Abstract
This chapter analyzes racial inequalities in Brazil along 50 years exploring the superposition of race and class. How has the topic of race relations and inequalities been addressed in Brazil? Has the inequality situation changed from 1960 on? If so, how have those changes been interpreted? Despite the numerous social changes Brazil has undergone in 50 years, the vast majority of blacks were hold at the bottom of the social pyramid. First, the chapter briefly reviews how the literature on race relations and inequalities has addressed the issue of black social status in Brazil. Second, the chapter examines racial disparities over time, taking into account the fundamental factors and effects relating to the reproduction of racial inequality in Brazil, such as educational opportunities and holding a university degree.
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Notes
- 1.
The UNESCO project was a series of UNESCO-funded studies on race relations in Brazil. The proposal rested on the belief, following studies in Brazil during the 1930s and 1940s that the tendency there was to unparalleled racial harmony. Studies were conducted in the cities of Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo.
- 2.
Note here the peculiar status of indigenous groups in statistics. Underrepresentation of the indigenous population is associated with a number of factors. As a segment separate from other groups, they were first recorded in 1872 and 1890 as caboclos (mestizos) and, in subsequent censuses, in residual categories or together with “yellows” [Asians]. From the 1940 census onward, indigenous people and caboclos became “brown,” an indistinct category that could also refer to mulattos, morenos, etc. It was not until the 1991 census that the category of “indigenous” was introduced. We decided to exclude the group from analysis in this study.
- 3.
Net enrolment rate refers to students’ participation in the level of education considered appropriate to their age group, i.e., age 7–14 at primary school, age 15–17 at high school, and age 18–24 enrolled in higher education. The rate is calculated by dividing the total number studying at the appropriate level of education in each age group by the total number of individuals in that age group.
- 4.
The chapter by Carlos Costa Ribeiro and Rogerio Schlegel points to significant differences between blacks and browns in terms of the university degree programs chosen. There seems to be a trend for the gap between blacks and browns to widen (the advantage being with the latter) in the upper strata, whether educational, via university degree, or in the labor market.
- 5.
In calculations by income quintile, the values express the percentages of people within each quintile who reached higher education. Each quintile represents 20% of the population, the first comprising the poorest 20% and the fifth, the wealthiest 20%.
- 6.
Medicine, Engineering, and Law were established as university programs at the imperial period (1822–1889). At that time, holding a degree meant a higher status than having a profession. Nonetheless, holding a diploma worked as a strong instrument of exclusion (COELHO 1999).
- 7.
The odds ratio analysis considered “success rate” within each group and the ratios among the groups. That is:
$$ \mathrm{Odds}\ \mathrm{ratio}=\left(\mathrm{Pw}/1-\mathrm{Pw}\right)/\left(\mathrm{Pn}/1-\mathrm{Pn}\right)=\mathrm{Pw}\times \left(1-\mathrm{Pn}\right)/\mathrm{Pn}\times \left(1-\mathrm{Pw}\right), $$where Pw is the proportion of whites who reached the level of schooling and Pn is the proportion of Afro-Brazilians who reached the same level of schooling. Lower values mean smaller inequalities.
- 8.
ProUni (Programa Universidade para Todos/University for All) was established in 2004. The program seeks to provide full or partial scholarships to low-income students to pursue undergraduate programs at private colleges and universities. The candidate for a ProUni scholarship must have graduated from a public primary school and high school and must have per capita family income of no more than the equivalent of three minimum wages. ProUni has adopted the quota system for candidates self-identified as black, brown, or indigenous at the time of applying for the scholarship. The percentage of scholarships reserved for those groups is determined by the proportion of these groups in the population of the candidate’s state.
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Lima, M., Prates, I. (2019). Racial Inequalities in Brazil: A Persistent Challenge. In: Arretche, M. (eds) Paths of Inequality in Brazil. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78184-6_6
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