Revolutionary Rumblings
In
the Brazilian Revolution, race, and more in particular, identity, played a
heavy role in how it came to be. The identity of people was mostly according to
their skin color and heritage, which led to their placement on the social
pyramid. The most powerful people were the peninsulares, who were people born
in Spain and later moved to the colonies. Below them were the creoles – people
of Spanish blood who were born in America. Next on the pyramid were the
mestizos, which consisted of people of mixed Spanish and Indian heritage. In
the middle were the mulattoes (people of mixed African and Spanish blood) and
free blacks. 50% of the population consisted of Indian people, who, by
definition, were people that lived in Latin America before the arrival of the
Spanish. After Napoleon I invaded Portugal and Spain in 1807 and 1808, he
removed Spanish King Ferdinand VII from his throne in 1808. This created a
series of wars in the struggle for control of Portugal. In 1815, John VI
declared Brazil a kingdom, which helped Portugal gradually gain its
independence. Right away, Brazil did not want to have to worry about race
relations in their country. Therefore, slavery was still in effect far after
the revolution. Also, Brazil’s Prince Pedro (originally from Portugal) caused
many problems. First, many Brazilians believed he was too tied to his Portuguese
roots to be Prince of Brazil. He surrounded himself with Portuguese-born
cabinet ministers, and later started the Cisplatine War. This angered the
Brazilian’s because they had recently suffered a devastating loss to Argentina
already.
Race
continues to effect national identity and politics in many ways. In the CNN
article The New Threat: ‘Racism Without
Racists’, by John Blake, it describes how even though people don’t intend
to be racist, they are naturally biased according to people’s race/skin color. I
do believe that race plays a controversial role in our national identity. I
believe that people are more inclined to stereotype people of different races,
but not because they actually feel that way. What I mean is, they are almost
taught a certain image of how certain people should act/look. Therefore, even
though they might feel they are all equal, they still have that image in the
back of their head that say “this is how they all are”. I completely agree with
John Blake, because I have witnessed this unintended form of racism myself.
There’s been plenty of times where hear people talk about something they saw or
heard and someone else exclaims “oh, it must be the black kid”. I think it
would be very hard to eliminate this idea of bias, and it must be taught to
children who are very young so that they may grow up with the same values and
can spread it on to their children.
Citations:
Blake, John. "The New Threat: 'Racism without
Racists'" CNN. Cable News Network, 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
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