Racial Inequality In Brazil Research Articles

Labor and Racial Inequality in Brazil

Labor and Racial Inequality in Brazil

Deepening and widening the gap: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender and racial inequalities in Brazil.

Shaped by inconsistent policy decisions, the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil has made structural gender and racial inequalities more acute. Black and low-income women are overburdened with unpaid domestic work, increased domestic violence, and more vulnerable due to informal and exploitative working regimes. These structural aspects are intensifying, since the pandemic has broadened inequalities at the intersection of gender, race, labor market, and social class. We examine pre- and during pandemic inequalities on three dimensions: (a) unpaid domestic and care work, (b) women's labor market participation, and (c) domestic violence. We link the care diamond model and racial stratification forwarding a feminist perspective by examining how the interlocking of race and gender in Brazil renders different socioeconomic dynamics to the detriment of Black and low-income women. Based on this evidence, we stress that a more equal future requires a better social protection and policies targeting the articulation of gender, race, and class.

The Future of Progressive Politics in a Post-Fordist World

The Future of Progressive Politics in a Post-Fordist World

Políticas públicas de acción afirmativa en la educación superior en Brasil

En este artículo presentamos la primera experiencia del Banco de Validación de Autodeclaraciones Étnico-Raciales encargado de comprobar personalmente la autodeclaración étnico-racial de los candidatos que optan por ingresar a la Universidad Federal de la Integración Latinoamericana (UNILA), reservando las vacantes para los negros en el registro del Sistema Unificado de Selección (SISU). Nuestra investigación se caracteriza por ser un estudio de caso exploratorio; para la recopilación de datos utilizamos documentos institucionales. Para apoyar el debate, hicimos una reflexión sobre la cuestión racial en Brasil y destacamos fenómenos como la diáspora africana, el genocidio de la población negra y el movimiento eugenista brasileño como categorías analíticas esenciales para comprender el racismo estructural en este país. Además, relacionamos el proceso de formación de la educación superior brasileña y la importancia de las políticas de acción afirmativa como estrategia para abordar la desigualdad racial en Brasil.

As cotas raciais como política de ação afirmativa para a equidade de acesso ao ensino superior

O Objetivo do presente estudo é analisar o impacto das cotas raciais como ações afirmativas para o acesso da população negra ao ensino superior. Trata-se de um artigo de análise, e para atender ao objetivo fez-se necessário tecer breves conceitos acerca da desigualdade racial no Brasil; entender conceitualmente ações afirmativas e as cotas raciais; examinar sua sustentação legal. É um estudo bibliográfico e qualitativo que partiu da premissa da luta de classes instituída na sociedade ao longo da história, bem como da desigualdade racial e violência contra negros no Brasil. O estudo constatou que o sistema de cotas representou um divisor de águas quanto a democratização do acesso da população negra ao Ensino Superior, ainda que com argumentações contrárias e alegações de que as cotas discriminam e incutem a ideia de que os negros seriam incompetentes. Constatou também o número elevado de alunos que se evadem da Universidade, e a urgência de políticas de ações afirmativas que visem a permanência desses alunos nas Universidades.

Racial density and the socioeconomic, demographic and health context in Brazilian cities in 2000 and 2010.

Racial density has not yet been explored in studies of racial inequalities in Brazil. Thisstudy identified categories of racial density in Brazilian cities and described the living and health context in these categories in 2000 and 2010, when demographic censuses were conducted. Ecological study which used skin color or race information from the last two censuses to calculate racial density (the ratio of people aggregated to the same racial group) of the Brazilian cities each year. Four categories of racial density (Brown; Mixed-race, predominantly black; White/Caucasian; and Mixed-race, predominantly white). Socioeconomic, demographic and health indicators were described to each category. The categories of racial density captured important inequalities throughout the census and also indicated the continuance of worse living and health conditions in the cities composed by Browns and mixed-race people, predominantly Black; better conditions were indicated in cities where White/Caucasians are predominant. The cities, composed mainly of Browns and mixed-race people, predominantly Black, presented younger age structure, worse human development indexes, greater social vulnerability, income concentration, infant and premature mortality (<65 years) and lower life expectancy in both censuses, as compared to other cities. Similarly to other countries, the racial density reflected inequalities in the Brazilian living and health context as well as a time lag among the cities. The categories of racial density may contribute to social epidemiology and race relations studies in Brazil.

Expressões da desigualdade racial na política de previdência social: uma análise a partir do acesso a direitos previdenciários no município de Rolândia-PR

O artigo apresenta resultados de pesquisa sobre o acesso da população negra aos direitos viabilizados pela política de previdência, no município de Rolândia-PR. Objetiva evidenciar que dificuldades nesse acesso revelam uma das expressões da desigualdade racial no Brasil: a dificuldade de acesso aos direitos sociais viabilizados pela política de previdência, e que essa dificuldade é maior entre a população negra do que entre a população branca. Foi construído através de análise bibliográfica, análise documental e de dados sobre a demanda apresentada por homens e mulheres que procuraram agência do Instituto Nacional de Previdência Social (INSS), do município de Rolândia (PR). Esses dados foram colhidos através de formulários elaborados pelas pesquisadoras e preenchidos por sujeitos informantes, profissionais que trabalham nessa agência. Conclui-se que entre os trabalhadores negros registram-se maiores percentuais de informalidade e precarização de trabalho do que os que se observam entre os trabalhadores brancos; fato que se expressa em maiores índices de exclusão dos negros do excesso aos benefícios vinculados a uma política contributiva.

Whitening and racial ambiguity: racialization and ethnoracial citizenship in contemporary Brazil

ABSTRACTRecent policies to redress racial inequality in Brazil, including affirmative action and the protection of Afro-Brazilian land rights, have generated fierce debates about the character of race and racism in Brazilian society. In this article, I critically examine an assumption structuring these debates: that Brazil is characterized by a special tolerance for ethnoracial ambiguity that is threatened by these initiatives. Drawing on ethnographic research on conflicts between Afro-Brazilian communities and Brazil’s spaceport, I argue that an everyday imperative to social whitening shows how this ethnoracial ambiguity has been skewed toward one racial pole. Affirmative action policies do not eliminate ethnoracial ambiguity, but have helped to change the force of the everyday whitening that structures it. In this critique, I aim to clarify the nature of ethnoracial changes in Brazil, as the ideology of ‘racial democracy’ has lost the hegemony it held during much of Brazil’s twentieth century.

Affirmative Action: An Overview of the History of Resistance, Struggle and Achievements of the Black Population in the Brazilian Context

This article seeks to present a reflection on affirmative actions that are characterized as public policies aimed at minority groups. On this perspective, we will make a cutting in the racial inequalities between blacks and whites in the Brazilian context, for the disparities between these groups are not marked only by social class, but also by the ambiguous racism that prevails in the country. Thereby, we seek to make the complaint of racial inequality in Brazil, as well as the announcement of answers achieved by the struggle of the black population, personified on the black movement and in actions in favor of black men and women who historically lived on the margins of society. In this sense, we organized the paper into three parts, plus the introduction and closing remarks. First, we present a brief historical and social context of race relations in Brazil. Then, we speak of about the steps and achievements of the black movement in the country. Finally, we highlight the affirmative action adopted for the benefit of black people, especially in the educational field, like the quota system in universities.

“O negro é povo no Brasil”: afirmação da negritude e democracia racial em alberto guerreiro ramos (1948-1955)

É possível identificar, no debate público sobre as atuais desigualdades raciais brasileiras, duas estratégias antirracistas fundamentais. Enquanto, de um lado, a afirmação política e identitária da negritude é encarada por alguns atores como forma de denunciar o racismo presente em nossas estruturas e práticas sociais, outros sustentam que o tradicional elogio ao caráter mestiço do povo brasileiro fornece a melhor base para um projeto nacional autenticamente pós-racial. Embora pareçam inconciliáveis, nem sempre essas posturas foram vistas como rivais. O sociólogo baiano Alberto Guerreiro Ramos é um exemplo de pensador do “problema do negro no Brasil” que via a afirmação da negritude como meio para a construção da democracia racial no país. Embora sua adesão a esses dois projetos seja considerada ambígua e incoerente, este artigo sustenta que a afirmação da negritude e o elogio da democracia racial são propostas políticas que ele tentou compatibilizar deliberadamente. Sobretudo entre 1948 e 1955, Guerreiro Ramos defendeu que a assumpção epistemológica e política da negritude seria um meio para expurgar dialeticamente do país a desconectada ideologia da brancura. Somente assim, seríamos capazes de dotar de valor a nossa mestiçagem, reconciliando a tradicional apologia da democracia racial com a constituição concreta do nosso povo.

Ação Afirmativa no Brasil: Fundamentos e críticas

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Racial Inequality in Brazil and the United States, 1990-2010

This essay compares statistical indicators of black/white racial inequality in Brazil and the United States from 1990 to 2010. Those indicators include racial differences in fertility, life expectancy, infant mortality, regional distribution, educational enrollment and achievement, labor force distribution, income and earnings, and poverty. From 1994 to 2010, Brazilians elected a series of presidential administrations committed to reducing the country’s very high levels of class and regional inequality. The programs enacted by those governments did reduce poverty and inequality and enabled some 30 million Brazilians to move from the poor and working class into a greatly expanded middle class. The article finds that policies intended to combat class inequality worked to reduce racial inequality as well. On most indicators, Brazil made greater progress in lowering racial disparities during those twenty years than did the United States. By 2010 the United States was still the more racially egalitarian country, in statistical terms; but Brazil’s experiments in social democracy and in class- and race-based affirmative action are producing outcomes that merit close attention from citizens and policymakers interested in reducing class and racial inequality in the United States.

A beleza abre portas: Beauty and the racialised body among black middle-class women in Salvador, Brazil

Beauty is constantly lived and incorporated as a meaningful social category in Brazil and intersects with racialised and gendered ways of belonging to the Brazilian nation. In this article, I deploy ethnographic material to show how middle-class women self-identifying as black embody and experience beauty and how, through practices and discourses centred on physical appearance, they both reinforce and challenge broader social and racial inequalities in Brazil.

The Color of Hunger: Food Insecurity and Racial Inequality in Brazil

Brazil’s 2009 National Household Survey provides information on a representative sample of 121,708 households and includes items that enable us to identify households that experience “moderate” and “severe” degrees of food insecurity. Using the two measures of food insecurity as dependent variables in logistic regression analyses, the results show that Brazil’s indigenous population suffers the highest and the Asian-descent population enjoys the lowest level of food insecurity. The findings further support the hypothesis that, other things being equal, Afro-Brazilians experience higher rates of food insecurity compared to whites. Net of statistical controls for region, urban residence, age, monthly per capita household income and gender of the head of household, the odds of moderate and severe food insecurity are, respectively, 31 percent and 45 percent higher among brown compared to white households. Among black households, the odds of moderate and severe food insecurity are 50 percent and 73 percent higher, respectively, compared to households headed by a person who declares themselves white. Estimates of the color differences in food insecurity in 2009 represent a novel contribution to the study of racial inequality and discrimination. The findings provide a benchmark against which future studies can assess the effectiveness of the food-related components of Brazil’s new social policy agenda.

Brazil in black and white? Race categories, the census, and the study of inequality

Many scholars advocate the adoption of a black-and-white lens for the analysis of racial inequality in Brazil. Drawing on a nationally representative dataset that includes race questions in multiple formats, we evaluate how removal of the ‘brown’ category from the census or other social surveys would likely affect: (1) the descriptive picture of Brazil's racial composition; and (2) estimates of income inequality between and within racial categories. We find that a forced binary question format results in a whiter and more racially unequal picture of Brazil through the movement of many higher income mixed-race respondents into the white category. We also find that regardless of question format, racial inequality in income accounts for relatively little of Brazil's overall income inequality. We discuss implications for public policy debates in Brazil, and for the broader scientific and political challenges of ethnic and racial data collection and analysis.

Measures of “Race” and the analysis of racial inequality in Brazil

Quantitative analyses of racial disparities typically rely on a single categorical measure to operationalize race. We demonstrate the value of an approach that compares results obtained using various measures of race. Using a national probability sample of the Brazilian population that captured race in six formats, we first show how the racial composition of Brazil can shift from majority white to majority black depending on the classification scheme. In addition, using quantile regression, we find that racial disparities are most severe at the upper end of the income distribution; that racial disparities in earnings are larger when race is defined by interviewers rather than self-identified; and that those classified as “black” suffer a greater wage penalty than those classified as “brown.” Our findings extend prior conclusions about racial inequality in Brazil. More generally, our analysis demonstrates that comparison of results across measures represents a neglected source of analytic leverage for advancing empirical knowledge and theoretical understanding of how race, as a multidimensional social construct, contributes to the production of social inequality.

Black Social Movements and State in Brazil: The Issue of Co-Optation

This paper explored the relationship between Brazilian Black Movement organizations and the State in order to create new institutional instances to fight racial discrimination in Brazil. Using discourse analysis, we analysed the discourses produced by several players regarding the implementation of the Special Secretariat for Promotion of Policies for Racial Equality (SEPPIR) in the widest context of the debate concerning public policies to fight racial inequality in Brazil throughout the years. We understood the role of co-optation in the process of making sense and constructing institutional spaces to implement public policies to overcome racial inequalities in Brazil. Traditionally regarded as an organization dysfunction, co-optation may be viewed as a process that emphasizes change in participation and representation.

Ação afirmativa e raça no Brasil contemporâneo: um debate sobre a redefi nição simbólica da nação

The article analyzed the impact of Affirmative Action with racial criterion in Brazilian media (magazines Veja, Istoé and Época and newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo) through the framing analysis for the period between 1995 and 2006 concerning the consolidation of the theme within the state. The analysis emphasized the interpretative framings of “Position”, which corresponds to the publications which presented assessments of the racial quota system; of “Arguments”, which noted the argumentative structures that sustained the valuations; and of “Prognosis”, which explored the alternative or complementary proposals to the mentioned system. The main conclusion refers to the decrease of complaints about racial inequalities in Brazil since 2005, accompanied by a dramatic increase of reports and articles detrimental to the advancement of Affirmative Action with racial criterion in the country.

Ações afirmativas na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul e o seu significado simbólico

This article analyses how income, educational and racial inequalities in Brazil result in the lack of opportunities for a large part of the population reinforcing a cycle of exclusion in our society. The article presents the debate about affirmative action policies, especially the one referring to quotas in universities, through the analysis of four public manifestos. It also discusses the symbolic meaning of the implementation of these policies, taking the case of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul as an example.

Depois da democracia racial

Neste artigo, meu objetivo é refletir sobre um cenário futuro, que se torna cada vez mais real e próximo: aquele em que as desigualdades raciais no Brasil convivem com um regime de Estado do qual as organizações negras e outras organizações populares participam ativamente na formulação de políticas multiculturalistas e no qual a ideologia da democracia racial cessou de ser hegemônica. Se, por um lado, nesse cenário, ganhamos efetiva consciência das limitações de nossa democracia, da heterogeneidade da nossa formação e da insidiosa reprodução das desigualdades raciais, nem por isso somos capazes de reverter esse quadro. Essa é a oportunidade de expor alguns equívocos interpretativos atualmente correntes na literatura: nem as desigualdades raciais resultam da "democracia racial", nem a reprodução das desigualdades pode ser explicada pela simples existência de categorizações de base racial.