So, I was asking myself about the boundaries between being white and being black.
Since, in fact,
these terms are not binary oppositions, but rather a spectrum.
For example, a child who has one black parent
and one white parent.
What is the appropriate term to refer to this child?
In Portuguese there are terms like “mestiço”, “mulato” or “cabrita”,
but I don't know to what extent these terms are
correct, appropriate, and what would be
the most adequate terms to use in this context?
Regarding the term “mulata” or “mulato”, it is an expression that takes us back
to more than 300 years of slavery,
historically, here in Brazil.
So, words say a lot
about the culture of a people, of a society
that is unaware of its own history.
Then, what explains these terms
that society wants to naturalize
but that reaffirm structural racism?
Research shows that the term mulatto
refers to the crossing
of the horse and the donkey.
Thus, it has a pejorative connotation,
and much greater for us, black women,
since it puts us
in a place of sexuality and sensuality,
turning our body into a commodity.
And due to a complex and violent way of thinking
and acting about the racial issue and its miscegenation,
people accept it as rules,
instead of confronting and
fighting racism
- which we, black men
and women, suffer within a society
that asserts itself as such
and makes it difficult for our self-declaration
as black people.