Who is black in Brazil? This article from Latin American Perspectives examines racial discrimination in Brazil. It argues that Brazil’s myth of racial democracy limits realistic discussion of racism and racial identity because it prevents the identification of dysfunctional race relations. The important question with regard to affirmative action is not who is black, but rather what sort of society do Brazilians want to build.
In 2001, race became part of Brazil’s national agenda under the pressure of black social movements for the establishment of university admission quotas. Affirmative action policies of this sort, however, face strong resistance. One of the principal arguments used against admission quotas is that it is impossible to know who is black in Brazil. However, available statistics and data make clear that people and institutions in Brazil face no insurmountable difficulties in identifying who is black. Rather the problem is in being able to acknowledge the existence of exclusion and discrimination or the measures that are necessary to tackle the problem.
Brazil’s system of racial classification is indeterminate and subjective. Given substantial miscegenation, it is no small task for Brazilians to adopt a rigid and standardised system of biologically-based racial classification. However, from a socio-political perspective there is little difficulty in identifying who is black in Brazil:
- The identity of Brazil’s Native American population is closely related to its experience of physical and symbolic violence. Given the reality of racial discrimination, there is no reason why black identity cannot be established in the same way.
- Records of police violence and homicide demonstrate a clear racial pattern among targets of police brutality and murder. Police officers and ‘unofficial’ death squads seem to have little difficulty in identifying blacks.
- While a bipolar black-and-white classification has not been widely adopted, there are no significant socioeconomic differences between blacks and pardos (mixed race). Both groups, however, differ tremendously from whites.
- The racial stratification of power and prestige in Brazil is well-defined and extremely rigid. Whites occupy the top echelons, while blacks and pardos are actively excluded.
It is not difficulty in identifying who is black that makes it impossible to answer the question of who is black in Brazil. Rather it is the myth of racial democracy, which:
- limits any serious or realistic discussion of racism and racial identity in Brazil. The myth of racial democracy encourages the maintenance of a dangerous status quo, in which dysfunctional race relations cannot be identified or commented upon;
- promotes the illusion that racial mix has brought an end to colour distinctions. From a biological perspective, that Brazilian society is multiracial, cannot be denied. However, confusing biology with the social aspects of race generates the illusion of equality; and
- renders all blacks invisible, negating their very existence and stripping them of their uniqueness and humanity. Thus, the myth of racial democracy reinforces the most fundamental aspect of racism – the dehumanisation of the racially oppressed.
