An analysis to pardos

During the Brazilian colonization, it was stated through violence the races and
people who would later build our cultural identity. The indigenous community, first to
inhabit here, had their seat guaranteed in this group, and the participation of Africans
and Portuguese was soon a subsequent event. As the centuries flew by, those masses
blended and faded into a mixture of colors and culture that shows to be the current
population of Brazil. Now the black run back to their roots; the European chase the
glory behind their surname; the indians reconnect to customs. And to the unclaimed
fruits of previous fusion, a blurred sense of no belonging is left.

The arousal of social and cultural awareness was quick to awaken a heated
discussion about where the mixed-race should appertain. Here, the quarrel does not
incline towards a geographic point of view: our past historical happenings eliminated
any chance of tracing back the place of origin of those who were brought unwillingly to
Brazil (quote slaves). As a matter of fact, more important than the continent your
ancestors were born, disagreement begins on the color of one’s skin. By adopting a
mindset that only allowed the existence of black and white, we excluded those who find
themselves in a middle ground situation. This then pushed the creation of mantras,
hymns, or even modern sayings: “If one is too white to be black and too black to be
white, what is one?”. Pardo is the word that causes such troubling.

By tradition and language, pardo is a brownish color used to describe envelope

types. Yet, at some point, the Brazilian government made the decision to create a third
racial option. It stamped all birth certificates throughout the country. Behind this action
was the intent of creating a space (or a category) for people who felt as they did not fit
any. It divided opinions, causing the formation of sides: one that professed the need for
this alternative and others that pointed to the problematics surrounding it. According to
the last, pardos should be aggrouped with the black community as they shared genetic
traces and other similarities. But in reality, the acceptance and recognition of pardos by
their alleged community did not always happen. The name was an attempt to permit
people to carry this certainty without the fear of having their race unvalidated.

But the opposing side also had rational reasons: separating people who showed
African traces but “did not look precisely black” would be stereotyping this
population’s appearance, or even promoting fear and negation of individuals when
dealing with their African descendants. The awful notion of “the lighter, the better” was
still worryingly dominant among Brazilian people. Did the existence of pardos mean
that, in a long-term plan, there would be a tendency to appraising those who possessed
the least of black genes? For them, it created more barriers in a community that fought
with grip for achieving integration. Colorism was a real, serious issue, and the word
pardo could directly contribute to potentializing the problem. In an overall manner, that
much instability and sectioning within this society raised the possibility of prejudice
towards both sections.

Discussions frequently go beyond right and wrong, and the pardos issue is no
different. It involves a world of experiences and beliefs that change enormously with
each person. In order to solve this disengagement, a well-developed conversation shows
itself as necessary. However, shall it not mean the need for aggression, distrust, or
violence in one’s words: to every perception, there are reasons that assisted the
construction of so.