Barack Obama is Brazilian

(Re)Signifying Race Relations in Contemporary Brazil

verfasst von: Prof. Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira-Monte

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book examines US President Barack Obama’s characterizations in the Brazilian media, with a specific focus on political cartoons and internet memes. Brazilians celebrate their country as a racial democracy; thus the US works as its nemesis. The rise of a black president to the office of the most prominent country in the global, political, and economic landscape led some analysts to postulate that the US was living in a post-racial era. President Obama’s election also had a tremendous impact on the imaginary of the African Diaspora, and this volume investigates how the election of the first black US president complicates Brazilians’ own racial discourses. By focusing on three events—Barack Obama's election in 2008, his visit to Brazil in March 2011, and the aftermath of the US espionage on the Brazilian government in 2013—Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira-Monte analyzes Barack Obama's shifting portrayals that confirm and challenge Brazilian racial conceptions projected upon his figure.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

Barack Obama’s election to the American presidency in 2008 sparked a renewed interest in the theme of race not only in the Americas, but also worldwide. In the United States, the election of a black man to the office of the most prominent country in the global, political, and economic landscape led some analysts to postulate that North America was living in a post-racial era; that is, theoretically the nation had forged an environment that surpassed racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice. The introduction highlights the importance of Obama’s election for U.S. racial thought and the imaginary of the African Diaspora worldwide.

Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira-Monte

Chapter 2. Obama Dreams of Brazil: A Mulatto in the Land of Racial Democracy

Abstract

This chapter examines the publication and reception of Obama’s Dreams from My Father in Brazil, released before the 2008 U.S. elections. The autobiography quickly became a best-seller in Brazil, receiving laudatory reviews from both the mainstream media and Internet blogs. This chapter focuses on how the Brazilian translation of the autobiography tried to highlight Brazil as a positive site of race relations by changing key words in important passages (e.g. the title Dreams from My Father became The Origin of My Dreams in Portuguese, erasing the father figure related to Africa to focus on the personal achievements of the individual mulatto). This chapter also investigates Obama and Brazilian president Luis Inácio da Silva’s relationship, highlighting the country’s economic and political rise on the world stage.

Emanuelle K.F. Oliveira-Monte

Chapter 3. Barack Obama Is Brazilian

Abstract

This chapter investigates Obama’s characterizations in the Brazilian media, produced during his visit to Brazil in March 2011. It studies how mainstream media and political cartoons reappropriated the U.S. president as a Brazilian, using elements of national identity—soccer, samba, and miscegenation—to transform him into a “legitimate” Brazilian. This Chapter examines the “Brazilianization” of Obama, seeking to demonstrate that, if Brazil could not elect a black president, Brazilians had to show how he was not really American, but in reality a “true” Brazilian—if not by his nationality, then by his “essence.” Inversely, this chapter also investigates how Obama emerges negatively in several political cartoons, being portrayed as an instrument of the oppressive U.S. imperialism, a destructive and tyrannical leader.

Emanuelle K.F. Oliveira-Monte

Chapter 4. Obama and Dilma in Love: Race and Gender in the Realm of Political Humor

Abstract

This chapter investigates how political cartoons and Internet memes represent Obama’s relationship with the first woman president in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff (2011–2016), especially focusing on the 2013 U.S. espionage scandal. In many of the cartoons and memes, there is an interesting interplay between race and gender, as Obama appears infatuated by Rousseff. Therefore, the United States’ eavesdropping is not portrayed as a serious diplomatic incident between two nations, but rather as a humorous gender-play in which Obama is sexually obsessed with Dilma and pursues her romantically. This trend celebrates miscegenation, a notion at the very core of Brazilian national identity. Nevertheless, the U.S. president also emerges in several cartoons as an instrument of imperialism and a tyrant who wants to steal Brazil’s secret riches.

Emanuelle K.F. Oliveira-Monte

Chapter 5. “Our” Candidate Obama: Barack Obama in the Brazilian Elections

Abstract

This chapter examines the “obamization” of Brazilian politics; that is, how out of the mainstream political scene Afro-Brazilian candidates sought to appropriate Obama’s campaign artifacts, hoping to reproduce the U.S. president’s success in the polls. In this sense, while Obama underplayed the issue of race in his 2008 political campaign, Brazilian black candidates emphasized their “blackness.” Chapter 4 also analyzes “Obama-mania” in the Brazilian elections; in other words, how Brazilian non-white and white politicians emulated Obama’s transnational message of “hope, change, and progress.”

Emanuelle K.F. Oliveira-Monte

Chapter 6. Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion of this study explores Obama’s legacy after the 2016 Electoral College victory of billionaire Republican candidate Donald Trump, who ran a populist campaign with clear neo-fascist tones. The discourse of diversity—which has been a U.S. core value over the turn of the twentieth to the twenty-first century—has been giving place to homogenization, emphasizing the rejection of any racial or ethnic heterogeneity within the social body. Xenophobia and racism are growing worldwide trends today; thus, the conclusion evaluates Obama’s legacy for Brazil, a country formed by immigrants and where over 50% of the population is of African descent.

Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira-Monte

Backmatter

Titel: Barack Obama is Brazilian
verfasst von: Prof. Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira-Monte
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-58353-6
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59480-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58353-6