14 The Hampton Roads Messenger Our World


Booming Afro-Brazilian Businesses Fuel Brazil’s New Middle Class


Volume 8 Number 12 The new millennium has brought


the country’s first and only black university, first black magazine, first black cultural expo, first black business group, first black TV network and the first black actor to star in a prime-time television show.


Reighan Gillam, a postdoctoral


research fellow in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, wrote her dissertation on the country’s first black TV network, TV da Gente. Despite its eventual demise, TV da Gente, which was launched in 2005, was a milestone in Brazil’s new commitment to black identity, Gillam said.


“Even BY DION RABOUIN Just 12 years ago Adriana


Barbosa was unemployed and selling clothes at tiny street bazaars. It was the 21st century, but Barbosa realized that much of the country’s Afro-Brazilian population was still unable to find products and services designed for them. So she created Feira Preta, a cultural fair where hundreds of black exhibitors showcase various products, from traditional hairstyles and beauty products to English courses focusing on black culture.


Today her business interests encompass a production company and promotional business, and she is branding Feira Preta throughout Brazil. Barbosa’s success is far from an isolated incident. Black Brazilian entrepreneurs, especially women, are pushing their way into the country’s rapidly growing middle class.


and


Fueled by a blossoming economy a


government program aimed Our Faith By Rev. Dr. Gregory Headen


Every dilemma is also an opportu- nity. Baptism for us is on the profession of faith by the person that is baptized. If one cannot under- stand the meaning of baptism because he or she is too young


and immature, we do not baptize that person. It is also possible that one could be an adolescent and due to developmen- tal and cognitive issues may still not be able to understand the simple matters of faith and personally accept Christ. In the case of little children, we practice dedi- cation of our children. As believing par- ents or guardians, we bring our child or children to The Lord. We stand before the altar of The Lord and make commit- ments on the child's behalf. This is not a game but a serious and solemn prom- ise. Here we re-commit our own lives to The Lord and promise to bring up the child or children in the love and admo- nition of The Lord. The congregation takes a pledge to be an extended family by supporting the parents and child with encouragement, prayer, and whatever else The Lord gives us opportunity to do. We believe our children are covered by the grace of God through our faith un- til they reach the age and maturity level to receive Christ for themselves. We strongly encourage our young people to


turn to The Lord and by their own de- cision give him their hearts and be bap- tized. Young Danillo Goins presents us with a dilemma and an opportunity to- day. He is a teenager in years, but not in understanding. His parents wanted him to be baptized, but he cannot comprehend what baptism is and means. We could baptism him, but it would not be upon the profession of his own faith. The par- ents agree with this assessment. He has already been dedicated to The Lord by his parents. What can we do for Danillo that requires our faith as a people on his behalf. Rev. Carver and I made a visit to the home some months ago to meet with Danillo and his parents. God revealed something to me, and I shared it with the parents. Let's have a special ceremony of anointing over Danillo and invite the entire church family to believe God for him. I shared my thoughts with Pastor C, and he confirmed it as well. Since that time, the Spirit has said anoint Ron and Angelica, his parents, and pray for them as well. So today, we invite all of you to release your faith for the Goins fami- ly. God has not promised me that he will do anything particular or out of the ordi- nary today. I am led to anoint, lay hands, and pray. I am content to let God be God and do what He pleases. Our peace is in knowing that we have been obedient and that Danillo is covered under the blood of Jesus. His future will continue to be in God's hands.


at reducing income inequality, approximately 80 percent of Brazil’s new members of the middle class are black. Over the past decade, the middle class has grown by 38 percent, according


to government grew by 123 reports


from the Strategic Affairs Secretariat of the Presidency. Incomes of black Brazilians


percent


between 2000 and 2012—five times faster than the rest of the population, according to a report by Globo newspaper in 2012.


“It is a highly promising segment,” Barbosa says of


Afro-Brazilian


consumers. “Today people self-declare as black, and ... there is entrepreneur- ial opportunity. The market needs to see this population. There are few companies developing products specifically for blacks.”


Before Barbosa started or wholly Feira


Preta in 2002, many of the types of black businesses and institutions that are commonplace in the U.S. were practically


nonexistent. in the midst of few


resources and very little institutional support ... people still persist and demand


that black representation


exist,” she says, “and they’re going to produce it whether it’s on national TV or not.”


The economic boom for blacks has come in concert with a newfound recognition of blackness. While many Brazilians


of African ancestry still


choose not to identify as black, the designation of preto or preta, which is translated as “black” or “Negro” and was once considered offensive, is beginning to pick up steam in the country. On the 2010 census, only 7.6 percent of Brazil’s 51 percent black population identified as preto, but that was the highest percentage ever.


This has been a catalyst for entrepreneurs like Michelle Fernandes, who started her business, Boutique de Krioula, about a year ago. She says that hers and other black businesses have been created as a direct result of the changing attitudes.


“This comes consciousness that from the Brazilians


black have


come to take lately,” she says of the success of Brazil’s new black businesses. “We see black men and black women increasingly proud of our roots. [We want] to know more about our culture and consume products that have to do with our identity and that are made by other blacks.”


According to the Brazilian


Institute of Geography and Statistics, there has been a 29 percent growth in entrepreneurship among blacks from 2001 to 2011. However, it’s not all sunshine for Brazil’s new black middle class. Black business owners still earn less than half as much as their white counterparts on average and face a


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The Bryant & Stratton College Campus is the in the


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The College is regionally accredited by the


August 2014


number of other barriers to success. They have proportionately fewer years of education, are younger and have less access to resources like telephones and


information technology. Black


business owners also say it’s more difficult for them to get access to capital.


entrepreneur


“Support for the Afro-Brazilian is very little,”


says


Fernandes. “We have great difficulty in opening physical spaces, getting loans at banks and so on.”


Afro-Brazilian businesses are also


generally small. While the number of entrepreneurs has grown, of all the businesses owned by black Brazilians, just 8 percent employ more than just the owner. A higher percentage of the businesses are also in manual labor or industries like construction, agriculture and hairstyling.


The new middle class is also


facing a backlash from Brazil’s old guard. A 2012 survey by Brazilian research firm Data Popular found a variety of complaints. According to the survey, 55.3 percent of wealthy consumers think that products should have different versions for rich and poor; 48.4 percent said that the quality of service has deteriorated with more access of the population; 49.7 percent prefer environments frequented by people of the same social level; and 26 percent say that a subway would bring “unwanted people” to the area where they live.


“For years the elite bought and lived alone in their ‘small world,’” says Renato Meirelles, director of Data Popular. “In recent years the middle class has ‘invaded’ malls, airports and other places where [previously] they had no access. As it is a new thing, the upper and upper middle class is still learning to live with it. Part of the elite is indeed bothered by this.”


as more


But many experts believe that Afro-Brazilians become


permanent fixtures of the middle class, these prejudices will become a thing of the past, not because of evolving humanity but out of financial necessity. Gillam, who has been visiting Brazil regularly since 2004, says that from what she has seen, black Brazilians are only going to make their presence more known in the future.


“I find that people are kind of relentless with pursuing any kind of avenue for putting forward black representation,” she says.


Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which is an institutional accrediting


agency recognized by


the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation,


and has locations


in New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as an Online


Education division, and a


Professional Skill Center. For 160 years, Bryant & Stratton College has been providing real world education leading


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