Gastão Reisdisclosure
Published 04/27/2024 00:00
The adoption of the whitening policy at the beginning of our disastrous republican experience, aggravated by the new dysfunctional presidential political-institutional structure, is a recognized fact. The original background of whitening can be detected in a little-known phrase by Francisco Glicério, honorary general of the Brazilian army, founder and later president of the Republican Party, created in
1870. Short and thick, he stated: “Our objective is to found the republic, not to free the slaves.” The word “our”, at the beginning of the sentence, reveals that he was not the only one who thought this way. The other (and few) Republicans around him certainly signed below. In other words, maintain inequality and racism.
This vision is perfectly in line with the early days of the republic, with a deserved small “r”, when the whitening policy was put into practice. In other words, it was necessary to whiten the country so that it could reach new levels of civilization and development. Its proof was demonstrated by Prof. Maria Lúcia Rodrigues Müller, PhD in Education from UFRJ and coordinator of the Research Center on Race Relations and Education at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. His research and academic work dispel myths that have been cultivated for decades.
One of them is that, after more than 130 years of freedom, in his own words, “black people would not have had time to catch up.” Another is that “blacks only recently arrived at school, which is why most people of color would find themselves at the lower levels of national life.” In an article published in the newspaper O Globo, “Where is the black elite in education?”, on 12/5/2008, she refers to the photographs shown in the book “The color of the school – images of the First Republic”.
The notable fact in these photos, from the beginning of the 20th century, is the presence of black and mulatto teachers, including as directors and vice-directors, in Rio de Janeiro and Mato Grosso. They made up around 20% of teaching staff in these states. From the end of the 1920s onwards, these graduation photographs became whiter, with the presence of black and mulatto teachers almost disappearing,
including students of the same color.
It is symptomatic that this faint black and brown presence in the photos occurred precisely during the most acute period of the eugenics discourse, which, in a certain way, covered up racism. The severity of this mental framework requires no comments regarding its subsequent deleterious effects on the decline in the presence of the black and brown population in school, which is even corrosive to their self-esteem.
population.
Consolidated economic historiography, apparently, could be an argument in favor of European immigration by supporting the low growth in real per capita income throughout the Empire. It was as if the Portuguese-Afro-indigenous colonization had not worked. Economist Gustavo Franco gave support, in a way, to this vision in the article published in O Globo and Estadão, on 27.01.2019, entitled “A Visão do Precipício”, where he states that, from 1820 to 1900, our income real per capita grew just 5% over the entire period.
Such nonsense deserved a reply from me, “O Precipício da Visão”, published in Tribuna de Petrópolis (02/05/2019) and in Globo itself (02/11/2019), this one in the digital edition, with another title without my authorization. I used the well-founded 2013 research by Tombolo, AG & Sampaio, AV to respond to “Brazilian GDP in the 19th and 20th centuries”. These authors reveal to us that, from 1820 to 1875, the
growth in real GDP per capita was 1.21% per year, that is, it almost doubled in the period. And another 17% until 1889. In other words, the times of the colony and the Empire therefore did their homework.
Brazilian diplomats, also historians, accustomed as a duty of office to consult sources, such as Helio Vianna, Boris Fausto, Oliveira Lima and Heitor Lyra, were unanimous in recognizing the good performance of the Empire in the economy. The Empire’s budget increased tenfold between 1840 and 1889, which confirms a similar increase in GDP. Now, if the population has only doubled in these almost five decades, it is impossible for the
growth in real per capita income has been as mediocre as consolidated economic historiography tells us.
Edmar L. Bacha, Guilherme A. Tombolo and Flavio R. Versiani counter-argue that these conclusions are based on inadequate methods and insufficient statistical evidence in their solid research entitled “Secular Stagnation? A new vision on Brazil’s growth throughout the XIX century”. And they inform us that the growth in real per capita income throughout the Empire was 0.9% per year. Much more in line with the vision of our historian diplomats, and with the growth rate of the world at the time.
There is the flavor of a republic that was ashamed of its own people and that, if you think about it, fought in favor of inequality, very different from the Empire with its abolitionist laws, which put an end to slavery, and took a giant step in the fight against inequality. .
There is no animosity towards European immigration and other ethnicities here, given the undeniable contribution they made to our development. It could have been even greater if republican Brazil had been a well-established country in political-institutional terms like the Empire was.
Gastão Reis
Economist and speaker
