Starting today, Brazil celebrates Black Consciousness Month, honoring the contributions of African-descended peoples in Brazilian society and recognizing the challenges of those same peoples in the country today.
Well, that’s not entirely true…many people in Brazil are celebrating Black Consciousness Month. But many others see this particular exercise as unnecessarily divisive and alien to Brazil’s culture of “inclusiveness and miscegenation.” I see the latter as a negation and a silencing of an inextricable aspect of the culture that has long been undervalued and misrepresented, so…Happy Black Consciousness Month, todo mundo!
Stay tuned for related posts throughout the month…er, year, and in the meantime, take a look at the trailer for a documentary currently in the works about the black experience in Rio de Janeiro, called AfroCariocas. Can’t wait for the debut!
Please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @FlyBrother, and “like” me on Facebook! You can subscribe, too! 
Just wanted to chime in that out of all the countries I have been to on my trip (even including South Africa), I felt that the black population in Brazil was the most integrated (for the lack of better word). People of all color were just there. Everywhere. I was pleasantly surprised how nobody really stood out. Everyone seemed to belong and I did not feel any racial tension at all. This post just brought back memories of probably the most racially well-integrated society that I have yet to encounter. I am sure it is not perfect, nothing is. But hats off to Brazil in this regard!
Hey Dima, thanks for commenting! Like most of Latin America, Brazil’s cultural components are mixed and combined in all kinds of beautiful ways, which is what has always drawn me to the region. And you do see people of all colors partying together during street festivals and Carnival, especially as the country has a black/Afro-descended population of over 90 million. But when you look at the socioeconomic stratification of the country, the rich and powerful are more likely to be of European descent and the poor of African descent. Certainly, class plays a much larger role in this inequality than race, but the two can’t be separated, especially considering Brazil’s very late abolition of slavery and penchant for sexual relations across color lines, but historical and current employment practices favoring “boa aparencia” (“good appearance,” which inherently means European-looking).
I can say that I feel more at home in Brazil than any place I’ve ever been, but until it really comes to terms with its own color issues in terms of true socio-economic and political mobility, Brazil won’t ever have its own Oprahs or Obamas.
This blog has great information about Brazilian societal inequalities as related to race/color: http://www.blackwomenofbrazil.com/
Again, thanks a lot for your comment. There is no denying the incredible sense of harmony and integration when you’re visiting, but when you live there for some time, you start to see how things really are.