Brazil census shows African-Brazilians in the majority for the first time

[European blood]

Preliminary results show 50.7% of Brazilians now define themselves as black or mixed race compared with 47.7% whites

For the first time since records began black and mixed race people form the majority of Brazil's population, the country's latest census has confirmed.

Preliminary results from the 2010 census, released on Wednesday, show that 97 million Brazilians, or 50.7% of the population, now define themselves as black or mixed race, compared with 91 million or 47.7% who label themselves white.

The proportion of Brazilians declaring themselves white was down from 53.7% in 2000, when Brazil's last census was held.

But the proportion of people declaring themselves black or mixed race has risen from 44.7% to 50.7%, making African-Brazilians the official majority for the first time.

"Among the hypotheses to explain this trend, one could highlight the valorisation of identity among Afro-descendants," Brazil's census board, the IBGE, said in its report.

According to the census, 7.6% of Brazilians said they were black, compared with 6.2% in 2000, and 43.1% said they were mixed race, up from 38.5%.

In 1872, when Brazil's first census was conducted, the population was split into just two groups: free people and slaves, who then represented 15% of the population.

The IBGE said that while its researchers had detected the trend about three years ago, the 2010 census was the first full nationwide study to recognise the phenomenon.

In an interview last year Brazil's minister for racial equality, Elio Ferreira de Araujo, attributed the change to growing pride among his country's black and indigenous communities.

"People are no longer scared of identifying themselves or insecure about saying: 'I'm black, and black is beautiful,'" he told the Guardian.

Ivonete Carvalho, from the government's racial equality ministry, said African-Brazilians were increasingly willing to stand up and be counted: "I'm here. I'm me. I'm not ashamed of my history."

Race campaigners welcomed the growing number of self-declared African-Brazilians, but the census also underlined how the vast social divide between Brazil's white and non-white populations persists.

The 2010 census – a massive operation which involved about 190,000 census takers visiting 58m homes – found that in major cities white inhabitants were earning about 2.4 times more than their black counterparts.

In Salvador, a former slave port with one of Brazil's largest black populations, the findings were even worse: whites earned 3.2 times more than blacks.

"It is a vicious circle," Marcelo Paixão, an economist from Rio's UFRJ University told O Globo. "Poor salaries lead to worse education, which is a barrier to getting a good job. We need more public policies."

A parallel study, released this week by the Data Popular Institute, provided further evidence of the racial divide that continues to blight Brazilian society. The wealthiest group of Brazilians – known as "Class A" – was made up of 82.3% white people and just 17.7% African-Brazilians.

In contrast "Class E" – the poorest section of society – was 76.3% African-Brazilian and 23.7% white.

The same study found that 31.3% of Brazil's white population had private health plans, compared with just 15.2% of the black population.

In an interview this week Ivone Caetano, a prominent African-Brazilian judge in Rio de Janeiro, painted a bleak picture of life in the place some call South America's "rainbow nation".

"In Brazil every black person is going to be a victim of racism, prejudice [and] discrimination, whatever your position," she said. "Our prejudice is disguised and hypocritical."

A news report on the census findings aired by the Brazilian channel Record TV said the rise in Brazil's officially black and mixed race population was "a signal of growing pride among the descendants of Africans". The story was presented by a white reporter and introduced by two white news anchors.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...lians-majority

[Lorene]

Most are mulattos.

[Also]

The percentage of blacks and mixeds only slightly increased, this could be mostly or at least partially caused by higher population growth rate. And mixed-race doesn't necessarily means part black or someone who would come off as an african-brazilian.

In Salvador, a former slave port with one of Brazil's largest black populations, the findings were even worse: whites earned 3.2 times more than blacks.

Every single brazilian knows blacks from Bahia are lazy. No way this is caused solely by racism.

[Anglojew]

Realism

[curupira]

Realism

The opposite of realism, unless you go by the 'one drop rule' (but if you go by that most Latin Americans and even most of the US - adding 'hispanic', 'blacks' and 'mixed white Americans' - would be too).

They included all the 'pardos' as African descendants in a very misleading and bigoted way ("Preliminary results show 50.7% of Brazilians now define themselves as black or mixed race compared with 47.7% whites"): only around 7% of Brazilians identify as 'black' (even though they are for the most part multiracial in spite of being generally pred. African). The 43% 'pardos' are multiracial leaning towards euro, sometimes with greater ssa african ancestry, like in Bahia and Rio, and sometimes more Native American, like in Northern Brazil.

People of pred. African ancestry are a minority in Brazil, particularly in Northern Brazil and in Southern Brazil. The overall African contribution is definitely low, and certainly exaggerated abroad to the point of distorting what Brazil is really like.

All genetic studies say % african contribution to Brazilian population is minoritary. Media articles can be biased and misleading. "Pardos" from Northern Brazil and Southern Brazil aren't "black". Even those from Bahia and Rio de Janeiro aren't pred. african in ancestry.

Brazil (according to an autosomal study from 2011 with "whites", "pardos" and "blacks" following their respective proportions, from nearly all Brazilian regions):

"In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South".

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3040205/


I rely on genetic studies, since they have followed scientific methodology and are based on measuring actual ancestry, not self reported ancestry (in Latin America self reported and actual ancestry do not necessarily correlate).




Anyway, having traveled in most of Brazil, extensively, I have to point out the news are really distorting the diversity of Brazil... crowd pics of mainly 'pardo' (i.e, 'mixed', 'multiracial' states)... they wouldn't pass in Africa at all:

Crowd pics from Pará (Northern Brazil):

[curupira]

More pics from pred. 'pardo' Northern and Central West Brazilian states...

Football supporters from Amazonas, a state in Northern Brazil:







Football supporters from Cuiabá, Central West Brazil:

[curupira]

Football supporters from Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil, another pred. 'pardo' Brazilian state:

[curupira]

Crowd pictures from several parts of Northeast Brazil (pred. 'pardo' Brazilian region)l.

From Fortaleza, in Ceará (Northeast Brazil):









From Paraíba (Northeast Brazil):








From Piauí (Northeast Brazil):







From Maranhão (Northeast Brazil):

[curupira]

Crowd pics from Goiás, in Central West Brazil, another pred. 'pardo' Brazilian state (according to the census):



From the capital Goiânia:

[Anglojew]

Most don't look white