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    Black American Men and Brazilian Women
    Black American Men and Brazilian Women
    Black American Men and Brazilian Women
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    Black American Men and Brazilian Women

    By Neil Turner

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    About this ebook

    Recently, there is an increase in discussion and debate concerning cross-cultural and ethno-cultural relationships. Topics such as social institutions, demographic trends, beliefs, values and cultural traditions have become important to this research. Social evolutionary scholars are guiding much of this work but cultural dimensions are of less interest. This book provides the cultural perspective necessary to identify the conditions under which similarities and differences in the relationships between black American men and Brazilian women occur.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNeil Turner
    Release dateAug 17, 2015
    ISBN9781311408808
    Black American Men and Brazilian Women
    Author

    Neil Turner

    Neil started his investment career in the City in the mid-1990s and has worked at various fund management houses in London and Frankfurt. He is a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Financial Analyst. Following his retirement in 2016, he has spent his time writing fiction. The Alpha Portfolio is the second in a series of financial thrillers that Neil has been working on. Pass the Parcel, published in 2021, was his first. He lives in Woodbridge, Suffolk, with his wife, Michelle. He has two grown up children at university.

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      Book preview

      Black American Men and Brazilian Women - Neil Turner

      Black American Men and Brazilian Women

      Copyright 2015 Neil Turner

      Published by Neil Turner at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Chapter One-The Newcomer

      Chapter Two-Hardships and Difficulties

      Chapter Three-Everything Good

      Chapter Four-Tale of Two Cultures

      Chapter Five-Beauty as Social Capital

      Chapter Six-Meaning of Money

      Chapter Seven-Politics of Persuasion

      Chapter Eight-Reasons and Rationales

      Chapter Nine-Making the Transition

      About the Author

      Other Books by the Author

      Connecting with the Author

      References

      Acknowledgements

      I am grateful to many people for providing me with the incentive to complete this book. However, I am especially grateful to my Brazilian friends and family, Maria de Fatima Neves de Olivera Turner, Vicente Paulo da Lima, Natacío Pereira, Luiz Tachard, John Thompson, Donald Reid, Professor Dr. Flávio Novães, and Professor Dr. Bernardo Thiago Mesquita for their patience and generosity in sharing their knowledge about Brazilian people and culture.

      Preface

      Nine years ago, I made the decision to come to Brazil. At that time, I came because I was interested in doing anthropological research for a book on Brazil. However, I had about as much knowledge about Brazil as most Americans – almost nothing at all. Sure, I had heard about Rio de Janeiro, a fantastic street festival called the Carnaval, and that the Amazon Rain Forest was located in Brazil. Outside of that, I knew absolutely nothing about Brazil. I certainly did not know anything about the extraordinary beauty of the women or the splendid climate, the clean, fresh food, the kind nature of the people or any of the other amazing qualities of this country.

      During the first year and half, I made five different trips. The first was at the request of a friend from Philly that had been living in Brazil for five years. I was just coming off almost six years of study working for my masters and doctorate and had not taken a vacation for quite some time. Although I was undecided whether to return to Hong Kong (a city I had visited twice and really enjoyed) or visit some place new. I finally made the decision to go to Brazil. The first of my trips was in February 2007, a week before the annual Carnaval Festival and I stayed for two weeks. I returned in June 2007 but only stayed a week – hardly enough time to do anything. The third trip, I stayed an entire month and began to really get into the country and its people. Of course, by this time, I had begun to study the Brazilian Portuguese language because I wanted to be able to get around more. In December 2007, I returned and stay for two months. By this time, I had met my wife and although we were not married yet, we rented our very first apartment together. Then, I returned in May 2008 and stayed for four months. However, it was not until October 2008 that I came back to Brazil to stay for six years before returning to visit the USA. During that time, I came to know the people, their culture, the language, the good, bad, and the ugly qualities of this amazing country.

      Over the course of the first five years, I met other American expatriates that had been living in Brazil for many years. Their advice and direction was invaluable. Some of them had been living in Brazil from twenty-five to thirty years before I arrived. In Salvador, I met a white American who owned a pousada (motel) and restaurant near the beach that became a confidant and inspiration. He has been living in Salvador for more than seventeen years now. There is also an American living in Natal for almost forty years. These men inspired me to endure through the so-called culture shock in order to continue to live in Brazil. They were my inspiration and the source of my determination to stick it out.

      While traveling back and forth from the US to Brazil, I encountered a peculiar type of prejudice. Now, I was no stranger to prejudice and bias (having grown up in Philadelphia, PA USA), I already had been exposed to the manner in which black Americans are mistreated. However, for the first time in my life, I encountered a bias in the form of misconceptions and gossip about the country and people of Brazil. On my job (at the time I was working for a prestigious law firm), whenever I was asked where I would be vacationing, I would reply Brazil. This immediately opened up a discussion because Americans know very little about Brazil but are very curious about the country. It was during these conversations that I discovered that Americans have very bad opinions about Brazil, its people, and its culture. Perhaps, the most startling discovery was the manner in which American women (black and white) thought of Brazilian women. I heard remarks that bordered on the obscene but I was not in a position to defend or confirm these allegations. However, what these remarks were successful in accomplishing was creating a curiosity in me concerning the basis for such reactions.

      When I returned to Brazil in October 2008, I applied for permanent residence to live in Brazil and began to meet other black American men that were traveling to Brazil. In Salvador, I had encountered at least six black men that were visiting on vacation. Later, I discovered that some of them had been traveling to Brazil for years – at least two to four times a year or more. Of course, some of them were traveling there just for sex with the women, while others were actually traveling there looking to find wives. Still others were traveling there just to party and have fun with the exceptionally beautiful women on the beaches and in the clubs in order to take pictures to show their friends when they returned to the states. At least on one occasion, I met a black man who actually brought his wife and children with him to live in Salvador. Obviously, he had no idea what he was getting himself into and later his wife left him and returned to the states with the children. Other black American men fell into some of the pitfalls that await unsuspecting travelers to Brazil. In the end, they stayed for a few years but eventually returned to the states.

      An interesting dynamic that affects this process of migration has to do with the numbers of Brazilian women that seek foreigners for marriage so they can leave Brazil. In Brazil, there is a group of women determined to marry and leave Brazil. Many of them come from extremely poor families, have lived harsh, impoverished lives, and have no interested whatsoever in Brazilian men. Their life objective is to find foreigners, marry them, and return with them to their native countries. Interestingly, these women have reached a level of consciousness that enables them to overcome fear of leaving their native country in search of another, without question, better living experience. I have met many Brazilian women that are dedicated to this objective. In addition, some find an outlet through the evangelical missionary churches and other evangelical institutions with close ties to American churches. Many marry Europeans from Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain, move there, have families and return to Brazil only to visit on occasion.

      Now, one of the key issues discussed in this work is how and why cultural values of black American men and Brazilian women are changing. It will attempt to reveal some of the fundamental modes of this transition - its forms, exchanges, and how, from a cultural perspective, the values of these two groups are modifying. The different elements of Brazilian culture are both greatly diversified and at the same time clustered and joined but there are many similarities between the US and Brazil. For example, the US was settled by Europeans, Brazil was settled by Europeans and these societies were both built by slaves. In addition, both are multi-ethnic, multi-cultural countries and largely Christian. Further, the US has the largest degree of inequality among first world, industrialized countries and Brazil has the largest degree of inequality among the emerging or developing countries. But probably most important, both countries are loyal to the idea of democracy and believe in the right to freedom of the ordinary man and woman. Many studies have documented

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