Black Brazil Seeks A Better Future
 

By Robert Plummer
BBC News, Sao Paulo

A university named after a 17th-Century rebel slave leader in Brazil is at the forefront of a controversy over the country's complex racial identity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5357842.stm

"Brazilian society is effectively a two-colour one. From the point of view of privileges, access and social status, it always was,"

This applies to many nations across the globe. Generally speaking the lighter you are, the higher up in the social ladder you are. That applies to lighter versus darker East Indians, lighter versus darker South Americans, lighter versus darker groups in Asia, lighter versus darker North Americans, etc.

I don't believe that a country has to be forced into a two-color nation but the colorism and social class thing is the real point. Not the race and social class thing. North America is the main country where (the social construction of) "race" is the issue in its interaction with social class, gender, and other social constructs. Other places don't articulate the issue the same as we do, but it's all the same issue.

Interesting article.....even more interesting to see how it wil play out. In a country like Brazil, what would be the cut-off to classify someone as black? I wonder how do they classify someone as black now, since according to their stats, there are only 11 million blacks in Brazil but 76 million "mixed".

Anyway, if they do implement some type of US-styled "affirmative action" I wonder if many who are "mixed" will now move to "black" in order to utilize some of the programs? Since just like in the US, you do not have to be 100% african in nature to be classified as "black".

I suspect a great deal of it will be based on physical attributes. There are a number of problems with that, including the fact that "black" is socially constructed and includes a wide array of complexions, hair textures, facial features and so forth--even for people who are not bi-racial.

Another issue is the fact that there are people who are NOT biracial but are choosing to identify as "mixed" because they know that identifying as "black" places them at the bottom of the food chain. Then there's the issue of people straddling the fence and wavering, as you said, by seizing any opportunity that they can either way.