This essay will look to identify how age, race, class and gender essentially shape experiences of favela violence within Rio de Janeiro looking at different works which will include Laughter out of Place: Race, Class, Violence and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown (Goldstein, 2003) and Violence in Rio de Janeiro: styles of leisure, drug use and trafficking (Zaluar, 2001). This essay will look to answer questions including why there is a dichotomy of how whites and blacks are perceived in the favelas, the class structure and why domestic workers of a lower background are being essentially used as slaves amongst the middle and upper-class residents in the favela, how and why young men are forced into a life of drug-dealing due to a variety of factors …show more content…
The collective violence against the domestic workers that is shown here is prevalent as low wages are offered which they have no choice but to accept to provide for their family whilst it is perceived as a form of entrapment towards the female domestic workers as one of the key problems within the ‘Brazilian economy is that they are not willing to hire women in other sectors’ (Goldstein, 2003). This simply put is the image of a polarised society, where a minority of the middle and upper-classes benefit off individuals with impoverished backgrounds, while the close proximity between the favelas and the middle-class neighbourhoods shows the isolation between the two. Violence in these two areas show an alarming discrepancy with middle and upper-class neighbourhoods having the same rate of homicide rate than in many of the world’s largest cities but living in a poor neighbourhood entails a high rate of homicide ‘exceeding 100 per 100,000 in some cases’. (Sorj, 2008) Furthermore, ‘favelas have been transformed into a privileged space where
In Samba, Alma Guillermoprieto describes the Carnival celebrated every year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and explores the black cultural roots from which it takes its traditions as well as its social, economic, and political context in the 1980s. From her firsthand experience and investigation into favela life and the role of samba schools, specifically of Manguiera, Guillermoprieto illustrates a complex image of race relations in Brazil. The hegemonic character of samba culture in Brazil stands as a prevalent theme in numerous facets of favela life, samba schools, and racial interactions like the increasing involvement of white Brazilians in Carnival preparation and the popularity of mulatas with white Brazilians and tourists. Rio de Janeiro’s early development as a city was largely segregated after the practice of slavery ended. The centralization of Afro-Brazilians in favelas in the hills of the city strengthened their ties to black
Living in poverty brings high tensions and people tend to lose it. The use of alcohol is a contributor of the excess violence in the favelas. Many men and women begin to fight about the littlest thing, but it expands to a large issue as a result of the alcohol. Carolina recounts whenever a fight breaks out, “I was giving lunch when Vera came to tell me there was a fight in the favela” (de Jesus 63). These incredibly common vicious fights are entertainments to people living in the favelas. It is so familiar that whenever a fight breaks out people just enjoy it as if it were a show. As Carolina being the great hero she is, she regularly breaks up the
In the novel Chulito author Charles Rice-Gonzalez creates a familiar world seen through the eyes of a young, gay Latino from New York to strip the reconstructed masculinity that is inherent to the urban Latin communities' sense of machismo and expose the realities of outdated views on gender roles and sexual orientation, and the internal power struggle against the machismo aspects that entrap its members in a cycle of poverty and violence. The majority of young Latinos growing up in impoverished areas of urban society think machismo is necessary for survival and acceptance within the community. Rice-Gonzalez reveals this to be an oversimplification by the members of the community of the social dynamics that are at work behind the scenes and,
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.
Bourgois’ ethnography tries to look at both agency and structure, both free will and social constraints, and he does so by looking at the crimes and violence of men like Primo and Caesar in the macro context of political economy, or structurally, all the way down to individual choices, or how these men exercise their agency within the constraints they confront. What is fascinating about this portrayal of violence is how it incorporates culture to understand the practices of selling crack in the social world of el barrio. Bourgois does not want to “blame the victim,” does not want to present his readers with a “pornography of violence,” but also does not want to reduce the crimes of these men. Relying on culture, then, helps him to avoid these possible problems when studying street culture. Crime and violence are very real.
Imagine photographers and journalists littering the panicking and anxious street, a public area where everyone can witness the live crime of kidnapping and burglary. In the 2004 film “Bus 174” examines the life of Sandro Rosa Do Nascimento, a young man who held Rio De Janeiro’s bus 174 hostage in 2000. The documentary depicted the reality and perspective of Sandro and the Brazilian society, which illustrated the flaws and thoughts of Sandro and the society of Rio De Janeiro. Based off the depiction of both realities, the Brazilian society is the most at fault for the tragic event because Sandro never encountered a support system and he had experienced traumatic events caused by the Brazilian society.
Graham, Sandra Lauderdale. House and Street: The Domestic World of Servants and Masters in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro. (University of Texas Press, 1992)
In the favela of São Paulo, Brazil, 1958, Carolina Maria de Jesus rewrote the words of a famous poet, “In this era it is necessary to say: ‘Cry, child. Life is bitter,’” (de Jesus 27). Her sentiments reflected the cruel truth of the favelas, the location where the city’s impoverished inhabited small shacks. Because of housing developments, poor families were pushed to the outskirts of the city into shanty towns. Within the favelas, the infant mortality rate was high, there was no indoor plumbing or electricity, drug lords were governing forces, drug addiction was rampant, and people were starving to death. Child of the Dark, a diary written by Carolina Maria de Jesus from 1955 to 1960, provides a unique view from inside Brazil’s favelas, discussing the perceptions of good
In Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, the effects of the marginalization of socioeconomically underprivileged people are depicted through behavior and psychological tendencies. These effects on the marginalized youth portrayed in Burgess’ fictional work draw a parallel to modern-day Brazilian shantytowns, commonly known as favelas. The psychology of behavior and the conflict between the government and the people are two clear-cut examples that illustrate the parallels between both worlds regardless, of the time period they exist in. As the doctors attempt in A Clockwork Orange, what can the Brazilian government do to stop or at least diminish violence and drug abuse among the youth in favelas?
In ‘City of God’, Meirelles is attempting to highlight the issues surrounding life in the favelas and the impact that poverty and crime is having on individuals, and ultimately the country as a whole, through his use of themes such as poverty. Similarly, Kassovitz is attempting to highlight the social division between authoritarian
Once we understand what violence is the question that is raised is how does one decide the difference between a legitimate and an illegitimate act of violence? Since violence is bringing harm to others whether that is individuals, property or organizations why would violence be considered permissible or legitimate on some occasions but not others? Universally, the idea of legitimacy is “that something is right, proper, or appropriate within the bounds of a system of norms, values, or beliefs” (Schoon 779). Since norms and values are changeable depending on the culture, legitimacy can be “shaped by the availability of alternatives to that which is being evaluated” (780). While legitimacy is not solely based on cultural norms and values, it is also based
To watch City of God is to be forced to enter, from a safe distance, the ruthless and merciless hoods of Rio de Janeiro. The captivating and poignant film guides viewers through the realistic aspects of slum life experienced by young, underprivileged youth in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, some aspects that not even most middle class Brazilians get to see. In a city where police are fraudulent, opportunities are scarce and crime is widespread, many youths believe there is no alternative to gang activity. In City of God, director Fernando Meirelles puts to the forefront of Brazilian cinema the real issues that favelas in Brazil face like poverty, extreme violence and stereotypical gender roles in a male dominated society. City of God encapsulates the hope of Rio’s impoverished blacks for social and economic ascension.
“Not. I mean no. I’m stuck,” she replied in a breathy voice. He laughed low and rough, warm puffs of his breath hitting her as his hands groped the waist of the skirt again. A few tugs, and it slid down her body to the floor. His blue eyes staring up at her, while her skirt lay puddled in a soft heap on the floor. She struggled to control her breathing.
As Rosa Parks said, “As Americans, we still have many challenges to face and many more problems to overcome,”. One of those problems is segregation, which is the action of setting someone/something apart from others. Ghettos have played a major role in helping achieve segregation by separating the minorities from the majority; thus, making it hard for social mobility and equal opportunities for all. Ghettos first started with Jewish people and now have evolved into urban ghettos housing many minorities. This has lead to a rift between certain ethnicities. Not to mention that ghettos are always overcrowded and impoverished, causing the people who live there to fight amongst themselves.
As discussed in the introduction, Lélia González was in the dispute between the marxist, feminist and black movements. Each of them claimed a single category for reading the formation of Brazil and, at the same time, universalized the experience of the people who within this category. This kind of claim began with marxism, which summed up the end of the class at the end of all oppressions and homogenized the experiences of the workers. Feminism went this way when, in its attempted to release the category of gender from subordination to class, universalized what would be defined as women. Finally, the black movement, despite its strong articulation with race and class, was only a space to the history of the 'black man' (Soares, 1998; Pinto,