Credit: AP Images

From Black Voices

RIO DE JANEIRO — Many Brazilians cast their country as racial democracy where people of different groups long have intermarried, resulting in a large mixed-race population. But you need only turn on the TV, open the newspaper or stroll down the street to see clear evidence of segregation.

In Brazil, whites are at the top of the social pyramid, dominating professions of wealth, prestige and power. Dark-skinned people are at the bottom of the heap, left to clean up after others and take care of their children and the elderly.

The 2010 census marked the first time in which black and mixed-race people officially outnumbered whites, weighing in at just over 50 percent, compared with 47 percent for whites

Read more at BlackVoices.com.

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Hey loves! This weekend’s wrap-up has baby news, tv news, some words from Kimora Lee Simmons and more!  Is there anything better than words from Lady Kimora? Check it out!

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Coconuts in front of Mercado Modelo. Image: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

Between the songs, the Victoria’s Secret models and the movies, one would think Brazil is a non-stop music video of bronze, bikini-clad beauties complete with cameos from Pharrell and Snoop. Of course, Brazil is so much more than beautiful people and beaches — or bullet-riddled favelas run by lookalikes of the little dude from City of God.

Home to the biggest population of Africans outside of Africa, Brazil is positively opulent with history, art, music and more with much of the magic concentrated in the northeastern state of Bahia where 80 percent of the population is of African descent. We’ve put together a need to know/need to go guide for your next trip.

If you’ve visited Bahia already, make sure to chime in on our Facebook page with the destinations we missed!

In 2009, quotas were imposed during the Sao Paulo Fashion Week requiring at least 10 percent of the models to be black or indigenous, but one year later that requirement was eliminated. Now, after outrage over the lack of brown skin at the Rio de Janeiro winter 2012 fashion week show, it’s likely a move to reinstate those quotas could succeed.

From Wednesday to Saturday of last week, 24 designers displayed their fashions on models who were overwhelmingly white during the show—a move you simply cannot pull in a country with the second largest black population in the world, according to Father David, a Franciscan friar who leads the Educafro non-governmental organization, which lobbies for the rights of blacks and indigenous people on the labor market.

“You just can’t discriminate against blacks in Brazil, where 51 percent of the population is black or mixed-race. I think that the justice system will react favorably to our pressure and this decision will influence the fashion world across the country,” he says.

Typically, less than 3% of the 350 models used in the show are black, a fact which prompted the 2009 quota. Father David says he appealed the ruling reversing the quotas and said a hearing was scheduled for January 15, four days before the scheduled opening of the show, but his point of view apparently went unheard.

Luana Genot, 23, is one of eight black models out of more than 200 who are employed by the main Rio modeling agency, 40° Models, and she says the discrimination is blatant.

“They call us only when the the theme of the show is linked to black culture. I am often told: What am I going to do with your hair? And for make-up, I am always the last so as not to dirty the brush with overly dark tones.”

Last June, during Black Consciousness Week, Genot organized a debate on “ethnic diversity in fashion” at Rio Catholic University to discuss how to inflict change.

“We are told that the winter collection is for whites in Europe or that black women’s butts are too big, their hips too wide. I am shocked to see that in Brazil, where more than half of the people are descendants of black slaves, there is so little space for us.

“Brazil’s population is very mixed and this must be reflected in fashion,” Genot says.

Even models like Bruna Loureiro, a blue-eyed blonde, have been dropped from shows because her skin was found to be “too golden” when the label wanted “very pale skins.”

Unsurprisingly, the issue of black acceptance is not limited to the fashion industry in Brazil. Already, the country has adopted quotas for underprivileged blacks to get into universities much like Affirmative Action here in the United States. Given the lack of black runway models here in the U.S., both countries still have a long way to go.

Do you think there will ever be equal space for black models on the runway? Are you surprised there’s so much discrimination in a country like Brazil with such a large black population?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Not only should artists watch what they say, they better watch what they sing. Sony Music’s Brazilian branch is paying out $1.2 million ($656,000 in American dollars) in retroactive compensation for a song Brazilian singer, comedian, and politician Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva released in 1997. The song, “Veja os Cabelos Dela” (Look at Her Hair) has been deemed racist for it’s lyrics which call a black woman a “stinking beast” and liken her hair to “a scouring pad for pots and pans.”

The lawsuit was brought forth by 10 non-governmental associations that fight racism. They argued that black women were offended, exposed to ridicule, and felt violated due to the lyrical content of the song. Sony stood by its position that the song was not intended to offend women and that Silva, who goes by the stage name Tiririca, was referring to his wife in the song and that the terminology in the song is often used by Brazilians to describe both white and black women. No matter how they try to spin it, Sony still has to pay up. Check out the translation of the lyrics below and tell us if you think the organizations were right to file a lawsuit.

Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela (4x)
(Look look look look look at her hair (4x)

Parece bom-bril*, de ariá panela
(It looks like a scouring pad for pots and pans)

Parece bom-bril, de ariá panela
(It looks like a scouring pad for pots and pans)

Quando ela passa, me chama atenção
(When she goes by, she catches my attention)

Mas os seus cabelos, não tem jeito não
(But her hair just isn’t right)

A sua catinga quase me desmaiou
(Her stench almost made me faint)

Olha eu não aguento, é grande o seu fedor
(Look, I can’t take it, her smell is so bad)

Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
(Look look look look look at her hair)

Parece bom-bril, de ariá panela (2x)
(It looks like a scouring pad for pots and pans) (2x)

Eu já mandei, ela se lavar
(I told her to take a bath)

Mas ela teimo, e não quis me escutar
(But she’s stubborn and doesn’t listen to me)

Essa nega fede, fede de lascar
(This black woman stinks, she stinks horribly)

Bicha fedorenta, fede mais que gambá
(Stinking beast, smells worse than a skunk)

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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We can thank Nobanda Nolubabalo for officially giving the TSA a legitimate reason to search natural hair from here on out.

The 23-year-old South African woman was caught attempting to smuggle 1.5 kilograms of cocaine in her dreadlocks on a flight to Bangkok. Authorities arrested her and held her in the capital yesterday after customs officers noticed a suspicious white substance in her hair, according to the Daily Mail. After a search, it was discovered that she matted the drug into her dreads before boarding a flight from Brazil.

The amount of cocaine was worth roughly $144,000. Nolubabalo claimed she was hired by a Thailand-based businessman to smuggle the drugs for about $1,800. The amount is far less than the price the woman may have to pay for the failed smuggling attempt, including the possibility of the death penalty. Thailand has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world, and just this week another South African was executed for drug smuggling in China after an unsuccessful attempt by South Africa’s president to convert the sentence.

You can view a video of the search here. How do you think this woman’s actions will affect hair searches in the U.S. going forward?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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by Sheree Gaines

Folks are fascinating. Sometimes, I gotta wonder how certain people suspend the reality of reality and live their lives in a bubble. It’s an admirable ability, really. If only I can do that with certain things like believing I have the best job in the world or the best house on the block.

One of the few incidents that got me thinking about delusional thinking involves a man, let’s call him Harold, who frequents billiards bar my husband and I hang out at. Harold is a black man in his mid-thirties, who is a less attractive version of Hill Harper and who constantly vacations in Brazil. Yeah, you know where this is going, don’t you?

In any case, “Harold” would always talk about how beautiful and wonderful Brazilian women were. He made a lot of comments about how much better Brazilian women were in comparison to American bred women who forgot how to nurture their men and act like ladies. Every time he expresses his respect for the Brazilian standard, I’m perplexed. Does he realize that these women would act differently if they weren’t dependent on these tourists for money? For meals? For free shopping trips? Does he believe that these women want him or is he just trying to convince himself that these women of high qualities and beauty weren’t prostitute?

In his world, all the beautiful and most obedient women were just concentrated in Brazil and he and the million other Black men just happened to embark on a gold mine. Soon enough, he was flashing photos of his new girlfriend in Brazil. He loved her. I’m sure she loved the monthly living allowance he provided her. Judging by her impressive physical exterior and her supposed obedience to him, this was the type of girl that Harold couldn’t land if she was equipped with a green card.

Despite the obvious dynamics at work, Harold wouldn’t include himself in the ranks of the old white men you see with young mail order brides from China and Eastern Europe. Nope, that wasn’t him at all.

Sex tourism is big business but it’s interesting just how many of those involved deny that they’re part of promoting it. Some men may just go to Thailand or Brazil with the knowledge that they’re going for sex but for others, who manage to get caught up by a “naïve” beautiful woman, lying to oneself is enticing. It’s a big ego boost to believe that a beautiful woman is attracted to you just because you exist but the truth of the matter is,folks like Harold are lying to themselves about what they’re really about.

There’s so much to say about sex tourism from the other perspective of the women and young children who engage in it for survival, but that’s another, larger, more serious story than the one I just shared. Although I spent this time bringing up Harold’s delusions, his story has led me to do more research on the sex tourism industry and I hope to share my findings here on Madame Noire soon. Stay tuned!

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After a winning many competitions and going up against some of the world’s most beautiful women in some swanky costumes, Leila Lopes of Angola was crowned Miss Universe in Sao, Paulo, Brazil last night. Angola, for those who don’t know, is a country in south-central Africa. It was once a Portuguese colony. But now that the geography mini-lesson is over, last night Lopes stepped ahead of the pack after answering a question about inner beauty so fervidly. When asked what physical trait she would get changed if she could, she answered:

“Thank God I’m very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn’t change a thing,” Lopes said. “I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.”

While Miss Brazil would have been thought to be the front runner (she was second-runner up), Miss Philippines, Shamcey Supsup, was actually a heavy favorite (one article today read, “It’s Miss Angola, but Supsup shines”). Her loss to Lopes has many of her followers crying foul–you know how haters are. But Lopes was a crowd favorite, especially since she speaks Portuguese, Brazil’s main language. And, she’s just gorgeous! Why wouldn’t you love her? Lopes says she’s already done a lot of work for various social causes, including helping with the fight against HIV. She told TIME:

“I’ve worked with various social causes. I work with poor kids, I work in the fight against HIV. I work to protect the elderly and I have to do everything that my country needs,” she said. “I think now as Miss Universe I will be able to do much more.”

We sure hope so! It’s definitely nice to see a black woman, an African woman at that, win something so prestigious. I guess all that talk about black women being the most unattractive females out there was bull, right? Yep, I thought so too…

by KaShawn Archer

Abdias do Nascimento, an outspoken civil rights leader of Afro-Brazilians passed away at the age of 97. Long time friend and professor of Brazilian studies at Brown University, Anani Dzidzienyo, says the cause of death was related to complications with diabetes.

For the majority of the 20th Century Nascimento was one of Brazil’s strongest critics on racism. In 1945 he helped found the Afro-Brazilian Democratic Committee to fight for the release of political prisoners and the Democratic Labor Party of Brazil. He also served in the Brazilian Legislature as a congressman and senator. “From the 1930s to 1990s Brazil was considered a racial democracy, but nobody talked about race despite the fact that there was a clear racial hierarchy. Poor people were predominately black, and almost all elites were white. He wasn’t afraid to tell people that racial democracy was a myth. And he said so for 60 years, ”  said Edward E. Telles, a Princeton professor, told the New York Times.

Nascimeto used art to depict the racist society in Brazil. In 1944 he founded the Black Experimental Theater in Rio de Janeiro, a troupe that celebrated Brazil’s African-influenced culture. The theater trained black citizens as actors in insolence of the custom of casting white actors in blackface. The troupe also sponsored the first Congress of Brazilian Blacks held in Rio De Janeiro in 1950. While in self imposed exile in the United States and Nigeria in the early 1980s,  he painted works suggestive of Afro-Brazilian cultural religious themes.

Born to a father who was a cobbler and a mother who sold candy on the streets, Nascimeto joined the Brazilian civil rights movement known as the Brazilian Black front when he was a teenager.  In college he studied accounting and earned a bachelors degree at the University of Rio De Janeiro. “No other Brazilian fought harder and longer against white supremacy and racism in Brazil in the post slavery era.” Ollie A. Johnson told the New York Times. “For Americans to understand him and his contribution you’d have to say he was a little bit of Marcus Garvey, a little of W. E. B. DuBois, a little bit of Langston Hughes and a little bit of Adam Clayton Powell.”

Nascimento is survived by his wife and current director of Ipeafro, Elisa Larkin Nascimento as well as three sons and a daughter. He gave his final interview in early spring to Henry Louis Gates Jr. for a PBS series, “Black in Latin America” where he discussed the continued lie of racial democracy in Brazil. “You just have to look at a black family. Where do they live? The black children, how are they educated? You’ll see that it’s all a lie. You must understand that I’m saying this with profound hatred, profound bitterness at the way black people are treated in Brazil.” Only in the last decade as affirmative action programs have taken root at many Brazilian universities and in some government agencies, has racism been publicly acknowledged as a problem in Brazil.

By J. Smith

The president can leave the United States — sometimes with his family, sometimes with a gaggle of journalists following close behind — but always with the knowledge that America is still a developing country when it comes to race. The languages may translate, but in many instances the nuances of open racial dialogue do not. As Obama toured Brazil during his 5-day trip to Latin America, The New York Times noticed that where Brazilians have been proudly flaunting the progressive implications of the their first female president, ours has been mum about his historic victory.

The Times reports: “But Mr. Obama, on the second day of a five-day tour of Latin America, once again seemed to sidestep mentioning his own racial background in appearances here, even as Brazilians…said that he had inspired millions in this country bcause of his African heritage.”

While Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, celebrated her position as the first female in office and pointed out how special it is that it happened during the same time Obama became the first black to do so in America, Obama has kept completely quiet about race. This, in a country with one of the largest black populations outside of Africa. The United States is another.

Back to that knowledge I am certain that he always carries with him: Obama is a smart man with a great memory. He remembers the way his country reacted to his unapologetically pro-black pastor during the election. He remembers how he was essentially forced into that weird and, quite frankly, ridiculous “beer summit” with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the white officer who arrested him. He remembers how half the country and a top rated “news” network errupted with hate and anger when their precious country fell into the hands of a black president. He remembers his citizenship and patriotism being questioned because his father is Kenyan.

He knows that people are watching and waiting for the first sound bite they can grab of him showing any kind of pride in his heritage for the chance to say he’s showing favoritism or has an alliance that would benefit the black community more than, well, whites (or anyone else I suppose, but I’ve been picking up some selfish vibes from the fear-mongers). I won’t claim to know his logic, but mine is that he hasn’t spoken about race abroad, even when it is completely appropriate to do so, because half of our country would find every single way to distort and manipulate it.

I don’t agree with avoiding discussions about race or letting some white people’s fear of black pride prevent you from publicly embracing and celebrating your culture with others, but in his position, I can certainly understand it. However, that is all the more reason why he should be doing just that — embracing and celebrating. If our president won’t take a stand against pretending like race doesn’t matter, then when will America ever become a racially developed nation?

Read more: President Obama underscores Similarities With Brazilians, But Ignores One