Brazil's novelty for the upcoming new year is that for the first time its 203 million residents identify themselves as black or mixed race, rather than white as in the past. And the news is not just anecdotes. It contains an unprecedented political rebuke, as for the first time the country has lost the prejudice of hiding its racial identity.
According to results just published by IBGE, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, today 55.5% declared themselves non-white, which in the country meant that they were of European descent and not African or indigenous. The majority who previously described themselves as white meant that they could read and write and were Catholic at the same time.
The IBGE, which compiles a comprehensive X-ray image of its citizens every 10 years with thousands of interviewers who go from house to house to learn more about the lives and wonders of its residents, on this occasion has public opinion itself for the first time Surprised At times, the descendants of non-Europeans did not hide their origins as they once did.
As O Globo business columnist Miriam Leitao, who was tortured at a very young age during the military dictatorship, wrote, what is new this year is that it is more than just a simple statistic. “This is the moment,” he writes, “when the numbers show that the country has moved away from denial.”
According to analysts, the revelation is a consequence of the partly open, partly silent struggles against racism that have ultimately borne fruit: Brazil is no longer hiding its roots. This also shows the positive result of the partly open, partly covert struggles of the last 10 years in the fight against racial discrimination based on skin color and origin.
The revelation of the IBGE, with its x-ray of the decade from which the four years of openly racist Bolsonarism should be removed, is that the country is becoming aware that more than skin color and ethnic differences, what matters is the dignity of the human person.
The news that the majority of Brazilians, no longer white, have stopped hiding their origins, and that this is the result of difficult and sometimes dangerous struggles against racism, should make Lula's new progressive government think about it, with concrete ones Facts to intensify a strong anti-racist politics.
If in the past being non-white was equated with illiteracy and poverty, if not misery, today it is necessary that the majority of citizens, no longer ashamed to hide their roots, fully and openly embrace the Power structures participate and increase their presence in key positions of power, from government to the judiciary.
Now it is more urgent than before, if possible, that non-whites have equal opportunities to share power and have candidates for elections so that Congress can, as someone wrote on social networks, “darken its face” since now was it is always predominantly white.
There is no doubt that the policies initiated by Lula in his first two governments, which, for example, introduced free quotas for blacks in universities, were one of the reasons for this awareness of non-whites, as they created a new intellectual elite descendants of African slaves , who fight against the atavistic discrimination that has always gripped this country.
The proof that there has been a growing awareness in the country that neither skin color nor ethnic origin plays a role in measuring a person's dignity is the fact that Lula, in his third term in office, is under pressure from public opinion because he for example, a black woman rejects the Supreme Court.
It is both normal and important to hear the news that, for the first time since the era of slavery, Brazilians have lost the fear of revealing their origins so that they can see in the light of the sun what they are, until now they have been victims of prejudices that they shame caused them to hide their true identities.
All of this will certainly help the majority who do not recognize themselves as white to strive more for and value their true, culturally rich identity. This will undoubtedly lead not only to an intensification of the anti-racist struggle, but also to restoring the lost pride of its origins, which could lead to better national coexistence.
White Brazilians with European roots, who belong to 90 countries in Brazil and who until yesterday were considered in some way superior to people of African or indigenous origin, can now open up better dialogue and coexistence with the black and mixed-race population. This is because the majority of non-whites have begun to shed their atavistic inferiority complex and even take pride in simply being what they have always been, rich in culture and even religion, and not hiding it.
The truth is that one of Brazil's greatest riches, even if it has not always been recognized, is the mix of cultures so studied by sociologists. A miscegenation that, while it has brought about the curse of destructive racism, is also true that it has given this piece of America a special richness, including natural beauty.
I remember that on the occasion of the trip I made to Brazil in 1980 as a special envoy of EL PAÍS with Pope John Paul II, one of the things that made me laugh when I visited Bahia was the fact that I was told that there were the most beautiful women of the world. World: those who were a mix of black, white and native.
Today, the greatest beauty of Brazil, not only physically but also politically and socially, is that one recognizes one's true identity in the light of the sun. It is like the feeling of having freed oneself from the burden that has weighed on her until now and that has cost her and her predecessors so many tears, pain and humiliation.
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