criola, or sitting over lunch with a council member of Sao Paolo, one of the most asked questions we have been given is our impressions over Barack Obama and the implications his election might have on both the US and the rest of the world. Councilwoman Alves shared with us her own thoughts on the implications of electing Barack Obama. She stated that whether or not he became the first black president in the US, his presence on the ballot and among the American people could not be denied. Councilwoman Alves shared with us her thoughts on Barack Obama, stating her belief that his election could lead to a tremendous change for our country. She believed that his election would change the way the rest of the world viewed Americans – that we know longer would be viewed as isolated elitists.
Many of the organizations we have met with have shown their enthusiasm over the potential of the first black president in the United States. As councilwoman Alves stated, the election of Barack Obama would have international implications, which she believes would be extremely positive. Other NGO leaders as well as University students have shown their excitement and wonder over Barack Obama. On a global scale, he has become a symbol of hope and promise for change within the United States. In Brazil, where many people believe that racism doesn’t exist or isn’t as bad in the United States, it seems as if they look at Barack Obama as a representation of where their own affirmative action programs may take him. For Councilwoman Alves and so many others here, Obama is a part of the beginning of what affirmative action programs might lead to – not a sign that racism has been cured and should be ended.

Favela Tours?

As I was jogging down the beach in Rio de Janiero, I saw several safari jeeps filled with white passengers and Black drivers. Was this one of the popular favela tours? I cannot be sure, but it was my inclination that they were headed to the nearest favela to experience an “illuminating view of the real Rio.” There are several popular tours that tourists can participate in to experience the favelas. That morning I was on my way to spend the day with AfroReggae and learn more about the social justice project this non-governmental organization promotes. Although I too was going to tour the favelas with this organization, I was seriously conflicted about the fact that others were going on tours that essentially seemed like a safari or a trip to the zoo. Their experience in no way could convey the role of slavery and the lack of a Reconstruction to provide social inclusion policies in the development of the favelas. I also do not think that the participants could fully understand the sense of community present in this complex environment.

During my time with the NGO I was able to gain a better understanding of the complexities of the favelas. However, I think that this was possible because of the background that I brought to the project as CRS student. I began the day with the understanding that there are many ways in which the laws works racialize society. It was this understanding that helped me to realize how a community that has been systematically disenfranchised by the state can rely on drug lords to pay for their prescription and hospital bills and plan parties for the holidays.

Knowing that many tourists were coming though these communities simply viewing the extreme poverty and at the time that they visited, during the hours that most adults are working outside of the favela, desolation made me uncomfortable and frustrated. I was uncomfortable with the thought of the tourists driving through an extremely poor community of color in their air conditioned vans. I was also frustrated by the fact that they were unable to experience the community building that is going on in these communities and the history behind their development. Although, I have no doubt that the tourists will never forget the images that they saw on the tour, I worry that it will reinforce the stereotypes of people of color. I hope that sharing my experience will further the understanding of these communities and the need to continue the fight for social inclusion.

Music, Consciousness of Racial Oppression, and Happiness

Today at CEERT, the Research Center on Labor Relations and Inequalities, Dr. Maria Aparecida Silva Bento taught us a lot about racial discrimination in Brazil and how to hold corporations accountable for fair hiring practices. One of the challenges she raised at the end of the of our group conversation was talking to kids about racism and discrimination because it is so powerful that these discussions “take away their happiness.” She stated that teaching Afro-Brazilian kids about racism makes their lives more difficult than just acknowledging discrimination based on class. This theme of class discrimination being more palatable than racism has been a central explanation for the appeal of racial democracy. Dr. Bento then raised the question of how to talk about this topic without taking away kids’ happiness.

This challenge is the space in which I think Black music and art can play a vital role in raising consciousness about, and fighting, racism. I have visited with Olodum, AfroReggae, and members of the Brazilian hip hop movement, all of which use music to confront and change the oppression of Afro-Brazilians. The kids in the favelas at Afro-Reggae were completely immersed in the joy, focus, and excitement of their performances and practices. Similarly, Francisco, who I wrote about in my last blog, identified hip hop as the impetus for him talking about racism and even attending a university. He spoke about hip hop with such passion and stated that fighting racism is now part of his life because he can do it through this music.

Finally, Joao Jorge Santos Rodrigues, the director of Olodum, views music, culture, and identity as the primary ways in which Afro-Brazilians can challenge the government’s racist policies and practices. He stated that because the powerful elite and the state have not funded Black music, it has no control over it. This music, Rodrigues stated, is “our energy for freedom.” This combination of the independence of Black music, the way it helps young Afro-Brazilians create joy and confidence in themselves, and the music’s race conscious content create a fertile environment for teaching kids about racism while increasing, rather than decreasing their happiness.

You Can’t Fix What Ain’t Broke

            Today we met with the organization CEERT, or The Center on Labor Relations & Inequalities, which works to promote racial inequality in Brazil.  The organization has over 17 years of experience specializing in racial justice and participating actively in the fight for rights of Afro-Brazilians.  The myth of racial democracy came up, as it usually does, and in our discussion we shared how in our interactions with people they would admit to there being racial discrimination, but nothing more.  Another way of framing this issue (by way of my mother) is in terms of codependency.  Although codependency is usually defined in terms of an unhealthy dependence on a person with a physical or psychological addiction, the system of codependency can be applied to the Brazilian myth of racial democracy as the system of racial inequality exists as a result of the unhealthy dependence on the idea of “we are all just Brazilian.”  Codependency usually develops through living in systems with rules that hinder development, and such system has been developed in response to some problem.  The problem in Brazil has been the failure to unravel the discourse of racial democracy, and instead depending on it as an ideal, and defining discrimination in other ways. 

            How do we stop the dependency on this ideal as a way to excuse away the fact of racism?  The dependency on the “ideal” comes from both Afro-Brazilian who resist the idea of being deemed as oppressed, and from white Brazilians who don’t want to see themselves as oppressors.  This is not to say that there has not been considerable movement away from the myth of racial democracy, even in just the past week we have witnessed strong resistance to the idea of a non-racial culture.  In a previous blog I introduced the idea of implementing a dream, but I find it difficult for this implementation to manifest into a reality unless there is less of a dependency on a false idea of racial democracy, an understanding of the ways in which racial discrimination works systematically, and a true effort on the part of all towards change.  

Racing to Class

Throughout our time in Brazil, we have heard that the most common argument against race based affirmative action is that the problems faced by Afro-Brazilians are problems of class, not race. Over and over again, this argument has been redeployed. It is based on the myth of racial democracy, which claims that racism does not exist in Brazil.

Racial democracy is a powerful and alluring message. It reifies the dream of living in a world void of discrimination and difference, a place where we are all brothers and sisters. I believe that we aspire for this dream. Unfortunately, this utopia is nothing more than a dream. Brazil, not unlike the United States, is a nation filled with racism.

Why is class based discrimination more palatable? Discrimination is discrimination, is it not? I’m not entirely sure as to the answer. Is it because class discrimination is seen as easier to remedy? Is it social mobility, which allows for the possibility of lower class individuals to rise to the higher classes? Or is it the invidious nature of racism and the fact that, unlike class, race cannot be changed during one’s lifetime (I admit this is not entirely true)? Maybe we see class discrimination as natural or institutionalized, thus not resulting from individual action or behavior?

Whatever the reason, it is clear that many people in Brazil refuse to acknowledge the racial problems. Although groups of activists have strengthened calls for a dialogue on race and racism, these calls often fall on deaf ears. We can see similar occurrences in the U.S. In response to Senator Barack Obama’s recent speech incorporating race, Patrick Buchanan expressed disgust at any acknowledgment of racism in the U.S. targeting blacks. “America has been the best country on earth for black folks,” Buchanan asserts right before dismissing the brutality of slavery as fair compensation for being introduced to “Christian salvation.” Basically, Buchanan denies racism in American (well, not all racism, as he whines about anti-white discrimination in the form of affirmative action.) His arguments are extreme and thus difficult to take seriously, but they illustrate the violently adverse reactions discussing racism invokes. The question remains, what is it about race that prevents us from having a mature discussion?

Another curious aspect of racism is the incentive to deny its existence and the strength of that denial. To claim that racism exists means to accuse somebody of being racist, which may be uncomfortable and increase tension. Even the victims of racism often search for some other explanation, possibly because they do not want to admit that the racial democracy they had believed in was nothing more than a seductive illusion.

"You discriminate because you are white!"

Today I wanted to write about a particular experience that I think says a lot, and certainly means a lot to me. Yesterday, while getting out of the taxi in the middle of the historic center of Salvador de Bahia, I noticed a child who appeared to be homeless, begging for money. I was in the same cab as a few other people, and Almuhtada exited the cab before I did, as soon as he exited the cab, the kid asked him for change, Almuhtada said no, and the kid moved on to me. Now, I would like to disclaim that I often give money to those who ask for it, I know that my money could be better donated in other ways, but there is something about someone looking me in the eye and asking me that is difficult for me to refuse. If I have change I will give it, the only times I won’t are when I am in a new place or there are too many people around or I feel uncomfortable for one reason or another… With that being said, this kid, who must have been somewhere between 8-12 years old, looked at me after I said no, and said, “Puta madre!” Which literally translates to “Your mom’s a whore.” Everyone around me laughed, except Julia who looked shocked. Growing up in LA, I understood what the kid was saying, but ignored his insult and just walked on. After a couple of minutes of haggling others, he walked up to me and started talking some more. He pointed to Almuhtada’s arm and said something about “Negro” he then pointed to me and said something about “discriminação” which I figured must have meant discrimination. This time people laughed, but the tone was a little more serious, and people didn’t laugh as much. Julia was actually speechless for a moment, and then translated what the kid had said to me… “He’s ok because he is black (referring to Almuhtada), but you, you discriminate against me because you are white!” Julia said that she had never heard anything like this before in Brazil.

I wanted to write about this because I would lie if I said that it had not affected me. I still joke about the incident with people, when things suck, it makes me feel better to joke about them sometimes, but what had happened, if I let myself really consider it, was more moving than something that I could just write off through jokes and smiles. People have always considered me white. I think race sometimes is more about what other’s consider you than what you consider yourself. I am half Persian, half Hungarian, and have always seen myself as just that. Not really fitting in with Americans because of my foreign background, but not typically discriminated against because of how I look. I would lie if I said that I was heavily discriminated against because of my foreign name either, because growing up in Culver City (considered to be one of the most diverse high-school’s in the country) people were used to names that did not sound like the norm. But this blog isn’t about how I have been discriminated against as much as it is about how I have discriminated myself. Everyone discriminates. But not everyone is what I would call a discriminator, I would like to think that I am not someone who fits into that category, but making sure I am not is something that I have to constantly be on the look out for. I definitely recognize the privilege that I have received because of how others perceive me, by receiving that privilege, from how I am perceived in conversation to how I am received in a restaurant or store, I am taking advantage of my white privilege, and everyone who takes advantage of that privilege without considering its costs and realizing its existence, is not part of the solution. I think that people who are considered white need to be constantly vigilant about the affect of their perceived race on the world. When people tell me that I am discriminatory because I am white, I need to remind myself that if I do not remain vigilant about the effects of my whiteness, then I will become discriminatory. Racism is always around the corner, I dread being the white guy who doesn’t get it.

The Problem With Pre-Vestibular Loans

Yesterday I had a chance to ask Afro-Brazilian students from the University of Bahia how they prepared for the vestibular and how they supported themselves while they studied. The students all told me that they took a free pre-vestibular course. Just like the students at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, these students told me that they had to work to support themselves while they studied. Some students taught pre-vestibular courses so their jobs complemented their vestibular preparation, but the majority of students worked in low paying jobs that did not help them prepare for the exam. Almost all agreed that having to work reduced the time and energy they had to study and prevented them from attaining their best vestibular score.

To me, the answer to such a problem seemed simple: the students should borrow money to prepare for the exam and then pay the creditor after graduating university. The loan would free students from work and give students time and energy to prepare for the exam. Ideally, students would attain higher scores, enter prestigious professions and pay off this debt with their large salaries.

When I pitched this idea to the students, however, all of them told me that they would not want to take a loan to study for the vestibular. The students explained that they would not want to take the loan because it is hard to pass the vestibular exam, and there is no guarantee that they would pass the exam simply because they decided to study for and take the exam. If they did not pass the exam, then they would be in a worse position than they were in before because they would have to pay back a loan with the low salary from a high school level job. Furthermore, they explained, even if they felt confident that they could pass the vestibular, they would still be reluctant to take a loan because the chances of attaining a good job after university graduation are slim. As before, they do not want to have to pay back a loan with a low paying job.

The students responses lead me to believe that there are large structural differences between Brazil and the U.S that make Brazilian students much less eager to take education loans than American students. The fact that these structural differences prevent Afro-Brazilian students from taking loans and attaining the same amount of time, energy and resources to study for the vestibular as their white classmates reinforces the need for race-based affirmative action programs in universities. It is only through these programs that universities can level the playing field for Afro-Brazilian students and account for the disadvantages Afro-Brazilian students currently face.

Class?

The head of Olodum, an Afro-Brazilian association, highlighting heritage and Black pride through music, dance theater and art, made some interesting points about Brazil last night. He said that within one country, there is an elite class with access to the same resources and luxuries as the elite in the US or Europe and there is a poor class that is comparable to any in the 3rd world, lacking basic necessities and constitutional rights. The country develops space shuttles – yet within its borders an enormous proportion of the population does not have access to basic healthcare, immunizations and food.

As I reflected about our meeting last night, I thought about the profound irony that not only are these two worlds juxtaposed with each other, they sit one on top of the other; living side by side. The elite in Brazil complain about crime, there is constant fear of being robbed, yet they vigorously defend the idea that the problem is not race, but class. The wealthy young claim fears of riding the public bus because of the likelihood of being robbed, Julia has recounted stories of her sister being robbed at knife point by children as young as 5 and family friends being kidnapped for ransom, young children stand outside of ATM’s or run up to unsuspecting tourists getting out of taxi’s in the hopes that a stranger will toss them a few coins. Even on the uber-elite streets of Ipanema or Leblon, one is not immune to the poverty.

In the United States, many live in conditions akin to the poor in Brazil, the numbers of people living in these conditions are not nearly as high – more importantly though, in the US it seems much easier to hide from the poor. Living in Beverly Hills, Malibu or Newport Beach, rich, white America can easily forget – or at least ignore – what goes on in the rest of the world. Get on the 10, the 105 or the 101 and bypass those neighborhoods that you don’t want your kids walking in at night.

I’m writing this blog and I find that I am having difficulty articulating the questions I have. It seems so simple to want your children to grow up in a safe place, or to create a home where you can live without fear – I wanted to ask this question and I realized that the answer is not as simple as my mind wanted it to be. We have been here for one week and as we sit in our nightly meetings I realize that understanding these questions are further from me than I believed them to be from my classroom at UCLA.

Talking about race: Um, you first

On day two here in Brazil, we attended a seminar at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO). There, Professor John Stanfield of Indiana University led a conversation about race, racism, and racialism. He described the following three terms:

1) Race - A false, perfect correllation between real or imagined physical qualities and social & cultural attributes (i.e. intellectual abilities, moral fiber, reading ability, dancing ability). The imagined part is important because it is contructed in our heads too. Race is also how we feel and how climates and environments are constructed (i.e. race related to heart problems and diabetes).

2) Racism - How to use false correllation for distributing power.

3) Racialism - Rarely do we have policies dealing with racialism. One does not have to be a racist to be a racialist. (vague description by Prof. Stanfield)

Prof. Stanfied went on to say that we can’t predict anything based on what someone looks like. A Brazilian woman, who studied in the U.S., followed with some very interesting comments about how race is constructed in Brazil. She talked about how Brazil’s different societal history makes its conversation on race different from that in the U.S. She explained that Brazilian officials determine and assign an individual’s race, which differs from the U.S.’s one-drop rule and box checking system.

Later, in Salvador, Bahia, we met with CEAFRO, an Afro-Brazilian community-based educataional initiative associated with the Federal University of Bahia. There, a young lady discussed standing up for Afro-Brazilians while being the only one in her class. She demanded that the white students would not participate in racist talk when she was around. She instantly gained the respect of her entire class, and students would ask her permission to talk about race.

I find it interesting that groups in Brazil and the U.S. are calling for discussions on race at the same time and that both requests are being denied or ignored by elites in power whose interests are promoted by the status quo. Senator Barack Obama’s recent speech encouraged the U.S. to break its ‘racial stalemate’. The speech will likely be looked to as a milestone in measuring racial progress for future generations in the U.S. I think it is important to constantly compare racial progress in both countries and share information among social movements. This is why I really appreciate being a part of the Global Affirmative Action Praxis Project.

What are your impressions of Senator Obama's speech?

Race, Health Care, Disability, and Incarceration

While I was on the airplane I met a young white woman who was in her second year of law school. During our discussion about affirmative action – where I was gently defending and she was softly opposing – she utilized many stock arguments commonly used against affirmative action in the US and in Brazil (as articulated by Joao Jorge Santos Rodrigues at the Olodum organization). However, I was most intrigued by the way she understood Brazil’s universal health care system. I noticed that many Brazilian people have a circular scar on their right upper arm and I asked her what this was. She responded that it was a vaccination. Because I have been thinking about Black people’s access to “universal” health care, I asked if everyone gets this vaccination. She responded with a quick “yes.” Is this true? While there is universal health care and a specifically Black health care policy in Brazil, I have been told by numerous organizations that Black communities, especially in the favellas, cannot access them. They suggest that this is because people in positions of power are not implementing health care policies due to institutionalized racism.

What comparisons can be made between race, public health, incarceration, and intersectional remedies in Brazil and in the US? While touring the city of Bahia, I was especially struck by how many people on the street who were asking for food were not only Black but were persons with severe disabilities. While I am aware that disabled people become homeless in the US either because of surviving on the street or as a result of being war veterans with insufficient health care, for some reason the disabilities of the Afro Brazilian men and women seemed different. They were bodily disfigurations like I had never seen. At the risk of committing further violence by describing and sensationalizing them, I will simply postulate one cause for such disability, though based in intuition rather than evidence. I feel as if these disfigurations are a result of long-term neglect and living in poverty without any access to health care. Like it is for poor communities in the US, when living without access to preventative health care, people ignore or self-medicate serious health issues. However, during different periods of affirmative action type laws in the US (like the American Disabilities Act) people have had access to health care, albeit insufficient. If this comparison is valid, how does having a disability lead to incarceration differently in Brazil? In the US, having a disability and being homeless is directly related to imprisonment. Whether it is because a homeless disabled person is unable to perform some jobs due to physical or mental disability, they do not have an address to put on applications or clean clothes for a job interview, or because they are forced into committing crimes of survival on the street, both being homeless and being disabled can lead to incarceration. How does this analysis hold up in Brazil?

Specifically, how does lack of health care and the failure to implement the Black health care plan lead to imprisonment? Tomorrow I am very excited to meet with Black women’s health organizations and to learn what issues they address and which strategies they use to combat these inequitable social conditions that, in the US, can lead to imprisonment.

"Hip hop made me realize I could go to university"

Today in Salvador we all met with a large group of activists, professors and students who advocate for affirmative action and teach classes that combine Afro-Brazilian culture with preparation for the vestibular exam (the extensive test required to get into any university). The conversation was interesting and inspirational in many ways, but the most relevant part for my project were the comments of Francisco, a student at the Federal University of Bahia. He directly connected his involvement in hip hop to his entrance into university. One of the questions I am researching is whether hip hop music challenges the idea of racial democracy and if it can influence support for affirmative action. In Francisco’s case, it did both. He stated that before he got involved in hip hop he rarely expressed his views about racial inequality or affirmative action. Hip hop changed that for him. Brazilian hip hop culture influenced Francisco’s racial politics and inspired him to become more involved in activism around affirmative action. From what I have learned here so far, Brazil has a large component of hip hop that is heavily intertwined with grassroots progressive activism.

Many artists in Brazil use hip hop to get youth more involved in learning, to encourage kids’ interests in college and taking community vestibular preparation courses, and to become part of a movement for Afro-Brazilian identity and racial justice. Many of the students at this meeting today stated that this identity and consciousness (whether it comes from hip hop or somewhere else) allows them to view themselves as part of a community with support rather than as an individual struggling on his or her own against white normalcy and power. Francisco stated that many artists in Brazil are involved with community organizations and have no hope of making any money from their music; rather, the main purpose of engaging in hip hop is to be part of a movement for social justice that draws in kids because they are already attracted to hip hop’s images and sounds. While there are a lot of hip hop artists in the U.S. who have progressive lyrics, it seems that there is a more significant portion of Brazilian artists who truly see their music as connected to racial justice, and who put these ideas into practice through working directly with education and activities in their communities. We are off to Sao Paulo tomorrow, where I will interview more people directly involved in hip hop full time – it will be interesting to see how their perspectives and activities fit into this paradigm.

The Implementation of the Dream

We visited with the organization CEAFRO today in Salvador.  CEAFRO is a community-based organization that has an extension program through the Federal University of Bahia.  Over a three-hour meeting, we spoke with five quotistas who went through the CEAFRO program, and also spoke with a representative from the Cultural Institute of Steven Biko.  The two organizations do amazing work to give Afro-Brazilians access to education through different programs that offer pre-vestibular training and fellowship assistance to students to make it possible for them to finish their studies at the university.  Not only are the programs successful at increasing the representation of Afro-Brazilians at the university level, but most importantly “they have implemented a dream.”  The implementation of a dream was something that everyone at the meeting continually reinforced as one of the most important accomplishments of these programs.  Not only are these programs benefiting the Afro-Brazilian youth of the favelas, but the families and friends of these students have also begun to participate in the programs, getting pre-vestibular training and going to back to school.  The director of CEAFRO told us that these programs were working for Afro-Brazilians on various levels, giving them a chance to reclaim that which are and have been denied.  I reflected on this idea of providing the Afro-Brazilian community with a dream and in relaying this back to the United States, I feel like providing a dream is an extremely important part of the work.  Like the Afro-Brazilian youth in Brazil, minority youth in the U.S. are systematically discouraged from continuing their education after high school.  At least in the Los Angeles public school system, the high schools located in lower socio-economic areas are overcrowded and students aren’t required to take the minimum curriculum that is required for admission to a public university.  Arguments against affirmative action fail to recognize this type of systematic discrimination, and furthermore, when they do the problem is reduced to one of class, again failing to recognize the systematic discrimination that works to keep minorities in these lower socio-economic communities. 

Latin@ in Brazil

It has been quite an adventure to notice how people perceive my racial identity here in Brazil. I came prepared to experience the privilege of whiteness, ready to see what all the hype is about. I wondered how I would react or if I would be treated differently than Almuhtada. I pictured myself getting upset or making it known that I too was a person of color. Although I don’t feel like a white person and people don’t perceive me that way, I feel that at times I have been treated very differently in Brazil than I would in the U.S. When riding home in a taxi a few days ago, the driver, knowing that I was American felt comfortable enough with me to tell me about the neighborhood where he lives and how clean and nice and “white” it is. This would have never happened in the U.S. The driver clearly thought that I would identify whiteness with a better neighborhood, however, I really couldn’t believe that he told this to me, a Latina!

However, on several other occasions I have been mistaken for Brazilian. Now that I have spent one week here I am beginning to understand the privilege of the majority. I feel at ease, included, and beautiful; just like another Brazilian (of course until someone hears my broken Portuguese/Spanish/English). I like that I don’t get charged the inflated tourists prices and people feel comfortable talking to me, despite my inability to fully understand them. However, this too leaves me feeling uneasy, guilty that I am taking advantage of the situation. Is this how people feel when they check the box or choose to identify as a person of color? I propose no answers, just questions that I will continue to think about with the new experiences to come...

Wearing Their Degrees on Their Sleeves

As we were walking through a tourist center of Salvador, I noticed a military police officer. The ubiquitous military police, it should be noted, purportedly serves as a preventative force, while the civil police investigates crimes already committed. Now, seeing a military police officer should not surprise anybody, but this officer was an anomaly. She was a young female, the only female officer I have seen thus far. However, being Afro-Brazilian (as far as my foreign conception of race was concerned), she fit the racial profile of most officers I have seen. Unlike most occupations with any sort of prestige, Afro-Brazilians make a large proportion of the military police force, largely because rich, white Brazilians do not aspire to such positions.

Julia and I approached her, and, wearing braces in her mouth and a tourism badge on her uniform, she responded with great civility. We asked her the meaning of the tourism badge. She told us that the patches on her uniform represented the different degrees she had received at university, as well as other awards. Thus, having received a degree in tourism, she displayed it on her uniform. She told us that it was quite common for officers to hold university degrees. Her older, male colleague remarked that his uniform lacked enough space to display all of his badges. Her answer surprised me; why would somebody with a university degree ever choose to join the military police?

I figured the reasons included wages and career opportunities. Wrong. Although I never asked about the wages (I was later told that the wages are actually quite low), her position afforded no prospect of advancement. However, she did claim that the work experience, and the military police’s positive reputation, allowed her to find a position outside of the force. (I have serious doubt about the reputation claim, as this was only the second positive comment I have heard regarding the military police.)

Hours later, I remained unsatisfied with her answer; it just did not appear to provide enough of an incentive to join the force after receiving a university education. I made a few assumptions, and I believe these assumptions may highlight some of the obstacles hindering Afro-Brazilians and the arguments for affirmative action. It is possible that these individuals obtained their degrees but then were unable to find employment, a problem facing Afro-Brazilian I have heard repeatedly. It is also possible that she was unable to attend a prestigious, public university. Earning a degree from a university lacking prestige may result in employers viewing the degree as substandard and refusing to hire its holder. Combine the issue of race and academic prestige and you will see how hurdles quickly compound, effectively precluding Afro-Brazilians from opportunities and careers available to rich, white Brazilians and forcing them down certain avenues.

random observations

Today I wanted to talk about a couple of our experiences on this trip that I haven’t gotten a chance to write about, yet feel as though they relate to my project in one way or another – they are from different points during our trip so far so have no chronological order to them. I want to start with a discussion that I had with Julia in the car between interviews a couple of days ago. Julia told me that there are 27 states in Brazil, each with their own federal and state universities. In many of these states, there are private schools that are actually better and more prestigious than their public school counterparts. Julia also told me that public universities seem to be losing funding as of late (must be a global phenomenon!) and that this is mostly a very scary thought. I asked her why the public universities get the best faculty, she said that it is all about prestige, and that private universities actually typically pay the most money. She also told me that it is her belief that it is quite possible that within 20 to 30 years private schools will be equal to or better than public schools. I asked if this could be a good thing because it means that the quality of education is spread out and therefore more accessible to everyone, but she said that she fears that once the public school foundation and leadership goes away, it is possible that education can actually drop for everyone.

Another experience I haven’t written about yet, but feel as though I learned a lot from, is the visit to the organization that discussed the afro-Brazilian religions and Tajenos. These Tajenos actually have community schools in Salvador, and at least one of them is considered prestigious (even if it is just an elementary school). This is important to me because it is one of the first instances where there is a direct link between afro-Brazilian involvement in education, and a simultaneous coexistence of prestige. They also mentioned how some are working on how black culture can influence education, which tries to emphasize the influence that afro-Brazilian culture has on the rest of society. There are even some laws that mandate the education of afro-Brazilian culture, but not a whole lot of implementation of these laws.

This started to get me thinking about actual solutions to some of the problems that my project proposes, which is nice, because up until now, much of what I have been doing is just finding problems and analyzing them. If my project is about working on the role that perceptions of diversity and prestige play in access to education, then the follow up would be to consider ways in which we might influence perceptions of prestige and diversity in order to increase access. In the US my goal is to do influence perceptions of prestige by changing the criteria with which US News and World Report decides to rank schools, and asking them to take diversity into consideration. In Brazil, one thing that they are doing is mandating the education of afro-Brazilian culture and its influence. Growing up in public schools in the US, I know that our exposure to minority culture and its influence is very limited and superficial. Increasing the influence of these cultures in our public educational system is something that I know has been worked on in the past, but something that I have a renowned respect for now that I understand how it can increase access to higher education as well.

Gentrification and the Comparative Context

I am so grateful for today’s visit to the historic center of the predominately Afro Brazilian city of Bahia. While our academic and legal work here is stimulating, this sort of cultural work is very important because it teaches us about the powerful history of the area and informs our understanding of how race, gender, and class relations order public life in Brazil. After two cups of Brazilian café and an equally ‘zippy’ taxi ride, we arrived in the colonial center where Julia, our friend and Brazilian liaison and coordinator, gave us a great tour of the area. Not only is Julia a pleasure and not only does she know the most exciting places to visit, but the history she provides for us is extremely helpful because it is informed by her critical intersectional analysis.

I was especially struck by her analysis of race and urban 'planning' in Bahia because it reminded me of a similar way in which racial power has been consolidated in Los Angeles and throughout American colonial history vis-à-vis race and class. After taking pictures of a beautiful church and colorful Portuguese colonial architecture, Julia informed us that this area used to be predominately Black and that its inhabitants were forced to relocate in order to ‘restore’ the area. However, once the paint began to chip from the buildings walls, the area’s new upwardly mobile residents left in search of more lavish living arrangements. Due to changing arrangements of global capitalism and expansion of Brazilian tourism, the economic void left by the wealthy residents was quickly filled by turning the area into a tourist hub. My first thought was, ‘Wow sounds a lot like downtown Los Angeles.” Here, poor Black and Latin@ residents are slowly being pushed out of their communities due to gentrification, where rents are increased and dilapidated apartment buildings are condemned and torn down in trade build equity producing loft-style apartments, corporate office buildings, and large luxury hotels. This analogy might be pushed further because in both cases such lavish elite-servicing industries are located adjacent to communities in destitute poverty.

What can be learned from this similar cross contextual juxtaposition? How might race and class based consistencies in ‘urban renewal projects’ be used to support affirmative action for poor communities of color in both contexts? Access to clean and safe housing is a human right that should be viewed as furthering – rather than limiting – national development.

Observations on the Young

In his book “Amazing Grace”, Jonathon Kozel is consistently inspired by the community’s children and how they are able to endure despite the poverty they are subject to on a daily basis. At one point he says:

“Despite its racial isolation and the destitution of its children, nonetheless, [public school] 65 is still sometimes a cheerful place in certain ways. The atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night…has not yet destroyed the playfulness and trusting innocence of many of the younger children, who may not yet be aware of what is happening to them. Even in the older grades, some of the children do not seem to lose their willingness to trust. It is at the secondary level – in junior high and more dramatically in high school – that the sense of human ruin on a vast scale becomes unmistakable.”

Watching the children in Brazil, whether in the public high school we visited, walking the streets of Rio de Janeiro or on the beaches in Bahia, I can’t help but be inspired with the shining smiles, exuberance and vitality of this nations youth. Yesterday a small boy approached us at lunch and asked for money. We gave him a couple reis and prepared to leave. Smiling up at us he motioned for us to give him more. His irresistable smile won us over and we ended up giving him the rest of what we had (equivalent to about $6 US). When we walked out of the restaurant we saw him counting his money before heading off down the street skipping and dancing. Sitting with a room full of high school students you could feel their excitement about having us there with them as well as the trusting way they opened up to us to share their experiences. And at this school, Kozel’s analysis of the “sense of human ruin” did not seem readily discernable. To be fair, we were told that this was considered a good public school in Rio and its students seemed to be part of a lower middle class as opposed to extremely poor, for example, many of the students had parents who worked as doormen, janitors and other members of the service industry. Though they lived in favelas, we have been told that they did not represent the poorest members of the community. Though the differences between their private school counterparts were unmistakable, I’ve found myself curious to visit other public schools – to explore the differences between the students we visited and those who are part of an even lower socioeconomic class to compare the differences. We were told that we would visit another high school in Sao Paolo at which point I’m curious to make further comparisons not only between the US and Brazil, but also within the public school system of Brazil itself.

Language Barriers: Voce fala Ingles?

Today, we visited Pelourinho (Old Historic Center), Salvador. After our trip coordinator Julia explained how slaves had built many of the churches and buildings in the area, we entered Igreja de Sao Francisco, one of the most historically rich and elite churches there. A tour guide began to show us around the church, with all of its silver and gold trimmings. I asked Julia to ask the tour guide if slaves had built the church. He immediately got defensive and, according to Julia’s translation, said, “no, no, slaves did not build this one, this is a private church, blah blah.” Unfortunately he neglected to explain who actually built the church. Julia and I were not convinced. Was it the rich people who got down & dirty to build their own glamorous church? I immediately told the group that I did not want to hear or have anything that guy said translated to me from that point on. We all discontinued the tour and went our separate ways. His body language, defensiveness, and vague explanation turned me off. Were it not for the language barrier, I would have been able to engage the situation much better.

The other day we attended a seminar at Programa Politicas da Cor – Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (PPCOR-UERJ). At the seminar, an activist spoke of the impact black music and movements of the late 1960s and 70s in the U.S. had on Afro-Brazilians. He explained how the black nationalist movement and artists like James Brown reframed black identity with lyrics like, “I’m black and I’m proud!”. The symbols, including afro hair styles, Afrocentric dress, and proactive behavior, influenced Afro-Brazilians at a time where there was no progressive race based social policy in Brazil. However, the impact was limited because the language barrier prevented Afro-Brazilians from understanding what blacks in America were saying.

With that said, I am frustrated with my inability to effectively communicate with people here in Brazil (although I have come a long way with my Portuguese!). I feel that language barriers can sometimes handicap social movements, prevent people from uniting, and limit how much they cooperate. These events have made me realize how important it is for Americans, specifically African Americans, to learn foreign languages in an effort to advance progressive social movements.

Visit to State University of Rio de Janeiro

On Wednesday, we visited the State University of Rio de Janeiro. The director of the University set up a round table discussion for us to converse with several self-identified Afro-Brazilians from the first class of students accepted through the affirmative action quota system. We were fortunate to have the help of a translator and technological equipment for simultaneous translations. At this session, I asked the students whether they had taken a pre-vestibular course and, if they had, how they supported themselves during the course.

The students’ responses confirmed what I had learned from our visits to the high schools two days earlier, that the obstacles preventing Afro-Brazilian students from entering university are almost insurmountable without some form of government or private assistance. One student’s response in particular illustrates the lack of resources available to Afro-Brazilian students. He attended a public school that did not adequately prepare him for the vestibular exam, so he decided to take a pre-vestibular course. However, because he was poor, needed to support himself and send home money, he trained in the army while studying. He had to wake up at 4 a.m., train with the army all day, and then take classes at night. This combination of physical activity and long hours made it impossible for him to study. As a result and despite his best efforts, he failed the vestibular exam. Not until several years later, after taking a vocational course and procuring a better paying job, had he saved enough money to pay for the pre-vestibular course again. He retook the course and finally entered the university through the affirmative action quotas program.

In the United States, many students graduate with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Here, on the other hand, so far my research has shown that many students are averse to making such an investment. Instead, it seems that those who are able to break the barrier and enter the university system have done so because they have incredible drive and often work two jobs while studying for the vestibular or attending university. I am interested in understanding the reasons for this fear of credit because it seems that more access to credit could help many students overcome the financial barriers they currently face. I think that one reason is that even with a university education, a well-paying jobs are not as readily available as they are in the United States.

Reclamation of Afro-Brazilian arts in Rio's favelas

On Tuesday I spent the day with Afro-Reggae, visiting their music programs for some of Rio’s favelas. It was an experience so powerful and with so many different emotions and complexities involved that I have had trouble articulating it -- but I’m going to try. I learned about the history of the favelas – for example, how Afro-Brazilians moved to these hilltop locations all across Brazil after slavery ended because there was no government support for them and they wanted to maintain and rebuild communities and share resources. While much of the land favelas are on today would be prime real estate, at the time Afro-Brazilians established them the land was too difficult to farm and thus constituted some of the only land former slaves could afford to inhabit. There are so many things I could write about to describe this day, but the two most prominent moments that I continue to think about are the dancing and singing rehearsal by the girls drumming troupe and the boys drumming troupe’s practice.

The white and lighter skinned Brazilians with power have proclaimed much of Afro-Brazilian culture as simply “Brazilian” culture – or part of the Brazilian national identity. While it is positive that some of this culture is valued and respected in the mainstream, I feel that identifying Afro-Brazilian arts such as percussion and African dance simply as part of Brazil while refusing to recognize their Black origins and expertise, is part of the system of racial oppression that whites and light mulattos impose on Afro-Brazilians.

The performances and rehearsals by Afro-Brazilian kids that I was fortunate to observe were reclaiming these artistic forms and using them to develop and express confidence, self-love and respect, determination, expertise, community, and joy. I could see in their expressions, body language, and performance how much these kids cared about their practice and how they believed they were talented and could continue to improve. While systematic oppression of Blacks, particularly in the favelas, makes these kids’ lives and prospects very difficult, the kids’ development of this self-belief through arts their community created cannot be underestimated. I see these programs and practices as an individual achievement that is developing a sense of pride in these kids, but there is more to it than that. Just as importantly, the kids’ drumming, dancing and singing is a reclamation of Afro-Brazilian culture and an affirmation of its value and origin.

It doesn’t only matter if you’re black or white

       Over the course of the semester our class has been looking at the ways in which race and gender, among other things, intersect to create systems of discrimination and racism.  Often, as is the case in the United States, the black/white binary becomes a focal point in the discussion of issues and remedies.  Not to say that issues affecting other races aren’t discussed, but often they are muddled together as the “middle” category, and the focal point remains the same.  Naively, I was surprised to experience a similar binary ideology in Brazil, where the predominant nationalism encompasses a colorblind vision of Brazilian people, and opponents to the myth of racial democracy promote recognition of the black/white binary.  As a Latina with roots in Central America, my instinct has always been to view South American people as Latinos. 

            During our visit yesterday at UERJ with representatives from Educafro, we had a discussion with students from the first class of entering quotistas, all whom will be graduating soon.  During our conversation, we discussed issues facing Afro-Brazilians in education, and particularly interesting was that these were first hand experiences of Afro-Brazilian students, currently in the education system.  When the students began to ask us questions about discrimination in the United States, they were only interested in hearing about discrimination experienced by African Americans.  Being a Latina in the U.S. who has experienced discrimination, and has witnessed discrimination among various groups, I couldn’t help but feel like discrimination among other groups has never been part of the conversation.  I interjected this fact into the conversation because I feel that it is an important part of the big picture in the U.S., and also that it is necessary to understand when working comparatively to develop solutions. 

Airport Security?

Today we flew to Salvador. There are only two roads that travel to the airport from Rio de Janeiro, both of which sit alongside several slums and, I have been told, have had some experience with shoot outs. A tourist exhausted from the international flight or from spending his last night at the clubs might fall asleep in the taxi both from and to the airport, completely missing the contrast of the slums with the beaches and richness of Rio.

After arriving at the airport, I put my bags on a free trolley and rolled it to the self check-in booths where a young woman kindly directed me to an open machine. With some assistance, I followed all of the steps and printed out my boarding pass. I then waited my turn to check my bag, where I was asked to present my identification. After an uneventful check-in process, in which I did not have to lug my bag to a separate scanning station, I prepared, passport in hand, to enter the security line.

Because there were only six people in line ahead of me, I did not have the opportunity to untie my sneakers before reaching the front. Once the person in front of me walked through the metal detector, I was signaled to the conveyor belt. A security officer asked me to take off my watch. That was it. No other requests to disrobe, so my socks remained clean and I did not have to worry about my shorts falling off, and my laptop never found its way out of my bag. Most amazingly, I brought my one and a half liter bottle of water through security and onto the plane. Through it all, I appeared foolish for holding my passport and boarding pass so dearly in my hand instead of one of my pockets.

While conscious of the potentially disastrous security breaches, I was amused by the ease and humanity of this Brazilian airport. Brazil, unlike the United States, does not suffer from the paranoia of real and imagined threats to its airports. The way that national security for each country is framed differs in that Brazil has not created and maintained a climate of fear that the U.S. perpetuates and uses to justify the interests and actions of its military. Still emerging from a military dictatorship, Brazil has not needed outside threats to justify its military’s autonomy. Thus, civilians live in relative peace and comfort, at least as far as traveling is concerned, compared to those living within the borders of the world’s only remaining superpower.

Together in the Struggle

Upon meeting with students, practitioners and activists at the federal university in Rio, I was struck by the similarities in our affirmative action and social justice struggles. As the students went around the room one by one introducing themselves and their path to the university it was so evident their stories and challenges were so similar to mine and those of many students of color. Hearing their personal stories literally gave me chills. Students from the first class of quotas recounted their experiences being one of the only Black students at their respective schools. They discussed the many ways that they went about financing their education and how difficult it was to get to a place where they could utilize the affirmative action programs.

When it was my turn to speak I conveyed how much I identified with their situation and recalled my own path to higher education and the challenges that I faced. Much to my surprise, the students were shocked by my story. They could not comprehend the racism and challenges that people of color, aside from African Americans, face in the United States. I can still remember the audible gasps from everyone at the conference when we informed them of the six black students in the class of 2008. The looks on their faces were of surprise, confusion, and frustration. It seems that many thought the situation for Black people was much better in the US than it actually is. Although, this number seemed to somewhat deject many of the Brazilian students in a way I feel that it brought us closer together in the struggle for social justice and set the foundation for a very useful exchange. After a day of interaction with the conference participants and hearing so many stories of lack of opportunities and racism I can say with confidence that despite Brazil’s racial democracy, racism is the reality and it still exists in many forms.

Public School, Private School, Everywhere Discrimination

Today I wanted to write about what I learned from my visits to the public and private high schools. The first school was a public school, but a nice public school, in a nice part of town, with relatively successful students for a public school. From this particular public school, with about 200 graduating students every year, about 50-60 ended up going to university. With 9 students making it into the prestigious state university, no students at the federal university, and over 25 students at other private universities. About 6 of these students said that they would study for the vestibular in order to get into a college, although more than 2/3 of the students said that if they could, they would go to college, yet the biggest issue for them was the financial hit they would take in order to get into the school. They also said that the universities are far and difficult to get into, and that it is hard to stay in universities once they get there, they also said that it would make more sense to get a technical degree which would cost much less. When asked how they felt about affirmative action, many in the class said that they think that it is bad because it assumes that blacks are dumb and can’t make it on their own. They also said that it was discrimination against non-blacks. They said that they thought that public high schools should be better, but that this might not happen because society is apathetic about change. One girl in the class (one of the few afro-brazilians) told us a story about how she was discriminated against by a white clerk while waiting at the mall to buy shoes, and then after an hour and a half she demanded to see a manager and then threatened to sue the store for discriminating against her and got her shoes for half off. Other discrimination that was mentioned was discrimination about clothing, and that the bus driver discriminates against them as public school kids because the bus drivers don’t get as much money from them since their ride is subsidized.

Even though it was a good public school, the private school was significantly nicer. The class size was smaller, rooms were nicer, and resources much better. Many of the students were bilingual, and it was hard not to notice how much lighter the skin of these students. They all waited to speak only after spoken to, and were much more calm and attentive to our presence. The class we walked in on was one about cultural diversity and ethnohistory, so they clearly had a head start on the other children. When asked how many of these students were going to study for the vestibulars by taking a prep course, surprisingly, only 6 raised their hands, the exact same number as in the public school. The difference was that all the other children at this school felt so comfortable with the material that they didn’t need to study in order to get into the top universities. At the public school, the kids not studying for the vestibular were not applying to college. Not a single one of these kids had a job, though many of them volunteered. All of them wanted to go to a public school. All their parents were engineers, lawyers, and professors. There were only 5 afrobrazilians in the entire school. I asked them why they thought this was, and they said it is because of slavery, and that the solution (repeated often) is to have better public schools. One kid specifically said that he does not want to consider race because he has a black grandparent and thinks everyone should be Brazilian and only Brazilian. I said that if you do not think about race then how can you remedy the disparities, they repeated better public school education for everyone. One student said you could tell an afrobrazilian by their skin color and their nose… I asked whether they thought that they are being deprived of a better education because of the lack of diversity, and they said yes. They also said that they would be scared to sit next to some people on the bus, and included if they were black in describing the types of people that make them scared, one student said he would never be scared of a white person on a bus.

There was a lot to take in on this day. The students were all very attentive and helpful and I learned a lot about perceptions of diversity and prestige that will help me with my project. Probably the most disconcerting was the differences between the have’s and the have not’s, though the disparity is worse in Los Angeles. I learned a lot today about the dynamics of race in Brazil, it is omnipresent, but not in the same way as in the States. Race is always somewhere in people’s minds here in Brazil, but doesn’t seem to have the same affect on people as it does in the US, I know I am not being very specific, but it is a very complicated thing and hard to pin down exactly what I am talking about. The children were so helpful, and I am concerned about how culturally sensitive the group is at times. Sometimes I worry that we take to much without offering enough in return, I mentioned this in our debriefing last night, and many agreed. We have to give our comparative analysis up front so that people know where we are coming from, and we have to ask questions with more humility and respect. I think this came through last night and I think everyone is going to behave responsibly in the future.

Two Worlds - One City

Two of us had dinner the other night at a corner restaurant across the street from the beach. As we sat enjoying our steak au poivre and a glass of wine, a young girl appeared and began speaking to us in Portuguese. We had no idea what she was saying to us, but she began pointing at our soda cans. My dinner companion gave this beautiful young Afro-Brazilian girl an affirmative nod. The girl picked up one of the cans and ran off. I looked around and saw a large man who seemed to be watching the girl as if they were acquainted. He stood by and watched and then walked a ways down the street once she had collected the can of Sprite.

Having spent time in numerous with more poverty than Brazil, my friend explained to me that this young girl just wanted our drink. There was something about this scene, the backdrop of the palm trees swaying in the breeze on this beautiful beach that made the appearance of this girl seem almost surreal.

My friend knew I was confused – having seen much more of the world than I – explained that these kids were subject to such poverty that a little bit of soda, or a small amount of left over dessert meant the world to them.

I turned to find her. Suddenly guilty that I had left a quarter of my steak untouched on the plate. As quickly as she had appeared, she was gone. We looked around to see where she had gone; as if she had been a figment of our imaginations, she had disappeared. The large man who appeared to have been with her still lingered in the background. Who was he? Her father? Her protector? Was he watching over her and forcing her to do his bidding?

In Brazil the strikingly different communities of rich and poor seem to exist side-by-side, one on top of the other – and yet are worlds apart. The public school we visited yesterday was located in the heart of one of the very rich neighborhoods, yet the kids go home to their favela every night. The private school students ride the same public buses as their public school counterparts and head home to watch the city behind the steel bars protecting their homes from intruders. When asked whether they had any friends who lived in favelas, one student out of the ten who participated said she was friends with her doorman’s kids.

Visiting the Private and Public High Schools

All the literature on high school education in Brazil agrees that Brazil’s private high schools have more resources than the country’s public schools, and better prepares students to take the vestibular, the name of the exam Brazilian high school students take to enter university. The exam is a similar to the SAT in the United States, but different because it tests more subjects and because students must take a different exam for each university.

Yesterday we broke into smaller groups and conducted research for our individual projects. In our group we visited a public school and a private school. In both schools, I was thrilled to find that the students were intelligent and eager share their thoughts with us. However, the contrast between the school systems was stunning. In the private schools, there were twenty students in the class, air conditioning in the classrooms, and a guard at the front door. By contrast, in the public school, there were about forty students in the classroom, metal bars on the front door, and not even a fan in the classroom.

Furthermore, after talking to the students it was clear that the public school students lived completely different lives. About half the public school students had jobs whereas none of the private school students worked. Due to the poor quality of the public school education all the public school students planned on taking the cursinho pre-vestibular (vestibular preparatory class), and planned to work to support themselves during the year off that they needed to study for the exam. The private school students on the other hand, did not plan to take the vestibular preparatory class because the quality of education in the school was so good that they did not need a preparatory class.

On the basis of my visit to the schools, I think that one of the greatest obstacles preventing public school students from performing well on the exams is that they have to work to support themselves and their families at every step in their education. Having to work takes away from the time these students have to study. My experience visiting the schools makes me even more excited to research the possibility of implementing a program that extends low interest loans to Afro-Brazilians as we continue our trip through Brazil. The loan perhaps could enable students to study for the vestibular without working, and allow them to attain high vestibular scores.

Good Music & Brazil's Situational Racial Democracy

When we met with black movement activist Carlos Alberto Medeiros, he discussed how racism was situational here in Brazil. Mr. Medeiros described how in one instance he can be X’s “brother”, but in an entirely different context where X is upset, X would call him the equivalent of the n-word in Brazil. Everything in Brazil seems to contain this type of complexity, even the idea of racial democracy.

Before I arrived in Brazil, I wrote off the racial democracy idea as a myth. Tonight, I attended a very diverse music showcase at an apartment. Not only was there a fusion of different types of music from Samba to hippie hoppie (hip-hop), there were people of all races in a very comforting environment. I have to admit that it felt like a racial democracy. It was much more fluid than a room full of different races in the U.S. where there would be preconceived notions, judging, and an occasional private conversation discussing “what is so and so doing here?” Furthermore, it seemed more natural. Everyone was very welcoming and not once did I get the sense that anyone served as a “token”. The music made it even more fluid because everyone was singing along to the same songs, and it was a wonderful feeling even though I didn’t understand a word anyone was saying! Here, music seemed to bring people together in an incredible way.

Juxtapose this social experience with my experience with AfroReggae. AfroReggae goes into the worst favelas in Brazil and uses cultural activities (including music) to take kids from crime and give them new opportunities, helping to transform these communities. I was told that a white person from a favela has a better chance of getting a job than a black person because most employers won’t ask the white person for his/her zip code. Favelas do not have zip codes, so of course the black person, following the extra scrutiny, will be denied the job due to an inability to provide a zip code.

Overall, I think Brazil has both situational racism and situational racial democracy. It just so happens that the situational racism negatively impacts many lives in ways that situational racial democracy can’t fix.

Healthcare, Prisons, and Intersectional Reform

Does unequal access to health care lead people to prison? Does universal health care decrease the number of people being sent to prison? What type of remedies would provide more equal access to health care?

One of the most important parts of my overarching intellectual and political project is to analyze the ways in which inequitable social conditions lead people to prison in the United States and in Brazil and to examine how intersectional remedies might be used to address these institutionalized disparities. Part of this discriminatory matrix includes the fact that race, gender, and class based disparities make it difficult for members of poor communities of color to access health care in the US and in Brazil - even though it is a basic human right. Today, while interviewing members of an organization that provides health care for poor Afro Brazilians through religious practice (spiritual/holistic) and learning about the negligent health care that Afro-Brazilians receive, I came to see possibilities for health care remedies in a new light.

After a series of questions about Black access to universal health care, about the implementation of the national Black health care policy, and about the continued denial of reproductive autonomy to Black women through state-sponsored sterilization, I asked, on a whim: “Is sex work regulated under the national health care plans?” In response, the director of the organization told me, to my disbelief, that sex workers were involved in implementing universal health care through the expansive and progressive Brazilian AIDS program, under the Commission of Health. Like other organized marginalized groups, including Black movement activists, transgendered people, transsexuals, GLBTI people, and farmers (I am assuming landless farmers), sex workers work directly with the state to implement health care.

This information provokes many questions for me and challenges some of my positions on the viability of state reform. Under which conditions and on which issues does working ‘within’ the state become more effective than working without? Although my research on the Gender Responsive Strategies Commission [for women prisoners] has made me wary of this approach, how does placing a network of community organizations in positions of power bypass some of the problems associated with individual political representation? Which organizations get a ‘seat at the table?” Could such reform be considered intersectional in that members often occupy multiple identity positions (for example, members of the sex workers organization might also be queer women of color) or is this a thin version of identity politics? How does this type of reform help us to understand the problems associated with gender responsive prison reform in the US and gender conscious responses to violence in Brazil? Today’s organizers informed me that even under the hard-fought anti-sterilization law, Black women are still denied informed consent. Knowing that women of color continue to be subjected to health care violence, is expanding the [less?] repressive health care system less dangerous for women of color than expanding the [more?] repressive prison system, as my argument contests? What might be learned about intersectional remedies from comparing the health care contexts in Brazil and in the United States?

The Military Option

Today, I met with Carlos Alberto Medeiros, an activist with the black movement, regarding the Brazilian military. Upon asking him about affirmative action in the military, he responded quickly and convincingly that there was nothing remotely close to affirmative action in the military. Instead, he remarked that the military uses a strict meritocracy in which race does not factor. Later, he said that the military’s official ideology is racial democracy and it cannot take any action diverging from that ideology. I went on to ask him about the racial demographics of the military, but he said such data was unavailable and had never been collected or aggregated.

I was in no way shocked by his statements because I had been forewarned by others. I already knew that the military did not keep such data, and I also knew that the military had no intentions of implementing affirmative action. However, Medeiros offered some information which did surprise me: Afro-Brazilians often look to the military as an avenue out of poverty. This surprised me for multiple reasons, two of which were the military’s resistance to race conscious remedies and the military’s, and military police’s, negative reputation. Why would Afro-Brazilians choose the military over other options, such as higher education?

The military serves as an attractive option for Afro-Brazilians. Students at military academies receive clothing, food, books and other costs. In addition, not only do these academies not charge tuition, they even pay students. Students also enjoy the status associated with the military. It is clear why poor people find themselves drawn towards the military. The U.S. military offers similar incentives geared towards recruiting students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Both militaries provide opportunities otherwise inaccessible for many.

Medeiros estimated that Afro-Brazilians constitute about ten percent of the student body in military academies, a number considerably higher than the private sector and even universities. Entrance into military academies depends on scores from the vestibular. This information implies that Afro-Brazilians do better comparatively than in other university vestibulars. Another possibility is that Afro-Brazilians apply as a larger proportion than for other universities.

Of course, despite these apparent positives, Afro-Brazilians make a progressively smaller percentage of officers at higher positions. This disturbing trend continues, but it does not seem to be enough to begin an affirmative action debate within the military.

Black Identity as a Precursor for Black Movement

Professor Carlos Alberto Medeiros, an expert on law and social sciences, came to our apartment in Rio tonight to speak to us about race in Brazil and the Black movement here. He spoke about a range of interesting things, but what related most to my project was his discussion of Black identity as a precursor for a Black movement. Medeiros identified himself as a Black militant who highly values the Black movement in Brazil. He stated that many Afro-Brazilians do not identify themselves as Black and thus developing a movement for racial justice is particularly difficult in Brazil – because with a racial democracy there is no problem to fight against. Medeiros identified the idea of racial democracy as very appealing not only to white Brazilians, but also to Afro-Brazilians who buy into this ideology in part because being oppressed as a result of class is less painful than as a result of race.

I found Mederios’ views to reinforce my hypothesis that Brazilian hip hop’s race consciousness is an important part of building support for affirmative action. Racial remedies such as affirmative action are an important part of the Black movement and I will see if hip hop is providing an avenue for Afro-Brazilians to express their own identity and advocate for the end to racial oppression through state policies such as affirmative action.

Favela Rising

As I sat in a humid dance studio watching one of the best combinations of percussion, dance, and song I have ever witnessed I realized why field work is so important, even in the law. This amazing performance was only a rehearsal of the teenage girls performance group at Afroreggae, an NGO who’s mission is to promote social justice though the use of Afro-Brazilian arts and culture. The smiles on their faces, pride in their performance, and enthusiasm with which they performed were at true testament to the accomplishments of this organization. Shaping the self images and esteem of the kids such that they realize that they are worthy of the time, effort, and resources has been a major challenge of this organization. Seeing the conditions in which they lived had allowed me to fully understand the immensity of this challenge. It also helped to learn more about the ways in which the law contributes to the development of favelas.

On my visit to AfroReggae I had the privilege of sitting in on the rehearsals for several different cultural music performance groups which this NGO supports. Although, I researched the organization prior to my visit and was well aware of the amazing impact it has on the favelas in which it works I had no conception of the deeply personal impact this organization has on the individuals which it serves. I understood that a main goal of Afroreggae is to take favela youth out of the crime life or avoid it all together. Many things were required to make this goal a reality such as addressing the extreme poverty that the kids face, securing a safe place, and creating an organizational infrastructure. However, I did not think about one important aspect of an organization such as this one, self esteem. Shaping the self images and esteem of the kids such that they think that they are worthy of the time, effort, and resources and actually have a chance of making it out of the favela or securing steady employment is a major component of the work this organization does.

I truly feel that the impact of an organization like Afroreggae on the self esteem of its participants can only be understood through first hand exposure. No amount of research, accounts, or scholarly articles can convey what I witnessed first hand during my day spent with this organization.

To Go to the University is an Impossible Dream for Many

Today we went to visit two high schools in Rio de Janeiro to speak with students regarding their perspectives of affirmative action in education. The contrast was amazing, especially because we were comparing the reactions between students attending Prof. Antonia Maria School, a public institution and students attending Colegio Sao Vicente de Paulo, a private school.

A couple of contrasts that are worth mentioning off the bat include: At the public institution, the students were wearing uniforms (school t-shirts, jeans/pants, tennis shoes), the atmosphere at the school was hectic (lots of students/teachers in the hallways, moving around, hanging out), and in the classroom students were generally more outspoken (changing desks during class, conversing with each other, hooting and making jokes). At the private institution, students were able to dress in their own clothing, there was a gated entry and a doorman to let you in to the school (who also had to give you a badge to have access to the building), and the students were much more quiet and respectful when their classmates were speaking. Another major difference deals with motivation, particularly among the students planning on attending a university. At the public institution, while many of the students enjoyed the idea of going to college, for many it was more realistic to either start working immediately after they finished their schooling, or to go to a vocational-type school instead, where there wasn’t so much invested. Students at the private institution were much more career-oriented, they mentioned that they would like to go to the university to study engineering, law, systems analysis, and architecture. Additionally, the students in the private institution were much more versed in other languages, and at least three students were able to communicate with us in English (this was in a class of about 17).

Relaying these observations back to my project, which mainly focuses on current perspectives of discrimination and affirmative action, I got to thinking about the significance that such experiences and worldviews (essentially) play a role in how the students react to affirmative action policies. The students at the public institution either were not familiar with the policies (where they might have heard of such, they did not necessarily know how they worked and they [particularly interesting] hadn’t acknowledged that such policies might benefit them). At the private institution, the students had a much better understanding of the affirmative action policies in the universities, however, they had additionally already disassociated themselves with such because 1) they did not affect them and 2) they had developed notions that the policies were flawed as the real problem lay in poverty, not race and the “right” solution would be to better the quality of the public K-12 institutions so that they could compete by their own merits and not “take away slots” from meritoriously deserving students. Does any of this sound familiar? I think we all caught a little bit of deja vu this afternoon, but overall it got us all thinking.

Prestige

It has been very informative to visit the different schools here in Rio de Janeiro so far. Our first experience was to visit Pookie (this is how it is pronounced but it is the Pontifical Catholic University, and it is a foundation and nonprofit). This private university is widely considered one of the most prestigious private universities in the country and I was eager to learn about what set Pookie apart from other private schools that are trying to close the prestige gap. One of the first things I learned was that there are relatively few afro-Brazilians in the areas of law, medicine, and engineering. These subjects seem to hold the most prestige. My intuition was that there is a sort of spectrum of universities in Brazil, with free, prestigious public schools on one end, and costly, lower reputation, private schools on the other end. Pookie would actually seem to be closer to the public school side of the spectrum than the other because it is more prestigious and slightly cheaper.

We then learned a little bit about the history of pookie, which is important to me because I am curious in how prestige reproduces itself. There used to be no universities in Brazil for quite a long time, because the idea was that it would be better for slavery to keep the population dumbed down. Everyone in the ruling class would learn abroad in Europe. There however were a few theological institutions and this has helped to pave the way for schools like Pookie in the future. In the 1930’s (Independence was in 1822), the government created the university where there were basically only Jesuit schools beforehand. The first university was USP, or University of Sao Paulo. This university is unique in that it is a state university as opposed to a federal university, yet is probably the most prestigious university in the country. We were told that there are some good state universities and some bad ones, but the federal universities are the most prestigious because the backing of the state is the most solid. The next most prestigious are the Church schools such as Jesuit schools, Catholic schools, Lasathian schools, and even Macaansi (Presbyterian) schools which are actually rather well respected. Pookie began as a plantation in the early 19^th century. King John of Portugal gave it as a land grant to one of his followers and the plantation mansion is still in the center of the campus.

What was perhaps the most interesting thing about Pookie is how affirmative action works at the school. The university gives money to feeding institutions so that students can perform better on vestibulars, however, there are no quotas in place and in that sense, there still is little actual affirmative action. We were also told that there is a large resistance to affirmative action from the faculty at Pookie, and that in the law school, there is only one law professor that is sympathetic to change. Another interesting aspect about the community prep courses are that the students that are able to have their funding subsidized often commit to teaching the same prep courses when they get out of college. Once the students got into the school, some of their expenses were paid, and by their second year, more of their expenses were paid. In the last thirty years, Pookie has become much more diversified and the prestige of the school has increased in the same time span as well.

What is strange is that my first reaction to all of this is just an appreciation for seeing how everything works first hand and hearing it from the professors and students themselves. I love being able to finally put things into perspective, but upon further analysis I begin to wonder about whether and how real changes are being made. Universities may or may not be slowly increasing the number of afro-Brazilians on their campuses, but other students and professors are still hostile to change. I hope that I learn how to change the ideas and notions of administrators, professors and students so that they learn to appreciate diversity. I know that this is just one aspect of the affirmative action struggle, and I do not mean to overstate its importance, but I feel as though it is something that is lacking and something that needs to be addressed.

Public and Private High Schools and Access to Universities in Brazil

How is one’s identity defined by the opportunities given to him? What differences exist between the privileged and the poor? How do the disparities between the public and private school systems in Brazil shape the lives of the nations youth and determine who they will become in adulthood?

As a high school student at a private, Catholic high school in San Francisco, I was required to read a book entitled “Amazing Grace” by Jonathon Kozel. The book examined the lives of students within the New York City public school system, focusing on a district in the South Bronx known as Mott Haven and comparing the poverty and despair that exists in this predominantly Hispanic and black neighborhood, with Stuyvescant High School, a school within the same public school system considered to be one of the most elite public schools in the country. It was from this book that I drew my inspiration for the fieldwork I hope to participate in Brazil.

A common excuse as to why affirmative action programs are unnecessary is the idea that reform should begin at the elementary and high school levels and that if, properly implemented, there would be no need for affirmative action at the post secondary level. Yet what has been done to implement reform and ensure that affirmative action isn’t necessary? In the US, the government often cites dedication to programs such as Head Start and No Child Left Behind – designed to afford all students across racial and economic divides equal education – however, as Kozel illustrated in his book over a decade ago, in the US, such programs are clearly not reaching the intended beneficiaries as they should be.

In Brazil, I will consider the two “competing” school systems at the high school level and examine the differences that exist between the two. My research will include observing the programs and resources available in both public and private schools as well as the relative life circumstances of the students in these respective schools. Secondly, I will speak to students within the two systems to discuss how they feel their respective educations shape their identities and hopes for the future.

My hypothesis will focus on the “reverse affirmative action” that exists for those privileged with attending private schools because of the enhanced programs and tools they are afforded as a result of their attendance in these elite schools.

Additionally, I will address the issue that while reform at the elementary and secondary education level is surely necessary and ideologically a goal for the Brazilian government, focusing on this alone as a way to correct the divide ignores the futures of hundreds of thousands of students in the present generation, for whom it is logistically too late to benefit from even the most comprehensive and effective education reform programs. For this element, I will speak to policy makers for youth and education regarding the two systems and how they operate. In addition, I will speak to students about where they see themselves within this system – and their plans for the future, as well as how they feel the affirmative action measures that have been employed will affect them.

Differential Access to Preparatory Courses in Brazil

Literature suggests that African-American high school students do not perform as well on the Scholastic Admissions Test (SAT) as white high school students. Scholars argue that one reason for this phenomenon is that African-American students, who are disproportionately poor, lack the resources to take SAT preparatory classes. Scholars argue that SAT preparatory classes can increase a student’s score on the exam significantly, and, as a result, white students, who more often can afford the preparatory classes, score higher on the exam. The net effect of this unequal access to SAT preparatory classes results in affirmative action for white students.

Like the above mentioned scholarship, literature suggests that Afro-Brazilian high school students do not perform as well on vestibular exams as white high school students. Vestibular exams are the exams students must take to enter Brazilian universities; each university has a its own vestibular exam, meaning students must take a separate exam for each university. I would like to research possible reasons for this trend. I hypothesize that like African-American students in the U.S., one reason Afro-Brazilian students perform less well on the vestibular exams is that they are disproportionately poor and lack the resources to take a year off from school and work to study for the vestibular exam or to take a cursinho pre-vestibular (vestibular preparatory class). If I find that my hypothesis is true, I will argue that the lack of resources Afro-Brazilians have available to study for the vestibular is a reason to retain race-based affirmative action in Brazilian universities.

To investigate the hypotheses in my proposal I plan on interviewing students at Brazilian high schools and universities. Most of my interviews will be informal because I feel that a relaxed, chatty approach will put students at ease and encourage open and honest communication. As I expect the language barrier to preclude effective communication, I will use the services of a translator.

Furthermore, if I find that my hypothesis is true, I would like to investigate whether a loan from the federal government or a microcredit organization, in addition to the student loans already provided by the government upon entrance to university, could provide Afro-Brazilian students with the resources to pay for a cursinho pre-vestibular and take a year off from school and work.

Welcome to Brazil!!!

When I first began this comparative work, I was worried that my project was too “obvious” or that, by now, the critiques of the anti-violence movement launched by radical women of color activists were practically axiomatic. However, the Brazilian context brings new life to this critique. My work stems from an old critique: that utilizing police apparatuses and positioning the state as ‘protector’ of women will not save women from violence. Because various arms of the state consistently and disproportionately commit violence against communities of color (for example, rampant police brutality, mass incarceration, racism, colonialism, economic exploitation) and because sexual violence has always been a tool of patriarchy, colonialism and racism, the state, through the criminal justice system, cannot effectively thwart violence against women of color because it simultaneously enacts it (Incite 2006). Instead, organizers and advocates must put forth intersectional remedies that assure safety for women yet do not expand the scope of repressive policing apparatuses. The Brazilian context is an appropriate site from which to begin envisioning possibilities for such remedies. How do we actually do this work, epistemologically, methodologically, and practically or “on the ground”?

Rather than address violence against women of color by adding a ‘multicultural component’ to the traditional sexual and domestic violence prevention model that was built with the interests of white women, radical women of color have called for an epistemological reframing of the movement’s central questions. They demand that we look to women of color’s experiences with violence as the starting point (or stand point) from which to imagine anti-violence strategies. By looking at the central articulations of violence that affect women of color, one is forced to examine state-sponsored violence – the type of violence inflicted upon them by state institutions. Although some of the most obvious institutions that sponsor violence are police, prison, and immigration officials, violence is also perpetuated by the welfare, health, economic, and education systems. Thus, INCITE!, the largest, multi-racial, grassroots feminist organization in the US claims:

[T]his perspective… benefits not only women of color, but all peoples, because it is becoming increasingly clear that the criminal justice system is not effectively ending violence for anyone. In fact, The New York Times recently reported that the effect of strengthened anti-domestic violence legislation is that battered women kill their husbands less frequently; however, batterers do not kill their partners less frequently. Thus, ironically, laws passed to protect battered women are actually protecting their batterers.

By starting from the standpoint of women of color we can build more comprehensive analyses and strategies that address the myriad and intersecting forms of violence facing women, as INCITE! suggests. What if, rather than asking, “what should an anti-violence program look like?” feminists and anti-violence organizers asked, “what would it take to END violence against women?” What would our strategies look like, even if they shared none of the features of the current movement (Incite 2006)? What is possible if we have no rules to adhere to?

This, I believe, is one site where the comparative US-Brazil project is especially productive. When I asked a Brazilian Fulbright scholar how the anti-violence against women movement has dealt with the tension [regarding relying on a repressive system to address violence], she said that she didn’t think that this issue was “on the table at all.” She suggests that the anti-violence movement has not looked beyond the single-pronged strategy of encouraging women to go the women’s police stations in search of safety and does she not believe that a professional network of shelters exists. Before this conversation I thought that these critiques had been put forth in Brazil (Santos). However, if this is true and if part of the US feminist’s inability to imagine intersectional remedies is because radical social justice critiques are disappearing through the increasing professionalization of the movement, then the absence of habitual strategies in Brazil might illuminate new radical imaginings of practical and utilizable restorative justice models (ones that might actually be useful rather than too “utopic.”). As an example of an enabling violation, the fact that Afro-Brazilians are subject to so much violence in the favelas and this violence is so often characterized in popular discourse (anecdotal evidence suggests that 1700 people have been killed by the police over the past year) the police’s inability to protect women may be a more convincing strategy. Over the next couple days, I will reframe my questions in an effort to see how this new possibility, born out of comparative study, might bring about useful ideas for intersectional remedies to violence in both contexts.

The Impact of the Brazilian Government's Hip-Hop Investment

I am investigating the impact of Brazilian government funding in hip-hop and social movements. The Brazilian government has recently implemented a cultural development program. Under this program, $13 million was used to fund music, including hip-hop, in 2007. Since 2004, the government has been giving money to NGO’s such as AfroReggae to fund programs spreading hip-hop culture throughout the country, mainly in favelas (slums). {see here} I wish to explore whether this funding has allowed groups with race conscious messages to strengthen their voice in Brazil. If so, can this funding be framed as an affirmative action program?

I find it interesting that currently there is no public backlash against these programs in Brazil. In the U.S., mainstream hip-hop music has been criticized for years over its controversial lyrics and alleged negative influences; recently, this scrutiny has intensified. Hip-hop music increasingly seems to be blamed for many social ills, illustrated by U.S. studies attempting to link it to everything from teen drug use to increased sexual activity among young girls. Furthermore, there were Congressional hearings on the genre’s content last year. It is true that most popular hip-hop in the U.S. over the past 10 years generally has carried a materialistic, gangster, or misogynistic message. Conversely, I have discovered that the more popular hip-hop in Brazil has a socially conscious message. I will attempt to get some of the Brazilian lyrics and the overall messages interpreted for comparison.

Today, we attended a mini-seminar in the afternoon with Professor Angela Paiva, Marco Pamplona and a few graduate students at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro­ (PUC-RJ). According to Professor Paiva, Brazilians would not frame the government funding of hip-hop as affirmative action because it is not in the education, employment, or political sector. I have not learned enough to challenge her statement, but I don’t think the programs are that simple. I look forward to my visit with AfroReggae tomorrow.

Affirmative Action in Brazil: What's it All About?

For my research project I strive to better understand the concept of affirmative action, as it currently exists in Brazilian society. The myth of racial democracy that has so long been legitimized in Brazil provides an image of racial harmony that masks over racial segregation, reducing the race issue to one of class conflict, which typically results in attempts to resolve the issue through race neutral income distribution policies. With the introduction and adoption of affirmative action policies in Brazil, the public debate has taken a shift in tone to reflect viewpoints standing in opposition to racial democracy.

I would like to conduct my research in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, and Salvador in Brazil on current understandings and perceptions of affirmative action, focusing in particular on education at the university level. My hypothesis supposes that the more people believe in the myth of racial democracy, the less they believe in racial barriers and thus, in the need for affirmative action. To test this theory, I aim to interview current students and administrators to get at the various interpretations of racial discrimination that are offered up. Putting my findings together, I’d like to assess where the affirmative action project resides and find ways to reframe the debate from that of a necessary evil, to one of positive policy.

Compared to affirmative action policies in the United States, or lack thereof, my hypothesis latches onto the color-blind politics that are in direct opposition to the implementation of affirmative action policies that are based on race. In the United States, affirmative action is currently illegal in three states and the popularity of such initiatives is increasingly starting to dwindle. In the state of California (one of the three states) alone, since the passage of Proposition 209, the number of minority students in higher education has significantly dropped, calling into question the intersectional link between race and class. Arguments opposed to race-based affirmative action policies tend to favor reform in the K-12 education levels. However, even after the diminution of race-based affirmative action policies in the aforementioned states, little effective reform has been made.

The inspiration for the particular focus of my project stems from a quote I stumbled upon in a 2003 issue of The Economist, where a Brazilian named Jose Vicente was quoted saying, “Brazilian racism is like a gun at the back of the head rather than one pointed between the eyes.” As I pondered about the meaning of his words, I was only further compelled to unravel the ways in which racism affects Afro-Brazilians everyday, and further, I was moved to use this information to unravel the myth of racial democracy, which I feel works to keep affirmative action policies from fully being embraced.

Race Consciousness and Support for Affirmative Action in Brazilian Hip Hop?

We’re in Rio! We arrived today and are starting our academic meetings with professors tomorrow. I am going to be researching the role of race and race consciousness in Brazilian hip hop. Specifically, I will examine the ways in which it exemplifies or challenges the supposed national ideology of racial democracy, and how it promotes or discourages affirmative action policies. My perspective is that hip hop culture is an important producer of critical approaches to daily norms and a way to understand the racial inequalities that are increasingly difficult to hide with the racial democracy ideology (the idea that the country is all about nationalism and democratic equality between classes and races in Brazil).

For my first question, my premise is that hip hop does challenge the purported national ideology of Racial Democracy. From what I have learned so far, it seems that Brazilian hip hop has a large political component that discusses race and inequality. One DJ stated that rap has been the most dominant aspect of hip hop culture in Brazil because of rap’s “incisive way of relating the reality of poor black people.” Such a statement is a direct challenge to the existence of racial democracy. I will also examine whether different types of hip hop deal with race in different ways. For example, a dissertation on hip hop and funk in Brazil observes that the white, more prosperous artists do not address race as explicitly as the music from the favelas. These differences might tell us something about how views on race diverge along racial and class lines.

I do net yet have a strong presumption for whether hip hop raises discussions and consciousness about affirmative action programs and creates more support for them. I’ve learned from initial conversations and research that the music in the favelas is different from the music coming out of more prosperous areas. There are also government programs with grants aimed at developing hip hop skills and culture in the favelas. If the hip hop in the favelas is race conscious and proposes remedies for the oppression of Black Brazilians, this might be an outlet for a perspective “from the bottom.” I want to examine the audience of this music and see if the favela musicians’ perspective can affect other peoples’ consciousness about racial inequality and the need for affirmative action programs. Music can be a powerful tool for creating cultural and political identities and beliefs – if hip hop addresses race and the need for state action to remedy inequality, and if people are responding to its message -- it can be a vital component of the movement for affirmative action.

I will compare my research in Brazil to Black music in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s that helped to advance ideas of Civil Rights and to shape Black identity as powerful and beautiful. This music was part of a cultural phenomenon of Black identity, expression, and influence in which artists stood up against white hegemony, specifically whiteness as the standard against which Black people had to judge themselves. Black American artists were proclaiming pride in their own identity while tying it their call for racial justice. I will see if this phenomenon is also reflected in Black Brazilian hip hop. For example, I will examine whether the overt discussions of race in Brazilian hip hop constitute a challenge to the whitening of Brazil and the related notion of racial democracy, and whether these expressions are linked to calls for racial justice that demand policies such as affirmative action.

Affirmative Action in the Brazilian Military

My project will focus on the lack of affirmative action programs in the Brazilian military. While affirmative action has been implemented in several sectors of the Brazilian federal government, such programs remain absent in its military. What is it about the military that separates it from other federal institutions and justifies a lack of affirmative action?

The Brazilian military has historically remained separate from civilian society. Considering itself an elite organization, the military established dictatorships at two separate periods in the twentieth century. The purpose of my project is to determine why affirmative action programs were never created for the military and what, if anything, has been done to achieve the goals of affirmative action absent such programs.

In contrast, the United States military has used affirmative action programs in its officer corps. Although affirmative action has been under so much attack and criticism, the military has stressed the importance of having a diverse officer corps. Why have the militaries in the two countries embarked on such divergent paths?

I plan on learning how and why civilians and military personnel view the military as distinguishable from other federal institutions, and how that perception plays out in the affirmative action context. The research will consist of interviewing civilians and military personnel about such issues. The interviewing questions will also focus on what impact interviewees believe affirmative action programs may have on the military and the resultant impact on national security. Would affirmative action help or hurt the military? How do people believe affirmative action would affect the composition of the military, i.e. the demographics at different rankings? I hope to answer these questions through my research in Brazil.

My Project

My project in Brazil will focus on Afro-Brazilian youth and the non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) that serve this community. Broadly, the project will evaluate how NGO's, such as AfroReggae, are interacting with the Brazilian affirmative action scheme. Specifically, this project will analyze the role of NGO’s in the Brazilian approach to race conscious remedies as they apply to Afro-Brazilian youth and educational access, equality and equity. I plan to compare this interaction with the affirmative action NGO system, or lack thereof, in the United States. My goal for this trip is to foster a meaningful exchange of information which will serve as a foundation for new ideas and approaches to combating racial inequity.

Brasil!

We arrived in Brazil today, everything went rather smoothly. There were a few hangups with the apartment, but everything is manageable and we think we are prepared to have a very successful trip.

My paper is going to focus on the role that rankings, the vestibular and prestige play in the equal access to education in Brazil’s colleges and universities, both public and private. Prestige and rankings take on different forms and meanings in Brazil and are not directly correlated to their US counterparts, however, figuring out the similarities and how they coincide similarly to access will nonetheless further our understanding of affirmative action and access. I am coming from the position of trying to mold what prestige and rankings mean here in the United States. My ultimate goal would be to incorporate diversity into the language of what is considered prestigious here in the United States, so that colleges and universities that hope to be successful and prestigious will have no choice but to take the diversity of their student population into consideration when dealing with admissions policy.

On a more personal note, Brazil is as beautiful as advertised. The people are all extremely helpful, kind and patient with us, even though none of us speak Portuguese. The natural landscape surrounding Rio is stunningly gorgeous. At one point today we were walking down a street and emerged at a marina with dozens of colorful boats in front of us, a picturesque alley to our right, and off in the distance past the boats was the giant Christo statue on top of a hill that was peaking through a low marine layer of clouds. It was all very majestic. We all stopped and stared with our mouths open until the tourist inside of us reached for our cameras to document the experience. Hopefully some of these pictures will be up soon so that you all can more closely share in our experiences.

The Journey Begins

In a few hours, we will congregate at LAX, trudge through security, and wait for our flight to Brazil. We hope to build off of the foundation laid by last year’s group for the Global Affirmative Action Praxis Project. (For a description of the project, see the entry on February 24, 2007.) After weeks of reading, planning and fine tuning our research proposals, the nine of us are, for the most part, both anxious and excited to land in Brazil and begin the field study phase of our projects. Our projects will examine affirmative action related issues in education, hip-hop, and the military. In the coming days, each researcher will post a description of his or her respective project. Visit this blog every day for up-to-date news on our experiences, reactions and analyses; engage in GAAPP by submitting your comments. Back to packing.