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Race & ethnic relations: American and global perspectives

Marger, M. N. (2015). Race and ethnic relations: American and global

perspectives (10th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning .

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BRAZIL ·CHAPTER I 5 Racial and Ethnic Democracy?

Shifting our focus from South Africa to Brazil, a more striking contrast in ethnic re- lations could not be found in the modern world. Instead of an ethnic morass, Brazil has often been praised, by Brazilians and outside observers alike, as a racial and ethnic paradise where people of varied physical features and with diverse cultural heritages live amicably together. Whereas the dominant ideology of South Africa be- fore the end of apartheid was ethnic pluralism in a most extreme fo.rm, in Brazil the predominant philosophy has been ethnic assimilation: the more quickly the society's various ethnic and racially defined groups can be merged _into one, the better the society will be.

Whether Brazil is in fact a genuine ethnic democracy is, as we will see, by no means universally agreed upon either by scholars or by Brazilians themselves. An- other, less laudatory, view of Brazil places it well within the bounds of other multi- ethnic societies characterized by intergroup conflict and division. In any case, it is clear that the direction of ethnic relations in Brazil is toward assimilation, in which ethnic convergence and the breakdown of distinct physical and cultural groups are the society's long-range goals. More significant, in a number of ways Brazil has ad- vanced further ill the realization of these objectives than most multiethnic societies. This fact alone distinguishes it not only from societies with inequalitarian pluralistic systems but also from the United States and other societies like it that have tradition- ally proclaimed an assimilationist ideology but have often exhibited contradictory patterns of action and policy. If ethnic relations are not as ideally harmonious as Brazilian advocates would have the world believe, nonetheless they are less conflic- tual than in most other multiethnic societies.

MAJOR FEATURES OF BRAZILIAN SOCIETY

Brazil seems especially appropriate to compare with the United States because the two societies exhibit strongly parallel ethnic developmental patterns. Both were orig- inally colonized by Europeans, who overwhelmed the indigenous population; both

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422 PART Ill ETHN IC RELATIONS IN COMPARAT IVE PERS PECT IVE

imported vast numbers of Africans, who were the mainstays of an institutionalize - slave system that lasted until the late nineteenth century; and both were peopled by immigrants from a variety of European societies . There are, of course, important eth- nic differenc'es between the two societies as well. Africans taken to Brazil as slaves far exceeded in number those taken to the United States, and as a result, blacks com- posed the largest element of the Brazilian population until the nineteenth centurY. Although whites predominate today in both societies, in Brazil the African cultura: influence has been more widespread and significant. More important, Brazil's ethni and racial mix is far more amalgamated than that of the United States.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC FEATURES

THE PORTUGUESE HERITAGE Brazil's colonial heritage derives from Pottugal rather than Spain, unlike its neighbors on the South American continent. Its language and other major cultural elements are therefore Portuguese. As we will see, some hold that the Portuguese cultural legacy largely accounts for Brazil's seemingly more pacific pat- terns of ethnic relations.

ETHNIC COMPOSITION In addition to its Portuguese heritage, Brazii is different fro m most other Latin American societies in its racial and ethnic composition. Except for those countries that are in or border the Caribbean, Brazil is unique in that it com- prises a combination of European, indigenous Indian, and African peoples. Speci- fically, it is the European-African ethnic synthesis that is most distinctive. It is important to consider, however, that although European, African, and Indian racial strains are evident, the Brazilian population today is so thoroughly mixed physically that it is difficult to determine most people's racial derivation with any precision.

REG IONAL VARIATIONS Brazil is a huge and regionally diverse nation. It covers almo st half of the South American continent (about the size of the United States exclusive of Alaska), and its population of nearly two hundred million is almost as great as all the remainder of Latin America, leaving aside Mexico. Given this vastness, social and economic conditions are, predictably, not the same in all regions of the country. Brazil's major ethnic groups are also regionally concentrated, and patterns of ethnic relations therefore vary accordingly.

In the Northeast, most of the population is either black or mulatto (a combina- tion of European and African), and the African cultura l heritage is very apparent. This is Brazil's poorest region, an agrarian and largely underdeveloped area that has never fully recovered from the decline of the slave-supported sugar economy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of which it was the center. The aftereffects of slavery are still felt, and paternalistic black-white relations are more evident tha n in other regions of Brazil.

The Southeast, dominated by the metropolis of Sao Paulo, is the most industrial- ized and urbanized region of Brazil and is the core of its wealth and power. Ethni- cally it is primarily European, especially Italian, though its industrial preeminence has served as a magnet for out-migrants from other areas, especially the depresse d Northeast. This has contributed to an increasing ethnic heterogeneity in recent

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decades though whites remain an overwhelming majority. The other region of great- est European influence is the extreme South, where German, Polish, Russian, Italian, and Portuguese farming communities are numerous alongside the traditional estan- cias, or cattle ranches.

The Indian influence in Brazil's population is most significant in the extreme North and in the interior, especially the Amazon basin. This is an enormous but sparsely populated region where most of the remaining Indians (around 200,000) live, most in isolated and primitive settings. Indian cultural and physical influences, however, are strongly evident here, and most of the population derives from a com- .. bination European-Indian ancestry.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAZILIAN ETHNIC MELANGE

5 ETILEMENT AND SLAVERY

The shaping of Brazil's ethnic melange resembles that of the United States in two crit- ical respects: (1) European settlers conquered the indigenous population, reducing it eventually to a marginal status; and (2) aside from the native Indians, all its peoples have been immigrants, either voluntary or involuntary.

TH E I NDIAN POPULATION The indigenous population of Brazil at the time of Portuguese settlement in the early sixteenth century, perhaps 2.5 million, was reduced to virtual insignificance in less than three hundred years (Hemming, 1987). However, unlike the U.S. colonists, who made an unsuccessful attempt to enslave Indians, the Portu- guese used the indigenous peoples as slave laborers almost from the outset of coloni- zation. The Indians were devastated in this system because of their susceptibility to European diseases such as smallpox and measles. Another factor contributing to their demise was the intensity of agricultural labor, with which they were unfamiliar.

T H E INTRODUCTION OF AFRI CANS In the late sixteenth century, sugarcane became Brazil's chief cash crop. As a labor-intensive industry, sugar required large plantations; and as the Indian slave population diminished, the introduction of Africans in their place proved vital. With the development of the world market for sugar, the importation of African slav~s-a costly enterprise- became economically feasible (Harris, 1964). Black slaves were many times more valuable than their Indian predecessors, for they seemed better prepared for field labor and were more resistant to European diseases. The African slave population in Brazil grew rapidly, and by the end of the eighteenth century, it numbered around 1.5 million. Estimates of the actual number of slaves imported into Brazil between 1550 and the 1850s, when the slave traffic ended, vary widely from three million to eighteen million (Knight, 1974; Pierson, 1967; Poppino, 1968; Ramos, 1939; van den Berghe, 1978). Because all records of the slave trade were purposely destroyed following the abolition of slavery in 1888, there are no precise data concerning the number of slaves actually imported into Brazil. That far more were brought to Brazil than to the United States, however, is undisputed.

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424 PART III ETHN IC RELATlONS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECT IVE

THE BRAZILIAN AND AMERICAN SLAVE SYSTEMS: A COMPARISON

To better understand the roots of Brazil's system of race and ethnic relations, it is necessary to look at its long experience with slavery. It is especially important to compare Portuguese slavery in Brazil with the American slave system because many have argued that contemporary differences in black-white relations in the two socie- ties are traceable in large measure to differences in the historical practice of slavery in each. Indeed, the similarities and differences in the two slave systems and the subse- quent effects of each on patterns of race relations together make up one of the most widely debated issues of comparative social history .

BRAZILIAN SLAVERY: A MILDER SYSTEM? Gilberto Freyre, one of Brazil's most renowned social historians, contended that slavery in Brazil was a milder., more humane form than its North American counterpart. This he attributed to several factors, the most important of which pertain to differences between Anglo-Saxon and Portu- guese culture and society. Different practices of slavery, in turn, produced divergent patterns of relations between blacks and whites once slavery was ended in each society.

Freyre held that the Portuguese came to Brazil with a more tolerant attitude to- ward people of color. Portugal had experienced contact with African peoples in its colonial ventures as early as the fifteenth century and had endured a long period of rule by the Moors even- earlier. The Portuguese sense of racial difference, therefore, was not as acute and absolute as that of the Anglo-Saxons, who had had little con- tact with nonwhites. A greater racial tolerance, according to Freyre's thesis, accounts for the more harmonious, less conflict-ridden nature of race relations in Portuguese colonies and the greater tendency among the Portuguese to intermix with native and slave populations. Freyre considered especially significant the extremely high rate of miscegenation between Portuguese slave masters and African slaves in Brazil. This, he contended, is evidence of a more compassionate and essentially altruistic master- slave relationship (1956, 1963b) .

The thesis that the Portuguese slave system in Brazil was basically more humane than its North American counterpart was supported by an American historian, Frank Tannenbaum (1947) . He explained that a milder form of slavery was evident in Brazil and in the Spanish colonies of Latin America because of differences between the Portuguese (and Spanish) and the Anglo-Saxons in their religious and legal con- cepts of slavery. Like Freyre, Tannenbaum maintained that there was a preconceived notion among the Portuguese regarding their treatment of slaves-deriving from principles established by both church and state-that fostered a less harsh slave sys- tem. In Brazil, the African did not lack a "soul" but was perceived simply as an un- fortunate human being, a slave by accident of fate . In the United States, however, th e African was perceived as less than human and thus naturally enslaved. Slavery in Brazil was understood as an economic necessity, hardly a relationship whose ratio- nale derived from religious-or later, biological-principles, as in the United States. In short, in Brazil the human character of slaves was never denied. In the Portuguese view, slavery was a necessary evil. Thus it was not defended so firmly on the notions of racial inferiority and superiority.

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The Brazilian and U.S . legal codes dealing with slaves also differed significantly. Portuguese (and Spanish) laws pertaining to slavery protected the slaves' human rights, at least technically. Thus slaves could not be dealt with by their masters with total impunity. Whereas slaves in the United States were chattel, reduced to mere property, in Brazil they were recognized as humans with certain legal rights. They were entitled to own property, marry freely, seek out another master if they were dealt with too harshly, and even buy their freedom, which many apparently did. It is this last-mentioned feature of the slaves' status-their greater opportunities for manumission (that is, to be set free from slavery) that Tannenbaum contended was an especially critical difference. Compared with the United States, manumission in Brazil was both common and expected. Its much higher incidence, Tannenbaum held, is in itself evidence of a milder form of slavery. More important, however, the accomplishment of manumission brought the freed slave automatic entry into Brazilian society with full and equal rights. In the United States, by contrast, even if slaves were freed, they did not acquire full citizenship but continued to suffer the eco- nomic, social, and legal handicaps that attached to their racial status.

The ability of the crown or the church to enforce these protective slave laws, of course, was quite another matter. These were, in effect, paper rights whose effective- ness was not sufficient to materially alter the nature of life for Brazilian slaves. "In Brazil, as everywhere in the colonial world," notes Marvin Harris, "law and reality bore an equally small resemblance to each other" (1964:77). As to the specific role of the church, its position on the issue of slavery was ambivalent and its power to influ- ence Brazilian slave codes, in any case, limited (Marx, 1998). '

Neither Freyre nor Tannenbaum contended that slavery in Brazil was not harsh and inherently cruel. The key difference between the Brazdian and American varie - ties, however, was that "in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies the cruelties and brutalities were against the law, that they were punishable, and that they were per- haps not as frequent as in the British West Indies and the North American colonies" (Tannenbaum, 1947:93). Most important, the openings for freedom were much greater in the Brazilian system, as was the advancement to full citizenship following manumission. Given the different legal and philosophical status of the slave and the freed black in Brazil as compared with the United States, more benign relations were engendered between whites and blacks, and greater efforts at assimilation were made following the formal abolition of slavery.

BRAZILIAN SLAVERY: A HA RSH ER SYSTEM? Revisionist thinking on the matter of Brazilian slavery has seriously questioned whether it was in fact a distinctly more humane sys- tem than those established in the United States and the Caribbean. Some have even concluded that in many ways it was a system more dehumanizing than the Anglo-Saxon variety. That slaves in Brazil were acknowledged as human and that they possessed certain legal and religious rights did not seem to discourage the com- mon application of brutal and inhumane forms of punishment by masters and the maintenance of severely debased living conditions by any standard. Historian Charles Boxer (1962) has described the brutish and often sadistic cruelty with which slave discipline was enforced by the Portuguese planters. To tie a slave to a cart; flog him; rub his wounds with salt, lemon juice, and urine; and then place him in chains fo r several days was not considered excessive. Runaways were dealt with, as

426 PART Ill ET H N IC RELA TI ONS IN COM PARATI VE PERSPECTI VE

described by the Brazilian scholar Darcy Ribeiro (2000), by branding with a hot iron, having a tendon cut, living shackled to an iron ball, or being burned alive.

That such punishments did not prevent slaves from continuing to run away on a large scale reveals the desperation to which they were driven. "Every black bore an illusion of flight in his breast," writes Ribeiro, "and was sufficiently bold to attempt flight when there was an opportunity" (2000:77). Other features of Brazilian slavery provide further evidence of its unusually harsh nature. Slaves commonly committed suicide, and insurrections among them were far more frequent than in the United States. Indeed, compared with the comparatively few rebellious actions by America n slaves, Brazilian slave insurrections, many of them well organized, appear to ha ve been common. In fact, organized settlements of fugitive slaves, called quilombos, sprang up in various locales (Vieira, 1995).

Historical evidence, then, seems to have proved beyond much doubt that "humane" slave owners in Brazil were the exception rather than the rule (Boxer 1962, 1963; Davis, 1966; Graham, 1970; Marx, 1998). Recent historians have also disputed Freyre's and Tannenbaum's assumption that more frequent miscegenation and manumission as features of the Brazilian slave system substantiate the greater humanity and tolerance of the Portuguese. As for miscegenation, Thomas Skidmore (1993) notes that this was a common occurrence within the American system as well. The early enactment of laws prohibiting interracial marriage in the United States confirms the strong sexual attraction between the two groups, as does the wide range of physical traits of American blacks. Moreover, in Portugal's African colonies like Mozambique, the extent of miscegenation was never as significant as it was in Brazil. Clearly, facto i;s other than the natural attraction of Portuguese men to native and slave women and their greater racial tolerance account for the high rate of interracial sexual encounters in Brazil.

A more compelling explanation lies in the simple fact that colonial Brazil lacked sufficient Portuguese women (Marx, 1998). Unlike North American colonists, who came mostly in family units, Portuguese settlers were mainly unaccompanied males who quite naturally turned to native and slave women to meet their sexual needs. Harris has put the matter succinctly: "In general, when human beings have the power, the opportunity and the need, they will mate with members of the opposite sex regardless of color or the identity of grandfather" (1964:68).

As to the question of more common manumission granted Brazilian slaves, his- torian Carl Degler (1986) has suggested that this may have been simply a method of relieving slave owners of the responsibilities and costs of caring for elderly or physi- cally unfit slaves. Moreover, slaves were often unable to save enough to buy their freedom. Anthony Marx suggests that, given these conditions within the context of a highly stratified society, manumission in Brazil "did not thr~aten the social order and freed blacks were often left worse off than slaves" (1998:52). In any event, Harris (1964) notes that although manumission was more common in Brazil, it was not so much more common as to build a case on this fact alone for a presumably milder form of slavery.

Degler (1986) has pointed out that the American and Brazilian slave systems may not have differed so fundamentally even on the matter of slaves' legal and moral status. Though legal decisions were not consistent from time to time and place to place, both church and state, at least technically, recognized slaves as humans in the

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United States as well as in Brazil. In neither society, however, was the law, whether church or state, effective in protecting slaves.

The issue of whether the Brazilian system of slavery was more humane than the American may be, in the final analysis, meaningless. How can such an argument be verified in any case? Indeed, the very notion of a "humanized" or "mild" slave sys- tem would be interpreted by most as an absurd contradiction. Whatever the circum- stances, slavery was dehumanizing and was resisted by the slaves. Moreover, the tremendously high mortality rate among the slave population would seem to render the issue "inconsequential in light of the overriding fact that slavery in Brazil was astonishingly deadly" (Marx, 1998:52). ·

ABOLITION AND ITs A FT EREFFECTS Whether the actual conditions of slavery under the Por- tuguese can explain the seemingly more benign relations between blacks and whites in Brazil than in the United States remains debatable. But the conditions that led to the abolition of slavery in Brazil and the status of blacks following their freedom were quite different from what occurred in the United States, and rendered an effect on subsequent race relations in the two societies.

Slavery endured in Brazil even longer than it did in the United States, ending for- mally in 1888. Its demise had been assured for several decades, however, and oc- curred in a gradual, evolutionary manner. This piecemeal abolition resulted in less wrenching social aftereffects than occurred in the United States, where slavery was ended abruptly following a cataclysmic civil war.

With the more common manumission of slaves in Brazil, blacks had already been a part of free Brazilian society for many decades before the formal end of slavery. In 1872, sixteen years before abolition, freed blacks were almost three times as numerous as slaves. By comparison, in the United States at the start of the Civil War, less than half a million out of a total black population of 4.5 million were free (Skidmore, 1972). Hence, blacks and whites in Brazil had experienced a long period of social interaction exclusive of the master-servant relationship. As Tannenbaum explained, in Brazil, "[t]he Negro achieved complete legal equality slowly, through manumission, over centuries, and after he had acquired a moral personality. In the United States he was given his freedom suddenly, and before the white community credited him with moral status" (1947:112). As a result, there was no question of the social standing of free blacks in Brazil and their access to full citizenship. In Brazil, freed slaves were in fact free; in the United States they were only technically free.

Furthermore, blacks in colonial Brazil had played a variety of occupational roles- even as slaves-and their entrance into the competitive labor market was therefore not so precipitous as it was in the United States (Karasch, 1975; Klein, 1969). Harris (1964) argues, in fact, that the continual shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labor in colonial Brazil created the need to fill numerous positions with blacks, which, in turn, contributed more than anything else to the ease and frequency of manumission.

Freed blacks in Brazil, then, were not seen as either a social or an economic threat; therefore, resistance from whites did not strongly materialize. Brazil thus avoided the development of a racial caste system designed to permanently handicap blacks, as was the eventual outcome of abolition in the United States.

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428 PART III ETHNIC RELATIONS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Although Brazilian society was not as fundamentally dislocated by the abolition of slavery as the American South had been, the consequences faced by newly freed slaves were in many ways similar. Freed slaves either wandered back to the rural workforce, seeking out their former masters, or migrated to the cities with few urban labor skills. They were further handicapped because they were forced into competition with more skilled European immigrants, especially in the industrializing Southeast.

The release of former slaves into a competitive labor market for which they were ill prepared produced a debilitating effect on black mobility that has remained a ba- sic feature of the Brazilian social structure to the present day. As the noted Brazilian sociologist Florestan Fernandes ex plained, blacks emerged from slavery materially and psychologically ravaged and " lacked the means to assert themselves as a sepa- rate social group or to integrate rapidly into those social groups that were open to them" (1971:28). Further disabling the freed black was the whites ' eager relinquish- ment of any legacy of the slave system and its consequences. The o~cupational bene- fits of an industrializing Brazil with its competitive social order was reaped therefore, primarily by European immigrants.

EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the ethnic composition of.Brazil was altered fundamentally by the large-scale immigration of Europeans. Under the colonial re- gime, immigration into Brazil had been severely restricted. As a result, the bulk of the population was descended from three major ethnic lines: the Portuguese colo- nials , the indigenous Indians, and the African slaves. Following Brazilian indepen- dence in 1822, :immigration remained sporadic until the mid-nineteenth century. An upward trend begun at that time turned into a veritable flood tide of immigrants in the century's last two decades.

With the realization that slavery was doomed, coffee planters increasingly turned to Europeans, especially Italians, as a labor force. The bulk of European im- migration beginning in the late nineteenth century, therefore, was directed to the state of Sao Paulo, where the major coffee-growing estates were located. Growers saw Europeans as better and more reliable workers than nativ.e Brazilians, especially freed blacks from the declining Northeast. Sao Paulo also became the primary desti- nation for European immigrants because it represented the nucleus of burgeoning Brazilian industry. Here were to be found the industrial jobs for which these immi-

. grants were better prepared than were Brazilian blacks.

IMMIGRATION AS A WHITENING STRATEGY European immigration was encouraged for an- other reason having nothing to do with the needs of labor. Racially, European immi- grants were white and therefore contributed to the "whitening" of the society, an ideal that was now prevalent among the Brazilian political leadership and intelligent- sia (Skidmore, 1990). Since abolition, the notion of an increasingly whiter population had been a staple of Brazilian intellectual thought. Abetted by the widespread influ- ence of social Darwinism at the turn of the century, whites felt that Brazil should seek to dilute as quickly and completely as possible the black element of its racial compo- sition. Put simply, the idea was "the whiter Brazil, the better" (Skidmore, 1972 ). Rather than encouraging a return of blacks to Africa, as was advocated by many

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in the United States, Brazil chose to import whites . The goal in each case was the same-a dilution of the black population (Marx, 1998) .

The mass immigration from Europe gave Brazil's whitening process a giant infu- sion. So limited had immigration been previously and so substantial had been the importation of African slaves that by the end of the eighteenth century, Africans were a majority of the Brazilian population. European immigration not only in- creased racial mixing but also reversed this ratio.

In the century between 1850 and 1950, 5 million immigrants came to Brazil. The .. peak era of immigration, however, occurred bei:ween 1870 and 1920, when more than 3 million Europeans entered the society. Almost 2 million entered in the little more than two decades between 1881 and 1903. A second great wave of Europeans arrived during the early decades of the twentieth century (Amaral and Fusco, 2005; de Azevedo, 1950; Skidmore, 1974). Most were absorbed by the state of Sao Paulo, whose foreign population rose from 3 percent in 1854 to 25 percent by 1886. By 1934 more than half the population were first- and second-generation immigrants (Dzidzienyo and Casal, 1979; Morner, 1985). Italians were by far the largest immi- grant group, but Portuguese, Spanish, and Germans were also significant1 (Freyre, 1963b; Morse, 1958). Europeans were also attracted to Brazil's extreme southern states, where large numbers of Germans and Poles established cohesive ethnic com- munities (Luebke, 1987, 1990).

In addition to non-Portuguese Europeans, another distinct ethnic element was added to the Brazilian mosaic beginning in 1908, when Japanese immigrants entered the society in large numbers for the first time. By 1941 almost 190,000 Japanese had immigrated to Brazil, with another 50,000 arriving after World War II. Today the Japanese ethnic community of Brazil numbers more than 1.5 million. Most Japanese originally settled as agricultural workers in the states of Sao Paulo and Parana, and they still remain heavily concentrated in those areas. However, they have exited the agricultural sector and today are represented in a variety of businesses and profes- sions (Makabe, 1999).

ETHNIC STRATIFICATION

Brazil's system of ethnic stratification resembles that of the United States in one im- portant regard, the rank order of ethnic categories: whites disproportionately hold the society's power, privilege, and prestige. But several unique features of the Brazi- lian system distinguish it from that of the United States, as well as other multiethnic societies, making it one of the most far-reaching attempts at racial and ethnic democ- racy in the modern world.

THE BRAZILIAN MULTIRACIAL SYSTEM

Perhaps the key feature that differentiates the Brazilian system of ethnic relations from that of the United States and other societies with several distinct physical types is the very concept of race and the manner in which people are racially classified.

1 As noted in Chapter 10, until the early 1900s, Brazil and Argentina-not the United States-were the major destinations of Italian emigrants.

430 PART III ETH N IC REL AT IONS IN COMPA RATI VE PERS PE CTI VE

DETERMINING " R ACE" In the United States, one's racial status is a product of one's de- scent; that is, individuals, regardless of physical appearance, are assigned to a racial sta- tus on the basis of ancestry. This tradition is founded on hypo-descent-a person wit/: any known or recognized ancestry of the subordinate group is automatically classifie, as part of that group rather than the dominant group (Harris, 1964). This is the so- called one-drop rule referred to in Chapter 5 that has been enforced customarily and. for most of U.S. history, officially (Hollinger, 2005). Hence, until very recently wher! the U.S. Census incorporated a multiracial option, the system of racial classification was essentially a dichotomy- white and black. Although the blurring of racial bound- aries is occurring, for the most part this system continues to guide perceptions of race in the United States. As a result, one may exhibit generally white physical features yet still be classified as black. For example, in 1983 a Louisiana judge dedared a woman who had been raised as a white legally black on the basis of a distant black ancestor. She and her siblings were the great-great-great-great-grandchildren of a black slave and a white planter. The decision was based on a Louisiana law declaring anyone with 1/32 "Negro blood" legally black. The woman was listed as 3/32 black (Miami Herald, 1983).

In Brazil, however, this rule of descent is not operative. One is not automaticall,· placed into a racial category on the basis of family of origin. Instead, one's total physi- cal appearance- skin color, hair texture, facial features- is the "obvious" determinant of one's racial classification. But in addition to these strictly physical aspects of racial identity, in Brazil certain social factors are used to classify people racially. The most important of these is social class (Harris et al., 1993 ). Thus, as one experiences class mobility, one's racial identity may to some extent also change. This changed racial sta- tus may be one's own reclassification as well as the perception of others (Carvalho et al., 2004). Popular Brazilian expressions such as "money whitens" connote that as people improve their class status, they are perceived as lighter racially. Ribeiro relates the story of a well-known Afro-Brazilian painter, speaking with a young black man struggling to rise in a diplomatic career. After hearing the young man's complaints of the barriers he faces because of his color, the painter responds, "I understand yo ur case perfectly, my dear boy, I was black once too" (2000:157). To a degree, then, ra- cial status in Brazil is subject to redefinition in different social circumstances.

The imprecise nature of racial classification in Brazil means that racial groups are not castelike as has traditionally been the case in the United States. Branco and preto-literally, white and black- merely denote people who are predominantly white or black in appearance, regardless of actual racial origin (Nobles, 2002; Nogueira, 1959; Pierson, 1967). Simply having some traces of black ancestry does not result in the classification of someone as black. Indeed, most people classified as white in Brazil exhibit some evidence of black descent. Many American blacks, then, would be considered white in the Brazilian context.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC CATEGO RIES This different perception of race has produced a corre- spondingly different system of racial categorization. Whereas the United States for most of its history has maintained an essentially biracial system in which people are classified as either white or black,2 Brazil's multiracial system provides for more than

2 The increasing Asian population in the United States has, of course, forced a third major category into

the racial classifica tion scheme used by governments and other institutions . The principal racial division , however, remains black and white.

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two categories. Three major racial groupings are recognized in Brazil, but the bound- aries between them are neither rigid nor clear-cut. Branco (white), preto (black), and pardo (mulatto, or brown) are the most encompassing terms, but Brazilians employ literally dozens of more precise terms to categorize people of various mixed racial origins, depending on their physical features. Racial terminology is strongly local- ized, and from region to region- and even community to community- standards of classification vary.

The most minute physical features are often used to sort out people racially. The complexity and exactness of Brazilian racial typologies can baffle the American fa- .. miliar with only a two-part (or, increasingly, tripartite) racial scheme. Consider the descriptive categories used by the people of Vila Reconcavo, a town near Salvador in the state of Bahia, studied by anthropologis't Harry Hutchinson:

The preto or preto retinto (black) has black shiny skin, kinky, woolly hair, thick lips and a flat, broad nose. The cabra (male) and cabrocha (female) are generally slightly lighter than the preto, with hair growing somewhat longer, but still kinky and unmanageable, facial features somewhat less Negroid, although often with fairly thick lips and flat nose. The cabo verde is slightly lighter than the preto, but still very dark. The cabo verde, however, has long straight hair, and his facial features are apt to be very fine, with thin lips and a narrow straight nose. He is almost a "black white man." The escuro, or simply "dark man," is darker than the usual run of mestii;:os, but the term is generally applied to a person who does not fit into one of the three types mentioned above. The escuro is almost a Negro with Caucasoid features. The mulato is a category always divided into two types, the mulato es'curo and mulato claro (dark and light mulattoes). The mulato has hair which grows perhaps to shoulder length, but which has a decided curl and even kink .... The mulato's facial features vary widely; thick lips with a narrow nose, or vice-versa. The sarara ... has a very light skin, and hair which is reddish or blondish but kinky or curled .... His-facial features are extremely varied, even more so than the mulato's. The moreno ... is light-skinned but not white. He has dark hair, which is long and either wavy or curly .... His features are much more Caucasoid than Negroid. (1963:28-30)

These are only the primary categories, explained Hutchinson, each of which is further broken ,down even more precisely. Even the whites are subclassified on the basis of skin, hair, and facial features. Anthropologist Livio Sansone (2003 ), in his research on the construction of race and ethnicity in Brazil, demonstrated how the dozens of different racial/ethnic terms are fluid and how one's identity can therefore change, depending on the context:

So, a person that in the United States or Canada is simply black, in Brazil can be negro (black) during Carnival and when playing or dancing samba, escuro (dark) for his work friends, moreno or negao (literally, big black man) with his drinking friends, neguinho (literally, little black man) for his girlfriend, preto for the official statistics, and pardo in his birth certificate. (2003:50)

These categories, then, even the major ones, do not denote discrete racial group- ings but blend into one another as on a scale (Figure 15.1). As earlier noted, misce- genation has, from the time of the initial Portuguese settlement, been a constant and

432 PAR T III ETH N IC RELATIO N S IN COMPARATIVE PERSPE CTIVE

United States Brazil

F IGURE 15 . 1 RACIAL CLASSIFICATION PATTERNS IN BRAZIL AND THE UNITED STATES

widespread practice in Brazil among the society's three major population types- European, African, and Indian. As a result, the racial origins of people are thor- oughly interwoven in various combinations. Black, white, and mulatto, therefore, represent very broad categories, each with a wide range of physical types.

Brazilians, then, are very conscious of color distinctions among people; indeed, they are far more conscious than North Americans or even South Africans, perceiv- ing numerous physical types between black and white. 3 Rather than ancestry, physi- cal distinctions-phenotypes-in different combinations make for almost limitless combinations of what Brazilians call tipos (literally, types). Cultural psychologist Jefferson Fish describes the difference between Brazil and the United States in this regard: "The American system tells you about how people's parents are classified, but not what they look like. The Brazilian system tells you what they look like, but not about their parents" (1999:394).

THE "MULATTO Esc APE H ATCH" Although there is general agreement on the terms branco and preto, it is the mulatto, mixed or pardo, category, between extreme white and extreme black, that provides the almost endless variety of descriptive combina- tions throughout Brazil. As shown in Table 15.1, pardos officially compose 43 per- cent of the population, but unofficially the percentage is much higher. 4 Again, it is important to emphasize the indistinct lines between these categories. Because, as we

3 When asked to describe their color in the 1980 census, Brazilians responded with 136 different labels, and in an earlier national household survey, with almost 200 different labels (Andrews, 1991). 4 In popular discourse, the term moreno is more commonly used than the official census term pardo (Telles, 2009). The pardo category consists not only of mulattoes (those of mixed European and African origins) but also those who are mixed European and Indian, usually referred to as caboclos, and those of mixed African and Indian origins, cafusos, who are numerically a small element of the Brazilian population.

CHAPTER 15 BRA Z IL 433

TABLE I 5. I I BRAZILIAN POPULATION BY COLOR (PERCENT)

Branca (white)

Parda (mulatto)

Preta (black)

Amarela (Asian)

Indigina (Indian)

Source: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (2012).

47.7%

43.1

7.6

1.0

<1.0

will see shortly, it is socially advantageous in Brazil to be considered white, the pop- ulation figure of 48 percent white in Table 15.1 is greatly exaggerated in terms of the N orth American conceptualization of race (Harris et al., 1993). In any case, these census figures indicate a progressive decline of the white percentage, signaling that even when measured by people's self-identification, Brazil is gradually emerging as a racially mixed society.

Might the color continuum of Brazil, as opposed to the more rigid black-white dichotomy of the United States, explain much of the difference in the tone of ethnic relations in the two societies? Degler (l986) contends that the existence of the inter- mediate- mulatto- category in Brazil, more than anything, accounts for the dimin- ished hostility between blacks and whites. The presence of what he calls "the mulatto escape hatch" makes infeasible the development of segregated institutions, which have so dominated most of the history of black-white relations ih the United States. Where there are so many recognized racial combinations and where people's racial status is so arbitrary and personalized, it is impossible to erect castelike structures based on racial definitions. "The presence of the mulatto," explains Degler, "not only spreads people of color through the society, but it literally blurs and thereby softens the line between black and white" (1986:225). Furthermore, where there is such a varied biological mixture of the population, racial ideologies propounding the notion of superior and inferior races are difficult to sustain.

Skidmore (1993), however, casts doubt on the assumption that the presumed multiracial classification system of Brazil is today basically different from the U.S. biracial syste,,rri. He contends that although there is an increasing awareness of the racial variability- and thus color gradations- of the U.S. population, at the same time there is a growing tendency among Brazilian scholars and others to describe Brazil in bipolar racial terms, that is, simply "white" and "nonwhite." Moreover, Marx (1998) points out that the Brazilian construction of a "triracial" system of cat- egorization, though more fluid than the biracial U.S. system, still provides for the domination of whites over both blacks and browns. Later we will consider how American and Brazilian racial systems may be converging.

THE BRAZILIAN ETHNIC HIERARCHY

At first glance it might seem pointless even to envision an ethnic hierarchy- that is, a ranking structure of ethnic groups- in a society where hard-and-fast lines between ethnic groups are not recognized. Ethnicity in such a social setting would, logically,

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434 PART III ETHNIC RELATIONS IN COM PARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

play no role in the allocation of social rewards . This, in fact, is "officially" ho Brazil has been portrayed. Several aspects of the Brazilian system of ethnic relations.. however, belie this ideal picture.

THE CLASS- ETHNIC CORRELATION By looking at the general class positions of Brazil·- racial/ethnic categories, one can conclude without hesitation that there is indeed an ethnic rank order in this society. Although the boundaries of the three major gro up- ings are not precise, there is little question that whites, mulattoes, and blacks repre- sent a hierarchy of economic, political, and social standing. Whites are clearly at the top, followed in order by mulattoes and blacks. A stranger in Brazil could quickly confirm through simple observation the validity of an old Brazilian rule of thumb. "The darker the skin, the lower the class" (Wagley, 1971) . Studies compiled by so- cial scientists have repeatedly corroborated this visual impression (Dzidzienyo and Casal, 1979; Fernandes, 1971; Garcia-Zamor, 1970; Hasenbalg~ 1985; Lovell and Wood, 1998; Paixao, 2004; Reeve , 1975, 1977; Silva, 1985; Telles, 2004; Telle and Lim, 1998; Twine, 1998; Wagley, 1971).

In looking at the class-ethnic relationship, one must be careful to keep in mind the considerably different class structure of Brazil compared with those of the United States and other advanced industrial societies. Brazil, like most Latin American soci- eties, traditionally maintained a two-class system: an upper class, made up of land- owners as well as wealthy merchants and professionals, and a huge lower class comprising much of the remaining population. With rapidly advancing industrializa- tion, this traditional -class system is gradually breaking down, however, and class patterns are beginning to resemble those of the highly developed countries. As this occurs, a middle class of salaried professionals and white-collar workers is expand- ing, though it is a much smaller proportion of the population compared to the United States and other postindustrial nations. Brazil remains a society with an ex- traordinarily wide gap between rich and poor, and nonwhites are disproportionately among the latter.

The ethnic hierarchy in Brazil has customarily paralleled the class system. At the pinnacle of the structure are whites, and "as one moves down the social hierarchy, the number of racially mixed or otherwise nonwhite individuals gradually increases " (Wagley, 1971:121). Although mulattoes and blacks are represented throughout the occupational structure, they are not found in proportion to their share of the popu- lation in positions of authority or decision making. Afro-Brazilians have made signif- icant inroads into the political arena since the 1980s, and they are beginning to appear more commonly i~ high political position~ (Davis, 2000). Still, the elite levels of government, the economy, the military, and education are thoroughly dominated by whites . At the opposite end of the hierarchy, whether in rural or urban areas, the bulk of the poor and uneducated are black. Only in sports and entertainment do Afro -Brazilians play a prominent role (Leite Lopes, 2000; Schneider, 1996). In short, although white skin does not guarantee social success, "it always improves one's position over that of a darker person" (Degler, 1986:191).

Numerous studies demonstrate this racial hierarchy, all showing the wide discrep - ancy between Afro-Brazilians and whites in wages and income, occupations, educa- tion, and literacy rate (Beato, 2004; Castro and Guimaraes, 1999; Daniel, 2006;

CHAPTER I 5 BRAZI L 4 3 5

Fernandes, 2005; IBEG, 2006; Lovell and Wood, 1998; Nascimento and Nascimento, 2001; Paixao, 2004; Schneider, 1996; Silva, 1985, 1999; Silva and Hasenbalg, 1999; Skidmore, 1999; Telles, 2009; Wood, 1998). Moreover, the opportunities for non- whites to break the cycle of racial inequality through upward mobility are limited (Daniel, 2006; Telles, 2004).

THE "WHITENING" IDEAL Another clear indication of an ethnic hierarchy in Brazil is the social preference for white over black. Desp ite the amalgam of skin colors and other physical features in its population, "white" has always been understood as more de- sirable than "black." The socialization process is quite effective in conveying the notion that to be white is to be socially favored. The previously quoted adages, im- plying that one gets "whiter" as one moves up in social class, are manifestations of this racial ideology. Brazil's white partiality has found expression at both individual and societal levels.

At the individual level, the white ideal is most evident in the preference for lighter-skinned marital partners. Such a marriage usually earns the darker-skinned partner a higher social status and in any case produces lighter-skinned children, who are assured of better social opportunities. Degler notes that "when a black or mulatto succeeds in marrying lighter, he speaks of 'purging his blood'-a phrase that in itself is revealing of what the process connotes in the minds of Brazilians" (1986:191 - 92). The white preference is often imparted to children in blunt fashion. Sociologist Oracy Nogueira explains that "from the start it is impressed upon the white child's mind that negroid characteristics make [the] bearer ugly and undesir- able for marriage" (1959:171). Whereas marrying into a lighter family and having lighter offspring is the most effective form of whitening for Afro -Brazilians, others include upward economic mobility, associating with white friends and acquain- tances, and adopting a white middle-class lifestyle (Andrews, 1991).

At the societal level, the "white is best" attitude has been evident in various gov- ernmental policies, particularly those pertaining to immigration. As earlier noted, European immigration was encouraged not only to expand the industrial labor force but also, as Roger Bastide has written, "to submerge the descendants of Africans into a more prolific white population, and, in the last analysis, to change the ethnic com- position of the population of the country" (1965:17).

The desire to create a whiter population stems from the response of Brazilian political and intellectual elites in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to racist theories emanating from Europe and America, propounding notions of inferior and superior races. Without having to accept openly the idea of white superiority and black inferiority, they posited that the black (and presumably inferior) element of Brazil's population would be submerged through miscegenation and European immigration. These, they assumed, would progressively "whiten" the population, thus avoiding problems of race. The whitening process is still seen as desirable and is expressed, as we will see, in the tendency to discount racial inequalities and to squelch the development of racial consciousness. Brazilians, writes historian Thomas Skidmore, "are still implicit believers in a whiter Brazil, even though it may no longer be respectable to say so" (1990:28).

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436 PART III ETHN IC R ELATIONS IN COM PAR ATI VE P ERSPE CTIVE

PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

It would be expected that in a society openly and ardently proclaiming the desirab il - ity of amalgamation of its various groups, ethnic prejudice and discrimination would be minimal. Brazilians do customarily assert that such prejudice and discrimination in Brazil are insignificant. As with ethnic stratification, however, there are glaring in- consistencies between the official accounts of racial democracy and the realities of individual and group relations.

Visitors to Brazil often comment on the seemingly placid and harmonious nature of interethnic relations. People of the entire range of color and of widely varied cu l- tural origins appear to interact at all social levels with little or no difficulty arising from their racial and ethnic differences. An American journalist stationed in Brazil described his surprise at witnessing one such social encounter, a dance at a neighborhood-based club:

The crowd was interracial, with both blacks and whites in substantial numbers. At first glance, not much different from the crowd at the average Washington Bullets basketba ll game. But if you looked closer, you saw that blacks and whites were arriving together, dancing together and leaving together in couples and groups, not in separate cliques. This was different. And if you went down and made your way through the crowd, you saw that up close it was hard even to tell who was black and who was white .... [L]ater ... I pondered what I had found so striking about the evening. I realized that I had been in the midst of an interracial crowd that didn't really feel like an interracial crowd, at least no t like one in the United States. (Robinson, 1996:23)

Such impre,ssions extend back even to the period of slavery. Henry Koster, an Englishman traveling in Brazil at the beginning of the nineteenth century, remarked that "it is surprising, though extremely pleasing, to see how little difference is mad e between a white man, a mulatto and a creole Negro if all are equally poor and if all have been born free" (1966 [1816):152).

Observant visitors have not been deceived. Relations between ethnic groups in Brazil are clearly more benign than those in most multiethnic societies of the modern world. Overt interethnic conflict is rare, and in no institutional area of the society have measures designed to discriminate against people on the basis of ethnicity ever been common or officially sanctioned. But such manifestations of ethnic harmony do not tell the entire story.

PREJUDICE

Closer analysis reveals that prejudice toward nonwhites is a well-established aspect of this society's culture but is often disguised by the customary physical contact be- tween ethnic groups in public places. Moreover, these attitudes are translated into stereotyping of nonwhites and informal rules of social distance.

STEREOTYPING For several decades, studies have verified the prevalence of negative stereotypes of Brazilian people of color (Andrews, 1991; Bastide, 1965; Bastide and van den Berghe, 1957; Fernandes, 1971; Harris, 1963; Hutchinson, 1963; Pierson, 1967; Sanders, 1981; Saunders, 1972; Telles, 2004). Bastide and van den Berghe (1957) found, for example, that among white middle-class university students in

CHAPTER I 5 BRAZIL 4 3 7

mainly white Sao Paulo, blacks were commonly viewed as dirty, physically unattrac- tive, superstitious, profligate, immoral, aggressive, lazy, lacking persistence at work, and sexually "perverse." Mulattoes were seen in much the same manner. Almost half of their sample also felt that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites. More than fifty years after Bastide and van den Berghe's observations, another anthropologist found that essentially the same stereotypes-"indolence, intellectual backwardness, and criminal tendencies"-remained "alive and active, though repressed and un- stated" (Nascimento, 2007:70).

In Minas Velhas, a small town in the state of Bahia where most of the inhabi- tants were of mixed European-African origin, Marvin Harris reported that "the su- periority of the white man over the Negro is considered to be a scientific fact as well as the incontrovertible lesson of daily experience" (1963:51). Harris noted the abun- dance of legends, folk stories, and pseudoscientific notions that supported the nega - tive beliefs about blacks . A school textbook used in Minas Velhas, for example, stated that "of all races the white race is the most intelligent, persevering, and the most enterprising," whereas "the Negro race is much more retarded than the others,'' a view not disputed by any of the village's six teachers (quoted in Harris, 1963 :51-52).

Harris explained that although blacks in the town were commonly derided as ignorant and ugly, such views were rarely expressed bitterly or hatefully. Moreover, he found that the black stereotypes here (as well as in other regions) were often con- tradictory. Blacks could be seen at once as stupid and cunning, honest and dishonest, naive and shrewd, or lazy yet fit only for hard work. Three white attitudes, however, were constant and basic: (1) the black is inferior to the white; (2) the black does and should play a subservient role to the white; and (3) blacks' physical features are dis - pleasing. "On the whole," noted Harris, "there is an ideal racial ranking gradient in which whites occupy the favorable extreme, Negroes the unfavorable extreme and mulattoes the various intermediate positions" (1964 :60).

In a more recent analysis, Telles (2004) reports that negative stereotypes of both blacks and mulattoes remain widely held in Brazil, not simply by whites but by blacks and mulattoes as well. The media are important purveyors of these persistent views. Blacks are seen on Brazilian television in roles that support traditional nega - tive stereotypes, whereas whites, by contrast, are portrayed positively. Telles ex- plains, however, that these views have been modified in the past few decades. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that some negative stereotypes of blacks in Brazil "may not be as harsh as those in the United States" (2004:153).

SocIAL DISTANCE Studies of social distance also reveal prejudicial attitudes toward nonwhites (Bastide and van den Berghe, 1957; Garcia -Zamor, 1970; Zimmerman, 1963). In their study of white university students in Sao Paulo, Bastide and van den Berghe (1957) found that almost all accepted the idea of equality of opportunity for everyone, regardless of color. Better than half also accepted the desirability of casual relations between members of different racial groups. But beyond this level, social distance increased markedly. A majority opposed intimacy with blacks beyond sim- ple comradeship, as well as miscegenation with blacks. The most unwavering atti- tudes involved intermarriage; almost all indicated they would not marry a black or even a light-skinned mulatto.

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438 P ART III ETH N IC REL ATIO NS IN C OMP ARATI VE PER SPE CT IVE

Intermarriage among members of different racial or ethnic groups, as was ex- plained in Chapters 3 and 4, represents the highest degree of social intimacy and the ultimate stage in the assimilation process. In Chapter 7, we saw that black- white intermarriage in the United States, although increasing, remains uncommon. The same is true in South Africa, of course, given its only recently abolished apart- heid system. We would expect a more substantial amount of intermarriage in Brazil, with its historical legacy of miscegenation and its proclamation of racial democracy. Telles (2004) reports that in 1991 nearly a quarter of all Brazilian marriages were interracial. Although this may be accounted for in some part by the ambiguous way in which Brazilians classify people by race, the numbers are simply too large to deny that racial intermarriage is a common occurrence . And, the racially mixed character of most Brazilians, of course, testifies to the practice. ,

A less sanguine view of racial intermixing in Brazil is that in many ways it is not essentially different from other multiracial societies, like the United States. Although undeniably common during the Portuguese colonial period, researchers have pointed out that in modern times the degree of social tolerance for such unions drops sharply when the contrast in color of the partners is great (Cardoso, 1965; Degler, 1986; Fernandes, 1971; Hutchinson, 1963; Reeve, 1977; Vidal, 1978). Most marriages are between people of similar color, and most intermarriages are between blacks and mulattoes rather than between whites and either blacks or mulattoes. Moreover, most intermarriages occur at the lower end of the class hierarchy (Telles, 2004). Hutchinson (1963), for example, noted that in the small Bahian community he stud- ied, the aristocra,tic white upper class was completely endogamous. He went on to explain, however, that "no one in any class likes a marriage in which the skin colours are too far apart. Any marriage of dark with light or white will be referred to as mosca no leite, or fly in the milk, and a certain repugnance is felt by all" (1963:40) . In marriages of black and white, the union is considered fortunate for the former and a case of lowering oneself for the latter (Nogueira, 1959). Moreover, it is the whiten- ing ideal that serves as the incentive for darker-~kinned people to marry lighter- skinned partners (Sheriff, 2001). Also, racial intermarriage is more frequent in areas of Brazil where the nonwhite population is great, particularly the Northeast, and where, as a result, whites are most likely to interact with blacks and mulattoes (Telles, 2004).

Brazilians often cite the tradition of miscegenation as proof of their lack of prej- udice toward people of different colors. Yet, it has been pointed out that the com- monness of this practice may simply reflect the accessibility of black and mulatto women to white men throughout Brazilian history. The mulatto woman is tradition- ally seen in Brazil as epitomizing female beauty, but this has been interpreted by some as simply a sexual attraction, indicative of an exploitative relationship .

PATTERNS OF DISCRIMINATION

Early comparisons of ethnic relations in the United States and Brazil suggested that in the latter, prejudicial attitudes did not fundamentally affect people's behavior toward members of particular groups (Freyre, 1963a; Harris, 1964). That discrimination against nonwhites in Brazil has been unlike past ethnic discrimination in the United States is clear enough. The forms of blatant derogation, denial, and physical violence historically so well rooted in American society have simply not been present in the

CHAPTER I 5 BRA Z IL 4 3 9

same manner or degree in Brazil, and the institutionalized forms of discrimination that characterized the United States before the 1960s are not found at all. Later research- ers, however, have pointed out that, although it is rarely virulent and is repeatedly de- nied, discrimination is very much a part of the Brazilian ethnic system. In addition to the indisputable relationship between skin tone and social class, racial discrimination in various forms has been revealed frequently by social scientists and journalists.

I NDIVIDUAL D ISCR IMINATION At the individual level, blacks may be excluded from hotels and clubs and are commonly harassed by the police. Apartment house elevators in ~ Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, frequently are marked "social," for residents and their guests, or "service," for maids and workmen; blacks, no matter their status, are rou- tinely steered into the latter (Schemo, 1995; Telles, 2004 ). Discrimination is particu- larly evident in the area of employment (Andrews, 1991; Sanders, 1981) . Simple observation as well as careful analysis reveals that those of darker skin are consis- tently relegated to the lowest-status, poorest-paying jobs in business and government. In Sao Paulo, jobs requiring contact with the public, such as receptionists, salespeo- ple, and waiters in better restaurants, are often closed to Afro-Brazilians. In screening black job applicants, employment want ads in the recent past would often use the phrase "good appearance" (boa aparencia), understood by all to mean "white." One observer of Brazilian society claims that such discriminatory hiring practices are in decline, but admits that blatant discrimination in various forms "continues to go unpunished" (Rohter, 2010:73).

I NSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMIN ATION Less apparent are institutional forms 'of discrimination as, for example, in education-where the opportunity to break the cycle of racial in- equality is greatest. Telles (2004) explains that today some-discrimination in schools may be blatant, but mostly it is evident in the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Blacks are assumed to be less capable educationally and therefore fewer educational resources are invested in them. In turn, this leads to poorer academic performance, and ultimately to limited job opportunities. At the university level, nonwhites are se- verely underrepresented as a result of their inferior precollege education. In recent decades, higher education in Brazil has expanded greatly, but at a much faster pace for whites than blacks and mulattoes. Whereas almost no nonwhites had graduated from college in 1960, 2.6 percent had done so by 1999; by comparison, the percent- age increase for whites during those years was from 1.4 to 11.0 (Telles, 2004).

Perhaps the most telling evidence of ethnic discrimination in Brazil came forth in 1951, when the Brazilian legislature was prompted to enact an antidiscrimination measure, the Afonso Arinos law. The measure was generally recognized as unen- forceable, but its significance lay not so much in its subsequent effect as in the formal recognition for the first time in Brazilian history that discriminatory practices did in fact exist. Ironically, the measure was reportedly prompted by the refusal of a Rio de Janeiro hotel to accommodate a visiting black American entertainer (Andrews, 1991). The law was updated in 1989, with little effect (Nobles, 2005).

CLASS OR R ACE? Although the lower place of blacks and mulattoes in the occupational structure of Brazil is undeniable, many observers- as well as Brazilians themselves- have customarily attributed this situation not to discrimination but to the effects of

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440 PART III ETHNIC RELATIONS I N COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

class disadvantage (Freyre, 1963b; Pierson, 1967). The argument is essentially this: The lower place of blacks and mulattoes is the product of a heritage of slavery. Whites have enjoyed the historic advantage of being at the top of the social hierarchy and therefore continue to disproportionately occupy the society's better jobs and leader- ship positions . Differences in class, then, generally do reflect differences in color, but this relationship is due to historical accident, not institutional or customary forms of discrimination.

There is little question that class factors weigh heavily in the social placement of Brazilians. But the argument that the lower place of Afro-Brazilians is simply an ex- pression of class has been challenged by many social scientists (Bailey, 2009; Hasen- balg, 1985; Lovell and Wood, 1998; Morse, 1953; Russell-Wood, 1968; Silva, 1985; Skidmore, 1974; Telles, 2004, 2009; Twine, 1998; van den Berghe, 1978). Their studies have shown that one's color is indisputably significant in the distribution of wealth and power, independent of class or region. As Telles has c'oncluded, "[T]he socioeconomic position of nonwhites in Brazilian society is due to both class and race" (2004:220).

STABILITY AND CHANGE

Will the commitment to full assimilation of diverse peoples and the ideology of racial democracy continue t q_ guide the future course of Brazil's ethnic relations? In no so- ciety, of course, should we expect to find consistency between ideology and reality in all aspects of ethnic behavior and attitudes. The United States, as we have seen, has maintained for' most of its history an equalitarian ideology even though official poli- cies and individual actions have not always reflected that belief system. Brazil's affir- mation of equalitarian and assimilationist principles, however, has been so unfailing that as a multiethnic society it promises to be a positive model for others.

BRAZIL AS AN ASSIMILATIONIST SOCIETY

In some ways, Brazil seems to epitomize the assimilationist type of multiethnic soci- ety described in Chapter 4 .

AMALGAMATION The intermixing of diverse peoples-amalgamation-has advanced further in Brazil than in almost any other nation of the modern world. Several fac- tors have contributed to this dilution of racial lines. First, immigration from Europe substantially increased the white element of the population. As we have seen, before the late nineteenth century whites were a numerical minority in most parts of Brazil, and European immigration played a large part in reversing that ratio. Second, a sys- tem of sexual exploitation had been in effect since the first Portuguese arrived in the early 1500s, a system whereby white men enjoyed relatively unlimited access to black and Indian women. Finally, the racially mixed category (mulatto) of Brazil's population has grown larger over the past few decades . This may simply be a result of the increasing tendency for people to identify themselves as neither white nor black, but it may also suggest a steady pattern of increasing intergroup marriage and thus a continuation of racial amalgamation (Sanders, 1982; Telles, 2004).

CHAPTER I 5 BRAZIL 44 I

CULTURAL AssJMILATION The "official" view of assimilation in Brazil is that the society is fusing not only into a single racial group but also into a single Brazilian culture, comprising Portuguese, Indian, and African elements. "The Brazilian ideology of in- terracial and interethnic relations," wrote Nogueira, "is proamalgamation concern- ing physical traits and pro-assimilation as to cultural characteristics" (1959:172). The assimilationist goals of Brazil have been expressed most articulately by Freyre, who asserted that the society "has not attempted to be or become exclusively Euro- ._ pean or Christian in its styles" (1963b:156).

African and, to a lesser extent, Indian elements have been blended into the Bra- zilian culture far more than have African or Native American traits in the United States. African cultural elements are especially evident in religion, food, music, and dance, particularly in those areas of Brazil where the population is heavily of African origin. For example, West African religious rituals have been fused with Catholicism in cults known as candomble and macumba in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro (Rohter, 2000) .

As for the various European ethnic groups that have populated Brazil since the late nineteenth century, problems of assimilation have seemed less challenging than in other multiethnic societies, although separatist elements have sometimes been evi- dent. For example, the German communities of the southern Brazilian states in the early twentieth century sought to perpetuate their language and to remain unassimi- lated into what they saw as an "inferior" Luso -Brazilian culture (Luebke, 1983 ). Moreover, the first two generations of other European groups displayed the resis- tance to assimilation generally characteristic of early generations of voluntary immi- grant groups. By the third generation, however, they had become an integral element of the Brazilian economic and political elites, serving as a prime segment of the ex- panding Brazilian middle class (Horowitz, 1964; Willems, 1960).

Brazil has clearly achieved a level of physical and cultural assimilation surpass- ing that of most other multiethnic societies. Although there remain in Brazil strong regional patterns of culture and of ethnic composition, giving the society a pluralistic flavor, the commitment to an assimilationist ideology has been constant and has yielded an increasingly integrated society, physically and culturally. Brazil can pro- claim success in creating a common national identity that transcends the racial and ethnic components of its varied population. "One and the same culture takes in all," writes Ribeiro, "and a vigorous self-definition that is more and more Brazilian ani- mates everyone" (2000:169). In this sense, Brazil can be considered an exemplar of an assimilationist society, having transformed its diverse ethnic elements into a cul- turally homogeneous social entity.

A FAUX RACIAL DEMOCRACY? Cultural, and to a great extent physical, blending, however, has not translated into the racial democracy that Brazilians so fervently cast their society as. Sociologists now seem in agreement that in several ways Brazil is not unlike other multiethnic and multiracial societies.

CONTINUATION OF THE WHITE IDEAL As we saw earlier, the amalgamation of Brazilian peoples has proceeded within the context of a white ideal. This essentially racist

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442 PART lil ETHNIC RELAT IONS IN COMPA RATIVE PE RSP ECTIVE

notion does not negate Brazil's integrative achievement relative to that of other soci- eties, but it certainly reveals its less -than-democratic stimulus. The contradiction be- tween pride in the development of a "racial democracy" and a social preference for whiteness is transparent. Brazilians proclaim that they are moving increasingly to- ward a racially amalgamated society in which color distinctions are gradually erod- ing. Yet there is no denying that this is an amalgamation in which the darker hues are- desirably- being diluted by the lighter hues.

The continuation of the white ideal as part of Brazilian culture is no better illus- trated than in the phenomenal popularity of Xuxa (pronounced "SHOO-sha"), a Brazilian media superstar of the 1980s and 1990s. As one of the country's most cele- brated entertainers, she enjoyed a popularity that at times seemed better described as idolatry. "The star's presence can be so commanding," noted one observer, "that people burst into tears at the sight of her" (Simpson, 1993:2). What made the Xuxa phenomenon so intriguing is that within the racial continuum of Brazil she was so thoroughly atypical: blond, blue-eyed, and fair -skinned. In short, sl:ie projected per- fectly the white ideal.

LIMITED STRUCTURAL Ass1M1LATION Although cultural assimilation is apparent, structural assimilation of Afro -Brazilians at both the primary and secondary levels has lagged far behind. As explained earlier, blacks and mulattoes have not entered the higher echelons of Brazil's political and economic institutions at anywhere near a level com- mensurate ~ith their percentage of the population.

Telles (2004) has characterized the contrast between race relations in Brazil and the United States as differences in horizontal and vertical dimensions. On the vertical dimension-people's position on the class hierarchy as determined by income, occu- pation, and education-African Americans are clearly in advance of Afro-Brazilians. As we observed in Chapter 7, although the collective gap between whites and blacks on most measures of social class have remained wide, expansion of the African American middle class has proceeded apace throughout the past half century. In Brazil, by contrast, blacks remain mired at the bottom of the class hierarchy. Con- versely, on the horizontal dimension- integration into various institutions, including intermarriage, residence, and social interaction- the racial boundaries in Brazil are much less rigid than they are in the United States; social relations among black and white Brazilians, therefore, are more fluid.

CoNFRONTrNc PREJUDICE AND D1sCR IMINATI ON The most glaring inconsistency between the ideology and the reality of ethnic relations in Brazil involves the irrefutable evidence of racial prejudice and discrimination. Efforts at attacking those beliefs and practices have been frustrated, ironically, by the ideology of racial democracy and by the lack of clear lines of racial division .

Traditionally, Brazil's nondiscriminatory ideology had been so preeminent that revelations or accusations of discrimination were customarily met with denials or dis- belief. Smith (1963) noted the well-understood principle that any expression of racial discrimination should be attacked as "un-Brazilian." Even the suggestion of a "racial problem" was met with disapproval. In the late 1970s, for example, censors banned a program dealing with racial issues from Brazil's largest television network (Vidal, 1978). Official denials of discrimination have perpetuated the mystique of racial and

C H APTER I 5 BR AZ IL 44 3

ethnic democracy and have made any attack on discriminatory practices more difficult (Hanchard, 1994 ). If officially "there is no racial discrimination," public opinion can- not easily be galvanized to confront it. Only in the past few years have Brazilian offi- cials begun to acknowledge the reality of racial prejudice and discrimination.

A further impediment to the elimination of ethnic discrimination in Brazil has been the fact that it is rarely blatant and aggressive. It might be called "prejudice and discrimination light." For example, although violations of the antidiscrimination law of 1951 were often prominently reported, most were dismissed by the authorities for lack of evidence. Anthropologist Robin Sheriff (2001), in her study of a Rio favela (a poor urban area), reports that her informants- poor and nonwhite-were certain that they were commonly discriminated against in applying for jobs for racist reasons, but they were also aware that in most situations they could not prove it. The subtle and mild forms of prejudice and discrimination also may cause blacks them- selves to remain relatively unaware of them (Hanchard, 1994). 5

T H E EMPHASIS ON CLASS D ISCRIMINATION That most Afro -Brazilians are at the low end of the class structure makes the issue of discrimination more complex because class and ethnic factors are closely intertwined and difficult to distinguish. Here it is instructive to recall the debate among American sociologists regarding William J. Wilson's the- sis of the "declining significance of race" (Chapter 7). As explained earlier, Brazilian whites- and many blacks- prefer to account for prejudice and discrimination against darker-skinned people as a product of their class, not their racial status. Fur- thermore, the explanation that Afro -Brazilians disproportionat<:;_ly occupy the lower social positions in the society because of class factors is more readily acceptable be- cause this places the blame on "natural " social and economic forces, not those pur- posely designed to limit the placement of people. Also, failure to improve one's social position can be attributed, as in the popular American ideology, to the individual' s shortcomings, further obscuring the effects of structural disadvantages (Hasenbalg and Huntington, 1982/1983 ). Accusations of class prejudice and discrimination are therefore accepted, and accusations of racism are denied. Blatant episodes of racial discrimination are treated as individual and exceptional cases, not as reflections of a customary pattern (Fontaine, 1981; Hanchard, 1994; Twine, 1998).

THE COLOR C~NTINUUM The difficulty of attacking prejudice and discrimination in Bra- zil is due not only to the effectiveness of the society's assimilationist and equalitarian ideology but also to the presence of a color continuum, as opposed to the more rigid color lines of the United States. Because racial lines are not inexorably fixed, there is little ground for organizing people on the basis of color. "In assimilationist circum- stances," notes Ribeiro, "blackness is diluted on a broad scale of gradations, which breaks solidarity and reduces combativeness by insinuating the idea that the social order is a natural order, even a sacred one" (2000:157). Hence, the development of a strong civil rights movement, aimed at alleviating black deprivation and

5 Telles (2004) found a more moderate level of residential segregation a mong Brazil's racial groups compared to the United States and other countries with large populations of African and European origin. That blacks, mulattoes, and whites live in similar neighborhoods, he concluded, " ma y strengthen the perception that race has little or no effect on life chances, at least for individuals of the same social class" (Telles, 1992:195 ).

..

444 PART III ETHNIC RELATIONS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

discrimination, is undermined. How can there emerge a "black movement" based on racial consciousness and solidarity when there are varying perceptions and definition of who is black? Blacks in the United States, by contrast, cannot escape racial prejudice and discrimination no matter what the shade of their skin and no matter what their class standing; all are part of the category "blacks." Creating solidarity among the m therefore becomes easier despite internal group differences of class and status. 6

Although Brazilian civil rights organizations have emerged from time to time-such as the Frente Negra Brasileira (Brazilian Black Front), a movement of the 1930s whose designs were to integrate blacks into mainstream Brazilian society (Fernandes 1971)-they have not displayed the endurance or the effectiveness of American orga- nizations such as the NAACP or the National Urban League (Hanchard, 1994 ).

What's more, that people may marry lighter and thus produce lighter children further detracts from building enthusiasm for black political activism. Bastide quotes a black woman who, looking at her lighter-skinned children, declares, "They're white already. What's the use of fighting, forming leagues for the defence of the Negro, and all that? " (1961:12). This low level of racial consciousness and militance is also a result, in large meas ure, of the feeling of political leaders and intellectuals that to heighten racial awareness, as occurred in the United States during the black civil rights movement, would be "racist" and thus a denial of the .idea of Brazil as a racial democracy (Skidmore, 1990). Regardless of its inconsistencies, the idea of ra- cial democracy has been accepted by most Brazilians, and it continues to undermine efforts to galvanize blacks into an effective social movement (Hanchard, 1994; Marx, 1998; Sheriff, 2001; Twine, 1998).

A combinqtion of an effective antiracist ideology, more benign forms of preju- dice and discrimination, the complex relationship between color and class, and a multiracial classification scheme has served to make the long-range improvement in the status of Brazilian blacks perhaps even more problematic than raising black sta- tus in the United States. To confront racial prejudice and discrimination is, of course, an admission that racial prejudice and discrimination actually exist, which, as Degler has noted, "the national myth explicitly denies" (1986:271). A Sao Paulo city coun- cil member, introducing an antidiscrimination measure, stated that "[e]verybody be- haves as if inequality doesn't exist. It's therefore much worse, because unlike in the United States, we've never faced it directly. It's disguised " (Schemo, 1995 :A7).

CHANGING PATTERNS OF ETHNIC RELATIONS

During the past decade, noticeable changes have begun to occur in Brazilian race and ethnic relations. Increasingly, racial prejudice and discrimination have been openly acknowledged, even by government officials. As a result, steps have been taken to begin addressing the shortcomings of Afro-Brazilians in economic and social life. These efforts represent a radical shift in policy and in Brazilians' own perspective on race and its societal impact. Most important, the reality of racist thought and

6 As Toplin (1981 ) has pointed out, however, in the United States, too, lighter-skinned blacks have always fared better than darker-skinned blacks. This pattern began during slave da ys, when mulattoes were often given house duty and more frequentl y granted manumission. The continuity of this pattern is evident in the traditional predomin ance of lighter-skinned blacks as part of the black upper class (Graham, 2000).

C HAPTER I 5 BRAZIL 445

practices is no longer routinely denied; the myth of racial democracy has been ques- tioned, stirring a sharp debate within the society. In a sense, Brazilians are now com- ing to terms with racial inequality in a fashion reminiscent of the United States at the outset of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. There has been a growing aware- ness of the handicaps faced by Afro -Brazilians and the role that color plays in the distribution of wealth and power (Daniel, 2006) . Indeed, the increasing recognition of racial discrimination has led to American-flavored policies and views.

BRAZIL AND THE UNITED STATES: CONVERGENT PATHS? Are Brazil and the United States be- .. coming more similar on issues of race? Some observers of the two societies maintain that in some ways they do seem to be on convergent paths (Daniel, 2000, 2006; Degler, 1986; Skidmore, 1993, 2003; Toplin, 1981).

First, in the United States, as we saw in Chapter 7, the lower socioeconomic standing of African Americans is increasingly attributed to class factors as the more blatant and legitimized forms of racial discrimination are eradicated. In Brazil, how- ever, the tendency seems to be just the reverse: racial discrimination is becoming more obvious and acknowledged as a factor in black deprivation, and traditional class explanations have been seriously questioned.

Another converging point is that the Brazilian traditional fuzziness in defining racial categories and the denial of race entirely is now under serious question. As a result, "official" racial boundaries appear to be emerging, resembling the American system. This is occurring at the same time that racial definitions and boundaries are becoming less distinct in the United States. G. Reginald Daniel (2000, 2006) points out that whereas the United States has begun to move away ftom its traditional binary racial classification system to one in which mixed racial, or "multiracial," identities become more commonplace, Brazil has moved irrthe opposite direction, to - ward a more traditionally American binary system.

The introduction of affirmative action policies in Brazil represents a third point of convergence with American patterns of race and ethnicity. At a time when these policies have come into serious question, both legally and otherwise, in the United States, they are being advanced for the first time in Brazil (Bailey, 2008; Dzidzienyo, 2005; Fry, 2000; Rohter, 2010; Telles, 2009).

As part of an emergent movement to deal with the reality of racial inequality, the Brazilian gov~rnment, starting in the early 2000s, adopted affirmative action mea - sures that closely resembled those in operation for decades in the United States. The targets were government employment, university admissions, and businesses compet- ing for public funds (Martins et al., 2004). Affirmative action policies have now either been instituted or are under consideration by all of Brazil's major political and economic institutions.

The most ambitious compensatory efforts have come in higher education, where blacks have been grossly underrepresented. Admission to Brazilian public universi- ties is difficult and highly selective; entrance is determined on the basis of the vestib- ular, the national college entrance exam. Not surprisingly, those who qualify are mostly graduates of private secondary schools, which prepare them well for the exam. The effect of this system is that those admitted to university are likely to be middle class or above- and white. Nationally, no more than 3 percent of students admitted to public universities identify themselves as black or brown, and less than

446 PART III ETHN IC RELATIO NS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTI VE

20 percent come from public scho9ls, which most nonwhite students attend (Downie and Lloyd, 2010; Jeter, 2003; Rohter, 2003 ). Affirmative

1 action measures have been

aimed at addressing these structural inequalities. In 2012, legislation called "the Law of Social Quotas" was enacted that took affirmative action to a new level. It man- dated that all public universities were expected to admit half of their entering classe from public schools, thereby raising significantly the number of black university stu- dents (Romero, 2012).

THE DILEMMA OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN BRAZIL The use of affirmative action to address is- sues of inequality has taken on many of the same controversial trappings as it has in the United States-whether such compensatory policies should reward people on the basis of group membership as opposed to individual merit; whether they can effectively help those most in need; whether they solidify, rather than weaken, racial and ethnic bound- aries; and whether they lower standards. Their legal status has also been challenged.

In addition, however, the controversy has displayed a unique Brazilian twist in that it throws into question the very notion of how race is conceived. Classifying peo- ple racially using clear-cut lines of division, as in the United States, and subsequently using those classifications to apply affirmative action measures (also like the United States) contradicts the popular notion that racial discrimination does not occur in Brazil, and challenges Brazil's self-proclaimed color blindness. Even more basically, it forces Brazil to rethink its essential perspective on race. Racial and ethnic bound- aries have never been dearly defined, as they have in the United States. But to apply and enforce policies of affirmative action makes imperative some system that explic- itly defines racial and ethnic groups. To determine who will be the beneficiaries of affirmative action dictates determining who is "black" and who is "white." One of the strongest points of opposition to affirmative action in Brazil is the fear that creat- ing such a system of racial definition will only bring Brazil closer to the U.S. racial model and will create American-style racial divisions, which have never existed in Brazil. As one opponent expressed it, "We had a goal to create a society that didn't look at people in racial terms. Now we are creating a race question" (Davies, 2003 ).

LOOKING AHEAD

Affirmative action has set off a profound debate within Brazil regarding the society's traditional racial/ethnic system (Bailey, 2008; Dzidzienyo, 2005; Guimaraes, 1999; Skidmore, 2003). There are those who favor the adoption of a more American-like approach to racial inequality, using affirmative action to improve the position of blacks. This, as noted, would necessitate the markiu'g of explicit racial boundaries, something never done before. On the other side are those who assert that the system of racial classification in Brazil, along with its ambiguities and inconsistencies, is uniquely Brazilian and should be retained. Racial democracy in this view is, cor- rectly, the society's goal-if not the reality-of race relations. The movement for change in Brazil's racial politics seems intent on finding a way to reconcile these two positions-to promote greater racial equality without completely abandoning the unique Brazilian racial mixture and the ideal of racial democracy (Fry, 2000).

Brazil is embarking on a new course in its racial-ethnic system and will surely be the focus of attention of social scientists, policy makers, and others who continue to

C H APT ER I 5 BR AZ II: 44 7

wrestle with the complexities of racial and ethnic policies. The very fact that issues of racial inequality are now part of the public discourse represents a fundamental change for Brazil. A black filmmaker, observing the change, puts it this way:

Whatever happens with quotas, Brazilians are talking about the issue of race and dis- crimination and there' s no going back. My white friends will ask me what I think about racism in Brazil or the quotas, and I always tell them: "The answer is in your question. Three months ago, you would never even have asked." (Jeter, 2003:Al)

Brazil presents a complex and often paradoxical case of ethnic relations. In its com- ._ mitment to racial amalgamation, it has few peers among current societies. Similarly, its embracing of the theme of ethnic equality has been unwavering since the abolition of slavery. Furthermore, the inconsistencies between ideology and reality cannot re- pudiate the fact that interethnic relations in Brazil are more benign than in other so- cieties with diverse racial-ethnic groups.

If Brazil is not the racial and ethnic democracy its advocates have proclaimed, it is nonetheless a society in which giant strides have been made toward ethnic assimila - tion. At the same time, however, Brazil demonstrates the difficulties of mitigating the intergroup conflict that, as noted in Chapter 4, seems endemic to multiethnic societies.

SUMMARY

• Brazil's ethnic composition and the historical development of its ethnic diversity closely parallel the American experience; the main focus of ethnic relations is the confrontation of blacks and whites. '

• Brazil was an integral part of the African slave trade, and its system of slavery endured even longer than its American counterpart. -

• Other racial and ethnic elements are present, including many European ethnic groups that entered as voluntary immigrants, and indigenous Indians.

• Debate among historians and social scientists concerns differences in the practice and aftereffects of slavery in Brazil and the United States. Some hold that the Portuguese brand of slavery in Brazil was more humane than the Anglo - American version and consequently produced more benign black-white relations following its abolition. Others have challenged that view.

• Ethnic stratification in Brazil features relatively fluid boundaries between groups. Racial classification is not a dichotomy but a continuum in which groups blend into one another. Racial categories are based not on ancestry but on physical appearance and social class.

• Despite blurred lines of division between groups, there is an ethnic hierarchy in which whites maintain a generally advantageous status over blacks and mulat- toes, the latter a large intermediate racial grouping.

• Although Brazilians proclaim themselves a society free of prejudice and discrim- ination based on race and ethnicity, these are present, though in forms milder than those found in the United States. Blacks are the main objects of this largely subtle ethnic antagonism.

• Brazil is an assimilationist society whose long-range objective is ethnic conver- gence. And it has, in fact, seemed to progress further toward both physical and cultural assimilation than most other multiethnic societies of the world.

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448 PART III ETH N IC RELA TIO NS IN COM PAR AT IVE PER SP ECTIVE

• The ideology of racial democracy and the illusion of the nonexistence of ethnic prejudice and discrimination have been challenged in recent years. Brazil has embarked on a national debate regarding the impact of race, and policies have been instituted to address what has now been acknowledged as deeply rooted racial inequality.

COMPARING BRAZIL AND THE UNITED STATES

Points of Similarity • The historical development of the racial/ethnic system in both societies was parallel: a

combination of conquest of the indigenous (Indian) population by Europeans, impor- tation of an African slave population, and immigration primarily from Europe.

• Slavery was institutionalized in both societies for more than two centuries. • Blacks in both societies (as well as mulattoes in Brazil) are the primarr minority

ethnic group. In both societies, blacks rank lowest on various social and economic indicators, including income, occupation, education, and political power.

Points of Difference • Racial divisions are less fixed in Brazil. Numerous racial categories are used to desig-

nate people, based on observable physical traits, not on ancestry. • Throughout its history, Brazil has encouraged amalgamation between whites and

blacks, mainly as a way of diluting the black element of its population. • The African influence, derived from slavery, has remained a more vibrant and expres-

sive part of Brazilian -culture. • Race relations historically have been more benign in Brazil.

CRITICAL THINKIN G

1. Explain the observation that in Brazil people are not "race" conscious, but "color" conscious. How is this different from the United States?

2. Examine how "race" is conceptualized in Brazil and how it is conceptualized in some Caribbean societies, like Cuba or Puerto Rico. Are there similarities? In turn, are patterns of race relations in those societies comparable to Brazilian patterns? What accounts for the similarities (or differences)?

3. Does the increasing breakdown of racial/ethnic classifications in the United States, as well as the idea of "mixed race" individuals, signify movement in the direction of Brazil's more fluid system of race and ethnic relations?

4 . Explain how the adoption of affirmative action measures in Brazil is working to create _stronger, more formal, racial boundaries than existed previously .

PERSONA L/PRACTICAL APPLICATIO N

1. If you were black, would you prefer to live in Brazil or the United States? Explain your preference.

2 . How would you use the Brazilian case to demonstrate to someone who con- ceives of races as real and inflexible divisions of humans that races are in fact not fixed but are created in variable social contexts?