The colonizer mindset - The Eurocentric (and North-American centric) view of everything.

I am a woman who was born in Brazil, an extremely social and friendly country, I possess a white skin complexion, even though I'm incredibly mixed, (to my personal pride,) as all of us Brazilians are, which is something that anyone can see just by walking in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, for example. However, only in the decades I have been living as an emigrant/immigrant have I really come to grasp the reality that I lived and live as part of a somewhat privileged group. I say somewhat because I am not living in my motherland anymore, and even though I have skin on the lighter range, I too experience the oppressing airs of the active xenophobia and colonial mentality in Europe. 

 I believe that the biggest mistake of a person, be that a common or clearly erudite one, who comes from a privileged group or powerful "first world" country is to think that racism or xenophobia are ideals that come from an individual perspective. I will give examples of this way of thinking: 

 - I don't think I'm racist. (Therefore, racism is not a thing). 

 - I have black friends. (Therefore, I don't practice racism). 

 Or even more individualist ways of portraying racism: 

 - Racists are evil. (And because I'm not evil, I cannot be racist). 

The biggest problem about conceiving "racism" in the third way mentioned above is that it makes people believe that being racist is an act that does not come from society in general, but from individuals who actively choose to do bad things towards others. When, in reality, racism, sexism, or xenophobia are culturally, socially, and historically built in the foundations and structures of society, especially the oppressor's society.

Everybody practices racism, both the ones who do not belong to the lesser group and the ones who do. Simply because it is a cultural reality, not an individual choice. I am sure most people nowadays do not want to belong to either group: the oppressor or the oppressed. Both groups dehumanize us, but they are a thing and it is here in our daily rituals, without us realizing.

It is hard to hear this, but any interest a person who belongs to the privileged group may have in treating the minority, which means the historically oppressed, groups with kindness or equality, without opening themselves up to accept our play in this non-equal, non-meritocratic reality, will be but superficial generosity. A vertical charity either to fulfill a personal emptiness or an individual conflictive self-image. 

If you want to be seen as good but do not want to venture into losing your romantic ideals of Patria or your properties to include others, who have been dehumanized and violated for centuries, if not millennia, then it means you chose to live a false reality: a capitalist, individualistic fairy tale of a supposedly meritocratic reality, built by the oppressors to pretend they live fairly in a fair world.

Karinna A. Gulias