Café com leite (água e azeite?)

As the simple but brilliant title implies, this thirty minute documentary, made at the University of Sao Paulo, discusses the politics of race in Brazil -- coffee and milk, or water and vinegar? Split up into six parts on Youtube, the documentary tries to debunk the notion of "racial democracy" in Brazil, as well as explaining concepts of race, racism, and identity. The truth is that it's difficult to cover such a complex topic in less than an hour, but there is a lot of valuable and valid information, and more importantly, different views and opinions on race in Brazil.

Thanks to Alexandra for the link!

Watch the rest of the documentary after the jump. (Sorry--no English subtitles!)

Comments

[Ray Adkins]

I enjoyed the historic context of the documentary and I totally agree with the conclusion that Brazil is NOT a racial democracy and I could add that Brazilians are hypocrites when it comes to race relations.
I also think the documentary could have done better with less drunken bar talk from the fellows on the street corner in downtown Sao Paulo, too much anger and too little to be taken seriously.
The lady with the insistence to register her daughter as "black" even considering the fact that her husband is "white" also had some interesting points to share.
The Anthropologist with a homeless appearance, says he will continue to be screwed by Brazilian society because he is black, but I assure you, his looks won't do much to help him at all, lack of common sense will compromise his future much more, he needs to help himself first.
I met a few well succeeded black Brazilians, a judge, a public prosecutor and a Law School teacher and they weren't angrily drinking beer at bars and most definitely didn't look like homeless, they were serious people who actively fought for a better and effectively achieved their dreams.
The black folks I met were doing more for the improvement

[Ray Adkins]

...of the conditions of blacks and racial relations in Brazil than any of the drunken crew.

[Ana]

Thank you for posting that video. Up until recently, like many Brazilians, I still had the naive view that Brazil was indeed a racial democracy. I think the main reason for that widespread misconception has to do with the majority of the population being of mixed race. It seems logical to assume that if people are mixed to the point where it can be difficult to tell what race they are, then racial prejudice does not, or should not exist. However, the very thing that is supposed to eliminate racism, actually contributes to it, creating a racial hierarchy that is virtually unknown in countries where different races coexist separately.

To Ray: Maybe I'm being naive again, but it seems to me that the bar talk to which you refer was a way of bringing a group of black friends together in a way that was conducive to discussion, like a round table discussion, but without looking and sounding artificial the way many people do when they look at the camera. I'm even more inclined to believe this when I think about the black woman who wanted to register her bi-racial daughter as black. She had many great points to make, but at the beginning of the documentary her speech sounded a little unnatural. I thought maybe the bar scene may have been an attempt to eliminate that.