Currently, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) uses five race or color categories in the census: branca (white), parda (brown/mixed), preta (black), amarela (yellow, ethnic East Asian) and indígena (indigenous).

[15] The fusion of pretos and pardos into negros tends to be validated by the mainstream media, official bodies such as the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), ministries, government departments, and international organizations.

[17] Sociologist Simon Schwartzman points out that to "substitute negro for preto, suppressing the pardo alternative would mean to impose unto Brazil a vision of the racial issue as a dichotomy, similar to that of the United States, which would not be true.

[31] The Iberian conquerors could not attract sufficient settlers from their own countries to the colonies and, after 1570, they began increasingly to bring enslaved people who had been kidnapped in Africa as a primary labor force.

These uneven gender-ratios combined with the high mortality rate related to the physical duress that working in a mine or on a sugar plantation (for example) could have on a slave's body.

[37] Darcy Ribeiro estimated that, in this process, some 12 million Africans were captured to be brought to Brazil, even though the majority of them died before becoming slaves in the country.

The people from Congo had developed agriculture, raised livestock, domesticated animals such as goat, pig, chicken and dog and produced sculpture in wood.

On 23 October, in São Paulo, for instance, there were violent confrontations between the police and rioting Blacks, who chanted "long live freedom" and "death to the slaveowners".

[45]: 73  The president of the province, Rodrigues Alves, reported the situation as following: Uprisings erupted in Itu, Campinas, Indaiatuba, Amparo, Piracicaba and Capivari; ten thousand fugitive slaves grouped in Santos.

Facing exclusion from white social clubs, Afro-Brazilians formed their own organizations, including the Luvas Pretas in 1904 and the Palmares Civic Center in 1927, which served as a library and meeting place.

Although this period was repressive, Vargas's 1931 Law of Naturalization of Labor, favoring Brazilian-born workers over European immigrants, garnered some Afro-Brazilian support for him.

[48] Historian Manolo Florentino refutes the idea that a large part of the Brazilian people is a result of the forced relationship between the rich Portuguese colonizer and the Amerindian or African slaves.

[49] The Brazilian population of more evident black physiognomy is more strongly present along the coast, due to the high concentration of slaves working on sugar cane plantations.

Freyre wrote that the states with strongest African presence were Bahia and Minas Gerais, but that there is no region in Brazil where the black people have not penetrated.

Even in Southeastern and Southern Brazil, regions which received large waves of European immigration beginning in the 1820s and growing strongly in the late 19th century, 49% of the Caucasian population would have over 10% native African genes, according to that study.

[58] According to an autosomal DNA genetic study from 2011, both "whites" and "pardos" from Fortaleza have a predominant degree of European ancestry (>70%), with minor but important African and Native American contributions.

"Whites" and "pardos" from Belém and Ilhéus also were found to be predominantly European in ancestry, with minor Native American and African contributions.

[63] According to another study from 2008, by the University of Brasília, European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil in all regions, accounting for 65,90% of the heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution (24,80%) and the Native American (9,3%).

[66] In 2007 BBC Brasil launched the project Raízes Afro-Brasileiras (Afro-Brazilian Roots), in which they analyzed the genetic ancestry of nine famous Brazilian blacks and "pardos".

[67][68] Brazil has produced soap operas since the 1960s, but it was only in 1996 that a black actress, Taís Araújo, was the protagonist of a telenovela, playing the role of the famous slave Chica da Silva.

Black actors in Brazil are usually required to follow stereotypes and are usually in subordinate and submissive roles, as maids, drivers, servants, bodyguards, and poor favelados.

Joel Zito Araújo wrote the book A Negação do Brasil (The Denial of Brazil) which talks about how Brazilian TV hides the Black population.

In 1970, in the soap A Cabana do Pai Tomás (based on American novel Uncle Tom's Cabin) a white actor, Sérgio Cardoso, played Thomas, who was a black man in the book.

[69] In 2018, a survey conducted by UOL reported that Black actors represented approximately 7.98% of those employed in the drama departments of Brazil's three major television networks.

[75] These religions are mainly practiced in large urban centers such as Salvador, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Brasília, São Luís.

This heavy oil extracted from the fruits of an African palm tree is one of the basic ingredients in Bahian or Afro-Brazilian cuisine, adding flavor and bright orange color to foods.

[citation needed] Acarajé is a dish made from peeled black-eyed peas formed into a ball and then deep-fried in dendê (palm oil).

Capoeira is a martial art developed initially by enslaved Africans who came predominantly from Angola or Mozambique to Brazil, starting in the colonial period.

Masters of samba, Pixinguinha,[81] Cartola,[82] Lupicínio Rodrigues,[83] Geraldo Pereira,[84] Wilson Moreira,[85] and of MPB, Milton Nascimento,[86] Jorge Ben Jor,[87] Gilberto Gil,[88]: 37  have built the Brazilian musical identity.

Important athletes in other sports include NBA players, Nenê and Leandro Barbosa, nicknamed "The Brazilian Blur", referring to his speed.