Three Joanas Gorjão Henriques for each Ventura

I had the opportunity to watch the documentary this week Racism. An ongoing decolonization, by Joana Gorjão Henriques and Mariana Godet. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to understand the phenomenon of racism in Portugal. I learned, I was amazed without being surprised and I was moved. Above all, I saw new doors open for us to understand racism in a country where it has always existed, but which now finds it legitimized in political discourse.

This documentary shows the reality of the last years of Portuguese colonialism, what the relationship between whites and blacks was like, and I found its greatest value in the interviews carried out with those who grew up in Africa and later realized the trivialization of discrimination that I did not see as a child.

There were fewer black people and no one thought it was strange. Black people lived in subhuman conditions and this was not questioned. In the bosses’ house, but without the right to a bed. Taking care of white people’s children, but not being able to have their own. They were seen as lesser beings, who were meant to serve. Women could be used, just because they were black, and could be violated in ways that were not considered possible or legitimate if they were white.

It is impressive to hear the story of one of the interviewees, who is now aware that, when she came to Portugal, she advocated the right values, but when she returned to Africa, she once again assumed the normality of evil. Because it was just like that there.

This is a documentary about the trivialization of evil. There is no blame for those who grew up like this and only much later realized that this “like this” had no reason to be and was wicked. There is, however, a lot of blame on those who fostered and fed this regime beyond all the times when colonialism had already been identified as unacceptable throughout the world. The colonies fed the vices of a metropolis in which the dictatorship continued, fueled by the exploitation of parts of the world, with money from unofficial forms of slavery and hidden corruption schemes to sustain the political and social status quo. Evil becomes trivialized when it is not even questioned, as this documentary so well shows. The other was there to serve and his rights did not exist. The few rights they managed to have were seen as a favor to those they served. Not questioning equal rights, because you consider others to be different, is living in a bubble of indifference.

Joana Gorjão Henriques and Mariana Godet urge us to reflect on this past to understand the frightening present that leads us towards it. There are too many unresolved issues and wounds that have not healed. The flight of white people, leaving behind what was theirs, was associated, explicitly or implicitly, with an appropriation of their rights by those who had become accustomed to seeing them as not having them. Many of those who arrived and were the target of hatred channeled their frustration towards those who remained in their place and who were not seen as equals. Resentment came in suitcases and was never unpacked. There is an acceptance of the superiority of some over others, which has never been overcome, even though it remained more or less latent for a few decades.

I grew up seeing racism everywhere. Especially among frequent users of the adversative. “I’m not racist, but…” Which wasn’t racist, but he didn’t like his daughter dating a black man. The one who wasn’t racist, but he didn’t think they “spoke well” The one who wasn’t racist, but he preferred not to live in the same building as the others. These “buts” were not sufficiently observed or scrutinized and we lived for too long under the illusion that there was not a structural problem to deal with in our country. Joana Gorjão Henriques and Mariana Godet clearly dismantle the narratives that still invade the way we learn the history of Portugal. Where is cute Portuguese colonialism in the reports of recent slavery for unpaid labor, in the photos taken with the right to touch black women’s breasts or in the recruitment of workers forced to leave their families? Understanding that everything was nothing more than a narrative created, and still fed, is fundamental to understanding the resurgence of racial violence. We convinced ourselves that we were good, so we cannot believe that even today we can live the legacy of the bad feelings fostered.

Today, the far right is interested in fueling resentment and hatred. Finding new and old culprits for everything that goes wrong with us. Opportunists and cowards, they attack those who are already most vulnerable. André Ventura wants to expel the immigrants, but gets confused when asked why he doesn’t talk about the extractive millionaires. He doesn’t speak because it doesn’t suit him, because he knows it’s easier to build on repressed hatred. Chega asks for three Salazares to “put order” in Portugal. He lies about the past to deceive about the present and prays that no one sees these documentaries, which show the sinister and deceptive speeches of Salazar himself, denying the evidence, corrupt, lying about what was happening in Africa.

We don’t need any Salazar, but we need many journalists like Joana Gorjão Henriques. That comes out of the foam of the days to investigate and show what we don’t see in the bubbles of privilege in which we live. Who knows where immigrants are every day. They are the ones who take care of us. Those who already left when we arrived at our workplaces and did everything that no Portuguese person wants to do. They travel in the opposite direction and have no right to see their children wake up, because they haven’t arrived home yet. For each interview with André Ventura, do two interviews with the victims of his racism. Today as yesterday, people start to shrug their shoulders at every nonsense said by Chega’s friends, as if it were just another one. The problem is that, every time we shrug our shoulders, we once again trivialize this hatred for the color of the other person’s skin.

For each Ventura, three Joanas, because three Venturas are not worth a third of Joana. To bring order to this evil, to remind us that it is for information and knowledge that we go. Take documentaries like this to schools and help young people understand the difference between the depth of the investigation and the irresponsible stupidity of far-right Tik-Tok.