The Study of Racialism

Brazil's blacks will soon be in majority

By MICHAEL ASTOR | The Associated Press
May 14, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Blacks will outnumber whites in Brazil this year for the first time since slavery was abolished, but the income gap between the two groups may take another 50 years to bridge, according to a government study released Tuesday.

The government's Applied Institute of Economic Research said Brazil, which has the world's second-largest black population after Nigeria, is decades away from racial equality despite public policies aimed at decreasing the gap.

Blacks generally earn 50 percent to 70 percent less than whites, and hold only 3.5 percent of management positions at Brazil's 500 largest companies, according to the labor-union statistics institute Diesse.

A 2004 study by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro found the income gap between whites and blacks in Brazil was wider than in apartheid-era South Africa.

"Black people end up not having the access to an education that will allow them to climb to meet opportunities. And when there is an opening, they aren't always capable of competing for it," said Diesse director Clemente Ganz Lucio.

In recent years, Brazil has created a system of quotas at public universities that has bridged the gap somewhat. But quotas are complicated in Brazil because of the high degree of mixing between races, and some critics say light-skinned people are taking spots reserved for blacks.

The government study was released Tuesday to coincide with the 120th anniversary of abolition in Brazil. In 1888, Brazil became the last country in the Western hemisphere to end slavery.

In 1890, blacks were estimated to make up 56 percent of Brazil's population, but that number dropped to 36 percent in 1940, according to the study.

If people would stop with this black and white nonsense then it would be better, imo.

What should have been said was that African descendants in Brasil will be the majority. Then that is not to the exclusion of any other heritage that people have.

And the irony is that not all Pardos are are plain'o Mulatos, there are millions of Mestizos and Triracials among them. In some cases even Quaracials, because I know some Brazilians who in addition to having Euro, Amerindian, and SSA ancestry, also have Asian ancestry. .

You know if we were to use the reverse ODR, we could say that over 95% of Brazilians are White since the overwhelming majority of Brazilians have atleast one drop of European blood.

Yes, but if "African descendants" means New World inhabitants with detectable subsaharan ancestry consequent to the transatlantic slave trade, then it is already true for every country except the U.S. and Canada (and even the U.S. does not fall short by much). On the other hand, if it means "self-identifies as African-American" then it is not true anywhere.

What should have been said was that African descendants in Brasil will be the majority.

People with at least some African ancestry are the majority of the country already, no?

The figures may vary on that. Ones I have seen show "whites" as the majority. Now how "white" is really defined, who knows. However, I believe that this article is referring to those that acknowledge their African heritage - both "mulatto" and "black." That why using African descent, rather than "black" makes more sense to me.

[But there are white people in Brazil who do the same. Fernado Henrique Cardoso, the former president of the country, is one.

I think that there is a difference from acknowledging some African ancestry and defining yourself as being an afrodescendant i.e. "black", mulatto, etc. For instance I have some white ancestry but I define myself as black.

But there are white people in Brazil who do the same. Fernado Henrique Cardoso, the former president of the country, is one.

Yeah, but you are American. Americans are weird that way. You are talking about an ethnic self-identity that is based on a presumed overriding importance of one of your ancestral continents of ancestry. There is nothing like that in any Latin country. In short, you are talking about self-identifying as "African-American," and it is exceedingly unlikely that many Brazilians self-identify as "African-American."

And, please, before replying that you are not referring to "African-American," but to "black" in the sense of the vast global unity of Afro-descended "black" people everywhere, please read this thread.

I think that there is a difference from acknowledging some African ancestry and defining yourself as being an afrodescendant i.e. "black", mulatto, etc. For instance I have some white ancestry but I define myself as black.

[
But isn't this poster equating to how he identifies himself as black being similar to how the former President identifies himself as white?

Also isn't this poster Caribbean, not African-American? Unless he/she identifies as the latter.

Maybe I'm confused.

why does it matter if they are black or white. The people are suffering because they are not having good education or good housing. .