I would later learn and confirm through experience that many people expect people from the United States to be white. No one believed I was from such a "highly developed" country.
I noticed more examples of Black erasure when I asked archivists about Afro-Brazilian history. Most were happy to discuss Black life and culture starting in the 1930s, but nothing much from beforehand. There were repeated conversations that avoided talking about slavery directly and the racism that was pursued after abolition (the end of legal slavery).
Learning more about the Confederados relocating to Brazil also shines a light on their goals with Manifest Destiny. Continuing enslavement and upholding ideas of white superiority were perfect pairings with how Brazilians invested in embranqueamento, the process of whitening within the country. By encouraging Confederate families to leave the United States to continue their Dixie way of life in Brazil, aspects of Manifest Destiny prevailed, as well as cultural ideologies that white, Anglo-Saxons were meant to civilize the rest of the world as God "intended."
Despite the progress made in the Reconstruction era, Black identity and livelihood remained under threat both in the U.S. and Brazil. Traveling between the United States and Brazil has given me the opportunity to both research and experience firsthand these ideologies that spring from both countries' histories. Being a historian and cultural explorer, I believe my work will help shine a light on the past in a way that may inspire positive change.
