extra credit 3: Black in Latin America E02, Brazil: A Racial Paradise

In this video, Dr. Louis Gates travels to Brazil to investigate the countries African descendants. Before this country became a free racial democracy, this rainbow nation became the worlds largest slave economy. In Brazil, there were more than ten million more slaves than there were in the United States. The Portuguese controlled the slaves that were transported to Brazil. In this land, sugar was the main source that the slaves had to work to produce. During this time a large amount of slaves were transported there due to the large crave for sugar in the world. Ultimately, Brazil was one of the last countries to abolish slavery; since then, they have lived under a racial democracy. 

Brazil is considered to have the second largest black population in the world. As an outcome of these numbers Brazil has proudly maintained their African culture. “The rainbow nation” is a quote used by Dr. Gates as an indication of how skin color is viewed in Brazil. For instance, during the video Dr. Gates asks a few of the people that live there what they called their skin color; they said, “black.” Now, as we may see in the video, Brazil has all kinds of colored people, but, in the end, they were all black. This is an example of how strongly their culture represents their African pride.

At the end, although Brazil is freed from slaves and considered a racial democracy,but they still believe that they are treated as a second class citizen.

Brazil in need of affirmative action.