Poor, black, and a snob?

Yes, of course anything is possible and everyone has the right to make their own choices; after all, we live in a democracy and these choices are undoubtedly legitimate. On the other hand, it is undeniable that the best choices are always made with information and knowledge. Unlike information, knowledge requires analysis, deductions, and sometimes inferences, consuming time and patience, a resource that is increasingly scarce these days.

The political game is a game of information, and its interpretation demands shrewdness to avoid being deceived by the transient flow of information from one side to the other. It's like a "tug-of-war," where on one side are the "coxinhas" (right-wingers), the neoliberals, defending capital and the market as the regulator of society, and on the other are the "mortadelas" (left-wingers), defending diversity and less social inequality. In this game, some believe that being on the left is synonymous with communism, a successful and illusory strategy that has taken hold quite strongly.

There are those who defend the neoliberal agenda without knowing what it is about, without understanding its consequences. This fact has facilitated the full absorption of neoliberal ideology, even causing people belonging to less privileged classes to "buy into" the idea that the truth lies with those who hold power. These people have used their partners, economic and media conglomerates, to inadvertently lead them to believe that the poor are part of this universe.

The truth is quite different; the right wing's plans do not include the poor or diversity because such plans serve the elites and their traditionally orthodox values. Proof of this lies in the measures taken by the Temer government, eliminating acquired social rights related to work, land rights, the environment, gender issues, sexual orientation, and ethnicity, among others.

This dominant idea is also assimilated by Black people. Most Black people are poor because they are Black, due to historical racist atrocities, similarly absorbing the misguided idea that everyone has the same chances of progressing regardless of their skin color. Public policy, in the view of some white and Black people, is synonymous with reverse racism and therefore should not exist, since "everyone is equal," when it is known that this is a huge fallacy. The history of Black Brazilians has not been told in a factual, complete, and transparent way, but rather in a biased manner, further reinforcing the false and harmful idea of ​​racial democracy.

"A good Black person" has been one who is invisible to society, with the belief that the more invisible they are, the more readily accepted they will be. Black women face the added burden of gender discrimination, a reflection of a sexist and non-pluralistic society. The solution for some has been to deny their origins—race, culture, and religion—and try, as if it were possible, to disguise their phenotypic characteristics. In the past, hair was straightened; in the present, Blackness itself is denied.

The logic is: if black people "don't exist," there is no racism, and since "everyone is equal," any government policy aimed at them makes no sense—an argument defended by a large portion of those who are "informed," that is, those who have been molded by the dominant culture. This veiled ideological prison unfortunately reflects the fact that many poor and black people unknowingly choose to be on the right, more excluded and more marginalized in the society they have chosen to live in.