Racism in Brazil

Racism has been present in Brazil since its colonial period and is pointed as one of the major and most widespread types of discrimination. The myth of a racial democracy is used by many people in the country to deny or downplay the existence and the broad extension of racism in Brazil. The Brazilian census organizes the population into five, albeit imperfect, racial groups. These are branco (white), preto (black), pardo (brown, or multi-racial), amarelo (yellow, or Asian), and indígena (indigenous). Because there was never a legal genetic definition for these categories, throughout history, each of these racial groups has been defined in different ways. Racial classification in Brazilian society is often inconsistent and influenced by a myriad of factors including: class, status, education, location and phenotype. Slavery brought with it dehumanization of Africans and a multitude of negative stereotypes that set the stage for a racial hierarchy in Brazil where blacks and those of African descent would become the subservient class to whites. The abolition of slavery in Brazil meant the end of legal segregation between blacks and whites.