Black Women of Brazil Top 10 Posts of 2013
2013 was a very successful year on the Black Women of Brazil blog. As noted in the 2014 New Year’s post, in 2013, the blog officially passed the 1 million page view mark as we continue to inform, provoke conversation and present topics coming out of Brazil from the racial perspective in a slightly different manner from most websites that discuss the country in English. Some of the posts and photos from the past year caught fire and went viral in online communities. Below we present the top 10 most popular posts of 2013. These posts attracted the most views, were most often shared and also received the most comments both on the blog and in the social networks associated with the blog. Check ‘em out and feel free to share those you find interesting and that others might find thought-provoking!! THANK YOU ALL for your continued support!!
While Brazil is often seen as the land where race doesn’t matter and interracial marriages are often presented as proof of this, in some ways, they also show the exact opposite. See another side of interracial marriage in this post….
10. How interracial marriages are one of the most glaring symptoms of Brazilian racism
Although Brazil’s exploding economy brought it to the sixth place in the world among the largest economies, this shocking photo showed that extreme poverty exists side by side with prosperity.
9. Children forage through polluted river in the northeast to gather cans; lawsuit filed against the city
Another thing that is widely believed about Brazil is tolerance. While racism, alarming numbers of murders and brutal police brutality continue to grip the country, religious intolerance has been a problem ever since Europeans, Africans and Indians came into contact with each other in this land in the 16th century. The brutal murder of a religious leader brought this to the fore once again.
8. Brutal murder of long-time black activist and religious leader and two other people shocks the community
Although no one can deny that Brazil in perhaps the world’s largest racial mixing pot, the flip side of this long-time amalgamation of different peoples is often ignored or not openly discussed. See the other side in the following post.
7. The racist face of Brazil’s miscegenation
The question of hair and hair texture is a topic that is woven into the fabric of Brazilian society even if people don’t like to admit it. But in everyday discourse, anyone can tell you what is considered “good hair” and what is considered “bad hair”. The experience of the young man in the photo was just one example of many incidents on the blog involving this ideology connected to hair.
6. After mother refuses to cut boy’s hair, the child’s re-enrollment at the school is denied; police are investigating
Although millions of people outside of Brazil think only of the US when the discussion of slavery comes up, in reality, Brazil received the most slaves of any nation in the New World and was the last to abolish this institution. This post features a number of important facts about slavery that may be unknown outside of the academic world. As this post was released only at the end of the 2013, it will continue to be a big draw in 2014 and beyond.
5. Twenty-five curious facts about slavery in Brazil
As in number 10, interracial marriage is often seen as the ultimate harmony among different races of people, but how would racial mixture be seen if there were a hidden agenda behind the promotion of such unions? This question is considered in the following post.
4. White women for marrying and the Brazilian solution to race: the elimination of the black race
When considered in world history, Brazil has also somewhat developed an image as a “cordial” country. It is often thought that only places like the United States and countries in Europe have histories of human rights violations. A top-selling book released in 2013 put this ideology to rest and uncovered black eye in the country’s history.
3. The “Brazilian Holocaust”: In scenes reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps, 60,000 Brazilians, the majority overwhelmingly black, were killed in a mental hospital
Discussions about how black women are perceived in the imagination in comparison to white women is a worldwide debate, especially when the topic is sexuality. Check out the post below and understand why it was the second most viewed post on the blog.
2. Is the sexuality of black women judged differently from that of white women? The case of the funk group Bonde das Maravilhas
In a post that continues to be popular, this blatantly honest piece written by a black American and a black Brazilian was a huge step in the dialogue between the African descendant populations of the two countries. The post was based on a number of stereotypes about Brazilian women that have been in vogue in the United States since the release of several controversial pieces about African-American men traveling to Brazil on what amounts to adventures in sexual tourism. The post below touches on a number of issues on this topic and provokes a much needed dialogue between the two largest communities of African descent in the Americas.
1. A message to the African-American community on stereotypes about Brazilian women