Analysis Of The Film Brazil In Black And White

751 Words2 Pages

Racial identity is a complicated thing to examine when looking at the social politics of Brazil. The film Brazil in Black and White and Benedita da Silva’s book both tackle the issues of racial identity in similar manners. Brazil has the second highest black population in the world, following only Nigeria, yet Afro-Brazilians are heavily unrepresented in Brazilian education, government, and media. Benedita da Silva, being an Afro-Brazilian congresswoman faced these issues on a personal level and her criticisms are integral in understanding the marginalization of blacks in Brazil.
Brazil’s African descendants are very racially and ethnically mixed, with many different names to describe their racial identity. Racial identity in Brazil is difficult …show more content…

Da Silva said that if her stepdaughter was poor, then she would be labeled as black. In the movie focusing on the application to the University of Brasilia’s new affirmative action program showed how open race was to interpretation. In order to apply for one of the separate positions reserved to black students, applicants had to have their pictures taken and judged to determine whether they were black enough looking to apply. People ranging from rather dark skin to light skin and blonde hair claimed African heritage and attempted to apply as …show more content…

The vast majority of blacks live in poor neighborhoods with very little government support for the construction of roads and other necessities such as garbage disposal. The black identifying girls from the movie all lived in poor neighborhoods of some sort, one saying that she didn’t feel safe where she lived. This comes in stark contrast with the middle class boy who lived in a nice house and even had a pool, he identified as white and went to a prestigious private school. The living conditions of black-identifying and white-identifying people was night and day, with Benedita da Silva pointing towards the fact that Rio’s favelas are overwhelmingly black and the residents of these slums are even targeted by

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