Can Malaysia learn how to handle race relations from Brazil?

 

This year, I’m not celebrating Malaysia Day in the country because I’m on holiday! My wife Sheril A Bustaman, aside from being my producing partner for our documentaries, is also a researcher who specialises in international migrant issues. She is attending a conference in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. I am tagging along for the ride and it’s been great!

It’s my first time in Brazil and while I’m here, I have made some observations that I would like to share (please bear with me).

I’ve always thought that Brazil was unique when it came to race relations. Sure, Brazil was part of the Americas that contributed towards slavery. The Portuguese colonialists not only enslaved the indigenous people there, but they also shipped in almost 10 million African slaves cumulatively throughout the centuries.

However, modern-day Brazil has a high rate of miscegenation, which means that people of different races in Brazil intermarried a lot.

This resulted in more than 40 percent of the population being of mixed race. It would seem that Brazil was naturally creating a homogenous Brazilian race. Being of mixed race, I always thought that this was a great concept.

My family is mixed Chinese and Malay, and so is my wife. In our families, we have other relatives who have married other races too.

Honestly, I like to think that we are the best example of a melting pot if I do say so myself. I have always believed that this could be extrapolated to the bigger Malaysian society. Imagine if everyone married outside of their own race. We could evolve into a real Bangsa Malaysia!

Nothing is ever that simple

Of course, I am not that naive to actually think that it is as clear-cut and easy in Brazil. I knew there would be problems and - being here and observing their culture firsthand - this was proven to me.

Racial inequality still happens. The white race still has the biggest advantage when it comes to the economy, education, and social standing. The black race or mixed race has it a little bit harder.

History hasn’t really been that kind towards Brazil’s racial contract. We mentioned slavery, of course, but there are other issues too. They were the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery.

Then, when they became a republic in the 1800s, the law stated that only literate men were allowed to vote. Naturally, this ruled out most of the black men at that time. There were also many laws created that made aspects of African culture illegal.

Throughout the 1800s and into the early 1900s, many Brazilians were also obsessed with racial purity. The idea that mixed marriages created offspring that were inferior (as opposed to a pure white race) was bandied around so much so that there was an active campaign to entice Europeans to enter the country to increase the white population. It succeeded quite a bit.

Also, there was a lack of clear definitions of race in Brazil. The government basically recognised only five categories - white, black, multi-racial, Asian, and indigenous.

This caused society to be unable to have clear discussions and discourse on race issues. And although miscegenation contributed to blurred racial lines, it didn’t help much in the aspect of creating clearer and more consistent discourse.

Then the concept of racial democracy developed in response to the racial problem. Because intermixing of race was so common, Brazilians felt that it would be racist to bring up race issues.

Basically, they wanted to be a post-racial society where race should never be an issue. It was a noble idea, but it also meant that the unwillingness to acknowledge race caused inaction which, in turn, enabled more racism.

Lessons from Brazil

With all this being said, Brazil has and is taking steps to improve the situation. The government has enacted laws to actually make the practice of racism illegal and a punishable offence.

There has also been an increase in research and documentation of racism in all aspects of Brazilian society, from the economy, to employment, education, and social status. Racial awareness started becoming an agenda and racial issues became a focus of societal discourse.

I think Malaysia and Malaysians can learn a lot from Brazil’s experience with race relations. Since we don’t have a violent history of slavery like Brazil, some of the actions taken by them can be examples and even adapted to how we can progress as a society.

For example, we can encourage more direct, conscious, and positive discourse when it comes to race, and we can enact laws to make racism illegal.

I’m just throwing this idea out there. I know that Malaysians tend to think that we are unique and whatever global concepts that come out can’t really apply directly to us.

That is true to a certain extent. However, we can still learn from it and adapt it to our society in a positive way. At the end of the day, we are all humans, no matter what country, race, or religion we are from.

So, what’s the harm in learning from others? I, for one, still am pushing the agenda of interracial marriages. We can’t force it of course, or else it would become like dogs and cats where people have developed enginereed breeding!

But jokes aside, if people of different races in our society can fall in love with each other, it would mean that we no longer see race as defining inferiority or superiority. Wouldn’t that be great for the next generation? Happy Malaysia Day to all Malaysians! - Mkini

---

ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary film-maker, journalist and academic. The Sheraton move really frustrated him but maybe after November 2022, he can start feeling better again. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.