How to Define American

I was sitting at lunch today and showing Rodrigo and his sister Erica pictures from my going away party in Seattle. They were asking about my friends back home in the States, and I said something to the effect of “This guy is Chinese, she’s Venezuelan, he’s Indian…” etc, and they were confused a bit. I soon realized that in this country, whether the person has a Japanese, Chinese, African, or European origin, everyone is described as Brazilian. We talked briefly about how stupid they thought it was that we have distinctions such as “African-American” or any other conglomeration of nationalities. Now, this country is not devoid of racism, as you won’t see a proportionate number of dark skinned people in elected positions, but I thought their view was extremely interesting. On the plane ride here, I read a 50 page summary of the history of Brazil, and they have a similar history in terms of bringing slaves from Africa. However, there historically has been a lot more mixing of races here, and therefore there are Brazilians that would easily pass as Caucasian, and those who would easily pass as African-American… and a rough guess would be that the majority are some blend in between. No wonder Brazilians are good looking. Everyone knows mixed kids are hot.