[orillaVar]

If you're not South American or of South American descent, then this topic may be incomprehensible to you.

As a person from a Brazilian background, I've noticed that some Brazilians coin a Brazilian of Japanese descent as "Japanese", even if they're a fourth-generation Brazilian who can't speak a lick of Japanese.

For example, the other day, a Brazilian woman (of non-Japanese descent) was telling my parents a story about a couple in Brazil who were expecting, and just to clarify, neither the wife or husband had Japanese ancestry. She said that when their baby was born, the husband asked her why the baby was Japanese. In short, he suspected that she had fooled around with a nikkei. But, what puzzles me is that he referred to the baby as Japanese, when the baby is: #1) Brazilian, and #2) has a mother of non-Japanese descent.

What I don't understand is why some Brazilians, and I'm talking about a sizable percentage here, persist on referring to nikkei Brazilians as Japanese? The vast majority of nikkei Brazilians don't even speak Japanese. Also, many even go as far to refer to the admixed nikkei Brazilians as "Japanese" as well. Every time I hear a Brazilian refer to admixed nikkei as "uma mistura de brasileiros com japoneses", I cringe, because it makes absolutely no sense. I've read stories by many nikkei Brazilians, both unmixed and admixed, who get labeled as Japanese by many Brazilians. How come they're Japanese, yet Xuxa and Gisele are Brazilian? Why isn't Xuxa Austrian? Why isn't Gisele German? Why isn't Gugu Liberato Portuguese? Why isn't José Serra Italian? Why are they exceptions and yet not the Brazilians of Japanese and/or Asian descent? I find this lack of respect fundamentally racist.

I read that Peru is much more inclusive when it comes to their nikkei community. The Peruvian mentality is "todos somos peruanos". Is this sense of inclusion derived from the fact Peru has a larger percentage of people of Asian descent?

Most Americans will refer to any person born and raised in the States as American, regardless of their ancestry. Brazil promotes itself as a multiethnic society, but how come some of them make an exception when it comes to Asian Brazilians? I think it's obnoxiously hypocritical. As far as unity goes, Peru and the U.S. seem to be the most inclusive societies when it comes to their citizens.

I don't think that when Brazilians say these kind of things they have, in their minds, the idea that Brazilian-Japanese are not truly Brazilian. Like Incanal said, Brazilians call all Asians they meet (even Korean Brazilians and Chinese Brazilians) "Japones" because that was the most common Asian in the country the past.

Brazilians usually call others by nicknames. Brazilians call Brazilians with recent Portuguese ancestry "Português" or "tuga" and most blonde men eventually end up with the nickname "Alemão" (German), even if they are not German. For example, a reality show contestant and B-grade celebrity Diego "Alemão" is called that way all the time in the media (and on Big Brother, the show he was on) because he's blonde. But he doesn't even descend from Germans (his full name is Diego Bissoloti Guasques, I think his blondism comes from the Italian side of the family). Brazilians also call all Middle Easterners and Brazilians that descend from non-Jewish Middle Easterners "Turks" (even though most of them are descended from Levantines from Lebanon and Syria). People from São Paulo call all the Northeasterner immigrants "Bahiano" and people from Rio de Janeiro call all of them "ParaÃ*bas", because those are the states from which most immigrants came to their respective city (even though not all of them came from those states, still they are lumped together).

It's interesting to read these testimonies written by some Japanese that visited Brazil in 1996. Somethings they got wrong, but somethings they got right about Brazilian society:

http://www.ri2660.gr.jp/stage/GSE/gs...eb/Hasegaw.htm

The Japanese-Brazilians have kept the Japanese habit of calling those who are not Japanese gaijin (foreigners, or outsiders), and even though they are actually the gaijin in Brazil, they call non-Japanese Brazilians gaijin.. When I heard this, it seemed a bit humorous to me. Also, it was interesting that Japanese-Brazilians do not call Korean- or Chinese-Brazilians gaijin..

Japanese-Brazilians call anyone who is not of Japanese, Korean or Chinese origin gaijin, and they are not concerned in the least what country the Brazilians are from. However, conversely, Brazilians generally call all Japanese-Brazilians, regardless of whether they are first-, second- or third-generation, by the name Japones. This term in no way implies that the Brazilians are looking down on the Japanese-Brazilians. Rather, it appears that it is a term familiarity. A Nanbei Bank employee said to me, "Japanese-Brazilians are the most respected group of people in Brazil. They are deemed absolutely trustworthy in regard to borrowing and repaying money." The Nanbei Bank was founded by a Japanese, and it is probably the reason that this bank is one of the major banks in Brazil today.

(...)

Also, in Brazil, blond-haired Caucasians are called "Alemao" (which means "German") and blacks are called Bahiano. But not all blond-haired Caucasians are German. Anglo-Saxons, Jews, and Russians are also blond, but Brazilians don't care about this at all. And it appears that Israeli- and Russian-Brazilians don't mind being called "Alemao". The reason blacks are referred to as "Bahiano" is that when African slaves were first brought into Brazil to work in the colonial days, the majority were concentrated in Bahia State. Those born in Bahia were called Bahiano, but today, despite the fact that blacks live all over Brazil, all blacks are collectively referred to as Bahiano.

This was also obvious from the way in which a Japanese-Brazilian druggist in Guarulhos would always say "Bahiano, Bahiano" repeatedly every time he saw a black person. Such ways of referring to the different races have no root in discrimination in Brazil. Everyone realizes and understands that they are all Brazilians and compatriots, and they are merely calling people by these names to distinguish between one another based upon physical appearance. Notice that he thought all Blacks are called Bahiano in Brazil because he stayed only in some cities in São Paulo. Anyway, I think the parts that I bolded are correct.

To sum up, Brazilians have a knack for simplifying things (like where someone comes from) and giving people nicknames, especially based on appearance or place they come from (or their ancestors come from). The reason Brazilians call all East Asian looking people Japones (even Asian Brazilians who are not even descended from Japanese) is because Japanese were the biggest Asian community in Brazil for a long time. Normally when Brazilians call someone by an ethnic name (Japonês, Alemão, Portugues, Portuga, Polaco, Turco, etc) they're not actually thinking these people are not Brazilian, they're just referring to what makes them distinct. This happens more with phenotypes that are rarer or more distinct from the Brazilian average, as is the case of Japanese Brazilians.

The one case in which Brazilians are saying they do not think someone is Brazilians is when they call someone "gringo". Most foreigners are called gringo, especially Europeans, North Americans and other Latin Americans.

Edit: Also, I don't feel offended (most of the time) when people call me "Japonês" or "Japa". A lot depends on the context, but it's very rare for people to use those words to offend. This seems to be different from the US, where I heard "jap" was seen as negative way to call Japanese.