Portuguese Racism through the Looking Glass (O Heraldo, 18/11/2023)
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V M
Nov 18, 2023, 12:53:49 AM11/18/23
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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.”
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.”
Roland Francis
Nov 18, 2023, 1:20:34 AM11/18/23
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I know VM has made a strong case of ‘pretendian’ non-racism as a Portuguese state encouraged policy over their later colonial past, aside from Salazar’s own Churchill-like personal racism, but is it possible that the racism is really new, encouraged by the European rightist reaction to the influx of unbridled immigration to that continent and by the flooding into Portugal of non ex-colonial peoples with whom the Portuguese do not find themselves familiar, like Bangladeshis, Arabs, Afghanis and north Africans.
What I am asking is - does the racism seem long entrenched or is a reaction to recent circumstances.
Roland Francis
On Nov 18, 2023, at 12:53 AM, V M <vmi...@gmail.com> wrote:
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Nuno Cardoso da Silva
Nov 18, 2023, 6:50:58 AM11/18/23
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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" <vmi...@gmail.com>
To: "V M" <vmi...@gmail.com>
Subject: [GRN] Portuguese Racism through the Looking Glass (O Heraldo, 18/11/2023)
From: "V M" <vmi...@gmail.com>
To: "V M" <vmi...@gmail.com>
Subject: [GRN] Portuguese Racism through the Looking Glass (O Heraldo, 18/11/2023)
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John de Figueiredo
Nov 18, 2023, 11:42:48 AM11/18/23
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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
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On Nov 18, 2023, at 6:50 AM, 'Nuno Cardoso da Silva' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Roland Francis
Nov 18, 2023, 1:28:17 PM11/18/23
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Bulls Eye!
Roland Francis
On Nov 18, 2023, at 11:42 AM, John de Figueiredo <john...@sbcglobal.net> 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.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/180E4E06-15F0-4653-AB8C-ED3779CAC6DD%40sbcglobal.net.
Joana Filipa Passos
Nov 20, 2023, 8:19:30 AM11/20/23
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Hello!
I am sorry, but while it is true Portugal does has not acknowledged it is own inherent racism, which is actually on the rise because of immigrants -(being Indian, Bengladeshi and Nepali, as well as Africans and Eastern Europeans regarded with suspicion), my point is that in order to understand current day Portugal you have to get a sense of proportion. You are making misplaced generalizations.
To be honest, Chega, our very own xenophobic party, may well reach 20% in the next elections I fear.
In spite of that fact:
Was the Goan community o topic in political discussion after the fall of our Prime Minister António Costa? It was not.
Is the memory of empire and of the Portuguese colonial past relevant for people below 40 years old in Portugal? It is not.
What is the youth focused on? They are Europeans, and they look up to Northern Europe.
You have a racist discourse on the rise in Rural, interior areas, well there are many immigrants working in agriculture. Local population does not like to live with them.
Does this rural population and their opinions get a lot of media attention in Portugal? They do not. The last time this situation really became visible was during the pandemic, because of the need to vaccinate everyone.
So, I am not sure current racist discourses are related to the colonial past. I think they have to do with the present, with immigration, and the great majority of the population (the 80% who do not vote "Chega", do not really care. They are concerned with other challenges and agendas (like the cost of living).
The article on Portugal although relevant and true to a certain extent really strikes me as "old-fashined", and slightly out of touch.
I completely respect everyone's opinion, I am just offering mine because what I am reading seems wrong, and I feel I have to contribute.
Joana
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rochelle pinto
Nov 20, 2023, 8:38:57 AM11/20/23
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That’s an interesting perspective, Joana, thanks.
Rochelle
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Nuno Cardoso da Silva
Nov 20, 2023, 1:40:16 PM11/20/23
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The overwhelming majority of Portuguese people do not perceive racism as an issue, because it isn't. Of the many thousands African and Asian people - or with African and Asian ancestry - who live in Portugal, only a few may have ever been confronted with racist attitudes. Because obviously there still are some racist people in Portugal. But it isn't fair to use those very few incidents as typical of our country and people. Should we ignore those few incidents? Of course not, but they should mostly be seen as just another form of rude or asocial behaviour, the victims of which are as likely to be European Portuguese as African or Asian. But for some strange reason some people prefer to identify such bad behaviour as racist, when the victims are African or Asian. This reminds me of an anecdote told a few years ago by our Goan Prime minister. When he was in school, as a boy, one of his colleagues called him "negro" because of his darker skin. When his mother - who is white - complained about it, her son António turned to her and said: "Mum, you must agree that I am indeed a bit darker!"... A typical intelligent reaction of someone who refused to see evil racism in everything which was said to him... Unfortunately not everyone is a smart as António Costa...
Nuno Cardoso da Silva
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2023 at 1:38 PM
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Subject: Re: [GRN] Portuguese Racism through the Looking Glass (O Heraldo, 18/11/2023)
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V M
Nov 21, 2023, 6:19:26 AM11/21/23
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https://www.publico.pt/2020/06/27/sociedade/noticia/european-social-survey-62-portugueses-manifesta-racismo-1921713
in translation: "European Social Survey: 62% of Portuguese people express racism
Data from the large European survey reveal that the older the respondents, the stronger their prejudices. Young people also show high percentages of racist beliefs. Education and income do not erase biological and cultural racism. Those who disagree with all racist beliefs represent only 11% of the population."To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/trinity-a39ac1c2-60aa-4fc2-975b-435649c42f20-1700489696228%403c-app-mailcom-bs03.
John de Figueiredo
Nov 21, 2023, 6:19:36 AM11/21/23
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The history of race relations during the 451-year Portuguese rule in Goa is far more complex and intricate than Professor Claudia Castelo’s analysis portrays.
John M. de Figueiredo
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Joana Filipa Passos
Nov 21, 2023, 9:01:50 PM11/21/23
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Dear all:
If racist views in Portugal are that high, I wonder what will happen in the next elections.
As for the age/ generational difference you quote, it just fits what I said above. "Older respondents" will be the ones who may still conform to colonial perspectives, young people will show "racist beliefs", I think, in relation to migrants and immigration. The mind frame is different, but the problem is the same. As for the result of the survey, if Portugal is a bad case... I still think this is a peaceful country.
Wait until Marine le Pen wins the next elections in France... and mind you, one of the main reasons for Brexit was the refusal of the British to comply with European immigration policies. Again, I think people writing from Goa lack perspective and context. Of course I trust European surveys...but this 62% just does not fit my experience of living in Portugal (mind you I am not in Lisbon. I am in the North, in Braga). As for blatant racism on the news, on media or on government policies, I do not see any of those anywhere. Vox populi may be different (is different) but I would not know. I do not go around asking people about their private views.
But, things will get worse all over Europe. That is the tendency....
Joana
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Nuno Cardoso da Silva
Nov 21, 2023, 9:02:38 PM11/21/23
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Those surveys are completely worthless and the questions are clearly biased. For instance, had people been asked whether they felt Germans were harder working, more knowledgeable, more honest than Italians, you can be sure that a large majority would have answered positively. Since Germans and Italians are racially identical, the issue of racism would not arise. But if instead of Germans and Italians the questions were directed at "blacks" and "whites", similar answers would immediately be classified as evidence of racism...
The survey may have shown that many Portuguese people are ignorant, not racist. Unless a majority would have answered positively to a question on whether they had ever discriminated against a person on account of "race"...
But by all means please continue trying to "prove" Portuguese people are racists... And then ask them whether they think that a caste system is fair...
All the best
Nuno Cardoso da Silva
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2023 at 2:30 AM
From: "V M" <vmi...@gmail.com>
To: "Goa-Research-Net" <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
From: "V M" <vmi...@gmail.com>
To: "Goa-Research-Net" <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
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John de Figueiredo
Nov 21, 2023, 9:02:51 PM11/21/23
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It is time for all human beings to accept the findings of scientific research:
1. Only 6% of genetic variation in humans can be explained by racial categorization (This was demonstrated in 1972. It is probably less so now.)
2. Variation between any two individuals is on the order of one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) per 1000
3. Genetic variation within groups called races is greater than between races
4. Location and geographic distance explain genetic variation in humans better than race.
So let us cremate the idea of genetic basis of race and throw the ashes in the Mandovi River.
John M. de Figueiredo
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Joao Paulo Cota
Nov 23, 2023, 1:50:22 PM11/23/23
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From my experience in growing in Portugal, I have found that the racism in the urban areas is pure racism, which is minimal anyway, but the racism experienced in the countryside is basically due to sheer ignorance of the mostly uneducated there. It has improved.
What I fail to understand is that many Italians and Spanish are so dark skinned and yet they are very racist towards others. Italy must step up import of mirrors so that these people should see who they really are...
From: 'Nuno Cardoso da Silva' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 21 November 2023 17:56
Sent: 21 November 2023 17:56
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fredericknoronha
Nov 27, 2023, 1:05:41 PM11/27/23
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JP, This itself does sound a bit racist!
Personally, I think racism is not about colour... but about power.
Personally, I think racism is not about colour... but about power.
If, somehow, Africa was the richest part of the planet tomorrow, we might have all been buying Get Rich Pigmentation Quickly remedies to change our own skin colour.
We are all racist in a way.
To my dismay (but not surprise), I found myself enjoying this video (with 12,000 others): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul49i2Tn90Q For the sake of our non-Konkani speaking friends, I will not venture to translate or explain the language or nuances here.
From my own little-informed perspective, I was quite surprised how Antonio Costa stayed on for a relatively long term in office in Lisbon, with hardly any jibes being taken in the mainstream about his ethnicity or origins. This probably happened in some fringe channels, but one didn't hear much of it in these parts... Correct me if wrong.
In Goa too, our former rulers seem to have got more worked up over 'assimilation', language and class, rather than race or ethnicity. We keep faulting the Portuguese for having "tolerated" caste in places like Goa, but I suspect quite a few of us too were also glad to have that in place. FN
Joao Paulo Cota
Nov 27, 2023, 2:54:34 PM11/27/23
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Fred,
I have grown up and lived/studied/worked in four continents.
I have seen and experienced various circumstances myself and observed a lot too.
Racism is 99.99% about colour. Nothing to do with power.
Cheers,
JP
From: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of fredericknoronha <frederic...@gmail.com>
Sent: 27 November 2023 18:05
Sent: 27 November 2023 18:05
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Subject: Re: [GRN] Portuguese Racism through the Looking Glass (O Heraldo, 18/11/2023)
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