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Black not like me
Argentina has no black problem because it has no blacks. At least that's what mainstream society has told itself, but the "Afroargentinos" in this documentary tell a different story of their country's past and present.
By PETER THEIS
Offoffoff.com
Carlos Menem, whose ten-year tenure as Argentina's president ended
in 1999 just before his macroeconomic policies led to the collapse of the
economy, was asked, during a tour of the United States, about whether
Argentina had any citizens of African descent. He responded, "No, we have
no blacks. Brazil has that problem." Afroargentinos, a 2003 documentary by
Diego Ceballos and Jorge Antonio Fortes, flushes out the dark premises of
Menem's statement, persuasively showing the official invisibility and
widespread stereotyping (as "a problem," among other things) that
Argentina's black population endures.
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Primarily, the film is a compendium of individuals' experiences as
black in an overwhelmingly white society (97% are of European ancestry) -
or, at least, a society that wants to think of itself as overwhelmingly and
unproblematically white. However, the compendium is given historical
context. Like many New World nations, Argentina imported Africans as
slaves, until total abolition in 1861. In post-abolition times, when
pseudo-scientific race generalizations flourished on all continents, blacks
were presumed to be genetically unsuitable to participating in the country's
economic development. The official presumption of inferiority resulted in
gross governmental mistreatment, exemplified by a quarantine of a
cholera-infected area in which white families were permitted to exit but
blacks forced to remain to become infected and die. In more recent times,
Argentina remained one of the few allies of the apartheid regime in South
Africa and even secretly agreed to accept white-skinned ŽmigrŽs should the
apartheid regime be overthrown. Running parallel to this appalling but
too-typical history were hegemonic efforts to rewrite history and officially
discount black citizens; a score and century before Menem uttered his denial
of black experience in Argentina, another statesman made the claim that the
only blacks that an Argentine could see were in Brazil. To the present day,
history textbooks do not acknowledge that Argentina's first president was of
African descent on his maternal side.
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| | Coming from such diversity in background,
one man observes that little unity, or political organization, among blacks
has been sought or achieved, in contrast to the Jewish or Armenian presences
in Argentina. This observation is the pivot of the film. |
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As mentioned, the brief history review serves only to contextualize
the contemporary experiences of the half-dozen Afro-Argentine subjects
interviewed. The subjects are of diverse cultural background, from members
of the Cape Verde society, composed of 1940s-era immigrants from that
African island nation, to blacks descended from slaves and, in one case, a
renowned tango composer. They also have diverse occupations, from musician to
scholar to seaman to activist. Coming from such diversity in background,
one man observes that little unity, or political organization, among blacks
has been sought or achieved, in contrast to the Jewish or Armenian presences
in Argentina. This observation is the pivot of the film. Left to
themselves, few of the subjects would think of themselves in terms of skin
color, much less think to organize politically around such a trait; for
most, national origin and occupation are the anchors of their cultural
identities. However, each speaks of racisms blatant and subtle which have
imprinted, over and over, that they are black, and that skin color is the
primary, if not exclusive, marker through which they will be understood by
the rest of Argentine society. (One of the subjects surmises that every black
man who was a child in the '70s was probably dubbed "Cirilo" by classmates,
after the single black child portrayed in Argentine cinema.) Unity is
imposed from without. Whatever you think you might be, you are black, you
are other-than-we.
And as social scientists have amply documented in societies
everywhere, being considered an exotic other-than-us is a life sentence
of imprisonment behind a screen. On this screen is projected all manner of
fantasies, irrationalities, and idiocies. The subjects of "Afroargentinos"
speak of the most common stereotypes encountered: the female black is exotic
and sexually available, leading to constant catcalls and aggressive sexual
advances; the male black a person of criminal propensity. (A taxi driver
thanks one of the subjects for not robbing him.) The very term negro/a is
associated with negative traits; the musician laughs while recounting an
instance when a nurse, in her mind, exhibited racial delicacy by conferring
on him the honor of being described as "dark-haired" (moreno). Although
racial intermixing was widespread during the second half of the 19th century
(probably leading to the precipitous decline of self-identified blacks), few
Argentines will avow any black ancestors, preferring to highlight a
Spanish grandfather and Italian grandmother while neglecting a perhaps less
"pure" branch.
Naturally, the film does not stop at an abstract discussion of race
reductivism. The subjects also speak about the personal consequences of
their color-coded demonization, stories that will not strike an American
audience as unfamiliar. One is not hired at a company because it wants to
promote a "homogenous" workforce; another marries a white woman and is never
allowed to set foot in the in-laws' house, even when picking up his children
from their visits there.
Hopefully, "Fahrenheit 9/11" has settled that having an agenda is not
a demerit, as long as the advocacy is well-structured. "Afroargentinos" has a
nearly perfect argument structure — a product of skilled editing — cloaked
behind its surface schema of seemingly random, rotating interviews. Race as
socially significant marker is exposed as arbitrary, constructed, and
imposed. Both subtle, "unconscious" racism and the more direct variety are
shown to flow from the same source — i.e., the facile fetishism of
superficial difference, the need to create social "others" against which the
rest can define themselves. This is not a new lesson, but seeing the same
phenomena happen in Argentina proves that racializing tendencies are global
and share similar modi operandi that, despite all myths to the contrary, are
still evident in our popular imagination. (Think how young whites who resist
entering the job market are often described as "restless," "finding
themselves," "experiencing ennui," "rebelling," "punk," or, at worst,
"slackers," while young blacks are "shiftless" or — this is familiar — a
"problem.") "Afroargentinos" thus manages to illuminate a universal even as
it brings to light the specific, unchampioned plight of a population a
hemisphere away.
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AUGUST 9, 2004
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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