The lack of black faces in the crowds shows Brazil is no true rainbow
nation
The World Cup was supposed to show Brazil's cultural diversity. All it's really
exposed is the country's deep-rooted prejudices
Remember the Where's Wally books? They consisted of a series of detailed
double-page spread illustrations depicting hundreds of people doing a variety of
amusing things. Readers were then challenged to find a character named Wally
hidden in the crowd.
Covering the World Cup in Brazil as a journalist, I find myself playing a similar
game whenever I enter a packed stadium, only this time the question is a bit
more serious. Where are all the black folk? I've been to five host cities so far and
each time the answer was never easy to come by I've even missed goals while
looking through the crowd.
Salvador is the most Afrocentric city in Brazil. At the Germany v Portugal game,
however, if I didn't know any better I would think I was in Kansas.
In So Paulo, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, the same thing. Where have all
the black people gone? This in a country with the biggest population of African
descent outside of Africa. Brazil is sold internationally as a rainbow nation, as
close to a racial democracy as any country can get. To some degree it's true; for
all its sheer size and diversity there are no ethnic or religious conflicts and
everyone speaks the same language. Socially, though, it's a different story. The
government hoped to use the World Cup to showcase the country's cultural
diversity and thriving democracy in all its splendour, but all it did was to
highlight the deep-rooted prejudices and inequalities in this nation of 200
million.
So, in a piece of land where 60% of the population is black or mixed, why then,
during one of the most important single events in its history, is the absence of
those 60% so conspicuous?
The answer is as obvious as it is tragic. Most black people in Brazil are poor.
Unlike in South Africa or the United States, there's no black middle class, and
perhaps most importantly there isn't a black political class. A World Cup ticket
is officially priced between $90 and $1,000, but in a country where the
minimum wage is a little above $350 a month, a seat at the Maracan is out of
many people's reach.
Felipe Araujo covering the World Cup for German broadcaster ZDF. 'In a land
where 60% of the population is black or mixed, why, during one of the most
important events in its history, is the absence of those 60% so conspicuous?'
In Fortaleza, for Germany v Ghana, there were obviously more black people
than usual in the stands but apart from the Ghanaians, the only black people
anywhere near the stadium were the poor residents from the nearby favela,
selling drinks and snacks to white middle-class fans, who couldn't be bothered
with the long queues inside the arena. Or for those who didn't feel like walking
the 3km imposed by Fifa from the road blocks to the stadium, there were
throngs of poor, black, favela kids ready to take the fans on their bikes.
Brazilians have always had a peculiar attitude towards race. This was
the country's football superstar, Neymar, four years ago, when asked if he had
ever been a victim of racism. "Never. Neither inside nor outside the field.
Because I'm not black, right?"
The players of the national team are clearly mostly black or mixed race
(including Neymar): many though, dye their hair blond (including Neymar).
Other Brazilian sporting heroes have equally dismissed the issue of race in the
past. Ronaldo has also denied his black heritage, and the country's biggest
football icon, Pele, is too busy doing commercials to say anything meaningful on
the issue.
In 1888 slavery was officially abolished in Brazil the last country in the
western hemisphere to do so. Fast forward to 2012 and it enacted one of the
world's most sweeping affirmative action laws, requiring public universities to
reserve half of their admission spots for the largely poor students in the nation's
public schools and vastly increase the number of university students of African
descent across the country. Brazilian officials said at the time that the law
signified an important shift in Brazil's view on offering opportunities to large
swaths of the population.
However, for all the things this World Cup has provided, opportunities for its
black population isn't one of them. On this particular issue Brazil has scored an
own goal.
