Related to the previous post...

Growing up in suburban Ohio, "What are you?" was a normal question for us to ask each other in classes or on sports teams. We knew exactly what people meant when they asked this question. My family's answer to this question was supposed to be "75% German and 25% Irish" (though sometimes mentioning the adopted great(?)-grandmother's unknown heritage to leave some wiggle-room for error).

Teaching elementary school in Korea, I started to think about that question again and how funny it was that I'd grown up thinking that such a question (with answers given in a percentage format) was normal. Now, in Brazil, I started to wonder if people ask each other that here. Most Brazilians are either from African, Portuguese, indigenous, Italian, German or Japanese descent. There are descendants from other countries as well and the majority of people are some sort of mix of these races. I realized that, in Brazil, they could easily ask each other that same question my friends and I grew up asking each other.

I asked a Brazilian friend of mine a while back and she told me that Brazilians never ask each other that question. They couldn't care less where their last names are from or what percentage of African or Portuguese blood they have in their bodies. They do, however, divide themselves in a very similar way, depending on what city their from. This is true and became blatantly obvious as soon as I started getting to know the locals.

Brazilians have a word to describe people from every different city in Brazil (the two most obvious examples being: Paulistas--people from Sao Paolo--and Cariocas--people from Rio). These words refer to where a person was born and raised.

In the U.S., we use our heritage to divide ourselves. We separate ourselves and attach (oftentimes silly) stereotypes: "He talks a lot because he's Italian." "He drinks a lot because he's Irish.". We attach pride and shame to these titles as well and, more often than not, these stereotypes are used to talk about people who have been in the U.S. for so many generations that they're more American than a McDonald's hamburger. People don't necessarily take these stereotypes entirely seriously but this idea still seems pretty ingrained to me. Oddly enough, though, we often know so little about the actual way of life of these people, that we Americans who consider ourselves "Italians" or "Irish," for example, would stick out like sore thumbs in the actual countries we're supposedly so attached to. (I can attest to this; I've been to both Italy and Ireland with groups of "Italian" and "Irish" Americans.)

In much the same way, Brazilians divide and attach stereotypes to people based on what city they're from. If you ask any Paulista what he or she thinks of Cariocas, they'll tell you that Cariocas are lazy and all they do is go to the beach. Cariocas will tell you that Paulistas are uptight and that all they do is work and look for more money. I've heard both groups talk about their good stereotypes as well but, in the end, it all looks about the same as what we do State-side.

I guess it's just another example of people being people. It seems that it's human nature to divide ourselves somehow and keep the "other" out. It's fun to look at how we do it in different ways in different countries and it seems absolutely silly when looking at it from the outside.