"White Brazilians are against interracial unions, but only accept them if they whiten the popul

The painting of
Ham's Redemption, in Portuguese: A Redenção de Cam.
The painting deals with the racial theories and phenomenon of the nineteenth century of the search for the gradual whiting of the Black race, "branqueamento", of the generations of the same family through miscegenation, race mixing.

The painting is the fruit of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, Chapter 9, in which Noah curses and condemns Ham to be a slave along with his son Canaan, who is cursed as "the servant of the servants".
Noah prophesied that he, Ham, would be "the last of the slaves of his brethren." Ham was then pointed out in the ‘Holy’ Christian Bible as the supposed father of the Black African race. This was the theological basis for Christians to justify slavery and colonialism.

"Ham's Redemption", Brazil, 1895. This painting promotes the idea of “whitening”, branqueamento, the Black population over generations.

Brazil had recently abolished slavery but it was still the 19th century and Brazil has a massive racist theories and ideologies towards Black =African people, so the existence of a large free Black population in a country like 19th century Brazil, was seen as a problem and a sign of backwardness, primitive, savages. The way Brazil solved the “Black problem” was with massive European migration and encouraging race mixing marriages, as shown in the picture, literally whitening the Black population overtime. Brazil had the opposite idea to racial mixing than that of the USA, where there was the “one drop rule”, and segregation and also South Africa with the racial ideology of apartheid. Instead of mixing with Black people, making the child “tainted” and “inferior”, as seen in the United States and South Africa, and actually seen globally, Brazil’s idea of race mixing instead “washed” Ham cursed away and “washed” the blackness away. So this was a way for the European to “solve” the Black problem and eventually solve the racism problem in the 19th century white Christian European eugenics mindset.

The painting of
Ham's Redemption, in Portuguese: A Redenção de Cam.
In the painting, the denial of African culture becomes apparent in the robes of the female figures; both women wear westernized clothes and not clothing that recall their African descent.
The seated woman's body is covered in European clothing, making her look more European than African. Here is the idea of black women's adjustment to Christian morality and an ideal of a "whitening reproduction" is represented. In addition, it is notable that the two characters who do not have white skin are women: the mother and the grandmother, establishing a color opposition to the baby and the father. The whole composition is strengthened when the viewer realizes that the ground on which the man treads is stone, showing an "evolution" in relation to the bare earth the women's feet touch. Once again, the white-skinned European is shown as superior and powerful, and this is evident even in his pose: his back is turned away from the women as he looks at the rest of the scene.

The painting of
Ham's Redemption, in Portuguese: A Redenção de Cam.
The painting is considered one of the most racist paintings of the nineteenth century, and one of the most racist paintings ever created, bringing with it the symbolism of European thinking.

In the nineteenth century, the idea of society "whitening" ,branqueamento, spread in Brazil, as an ideology which sought to erase Black African features from the Brazilian population.

The painting is a representation of Brazil using Europe imperialist progress as a model. In the eyes of European Christians, whiteness, represented progress, forward thinking, while Blackness, represented backwards, savages, the past. In this context, comes the eugenics of Black African people and whitening of the Black race, which proposed and encouraged miscegenation, race mixing, as a solution to the “Black problem”; thus leaving Brazil’s population with an increasingly white European profile.