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| Poster image of "The Coat", presented in 2017 by the Grupo de Teatro da Nova in Lisbon. |
The recent blackface
episode at a school in northern Portugal and the kind of comments it attracted
was another indicator of the worrying lack of (non-virtual) meeting spaces for
dialogue. Many did not understand the racism criticism of an initiative aimed
at celebrating cultural diversity (from "countries" such as Africa,
China and Brazil) and ended up accusing the critics of racism and hate speech.
The exchange of comments on the Facebook page Blackface Portugal is revealing
of the incomprehension, and even of the ignorance, around this matter. But can
we say that we were shocked or surprised? Is this not a reality known to us on
which, no matter how much we feel like saying "they should have known
better", we cannot turn our backs? We cannot, because it continues to
influence the education, thinking and notions which big part of our society holds
on this matter and several others. It is these notions that end up conditioning
the freedom of many citizens and perpetuating all kinds of racism and, in some
cases, violence.
