I can tell you my own experiences. The fact is that one can.t say the portuguese aren.t racist ( being a black portuguese boy , I know what i.m talking about ! ) . What really exists in Portugal is a certain kind of general thought that we , blacks , if we hadn.t been colonized by the Portuguese, we wouldn.t be anything . They still think , for instance , that when my mother says that in Angola ( the country where she was born ) she used to eat more fish than meat , she is lying , because if during the Salazar regime white portuguese didn.t eat fish , blacks couldn.t eat fish as well . What most portuguese are , in my opinion , is hipocrits. They like to say that they are not racist , but once , and this is just an example , if by ocasion they happen to be robbed by a black person , they get to the point of wishing that ,that person was dead. Unless you are a quiet, " play their game " , type of person , you will be seen as a black that came to this country only to have fun and to enjoy the " extreme wealth " offered by the portuguese government . And there is also one final factor : in termos of being tolerant , we can only say that the portugues who live on the Lisbon area , tend to be less racist , because of the cities multicultural background . As we go north , we start to see things a little bit different . My sister for instance , went to a village on the outskirts of Coimbra , in which the village inhabitants had never seen a black person before , and in order to distinguish her , even knowing her name , always called her , " black teacher " . Racism in Portugal may be slightly lower than in other European countries ( i always think that the english are far more racist than the portuguese , being the less racist : the french ! ) but exists and i.m acctually afraid that it is starting to grow.
i would agree... i just encountered this problem yesterday. I met a landlord who are portuguese yesterday. He refuse to rent his apartment to me as i am chinese. I have been told that the reason of not renting to me because i don't speak portuguese, even my husband's company could support us for everything. what a racist!
When you see the countries with the highest standards of education, quality of living, low crime rates etc you can only look to Europe or countries with white ancestry with the exception of Japan. When everybody knows that Africa is still the poorest continent of the world with the highest standards of criminality and worst conditions in the world to live, you have to re-think your own policy of immigration. While there has allways been tensions between people from other races, religion in the world, Europe's just another melting pot and the most mediatic one. I say no to violence in anyways, but I'm against massive immigration. How many do we need, I dont know, but at tme moment this is starting to be a chaos. I know some other European capital cities like Paris and Brussels, and its getting hard for me to recognize a genuine man/women from these cities, they are full of immigrants. Jews and Muslims cant get along each other, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town those so called multiracial cities have the highest crime standards in the world, people kill any one just for a few bucks, I dont want that in my country nor in Europe. But has I said before these are my thoughs and I'm against violence, feel free to judge them by your own.
I have read all of your inputs,i am currently doing my CELTA course to teach English, and i am hoping to move my family out to Portugal, we're a black caribbean family with 3 children. how do you think children in Portugal view racism?
thanks for raising this issue bill. my husband and i are thinking of moving to portugal from london to have children as things are getting so bad here. i'm of south east asian origin and my husband is of white english & african heritage so racism is something that could very likely affect us and our kids!
i notice that contributions to this thread are quite dated now so i would be really interested to hear updates from everyone about how the moves went and if they have found racism to be problem in portugal.
I'm a white Brit living in the Cascais area of Lisbon, im 17 and have lived here for 10 years since my parents got teaching jobs here allowing us to make a move away from Britain.
Even as a white person i myself experiance racism of a kind, i speak portuguese and have more portuguese friends here than english but its a regular occurance to have off hand comments thrown at me such as "Bife", which means beef, the association to english people being a phisical steriotype of them being pale, pink and slightly plum, like a raw peace of steak, generally by people who dont know me, usualy drunk who hear me speeking english. Although its not very strong and in general doesnt tend to bother me it can leed to uncomfortable situations. Generally the racism you will find in portugal isnt a out right violent, or suppresive form of racism on the victims but more one of off hand mild biggotry. Some examples as mentioned above are the tendancy for white portuguese citizens to blame "the blacks" for many of the countries social problems and the general idea that all people of eastern european origion must be illegal immigrants out to "steal jobs". One such example i can give is of when i was 13 walking home from my near by local train station i was mugged (of 3 ciggarettes) by 2 slightly older boys driving a motorbike. When i met up with my friends in my town (all portuguese) i told them about it, not mentioning any physical aspects of my muggers and immediatly one of the prounounced "sempre e os pretos", in english its always "the blacks", the ammusing thing was that this was said by a black boy, showing that it really is a biggotted view deep set into everyones minds in the country, even at times the victims of this biggotry themselves.
In general though the racism found in portugal is just this, mild biggotry which is generaly suppressed by most portuguese citizens, the portuguese themselves would never describe themselves as racist, and in general the racism here is alot milder and alot more recognised as something which is in some way "wrong" than in other european countries. For example ive never heard a story of any racially fused attacks, and although im sure they do happen, its much more rare than in many other countries surrounding portugal, such as spain, france and yes even PC obbsessed britain.
sorry couple of spelling mistakes that made the above post a bit hard to read, im really not good at checking through what i write.
Ok thats british people looking *plump* not plum.
The boy from my town said, "its always the blacks"...forgot to surround the whole thing in "s and by the way both the boys who mugged me were white, i've in fact only been mugged twice here when i was younger and both times its been by white people...not that im making any accusations about white portuguese citizens, im just saying that in my experiance its not a racial thing.
As for moving to portugal depending on the area you are planning to settle in, combined with what line of work you are in, coupled with whether you have children who will need to go to school and although the schooling system is ok, its far from perfect, its alot like the American schooling system based on the system of you either passing or failing a year, and moving to the next year or having to repeat a year, but like i said its not bad, and there is always the option of putting them into an international private school (although its quite expensive). Portuguese people are in general friendly and welcoming and as for the country its warm, always relativley near to a beach (you cant get any further than 3 hours drive away from the coast) and quite beautiful, but some research on these areas should be done before making any final decisions.
Well...i like it anyway, only draw back is that if your an impatient person (which personally im not), everything here happens very, very, very slowly, so it may take a while to get everything in order if you make the move.
I wonder what it is really like living on the mainland in Portugal...I am White British, lived the majority of my life in the UK where I was born, but since 2007 I have been living in Madeira, Portuguese owned island. I have never suffered Racism here. I will say its about 99% white here, but are are the odd Chinese, Japanese (well there are a few such restaurants and thenatives from those countries work in them).
Yes! There is tremendous racism in Portugual because the country's demographics are changing. Portugal is becoming a black nation.Half the population of Lisbon is black...Gone is the "glorious" colonial past. Now, the colonized are colonizing the colonizers. The Potuguese natives cannot accept this change. As an African American in Portugal, I experienced racism. The fact that I spoke fluent Portugese did not mean anything. In fact, the Portuguese discriminated against me even more because I spoke Brazilian Portuguese, or as they sayto in Portugal "fala de crianca".
racism !!! sometimes u people come from another country for have a good life but another times u people come for mess .. im in uk im listen everytime the english people they are racist .. sorry ??? when ?? where ?? they are !!! what i see its a bit of inferiority from another cultures .. if u go 4 another country accept the rules from this country dont come to blame or try to change the way of life ..try to inform first the condition from the country before u imigrate ... im wonder how portugal support soo many people inside when the country pass soo dificulty away of life .. and u people come to blame !! of course we dont want bad people and every part in the world they are racist people .. but if we are racist why soo many russians black people brazillian etc etc ... in there sometimes without working . PEOPLE WE DONT WANT U PEOPLE SUFFER IF U THING PORTUGAL AND ANOTHER COUNTRIES DONT HAVE THE CONDITIONS FOR U PEOPLE STAY PLEASE THINK AND LIVE ..
Tony im portuguese i live in lisbon and 1 think i must tell you..man go check your head,people like you he dont need ear,if you think that we are racist,go way to your country and explain me why do you still live ear?
Tony why do you live ear?
If the portugueses are so bad why dont you go way.....
Go to your country,because we dont need you in portugal,and like beto said.go check your head man.....
To you all,im portuguese and its beter if you understand 1 detail,YOU ARE in PORTUGAL,our country so if you dont like the portugueses or the country please leave,go home we dont ask you to come live ear......
looking forward to going to portugal and thank you clube sporting for giving rangers supporters more tickets so they can have a fiesta de football.15,000 rangers personas on their way!!!!
just to state sth here, portuguese are f***ing racist and ignorant, never seen a more retarded ppl in the world as portuguese, as per the above query, i wouldn't go work in portugal as it's a poor country, one of the poorest in eu so it doesnt offer many opportunities and the ppl arent nice, there are so many medieaval looking places, believe me i have lived there in the past and i hated it, now i am in australia and i am citzen of the wealthy country....portuguese out of portugal don't bark as they are not considered whites...which by looking at them they are not compared to ozzies, british...portugal the worst country in the world to live in...
portugal is so behind compared to rich nations and not in even 100 years they will catch up, i have achived things in aus that many ppl wouldnt in a life time in portugal as it's poor and lack opportunities mostly retarded portuguse think that foreigners should low job like construction, they will die in misery as they are lazy and dum ass ppl, immigration is the only way out to portuguese, but becareful as eu might drop u portugal and then u portuguese cant traval to another country in eu or outside europe freely...just compare portugal with uk or netherlands..portugal is a 3rd world folks believe me. i lived there, and lived in london and now australia and when i see the wealth and nice ppl in australia u would rate portugal as f***ed place to live in...not even for holiday, it is strange when i lived in london which is only 2 hours flight from portugal u wouldnt hear any british talking about portugal not even on the news, here in australia ppl are wealthy n the holiday in many different countries but portugal, the life standard is really bad, no security as the policie are corrupts, bad public service...no word to describe it. ppl that say portuguse are nice it's because they never lived there, and the country won't benefit from tourism or foreign investor as the ppl are f***ed up...........more to say...f*** portugese
here in portugal and in europe we say stop to the imigration invasion! this is our land!
14/88
01 february
hey u, who da hell wants to live in portugal, unless if you are after misery...come to developed country like australia, one of the biggest country on earth and the richest and most beautiful in the world you'll see the difference, i can enter portugal on autralian passport any time i want but u suckers need visa/permission provided you can prove you can afford it so shut f*** up you dum ass motherf***er, i bet u r a crack head
I'm Afro-American and moving to Portugal for business. I'm wondering if there is racism in Portugal? Heard that it is growing over there.
Thanks, Bill
bro, why would want to live in portugal and expose your family to misery and all that considering the opportunities y'all have in US, portuguse are retarded hispanic looking ppl the would think they better just because they have fairer skin than dark ppl but the not..
they women want us that's why the hate on us...downt to potuguese...
Feel freely to come to Portugal if it’s your will. I’m sure you can successfully apply your business around here like you be able to in other countries, and find some skin colour remarks made by foolish people, like you will find in any other country. Pass over that stupid shit and don’t generalize a population by a single sample of it, like the racist people usually do.
Take care
milton
Are you effectively fighting hatred in yourself lately? You should man, no one can be happy with such feelings no matter how “wealthy” you are right now. You have a poor and miserable spirit. You are full of hate. Only the unloved hate. The unloved and the unnatural.
Please, be kind to yourself and to others; go on with your life and forget Portugal once and for all. Certainly, we've already forgot about you.
Portugal is one of the 30 more developed countries in the World - OCDE
We had the higgest Empire on earth... Portugal in the XV and XVI was one of the major powerfull countries in Europe... and in the XX century in the fascist regime o Salazar send with Franco in Spain to help Mussolini and Hitler.
Talking about the girls here the portuguese white beauty: http://www.my-celeb...?page=sit_lis&ids=1
Well...well...i guess i'll be the first black portuguese telling you all that I have NEVER seen any problem in portugal. I was raised there, by a white family, in a small town in northern portugal, most of my friends there are white, so when I hear these things I can't really understand. Unfortunatelly to me is that what I've seen is racism towards the white portuguese from blacks, brazilians..
Racism is ugly and a turn off. I am white, but I wouldnt want to live in a racist country. People with closed minds are usually closed to other things as well, such as, progressive culture and art. I was thinking about moving there for a job, but after listening to some of the opinions here, dought I will go. There are lots of places skilled migrants can go, you need us more than we need you.
as i a said portugese are f***ed up ppl that's y dat country is so behind compared to western europe/developed world, man my hatred is towards portugese mentality not the country itself, i actually had nice memories from portugal..pls change you narrow mind and look trive for progress..
yo vai levar no cu tu ke es um grande paneleiro do caralho, maioria dos portugueses sao paneleiros..agradecem a EU senao voces estavao a fugir dai que era uma loucura, dissestes bem portugal pra os portuguese e infelizmente e com essa triste mentalidade vossa que esse pais esta no estado e que esta, atrasados do caralho se fosse os imigrantes esse pais era pior ke zimbabue, imigantes nao vao pra ai, nao nada que esse pais possa oferecer..agora nem obras ha ai porque nao ha dinheiro e a uniao europeia esta farto de ser chulado pelos portugueses. Deviam seguir o exemplo da espanha que aproveitou a ajuda e hoje tem uma boa economia.
os atrasado ai em cima, os paises mais ricos do mundo precisam de skilled ppl e voces nao??? porra morrem na miseria....
O seu brasileiro miseravel,portugal e um grande pais ate tu seu anormal viestes ca pedir esmola.
Nos nao queremos ca pedintes,queremos ca gente seria.
Portuga4portugueses
hey kem te disse ke sou brasileiro??? digo te meu ate apreciei o pais kdo tive la, o clima, historia,e tal, mas portugues como tu e mesmo atrasado. olha so portugal colonizou brazil e no entanto brazil tem uma melhor economia e e mais desenvolvido ke o colonizador e os brazileiros ate sao mais alegres e divertido do ke os portugueses. os portugal foi um grande imperio e tive mta fortuna ms infelizmente como deviam mto aos ingleses tiveram ke pagar a divida e tal, pois os ingleses sao mto mais inteligentes e mto obvio isso. infelizmente e a pura verdade os portugal nao e um pais prospero e pela estatisca nem sera daqui a 50 anos comparados com paises ricos da europa, nem sequer estao na lista. agora seu palhaco eu vivo na AUSTRALIA isso ker dizer ke nao tai ai a pedir esmola gracas a Deus. ve se aprende algo e faz alguma coisa pra o teu pais em vez de tares nas tabernas a beber copos ou es carrocho de bairro alto ou intendente. Kdo sai de portugal tive o prazer de viver em londres, damn nem se compara os ingleses com pulas, they open minded. O FADO e pra vos fazer lembrar e chorar daquilo que tiveram e que ja nao tem mais..agradece a EU senao tavas ai no alentejo a pantar vacas...piss off yo crackheaded, faggot
Oh atrasado mental,nao estas aqui a pedir esmola mas tivestes que ir pedir esmola para a australia,es mesmo um triste atrasado que nem no pais de nascimento conseguio alguma coisa,es como dizemos aqui um desgracada que nao tem onde cair morto.
Tenho pena dos australianos terem de dar esmola a um triste atrasado como tu,deves ter de lenber o cu ao patrao todos os dias,es patetico.
portugal4portugueses
Es mesmo um chulo,tem vergonha grande chulo......
Viestes para ca tentar chular mas levastes um pontape no cu,es uma vergonha nem para chulo serves,um dia destes levas outro pontape dos australianos,e depois vais para onde.....etiopia?.
Es a maior desgraca que ja vi.
chulo e uma palavra portuguesa pke tu como portugues es um grande chulo e paneleiro..pelo teu entendimento nao levei ponta pe nennhum seu imbeicil do caralho, tenho nacionalidade portuguesa o ke me todos os direitos ke tu ou kulaker portugues tem seu otario, se kissesse ia pra ia viver or em kulaker outro pais da europa mas esses nao sao meus planos.. tu e ke es um grande chulo deves andar ai na porta dos cafes a chular e tal..percebe isso sou cidadao daki isso ker dizer aus e o meu pais so pelo ke eu sei or kulaker pessoa com um pouco de inteligencia nao ha lei ke expulse cidadoes do seu pais ou ha desse lei em portugal??? man get some sense into your f***ed up brains..watch out senao vais acabar na etopia tu pk ha muitos paise da africa ke estao com uma boa economia ou menos there's increase..se fosse chular de certeza ke nao ia chular pra ai, you dumb ass crackheaded, como disse nao tenho nda contra o pais ms sim dos poruguses atrasados como tu ke nao tem nem onde cair morto e tem atitudes, deixa isso pra kem pode, kdo for presidente da eu vou exigir ke vosses paguem a vossa debt or i'll drop you off..porra voces e ke sao chulos recebem ajuda da eu e nao fazem um bom uso disso, ao menos se eu fosse chulo so um bem inteligente.....peace out
yo go f*** yourself, i probably write better portuguese than you do, that's informal writting as when you txt msg sb, you drag queen biatch..get a clue you dumb idiot, i ain't got time to waste reading some bullshit from a looser like you, and for your info it's here when you talking about places not ear you dunkey son of a bitch. do i give a f*** about what you say, yo punk ass bastard. you are one retarded person, show some brains for a change, what i said so far makes sense, ain't here making up shit like y'all loosers, i don't beg you punk ass, i have got a really good job, what about you?? bet you're still living with your folks or trying to keep your head above the water.i'll put da mack down so watch yo back. bring sth to the table then will revert, until then stay in school & learn you cock son of a bitch.
sup faggot..
one of part time job here is to shag portuguese women since you guys can't shag to save your lives, you dickless punk, even in portugal i used to hit the ladies and they love a good bong, take it from me they do. Who knows maybe i did your shorty as well, is that y ur so mad, don't be hatting dawg, all good and only for the ladies..did she mentioned milton...i shag women dawg i aint portuguese whom only know how to drink bagaco & bica and can't crack a fat. i'll be back to take over your ladies soon so hang in there ladies..by the way is bye
ok im portuguese but living in the uk but let me get it straight .portugal is a small counntry and is not very rich either but is full of immigrants most of them are black and the reason we dont like them is because most of them they dont come to to work but to robbery or as a pedints .i never robbed by a white man but i have robbed lots of time by black f***er and most of them attack us because of the past when they used to be slaves .well we are in 2008 dickheads they bring crime they got no education and they refuse to go to school free and they its because the schhols are shit well u dont even haves ones in country so shu up .they dont accept the laws they dont respect the communities they are a bunch of thungs making or country even worse to live in lisbon u cant anywhere in piece of mind because of them and its not just them its black, brazilians,gipsies,man please if u are to makre trouble or u dont want to work or respect its rules please get that f*** out . please eu do something about mass immigration
sorry couple of spelling mistakes that made the above post a bit hard to read, im really not good at checking through what i write but im not going to write it again
I'm portuguese and lived in Newark, New Jersey for 20 years. My opinion is that there are more black racists in the U.S. then there are white racists in Portugal. Blacks discriminate amongst themselves, calling each other "niggers". If a white person calls a black "nigger" he is a racists but if a black person uses the same term, it's acceptable. The truth is that in the neighborhood I was brought up in, the blacks where more afraid of blacks then they were of the whites. The excuses for crimes and misbehavior are always the same ...."well no one asked them to bring us here....and my people have been descriminated against for the past 200 years....." THAT WAS 200 YEARS AGO, GET A LIFE AND STOP USING EXCUSES FOR BEING A FAILURE IN OUR SOCIETY. Let the sucessfull blacks be your inspiration....Oprah Winfrey for example. What about "Affirmative Action" isn't that racism???
Hello Everyone my name is Cristina Avila I was born in Portugal to a Brazilian(Italian) mother and a Angolan(African) father and I have to say growing up for me was very hard because whites did not like me because I had a Black parent and some Blacks also did not want me around because of my complexion it is just crazy that racism and hatred exist we are all human beings and we need to come together as one and not seperate we are all GODS children.
Hello Cristina. Your considered a "molata" and that´s even worse because your discriminated by both whites and blacks. Have you ever lived in the United States? I'ver never seen such racial discrimination in Europe as I have seen in the United States. So as for Bill (the african american who posted this question earlier)- you have nothing to fear but fear itself!
Im portuguese and have dark skin i am reffered to as moreno by everyone and even in my little town i never felt racism towards me but instead compliments on my colour to me portugal is a great contry where you can see all of the cultures of our colonies coming together. its fun, good climate, beautiful people and great food, soccer, great musica and dancing kizomba, forro, fado, samba.. for me its the best contry in europe. HANDS DOWN
This is the funniest page of comments I've never read. So much hatred, its pathetic. Never mind racism in Portugal or where ever else in the world. It exists, its a fact of life where ever you go in the world, and as long as people are free to travel where ever they want to, they will experience racism or xenophobia, because, and lets be honest with each other here, nobody likes a foreigner in their own contry that much anyway. Deal with it, or move some where else is all you can do, but eventually we all have to settle somewhere and just make the best of our situations.
If the white people in Portugal are openly racist at least you know about it and where you stand with them, unlike other parts of of the world where they smile nicely at you to your face, but as soon as your back is turned, they'll run you and your race into the ground. Personally I'd rather know that people hate me openly, its far easier to figure out what to do with that situation than dealing with hypocrits.
Milton - I have read all your comments,inclduing the ranting and raving in "portuguese"
I understand your opinion ( don't agree with it) about the Portuguese and the country etc - HOWEVER PLEASE DON'T make out Australia ( and for that matter New Zealand) are NOT racist!
You forgot to mention the "abo's"(aboriginees) and the Kiwis the "Maoris"
Although I have to say the Maoris get a much better deal out of the Kiwi government. I have live a long time in NZ and OZ and I cna tell you a very "clever" biggoted/racisim is alive and well in Australia. What about the rights in the Eastern Bays a couple of years ago in Sydney!
When was the last time there was racist rioting in Lisbon??
I'm actually half Portuguese and half Scottish and I have lived in Lisbon/Sintra/Colares and also in the Algarve. I was however mainly brought up in the West of Scotland as a Catholic living in a mainly protestant area - I have plenty of experiences of bigotry!!
I have lived all over the world as well.....and its the same EVERYWHERE ...what you dont know or understand - you fear - what you fear you reject......the rejection is dispalyed by humans in many different ways...racism, biggotry,etc,etc.....ALSO SOME parents must take responsibility and break the chain of bigotted and racsist attitudes that they listened to in the home - through good parenting they can break the vicious cycle.
You are so right!! I am saddly shocked at the level of ignorance and hate spewed in this page...although maybe i should not be so shocked,after all i lived all of my formative years in Portugal and was treated as inferior ,i was born in one of the ex-colonies,and moved to Lisbon while we were still a colony,we were considered theyr overseas territory, i never chose to go to Portugal,i was taken as a child,and after all the abuse while growing up i decided that as a human being i was entitled to more,i mean for most of the world ,health, education and housing are considered basics,but the for the migrants who came from the old colonies that was a dream,yes things have changed(bound to) but statistically Portugal is about 20 years behind in equality with most of the developed world,all due to ignorance(evidence aplenty on postings above) and te belief that they are not racist,they have "pretos" friends,and or colleagues, but as soon as a lost teenager commits a crime the whole race or country where his family originated from,becomes all the horrible descriptins you read above.As the englishman who stated he was not aware of any attacks,i am young portuguese males neo nazis attacking foreign students(fee paying students) and even killing some but who do not get arrested or setenced for more than 6 months.police officers who killed children while shooting irresponsibly in the many ghettos surrounding Lisbon...etc....many stories,too much pain, but not much change...its ugly to be so ignorant and so sared of a diferent culture,and its embarrasing to show everybody else how small your brain is ,those who used this forum to spew such verbal sh** have actually emabrrased theyr country and should be taught that being a patriot or a proud Portuguese has nothing to do with being hatefull...I know so because i am black and yesterday i lost my voice while screaming for one more goal before the end of our 94 minutes against Germany.
Be proud!! yes but use the brain cells god gave yo as well.
Peace Out
