Bulls Eye! Roland Francis 416-453-3371
> On Nov 18, 2023, at 11:42 AM, John de Figueiredo <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Perhaps it is important to distinguish between “racism” and > “institutionalized racism”. In the US before the Civil War, in South Africa > in the old days, and in British India racism was institutionalized. > John M. de Figueiredo > > Sent from my iPhone > >>> On Nov 18, 2023, at 6:50 AM, 'Nuno Cardoso da Silva' via Goa-Research-Net >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >> >> It's sad that, 62 years after 1961, some Goans are still fighting the >> Portuguese, as if they aren't sure of the legitimacy of their >> anti-Portuguese bias and must repeat it over and over again, hoping that >> with time it will become justified... >> >> Why repeating the obvious, that there are racists in Portugal? It would take >> a miracle to get the country rid of the few people who still think that >> "race" is something which exists within the human species. The question is, >> are ethnic or religious minorities in Portugal in any way under threat of >> being discriminated against? Do they feel unsafe when walking the streets of >> any Portuguese town? The obvious answer - for anyone without an >> anti-Portuguese bias - is that those minorities are quite safe in Portugal. >> One of them became Prime Minister, a couple of them became ministers, >> secretaries of state, MP's, university professors, etc. Fifty thousand >> Nepalese, mostly hindu, have chosen to emigrate to Portugal, and it >> certainly was not because our country has so many jobs to offer. Portuguese >> people are tolerant of any differences, although a few of us are not. Are >> those few more representative of the Portuguese people than the vast >> majority?... >> >> Nuno Cardoso da Silva >> >> >> Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2023 at 2:47 AM >> From: "V M" <[email protected]> >> To: "V M" <[email protected]> >> Subject: [GRN] Portuguese Racism through the Looking Glass (O Heraldo, >> 18/11/2023) >> https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/PORTUGUESE-RACISM-THROUGH-THE-LOOKING-GLASS/213769 >> >> It’s not something to take very seriously as yet, but the distinct uptick in >> racism in Portugal has begun to target Goans in that country, as seen in the >> poster alongside this column, which began circulating widely on social media >> after the shock resignation of António Costa last week. This cartoonishly >> bigoted meme evidently originated before the political upheaval, from an >> ethno-nationalist Telegram network advertising itself as “identity channel >> for Portuguese by blood (“para Portugueses de sangue”), and interestingly >> illustrates what is usually strenuously denied. It is an unusual paradox >> which needs to be understood in detail: on the one hand, 21st century >> Portugal is certifiably less racist than most European countries – and >> especially so with regards to Indians – but at the same time, the country >> and its citizens both stubbornly resist any feedback or commentary that >> suggests racism is any kind of problem at all, as well as the suggestion >> there is more work to be done in order to become more accepting of its own >> citizens of different ethnicities. >> >> There are many factors in play here, including the dramatic surge of support >> for the far-right political party Chega (the name means “Enough” in >> Portuguese), which started its political innings in the 2019 polls with just >> one seat in parliament, but then catapulted into third-place overall in last >> year’s snap elections (when Costa led his Socialists to an extraordinary >> outright majority) with 7.2 percent of overall votes and 12 members of >> parliament. Its worrisome rise also neatly encapsulates the Portuguese >> conundrum: this overtly xenophobic party is continually racist in its >> messaging – for just one example, its president André Ventura called for a >> fellow MP to “be returned to her own country” – but even its most fervent >> opponents bend over backwards to parse the hate as “populist” instead of >> admitting the obvious. In 2020, entirely ludicrously, Chega even led a >> parade through Lisbon, in which the avowed racists kept chanting that >> “Portugal is not racist.” >> >> Such surreal politics are patently absurd to any outside observer, and >> derive directly from Portugal’s schizophrenic relationship to its colonial >> past. In this regard, I appreciate the analysis of Cláudia Castelo, >> historian from the University of Coimbra, in her paper ‘Portuguese >> Non-Racism: On the historicity of an invented tradition’, which delineates >> how the myth of “better colonialism” was foisted on the Portuguese people. >> This patently silly notion was born in the 18th and 19th centuries, she >> writes, and then became the official position of the government when “the >> Estado Novo – the Portuguese authoritarian and colonialist regime that ruled >> in Portugal between 1933 and 1974 – appropriated the ideas of the Brazilian >> social scientist Gilberto Freyre about a supposedly special relation of the >> Portuguese with the tropics. Luso-Tropicalism argued that the Portuguese, in >> contrast with other colonisers, possessed a special ability for adapting to >> life in the tropics, through miscegenation and cultural interpenetration. >> This tropical vocation was not the product of political or economic >> self-interest, but rather resulted from an absence of colour prejudice and a >> creative empathy that, for Freyre, was innate to the Portuguese people.” >> >> Under the myopic, out-of-touch Salazar – his own secretary of state Jorge >> Jardim reports the dictator called his Mozambican subjects “little black >> folk” – Castelo says “the Estado Novo produced and disseminated a >> nationalistic version of Freyre’s luso-tropicalism to negate that Portugal >> had non-self-governing territories under the Article 73 of the United >> Nations Charter. The Portuguese “overseas provinces” (the new designation >> for the colonies in the 1951 revision of the Portuguese Constitution) and >> the provinces in Europe formed a multicontinental and multiracial nation >> where everyone lived in harmony.” >> >> In a distinct echo of the farce we see being enacted today, “in 1955, >> Adriano Moreira, at the time professor of the High Institute of Overseas >> Studies and Portuguese delegate to the Inter-African Conference on Social >> Sciences, considered that there was no need to teach racial tolerance at >> Portuguese schools as UNESCO had suggested, since there was no racial >> discrimination among the Portuguese people; instead, it could be of great >> interest to highlight “Portuguese antiracist tradition” in primary and >> secondary education in Portugal.” >> >> These are the roots of Portugal’s bizarre denial of what everyone else can >> easily see: “notwithstanding the internal logic of the colonial system, >> based on racial inequality and exploitation, the state political and >> ideological apparatus, through the education system, media, propaganda and >> censorship conveyed a Luso-tropicalist message out of step with the >> political and social reality in the colonies and instilled in the Portuguese >> the idea that they were not nor had ever been racists. Everything that >> constituted prejudice or racial discrimination was referred as ‘deviation’ >> from the fraternal, plastic, tolerant and ecumenical ‘Portuguese tradition’.” >> >> This is very much “through the looking glass” – as in Lewis Carroll’s >> fantasy wonderland – where we are enjoined to believe the opposite of the >> evidence of our own eyes, because it challenges someone else’s cherished >> falsehoods. Here, it is absolutely fascinating to note the presence of Otelo >> Saraiva de Carvalho – chief strategist of the Carnation Revolution that >> finally liberated Portugal in 1974 from the dictatorship which Nehru’s >> troops expelled from Goa over a decade earlier – at the heart of the racist >> poster decrying an imagined Goan “assault on [Portuguese] mental life”. Over >> the past 50 years, this great hero’s ancestral roots were never widely >> acknowledged, but here they have been made central to his identity, with an >> Indian flag attached to his name. It is an excellent indication of where the >> racist surge in Portugal is coming from: precisely the fascists who yearn >> for “the good old days” of the Estado Novo. Those seeking to combat them >> must realize it is inherently pointless to cling to identically Salazarist >> tropes claiming an entirely unfounded Portuguese exceptionalism about race. >> To do so is to lose the battle before it even begins, >> >> Here is Castelo’s conclusion, which has my hearty endorsement from Goa, for >> whatever that is worth: “The illusion of Portuguese non-racism has prevented >> structural racism from being faced and combated in Portuguese society, and >> perpetuates racism and the fake imaginary that denies its existence. It is a >> vicious cycle that needs to be broken. How to put an end to it? Knowing the >> historical process of racism is a first step, but in parallel, implementing >> anti-racist policies in all areas of collective life, in the political, >> justice, police, and education systems. It is up to the state and the civil >> society to take up the challenge of breaking that self-assuring and immobile >> image and promoting racial equality in Portugal. It is also up to all >> citizens to embrace this task of radical social transformation in their >> daily lives.” >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Goa-Research-Net" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAN1wPW6VBD_o7Xj-XKJAK-ZQRkL3DmtnTxzt%2BJq-AzsPiwLvXQ%40mail.gmail.com. >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Goa-Research-Net" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/trinity-b266dffa-0bdf-4bc0-9180-5fdd9bfd1350-1700302096697%403c-app-mailcom-bs07. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Goa-Research-Net" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/180E4E06-15F0-4653-AB8C-ED3779CAC6DD%40sbcglobal.net. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. 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