Racism in Portugal

Although Portugal to be considered “a country of brandos customs”, racism existed and still it continues to exist in our country. Although regular and constant acts of violence against the minorities are not regist that inhabit in Portugal, it is certain that, here and there, they go appearing small focos of ethnic-racial conflicts, with greater or minor gravity. It is certain that the time of the settling and the colonialism already a certain aversion to the minorities goes far but still subsiste in the Portuguese people, in particular in relation to the African and gypsis communities that inhabit in Portugal. Since the decade of 1980 that Portugal started to be an important destination of immigrants. The Africans had arrived Portugal in great number, search of better conditions of life and to run away from the permanent situations of war in Africa. Although very evident manifestations of racism against the Africans in Portugal not to exist, are vulgar to observe eminently racist social attitudes. To a extremist level, we can make reference to reference the prompt registers of conflicts with ciganas etnias, some of them with serious consequências, and to the sprouting of a movement skinhead in Portugal, even so of small dimensions. Although the Portuguese Constitution does not allow the creation of extreme-right organizations, the extreme-nationalists skinheads had obtained to join themselves of form to create its proper movement in Portugal. From the decade of 1990, they had started to infiltrate itself in claques porting, trying to pass its racist message through the social medias. They are, general rule, main the intervening ones in racial conflicts in our country. As more serious example, we have the homicide of a young black in Lisbon in 1995. We cannot, therefore, say that Portugal is a racist country. We can yes affirm that still some preconception exists face to the ethnic minorities in the mind of many Portuguese.




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