Where Do You Come From?

I haven’t been writing for a while, partly because I was travelling and partly because I moved and it took a while before I got internet working in my new house. But now I will try to write more regularly again.

One thing I was asked several times when I was back in Europe was whether there is racism in Brazil. I found that question a little hard to answer, once because I have not been here long enough to know and twice because it is a question of how you define racism. My impression is that most Brazilians are actually proud of their ethnic mix in the country and this is really one part of being Brazilian. But there is no denying that there are more black people that are poor, that black people are less educated and overrepresented in crime, both as perpetrators and victims, overrepresented in jails and underrepresented in the government, parliament and business etc. To what extent this is because of “racism” or “social factors” I can not tell.

One thing that has struck me though and that is very different from where I come from, and that one could say is connected to the notion of “race” is the Brazilian obsession of heritage, ancestry and where “you come from”. And then I don’t mean where I as a foreigner come from, but from where in Brazil other Brazilians come from. I have noted that among the Brazilian friends that I have it is very common to immediately ask a person you meet for the first time where they come from, be it a friend of a friend, the waiter at the restaurant or the guy filling up your car at the gas station. Maybe this is because Brazil is such a huge country. Maybe it is because in Brasilia almost everyone comes from somewhere else or maybe it is because of this ethnical mix. It can be based on the accent the person has or the way the person looks or acts or or the name, but it seems to be some kind of sport to first guess where a person comes from and then ask. It is not only a matter of where the person comes from geographically, because the next question is often “what’s your ancestry? Italian, Polish, German?” For me these questions feel a little awkward and uncomfortable as this is not very politically correct to ask like that in Sweden. But here everyone seems completely ok with it and even proud to tell where they come from and where their forefathers came from.

The funny thing though is that since it in most cases was a long time ago since these forefathers came to Brazil and everyone now is Brazilian you could think it would be less important. Whereas in Sweden the most people with some other background than ethnically Swedish came during the last 50 years or even less. Maybe this is exactly the reason. In Sweden the integration in still ongoing, or actually it is exactly a matter of “integration” into something that you obviously do not automatically belong to, and therefore it is important to not be anything else than “Swedish”. Brazil on the other hand was formed by immigrants (one way or the other) and the “Brazilianess” hence never questioned. Or maybe we Swedish are just being arrogant, thinking people would be offended if you ask them where they come from if the answer will be something else than some other part of Sweden? Well, even if it would be another part of Sweden people could be offended. Many persons moving in to the City from the countryside work so hard to blend in, loosing their accent and doing there best to be at least seventh generation city-breed, that any question bringing this in doubt would be a severe offence.