Neymar and the Disappearing Donkey

By the time you read this, it’s possible that every single person on the planet will know who Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior is.

The image above is of Neymar from five days ago.

This is Neymar from one year ago:

This is Neymar from three years ago:

This is Neymar from five years ago:

This is little Neymar with his family:

You could come to any number of conclusions from Neymar’s remarkable transformation. For instance, you could conclude that race doesn’t exist in Brazil, which is the favourite line of a specific tribe of Brazilians – impeccable liberals all, who just happen to be upper-class, white and at the top of the heap.

Or you could conclude that everyone in Brazil is indeed mixed – which is, incidentally, the second-favourite line of the selfsame tribe.

Or you could wonder what happened to this boy.

***

It’s too easy to condemn Neymar for pretending to be white: judging by the images, he is partly white. It’s silly to accuse him of denying his mixed-race ancestry, because the simplest search throws up hundreds of images of him as a child, none of which he seems to be ashamed of. There is this: when asked if he had ever been a victim of racism, he said, “Never. Neither inside nor outside the field. Because I’m not black right?”

Actually, the word he used was preto, which is significant, since, in Brazil, when used as a colour ascribed to people – rather than things, like rice or beans – it is the equivalent of the n-word; negro and negra being the acceptable ways of describing someone who is truly black. (And moreno or morena being standard descriptors for someone dark-skinned, as well as, occasionally, euphemisms for blackness). Technically speaking, however, his logic was faultless – and even kind of interestingly honest: the Neymar who made that statement was an unworldly eighteen-year-old who had never lived outside Brazil. And in Brazil, Neymar is not black.

***

In 1976, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ran a household survey that marked a crucial departure from other census exercises. The Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) did not ask Brazilians to choose a race category among pre-determined choices; instead, researchers went out and asked people to describe the colour they thought they were.

This is what was returned:

 

Acastanhada
Somewhat chestnut-coloured



Agalegada
Somewhat like a Galician



Alva
Snowy white



Alva escura
Dark snowy white



Alvarenta
(not in dictionary; poss. dialect) Snowy white



Alvarinta
Snowy white



Alva rosada
Pinkish white



Alvinha
Snowy white



Amarela
Yellow



Amarelada
Yellowish



Amarela-queimada
Burnt yellow



Amarelosa
Yellowy



Amorenada
Somewhat dark-skinned



Avermelhada
Reddish



Azul
Blue



Azul-marinho
Sea blue



Baiano
From Bahia



Bem branca
Very white



Bem clara
Very pale



Bem morena
Very dark-skinned



Branca
White



Branca-avermelhada
White going on for red



Branca-melada
Honey-coloured white



Branca-morena
White but dark-skinned



Branca-pálida
Pale white



Branca-queimada
Burnt white



Branca-sardenta
Freckled white



Branca-suja
Off-white



Branquiça
Whitish



Branquinha
Very white



Bronze
Bronze-coloured



Bronzeada
Sun-tanned



Bugrezinha-escura
Dark-skinned India



Burro-quando-foge
Disappearing donkey (i.e. nondescript) humorous



Cabocla
Copper-coloured ( refers to civilized Indians)



Cabo-verde
From Cabo Verde (Cape Verde)



Café
Coffee-coloured



Café-com-leite
Café au lait



Canela
Cinnamon



Canelada
Somewhat like cinnamon



Cardão
Colour of the cardoon, or thistle (blue-violet)



Castanha
Chestnut



Castanha-clara
Light chestnut



Castanha-escura
Dark chestnut



Chocolate
Chocolate-coloured



Clara
Light-coloured, pale



Clarinha
Light-coloured, pale



Cobre
Copper-coloured



Corada
With a high colour



Cor-de-café
Coffee-coloured



Cor-de-canela
Cinnamon-coloured



Cor-de-cuia
Gourd-coloured



Cor-de-leite
Milk-coloured (i.e. milk-white)



Cor-de-ouro
Gold-coloured (i.e. golden)



Cor-de-rosa
Pink



Cor-firme
Steady-coloured



Crioula
Creole



Encerada
Polished



Enxofrada
Pallid



Esbranquecimento
Whitening



Escura
Dark



Escurinha
Very dark



Fogoió
Having fiery-coloured hair



Galega
Galician or Portuguese



Galegada
Somewhat like a Galician or Portuguese



Jambo
Light-skinned (the colour of a type of apple)



Laranja
Orange



Lilás
Lilac



Loira
Blonde



Loira-clara
Light blonde



Loura
Blonde



Lourinha
Petite blonde



Malaia
Malaysian woman



Marinheira
Sailor-woman



Marrom
Brown



Meio-amarela
Half-yellow



Meio-branca
Half-white



Meio-morena
Half dark-skinned



Meio-preta
Half-black



Melada
Honey-coloured



Mestiça
Half-caste/mestiza



Miscigenação
Miscegenation



Mista
Mixed



Morena
Dark-skinned, brunette



Morena-bem-chegada
Very nearly morena



Morena-bronzeada
Sunburnt morena



Morena-canelada
Somewhat cinnamon-coloured morena



Morena-castanha
Chestnut-coloured morena



Morena-clara
Light-skinned morena



Morena-cor-de-canela
Cinnamon-coloured morena



Morena-jambo
Light-skinned morena



Morenada
Somewhat morena



Morena-escura
Dark morena



Morena-fechada
Dark morena



Morenão
Dark-complexioned man



Morena-parda
Dark morena



Morena-roxa
Purplish morena



Morena-ruiva
Red-headed morena



Morena-trigueira
Swarthy, dusky morena



Moreninha
Petite morena



Mulata
Mulatto girl



Mulatinha
Little mulatto girl



Negra
Negress



Negrota
Young negress



Pálida
Pale



Paraíba
From Paraíba



Parda
Brown



Parda-clara
Light brown



Parda-morena
Brown morena



Parda-preta
Black-brown



Polaca
Polish woman



Pouco-clara
Not very light



Pouco-morena
Not very dark-complexioned



Pretinha
Black – either young, or small



Puxa-para-branco
Somewhat towards white



Quase-negra
Almost negro



Queimada
Sunburnt



Queimada-de-praia
Beach sunburnt



Queimada-de-sol
Sunburnt



Regular
Regular, normal



Retinta
Deep-dyed, very dark



Rosa
Rose-coloured (or the rose itself)



Rosada
Rosy



Rosa-queimada
Sunburnt-rosy



Roxa
Purple



Ruiva
Redhead



Russo
Russian



Sapecada
Singed



Sarará
Yellow-haired negro



Saraúba
(poss. dialect) Untranslatable



Tostada
Toasted



Trigo
Wheat



Trigueira
Brunette



Turva
Murky



Verde
Green



Vermelha
Red

 

Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, an anthropologist at the University of São Paulo, has a range of astonishing insights around this historic survey; her paper, Not black, not white: just the opposite. Culture, race and national identity in Brazil, from which the table is reproduced, is a gem. (She also has a book that examines the early history of the subject: The Spectacle of the Races: Scientists, Institutions, and the Race Question in Brazil, 1870-1930).

Schwarcz’s work is filled with thoughtful, original analysis, and is characterised by an unusual fearlessness. (Unusual, that is, for a subject so complicated). Reading her is a revelation; it turns out there is a real place hiding under that avalanche of clichés. If you’ve ever wondered how crushing racism can flourish in a country where, apparently, race itself has been crushed, consider that everything Brazil is defined by – from its “we-are-all-mixed” anthem, to feijoada, capoeira and candomblé, right down to samba and soccer – is the result of an insidious, revisionist, far-sighted political manoeuvre of the 1930s, courtesy the combined skills of popular intellectual Gilberto Freyre and populist dictator Getúlio Vargas. The battered body of slave culture was abducted by national culture in order to renew white culture.

Among the many eye-popping results reported in the PNAD survey, the one I am most drawn to is burro quando foge. You’ll find it up there in the table at No. 34. Google inexplicably translates the phrase as “saddle”, which is awesome, since it means that Lusofonia still keeps some secrets beyond the reach of the behemoth. Burro quando foge is translated by Schwarcz, within the constraints of a column slot, as “the disappearing donkey” and explained as a humorous phrase that denotes a nondescript colour.

Which it is – and then some. The metaphor is unique to Brazil, and signifies a colour. That colour could be nondescript, ill-defined, elusive, or ugly – and, just to make things really clear, also fawn, beige, or a tricky shade of brown. The sentiment conveyed in the phrase is just as interesting. Used between friends, it could pass for a joke. Otherwise, it almost always denotes something unpleasant. It’s usually used an insult, although – oddly enough, given the colours and sentiments – it’s not specifically a racial insult.

Of all the one hundred and thirty six colours of race in Brazil, this is my favourite. It’s flippant and factual and fictional all at once, and as such, suits me perfectly. Race is not a term that has much currency in India, where I live. It is, however, a central feature of Johannesburg and São Paulo, the two cities I occasionally work in, and as much as I’m aware of how privileged I am not to be wholly subject to it, I feel curiously bereft of race in both places. Certainly, I grew up with colour: being a dark-skinned child in a uniformly light-skinned family meant that I had to regularly contend with well-meaning relatives who’d pinch my cheeks and chide me for “losing my colour” – as though my skin tone was something I had brought upon myself in a fit of absent-mindedness. To choose a race then: Indian might work for some people, but it is both my passport and my residence, and that’s quite enough. Brown is too generic, and black, a bit too unbelievable, all things considered. Given that I spent my childhood reading Gerald Durrell and dreaming of donkeys, adopting their colour seems right in so many ways.

***

And where does that leave our boy wonder?  We might start with the Estado Novo, Vargas’ authoritarian reign between 1937 and 1945. Only a few years earlier, Freyre had published the crowning achievement of his career, Casa-Grande e Senzala, (“The Big House and the Slave Quarters”, released in English as The Masters and the Slaves), and the book was catching fire. Freyre’s central theory was something he called Lusotropicalism. It told a soothing story of the past (by casting the Portuguese as a kinder, gentler breed of imperial slaver), offered a handy solution for the present (by turning the mixing of races into a virtue) and held out an appealing conclusion, namely, the idea that Brazil was a racial democracy.

Upon publication, Freyre’s work immediately attracted the ire of the Portuguese nation for suggesting her citizens were prone to miscegenation. At home, however, it became Vargas’ blueprint for the country he had seized – and his strategy for political survival. Three quarters of a century later, Freyre’s big think remains the enduring idea of Brazil, an idea whose appeal grows in leaps and bounds across the globe and, to be sure, often escapes the clutches of its creators to dazzling effect. Still, consider the irony: the country’s sense of itself as a racial democracy was smuggled in to its soul by an autocracy.

The term Estado Novo refers to a few different periods of dictatorship, and it literally translates as “new state”, which is prophetic, since the words also describe a peculiar duty that is incumbent upon at least half the Brazilian population. That duty, of course, is the business of branqueamento – of whitening – of transforming, quite literally, into a new physical state. (For all his pro-miscegenation advocacy, Schwarcz notes in The Spectacle of the Races, Freyre was as keen as his critics on keeping the structure of Brazil intact: as a hierarchy with whiteness on top). In that sense, Neymar is only the latest in a long line of celebrities and Brazilians of lesser value who get it. Who get the fine print on the contract; who understand that national identity rests on racial harmony, which, in turn, rests on a kind of potential access to opportunity. Not the opportunity to be equal, mind you, but the opportunity to be white. We may gawk at him all we like, but in straightening his hair, extending it out and dyeing it blonde, Neymar was fulfilling his patriotic destiny in exactly as much as confounding the Croats and leading his team to victory last week.

***

I’ll venture that the disappearing donkey colour fits Neymar to a T. After all, he is both undoubtedly and elusively brown. Yes, there is the matter of his blonde ambition. O burro fugiu, we might well ask: has the donkey left the room? I’d really like to think not. For one thing, the boy’s only twenty two. He’s got a whole lifetime to change his mind – and his hair. For another, I’ve got a whole World Cup to watch. Have a heart. I spend hours every week learning Brazilian Portuguese, I’m devoted to the country, and I come from Bangalore, a city in which Pelé is god. I do not mean this metaphorically. In a neighbourhood called Gowthampura, around the corner from where I live, residents have erected a lovely shrine to four local icons – the Buddha, Dr. Ambedkar, Mother Teresa, and the striker from Santos.

So there you have it: my hands are tied. I’ve got my own patriotic destiny to fulfil, and it involves rooting for Brazil, which means I’m going to need to love Neymar a lot.

I can do it.

Anyway, donkeys are famously stubborn animals. They’re good at waiting.