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Imperialism and the promotion of 'whitening' in Brazil

To what extent has imperialism resulted in the promotion of ‘whitening’ in Brazil since the establishment of the Brazilian empire in 1822?

Main argument: The promotion of ‘whitening’ in Brazil is a result of the hierarchies created by imperialism through the colonial legacy and globalisation of western ideals.

Imperialism can be defined as the expansion of power and control, traditionally over territories and people. Imperialism can also be viewed as cultural with the current expansion of western ideals through globalisation. Such expansions have historically been conducted by ‘westerners’ who exert their power and influence over ‘non westerners’, thus establishing certain ideals. The notion of a racial hierarchy and a ‘white ideal’ are such beliefs, that has had impacts on the perception of race in different countries. This chapter will analyse to what extent imperialism has resulted in the promotion of ‘whitening’ in Brazil. Several disciplines will be used to evaluate the claim, including; biology, economics, art and psychology among others (rewrite sentence). We will argue that the promotion of 'whitening' in Brazil has implemented racist ideals in the country, and that this is to a great extent a result of imperialism, through the colonial legacy and the globalisation of western ideals of beauty.

Shorter version of introduction;

Imperialism is the “policy of extending a state’s influence over other peoples or territories” (Collins Dictionary). These expansions have historically been conducted by ‘westerners’ who exert their power over others and establish their own ideals in society. In Brazil, the notion of a racial hierarchy is one such belief. This chapter will analyse to what extent imperialism has resulted in the promotion of ‘whitening’ in Brazil. This claim will be evaluated using an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on the socio-economic hierarchies, immigration policies and the dominance of the media. We will argue that the promotion of 'whitening' in Brazil is a consequence of imperial legacy.

Literary review

'Whitening’ can be defined as “the act or process of becoming white”^[1].  The concept can be divided into two main categories; biological and symbolic. Symbolical whitening describes the “ideology that emerged from the legacy of European colonialism in Latin America that catered to white dominance”. Biological whitening refers to the racial whitening of the Brazilian population through interracial marriage. This section will focus on concepts that has contributed to the spread of both symbolic and biological whitening.

The painting 'A Redenção de Cam' by Modesto Brocos, 1895 displays a black grandmother, her mulatto daughter, her white husband and their white child. The grandmother is lifting her hands to the sky thanking God that her grandchild is white. The painting illustrates the notion that through 2-3 generations of interracial reproduction, black characteristics would vanish.

'Whitening' of race, society and ideals in Brazil has its roots in the country's colonial past. When slavery was abolished in 1888, Brazil had the greatest population of African descent excluding Nigeria. The Brazilian elites viewed this as a problem as they believed the presence of the ‘inferior’ race would restrict the country’s development (source). Biological whitening was considered the solution to the ‘Negro problem’. The idea was that through generational interracial reproduction the ‘Negro’ race would ‘whiten’. This notion was legitimised by scientific racism, which claimed that the ‘Caucasian' race was superior to the ‘Negro’ race. Theorists within scientific racism further asserted that caucasian genes were dominant and would prevail over black genes, highlighting a belief in the ‘survival of the fittest’ in terms of race. The Brazilian elite further argued that there was a process of natural selection, as there was a tendency for females to chose partners with lighter skin colour , in order to have children with more opportunities in society.

In general Brazilians regard white as superior. This symbolic whitening can be described by the concept of colourism. Sociologist Margaret Hunter defined this as “the process of discrimination that privileges light-skinned people of color over their dark-skinned counterparts”. Hunter claims that the reason so many people are unaware of their ‘white’ preference is "because that dominant aesthetic is so deeply ingrained in our culture”. Latin Americans have thus learned to incorporate these colonial values into their society and glorify european features and lighter skin tones.

New shorter draft:

'Whitening’ can be defined as “the act or process of becoming white”.  The concept can be divided into two main categories: biological and symbolic. Symbolical whitening describes the “ideology that emerged from the legacy of European colonialism in Latin America that catered to white dominance”. Biological whitening refers to racial whitening through interracial marriage.

'Whitening' of race, society and ideals in Brazil have roots in the country's imperial past. When slavery was abolished in 1888, Brazil had the greatest population of African descent excluding Nigeria. The Brazilian elites viewed this as a problem as they believed the presence of the ‘inferior’ race would restrict the country’s development. Biological whitening was considered the solution to the ‘Negro problem’ through generational, interracial reproduction. This notion was legitimised by scientific racism, which claimed that the ‘Caucasian' race was genetically and culturally superior to the ‘Negro’ race, and the belief in Darwin's ‘survival of the fittest’. There was also a belief in natural selection, as females would tend to chose lighter skinned partners than themselves, in order for their children to have more opportunity.

In general, Brazilians regard white as superior. This symbolic whitening can be described by the concept of colourism, which is “the process of discrimination that privileges light-skinned people of color over their dark-skinned counterparts”. Margaret Hunter claims that the reason many are unaware of their ‘white’ preference is "because that dominant aesthetic is so deeply ingrained in our culture”. Latin Americans have thus learned to incorporate these imperial values into their society and glorify European features and light skin tones.

Racial hierarchies and socio-economic class

Imperial prejudices imported from Europe have established racial hierarchies within Brazil, promoting the ‘superiority’ of whiteness, that in the 21st century have significant socio-economic implications that have contributed to the whitening process. During the Empire, economic centres of progress developed where white landowners began mass production and exportation of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and gold. For example, Sao Paulo’s coffee economy began booming in the 1880s due to the large amounts of slave owners drawn to the area, causing the region to become a ‘growth pole’ of economic progress. While some regions grew exponentially, others (populated predominantly by native and black Brazilians) remained in poverty, which has led to vast regional divisions between the ‘progressive’ south and ‘undeveloped’ north. These divisions however are not just economic, they have both social and racial implications. Economic growth was concentrated in white areas because Europeans had the opportunities and the means to accumulate wealth (REFERENCE) - owning land, slaves and capital - whereas black and native Brazilians did not, due to their historical status within the racial hierarchy. This has caused the whitening of economically developed areas of Brazil and intensified regional divisions of race since the end of the Empire. This is evidenced by the statistics that in 1920, 70% of Italian immigrants lived in the city and 80% of Spaniards in the state of Sao Paulo. Further support is provided by a 2015 study on the ancestral distribution of the population, showing that European ancestry is highest in the South (77%), where African is lowest (12%), and African ancestry is highest in the Northeast (27%) This strengthens the argument that economic and regional inequalities correlate to race in Brazil and have contributed to the whitening of its cities in the South, as Sao Paulo has shown. Although an explicit relationship of causation cannot be established between these modern economic hierarchies and imperialism, the influence of the racism that segregated the non-white population of Brazil during the empire is mirrored in current regional divisions.

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Imperial prejudices imported from Europe have established racial hierarchies within Brazil^[5] that in the 21st century have significant socio-economic implications. During the Empire, economic centres developed where white landowners began mass production and exportation of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and gold. While some regions grew exponentially, others (populated predominantly by native and black Brazilians) remained in poverty, which has led to vast regional divisions between the ‘progressive’ south and ‘undeveloped’ north. Economic growth was concentrated in white areas because Europeans had the means to accumulate wealth (REFERENCE) - owning land, slaves and capital - whereas black and native Brazilians did not, due to their historical racial status. This has caused the whitening of economically developed areas of Brazil and intensified regional divisions of race since the end of the Empire. According to a 2015 study on the ancestral distribution of the population European ancestry is highest in the South (77%), where African is lowest (12%), and African ancestry is highest in the Northeast (27%)^[7] This strengthens the argument that economic and regional inequalities correlate to race in Brazil and have contributed to the whitening of its cities in the South. Although an explicit relationship of causation cannot be established between these modern economic hierarchies and imperialism, the influence of the racism that segregated the non-white population of Brazil during the empire is mirrored in current regional divisions.

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Imperial prejudices imported from Europe have established racial hierarchies within Brazil^[5], that in the 21st century have had significant socio-economic implications. During the Empire, economic centres developed where white landowners began mass production and exportation of commodities, such as coffee, sugar and gold. While some regions grew exponentially, others (populated predominantly by native and black Brazilians) remained in poverty, which has led to vast regional divisions between the ‘progressive’ south and ‘undeveloped’ north. Economic growth was concentrated in white areas because Europeans had the means to accumulate wealth - owning land, slaves and capital - whereas black and native Brazilians did not, due to their historical racial status. This has caused the whitening of economically developed areas of Brazil and intensified regional divisions of race since the end of the Empire. A 2015 study on the ancestral distribution of the population supports this, showing that European ancestry is highest in the South (77%) and African is highest in the Northeast (27%)^[7]. This strengthens the argument that economic and regional inequalities correlate to race in Brazil and have contributed to the whitening of its cities in the South. Although an explicit relationship of causation cannot be established between these modern economic hierarchies and imperialism, the influence of the racism that segregated the non-white population of Brazil during the empire is mirrored in current regional divisions.

Immigration policies

Racial hierarchies established during the Empire have biologically whitened the population of Brazil through miscegenation, caused by the mass immigration of Europeans. Selective immigration policies began in 1890, at the end of imperialism, clearly prohibiting entry of “black and yellows”, preferring white labour to supplement agriculture as landowners believed they were physically more capable of work. Similar discriminatory policies continued into the 20th century, such as the 1945 decree which set nationality quotas with a clear preference for Europeans, illustrating the endurance of racial hierarchies established during the Empire. The growth of the white population accommodated the elites’ desire for an overall whiter demographic. The whitening process was furthered through encouraged miscegenation, believed to have the ability to eradicate ‘blackness’ based by theories of Social Darwinism and Aryanism with the support of scientific racism. To a great extent, Brazil’s immigration policy has contributed to the success of their aims of whitening - demonstrated in 1872-2010 census data, which shows that between those years the white population increased from 38.14% to 47.73% and the black population decreased from 19.68% to 7.61%. However, Akande argues that the whitening policy had ended by the 1940s, as the white population reached its peak in 1940 at 63.47% of the country before steadily declining. This suggests, therefore, that biological whitening has occurred in Brazil as a result of imperial racism, but not as widely in the 21st century as it did in the early 20th century due to the end of mass European immigration by the 1940s.

Depiction of the white ideal in Brazilian media

The process of 'whitening' in Brazil is still very evident today and is heavily influenced by the media. Studies show that 122 million Brazilian people are active on social media and that 81% of Brazilian watch television as their main source of leisure, revealing the potential influencing power of media on the Brazilian population.

Bill boards depict the ‘good life’ for sale within their advertisements, by linking their campaigns with people at the top of the hierarchy in Brazil, commonly blonde, blue eyed western looking men and woman. People therefore believe that a lighter appearance opens the pathway to more socio-economic progress. This advertising showing the ‘white ideal’ reinforces feelings of inferiority, which is the essence of an immobilising colonial mentality. Many adverts persuade people to invest more money into their appearance to reach these beauty ideals which will, in the long term, reward them in the form of monetary success or societal acceptance. Advertising skin whitening products can persuade black woman to be ashamed of their natural skin tone and strive to be white. The ‘Brazilian Blow Dry’ has been a huge success around the whole world and was developed as a chemical process allowing black woman to straighten their hair permanently to adhere more closely to the white ideal. Brazil currently has the biggest black population outside of Africa yet the most famous Brazilian models, regularly shown in Brazilian advertisements, Giselle, Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima are all white.

The Brazilian news and entertainment industries also have a severe lack of black presenters and actors. The entertainment industry especially, has been prone to ‘whitewashing’. In the famous Telenovelas, the Brazilian soap opera, nearly all of the main actors are white. There have even been cases where books, in which the main character is black, have been developed into telenovelas with a white leading actress, such as in ‘Isaura the slave’.

Over the last few years there has been a rise in the number of cases of online racism towards black woman. Facebook and twitter have become a modern day platforms for anonymous racism and bigotry and many links to colonial racism are becoming more prevalent. In 2017 there were 63,698 reported cases of cyber hate comments, a third of which were racists comments towards black Brazilians. In order to avoid this cyber racism, more black people try and change their appearance or find white partners in order to appear more white themselves or to have whiter children who will not be targeted.

Therefore, it is evident that the media in Brazil has significantly influenced Brazilian people to attempt to achieve the 'white ideal' by means of symbolic and biological 'whitening'.

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The process of 'whitening', begun by imperialism , is currently promoted in Brazil by the media. Studies show that 122 million Brazilian people are active on social media and that 81% of Brazilian watch television as their main source of leisure, revealing the potential influencing power of media on the population. Bill boards depict the ‘good life’, linking their campaigns with people at the top of the hierarchy in Brazil, commonly blonde, blue eyed western looking, suggesting that a lighter appearance opens the pathway to more socio-economic progress. This advertising of the ‘white ideal’ reinforces feelings of inferiority, conveying the essence of an immobilised colonial mentality. Advertising, like commercials for skin whitening products, persuades Brazilians to invest in their appearance to reach these imperial beauty ideals, which are seen to reward them with monetary success or societal acceptance. The ‘Brazilian Blow Dry’ has been a huge success around the world, developed as a chemical process allowing black woman to straighten their hair permanently to adhere more closely to the white ideal. Brazil currently has the biggest black population outside of Africa, yet most famous models, regularly shown in Brazilian advertisements, Giselle, Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima are all white, emphasising the 'white ideal'. Brazilian news and entertainment industries also fail to represent the black population. Prone to ‘white-washing’, telenovelas have gone as far as to cast white leads in roles of originally black characters in books, such as in ‘Isaura the slave’. The depiction of interracial couples in television has also implicitly contributed to the current biological whitening of Brazil. This representation of what a successful partnership looks like has increased the desire for interracial relationships amongst the general population, further encouraging miscegenation, whitening the population.

Over the last few years there has been a rise in the number of cases of online racism towards black woman. Facebook and Twitter have become modern-day platforms for anonymous racism and bigotry, with many relating to imperial racism becoming more prevalent. In 2017 there were 63,698 reported cases of cyber hate comments, a third of which were racists comments towards black Brazilians. In order to avoid this cyber racism, more black people try to 'whiten' their appearance symbolically or the appearance of their children biologically. It is evident, therefore, that ideas developed through imperialism are still present in 21st century Brazilian society through their representation and reproduction in the media.

Conclusion

draft;

Imperialism can be said to be at the root of the current racism in Brazil. The colonialism of Brazil created social hierarchies based on race in which the whiter you were, the more social mobility and privilege you had access to. This mentality is still present in Brazil as positions of power are dominantly held by Brazilians that appear more white.

imperialism resulted in the social and biological whitening of the Brazilian population. Policies of European immigration and the belief that interracial reproduction would 'whiten' the Brazilian population has

• Global phenomena - not exclusive to Brazil - globalisation - maybe bring in another example
• Overview of arguments made
• Globalisation and capitalism = modern imperialism
• Western ideals and values dominate in globalisation
• Example of the 'white ideal' and 'whitening' in Brazil can be applied to South America
• Imperialism is largely responsible for the aspiration of achieving the 'white ideal'

Notes

How hierarchies —> socioeconomic (these hierarchies meant that —> created were reinforced by economic development after slavery was abolished). Geography and regional hierarchies

Immigration —> the hierarchies caused the government to import. These hierarchies —> the government reinforces hyraces by immigration policies.

Media  —> how people are portrayed, tele novas, advertisement etc

We still see the problem still prevalent today.

Always how it cause racism today
Moreover, in many Asian countries such as Indonesia there has been an increased focus on ‘whitening’ cosmetic products to achieve a ‘white ideals’. Look at history for it.

Firstly, social hierarchies in Brazil and Indonesia are a product of imperialism.

• In Brazil, social hierarchies created by colonialism and slavery. Those who had power in society were white due to imperialism. To be white meant more upward mobility and more opportunities. In Indonesia, ‘whites’ historically those with power etc. Beauty standard.
• Globalisation and capitalism also created a global hierarchy in which western countries dominate.

Further, the social hierarchies has created a ‘white ideal’ in these countries.

• Racial hierarchies of Brazil create a physical and economic 'white ideal' (ideal enforced through economic inequality, standards of living, government policy). Whites considered better by Brazilian elites.
• Hierarchies of beauty associated with race create the 'white ideal' of beauty in Asia (evidenced through the popularity of whitening products in the cosmetic industry and use of pale models in advertising). But also in Brazil in which there exists a European standard of beauty --> look for example at Brazilian models
• Globalisation of the 'white ideal' --> models used in advertisement etc Soft power - how this concept describes the way in which 'whitening' has come about from Western influence
• MC: Those who have traditionally had power have been white. The people on top of the social hierarchy white. Thus, as association between being white and power and wealth.

Finally, The 'white ideal' (outline - what is it?). In what ways has the ‘white ideal’ manifested in Brazilian and Indonesian society?

• Beauty standards etc

Example

To conclude,

• Globalisation and capitalism = modern imperialism
• Western ideals and values dominate in globalisation
• Example of the 'white ideal' and 'whitening' in Brazil can be applied to South America
• Example of the 'white ideal' and 'whitening' in Indonesia can be applied to the majority of Asia
• Imperialism is largely responsible for the aspiration of achieving the 'white ideal'