Brazil 2 Essay

1. First of all, there is really nothing awkward to identify people by race, and the existence of this category is quite natural for each of us. I agree that the question of race by itself does not hurt anyone’s dignity, it only depends on person. It really does not mean only the color of skin, or any other physical peculiarities. Each race is formed as a result of long historical process, which involves geographical, social, cultural and many other issues of development. And of course, this is a factor we do not choose and we cannot change. It does not depend on any political assumptions or anthropological theories; we can hide no where from it, even when we try to escape from racism. The way out is not in elimination of the term; it is much more difficult to find.
2. Affirmative action is negative in the sense that it violates the value of personal achievements and puts the interests of minorities higher than the interests of the majorities. What is more, the minorities at the same time lose the chance to be appreciated for their own achievements, as they are always associated with provided advantages, not the efforts taken. Hence, motivation is often lost. Besides, as Racusen explains, no one would like to become a victim of historical stigma; societal identity may be trumped and bipolarity will be established. According to Racusen, single declaration for a public benefit is not the best stimulus for societal mobilization. All these circumstances create a number of legitimate problems for the effective application of the racial quotas in Brazil and still many questions have to be answered to find the exit from racial disorder.
3. In order to learn the results and conditions of MST, Wendy Wolford conducted her research in southern and northeastern Brazil. She found out that people had different reasons and considerations, leading them to taking part in the movement. In the south there were the farmers who suffered without land and reformulated their spatial imaginaries as to find the land to occupy and to put new frontiers for colonization. Meanwhile, in the north-east there were unemployed workers who had to overcome their spatial imaginaries and had no other way out except joining the movement. Thus, Wolford states that motivations and expectations are based on historical experiences on land and labor. In this way, Wolford has made up her study of social movement taking to consideration geographical factors as well as historical and cultural frameworks.
4. In the United States there are also social groups having a limited access to the conventional welfare objects, and land in particular. For example, when the former African American slaves received their freedom, they often did not have where to settle and had gone through a long and complicated way to find proper employment. But on the other hand, the initiatives like the MST are very close to different leftist ideologist, which do not find wide support among the US population. Neither there is much space provided by legislation, as there are a lot of confusing moments in the strategy of the Landless Movement. Liberation theology is not beneficial either. The capitalistic laws are much stronger in the United States, and there is also a historical justification for that, therefore the fight against hierarchies is virtually doomed to failure.