Racism in Brazil
Racism has been present in Brazil since its colonial period and is pointed as one of the major and most widespread types of discrimination, if not the most, in the country by several anthropologists, sociologists, jurists, historians and others.
[1][2][3] The myth of a racial democracy, a term originally coined by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre in his 1933 work Casa-Grande & Senzala (The Masters and the Slaves), is used by many people in the country to deny or downplay the existence and the broad extension of racism in Brazil.
Racial classification in Brazilian society is often inconsistent and influenced by a myriad of factors including: class, status, education, location and phenotype.
However, European induced wars and disease quickly began to deplete the indigenous populations and Portuguese settlers soon looked to Africa to satisfy their labor demands.
In 1825, José Bonifácio Andrada e Silva, who was a prominent figure in leading Brazil to independence from Portugal, was in high favor of gradual emancipation.
[11] Due to her gender and her marriage to a foreigner, Isabel had trouble gaining support, despite having twice served as regent during her father's reign.
"[14] These thoughts began to spark fear among Brazil's elite who sought to use ideas of eugenics to better the country's economic standing.
One anthropologist who adopted eugenic thought, Raimundo Nina Rodrigues, began to become concerned with the racial mixing occurring in Brazil.
[13]"The broad influence of Catholicism in Brazil and the rest of Latin America constrained eugenicists' interventions in discussions on marriage restrictions and human reproduction.
In the eyes of Catholic intellectuals, these were matters of a moral and religious nature and as such not open to political or medical intervention; this kept them from making any more radical proposals such as eugenic sterilization.
[17][18] Amidst discussions of eugenics and the country's demographics hindering its development, the first Brazilian Republic decided to institute a policy of "whitening" wherein it would try to dilute the black population and drive out all signs of African culture.
[12] This was done by incentives encouraging immigrants from Europe to come and skew demographics along with suppression of African and Indigenous culture all in an effort to erase the presence of blacks from Brazil.
The work addressed the controversial racial policy based on eugenics and depicted the phenomenon of gradual whitening of the population over generations.
[12] Suggestions about increasing immigration of Afro- North Americans sparked contentious debates inside and outside of the eugenics community.
Freye's book transformed the idea of miscegenation into a positive part of Brazilian culture and national identity and it became widely accepted that Brazil's history of intermixing between races had rendered the country a post-racial society, as it would come to be hailed for many years to come.
[23] While it was in power, the military preferred to think of race as a non-issue and pushed the idea of a unified identity among all Brazilians in order to quell resistance.
In her article "From 'Racial Democracy' to Affirmative Action" Mala Htun argues that the unwillingness of the Brazilian government to define race prevented Afro-Brazilian rights organizations from forming and limited the group's political power.
The public greatly influenced the writing of the 1988 constitution and black rights organization successfully petitioned for the inclusion of an anti-racist clause that would make racism a punishable offense.
In the 1990s, with the reintroduction of democratic systems, the use of NGOs and international organizations brought color consciousness and issues of persisting racial inequality to the forefront of national discussions.
A research article published in 2011 indicated that 63.7% of Brazilians believe that race interferes with the quality of life, 59% believe it makes a difference at work, and 68.3% in questions related to police justice.
Under the racial democracy thesis, it was assumed that any disparity in wealth between white and non-white Brazilians was due to the legacy of slavery and broader issues of inequality and lack of economic mobility in the country.
Based on his findings, he concluded that the level of economic mobility in Brazil should have been enough to overcome inequality left from slavery had opportunities been available equally.
The statistics were obtained from the Mortality Information System, which looked at race/skin color, gender and education as explanatory variables for potential causes of racialized killings.
In the black population, the risk of being victimized based on race increased regardless of gender, even after gun control measures took place over the studied period of time.
