Brazil

There are over 650 million people living in Latin America today, about 150 million of whom are considered "Afro-Latino", or of African descent. The large amount of Afro-Latinos is the result of the slave trade which brought in excess of ten million enslaved people from West Africa. Even though Afro-Latinos play a big role in shaping Latin American society they are rarely represented on mainstream media. If you switch on the TV and go to a Spanish channel the chances are you will see very few if any black Latinos represented. This lack of representation stems from a deep rooted history of colorism stemming all the way back to the first enslaved people brought to the Americas.


Many people in the United States believe that the United States was the only culprit when it came to oppressing their black citizens. Many even consider Latin America as a utopia of diversity where different races and cultures get along perfectly. This however is far from the reality. Latin America's racial category practices allow for economic and social status to be a big determining factor in racial classification. For example, Afro-Latinos of high socio economic standing have more options when selecting a racial classification to go by. In their eyes the ideal situation would be one where they are classified as far away from black as possible. This phenomenon of inter-play between ethnicity and socio-economic status comes from the Latin American ideology of "blanqueamiento" or whitening. This ideology represents the idea of going up in social status by getting as close to whiteness as possible. In many people's eyes black is synonymous with poverty and white is synonymous with success. This goal of "blanqueamiento" can be achieved by marrying someone lighter skinned or becoming someone wealthy or famous. For example, Brazilian soccer legend Pele allegedly changed his birth certificate to display a white racial identification.


In many Latin American countries with a high black population, such as Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and Panama, the social class "Mulatto" has been created, made up of people of mixed African and European heritage (note that this term, common in Latin America, is considered offensive by many in the context of the United States). White skin is idolized to such an extent that a whole new social class was created for those who couldn't fit in either. Mulattoes often occupy the middle of the social standing. They enjoy more privileges and opportunities than their black counterparts but much less than the white people at the top. The historian Carl Degler called this phenomenon as the "mulatto escape hatch". This escape hatch provided an opportunity for social mobility to a group of people that had very few to begin with.


Many studies have been conducted to discover the different ways that Afro-Latinos are held back by the society around them. These studies discovered that hiring practices, such as one requiring a photograph of yourself with your resume, have held back Afro-Latino's hope for employment. These jobs require their employees to maintain a "good appearance" which is code for not being black. The greater opportunities presented to Mulattoes causes them, in some cases, to distance themselves from their African ancestry. They don't want to become those at the bottom so consequently they are forced to remove that part of their identity.


These distinct social classes were not only built around social practices but legal ones as well. In Brazil the government instituted many new immigration laws that removed Afro-descended citizens from the formal labor market. They encouraged European immigration by granting immigrants from Europe generous land grants. During the late 1800s and early 1900s other things such as food, housing, medical care, transportation costs, and exemption of required military service was given to European immigrants. This same privilege of owning land was denied to quilombos or those who descended from enslaved people. As you can see Brazil is a country very divided where a minority few have most of the power and influence. Deep-rooted colorism is present in Brazil dating back to when the first enslaved people arrived in the Americas.



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