The “Myth” of Racial Democracy in Brazil
Diego Toledo from São Paulo

Text sent to the group list Rede do 3° Setor in 11/18/2005
http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/3setor

The United Nations has attacked the “myth” of racial democracy in Brazil. A report on human development in Brazil that the UN disclosed this Friday, gathering a series of social and economic indicators on the country, concluded that Afro-Brazilians as a group are at the bottom of the heap.

The report shows that inequality occurs in areas such as income, health and education. Besides this, the study makes comparisons to show that the situation has not changed in recent decades.

“The data only corroborate what the eyes of any observer can see: the higher up the hierarchies of power, the whiter Brazilian society becomes,” says the report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The study shows, for example, that the average monthly income Black Brazilians in 2000 was R$ 162.75, less than half the R$ 341.71 (in today’s values) Whites gained in 1980. Since then the gap between Blacks and Whites has hardly budged. The study states that 64.1% of poor Brazilians are Negroes and that the unemployment rate for Blacks was on average 23% higher than for Whites between 1992 and 2003.

The entity’s report says that Brazilian racial democracy is a myth” and supports a joint action of the government and society to fight racism in the country. The study adds that affirmative actions, including quotas, are necessary in Brazil because women, Blacks and indigenous peoples have been left “at a centuries-long disadvantage by Brazilian society.”

“Universal policies are and will always be indispensable. Treating the disadvantaged equally, however, can aggravate inequality instead of reducing it,” the report affirms.

Human development

The UNDP study uses the indicators to reveal another aspect of disparity between Whites and Blacks in Brazil. In 2002, Brazil was ranked in 73rd place in the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI). But the study calculates that if Whites and Blacks were divided into two countries, the ranking between them would be 61 positions.

The report says ‘White Brazil’ would be in 44th place in the ranking, alongside countries like Costa Rica and ahead of Croatia, for example. In contrast, ‘Black Brazil’, with the same index as would be in 105th place, with the same index as El Salvador and behind countries such as Paraguay.

The study also affirms that the racial inequalities combine with regional ones. A group formed only of Whites from the Southeast would rank 37th, with an index similar to Poland’s, while one of Northeastern Blacks would be in 115th place, indicating living conditions similar to Bolivia’s.

Violence

The UNDP also points to the profile of the main victims of violence in Brazil: young Black single males. According to the report, the homicide rate for the Black population is 46.3 per 100 thousand, nearly twice that for Whites. The study shows also that Blacks are the main victims of police violence in Brazil. Besides this, the UN adds that Black accused of crimes tend to be more harassed by the police and have face greater obstacles to obtaining adequate legal representation.

“Revealing the relation that exists between racism, poverty and violence is a fundamental step to understand the singular way racism has become manifested in Brazilian society,” says Carlos Lopes, the report’s editor in chief.

Education, health and housing

In the area of education, the UNDP study affirms that the percentage of Black Brazilians with university diplomas in 2000 (2.7%) was less than for Whites in 1960 (3%). Another indicator reveals that the illiteracy rate among Blacks in 2000 was higher than for Whites in 1980. Disparities are also large in life expectancy – 71.5 years for Whites and 66.2 years for Blacks.

“Brazilian racism had for many centuries placed the Black population in a situation of flagrant inequality in all dimensions studied,” affirms Lopes, who was representative of the UNDP and the United Nations itself in Brazil until October this year.

“This requires a joint effort of the State and society, and will not be overcome without implementing affirmative actions and policies that contemplate cultural diversity,” the reports editor in chief says.