If we walk the streets and observe the traces of most of the Brazilian population, we will see that a large part of it is made up of blacks or mulattos (mestizos of blacks and whites). This is due to the production model implemented in the country with colonization, which used the slave labor of thousands of black Africans.
It is believed that, during the 358 years of slavery, from 1530 to 1888, around 5.5 million blacks left Africa to be enslaved in Brazil. Of these, 4.8 million arrived alive in our lands. During this period, the life condition of blacks was very precarious, as they lived in slave quarters, often unhealthy, worked during most of the day (without pay), food was precarious, and disobedience was often repressed with a lot of violence.
With the abolition of slavery, despite having achieved freedom, the majority of the black population did not achieve the same standard of living as whites in the country. As there was no assistance to the newly freed, who also did not have any property, often even free, blacks continued to work for their former masters in exchange for little more than they earned previously. In other cases, Afro-Brazilians moved to urban centers in the country, occupying areas further away or unsuitable for housing, thus contributing to the emergence of the first shanty towns. They began to live underemployed, which promoted the ethnic segregation of the Brazilian population, as white men had access to more opportunities and a higher standard of living than blacks.
Currently, although the situation of blacks has improved a lot, the living conditions of this portion of the population have not improved. equal to that of the white population, which still has more favorable social indices than the other ethnic groups existing in the parents. According to the IBGE, blacks and browns represent the majority of the Brazilian population – around 54% of the country's total population, which has already surpassed 204 million people.
Despite this, blacks make up only 17.4% of the richest population in the country and only work in about 18% of the most important positions. Their wage income is also lower, corresponding to around 80% of the income of a white person who performs the same function. It is also worth mentioning that around 80% of domestic workers in Brazil are of African descent. Afro-descendants also represent around 63% of the poorest and 69% of the indigent.
Access for this portion of the population to most public services is also limited. The illiteracy rate, for example, is twice as high among blacks. While the illiteracy rate among whites is 5.2%, among the black population, this rate rises to 11.5%. The average number of years of schooling is also lower among blacks. In 2013, the white population had, on average, 8, 8 years of schooling; the black population was about 7.2 years old.
Another problem that affects blacks in the country is the racial discrimination suffered by many of them. This discrimination occurs in practically all sectors of Brazilian society. On the internet, for example, thousands of blacks are victims of prejudiced actions every day, even if they are considered a crime. Examples of these prejudiced acts were the racist comments in the photos of journalist Maria Júlia Coutinho (Maju) and actress Taís Araújo, who were called “monkeys” and harassed in 2015, when they posted photos on their social networks, due to the color of their skin and their features African descendants. If we conduct a survey, we will find that cases of racial prejudice against anonymous people are even more common.
Thus, although the Brazilian population consists mostly of blacks and mestizos and the situation of this portion of the population has improved since the abolition of slavery, there is still a relative racial segregation in the country, as the black population still faces prejudice and inferior social conditions in relation to the rest of the population Brazilian. Due to this situation, the number of people and actions that seek to break this paradigm grows. This is the case of countless NGOs, associations and campaigns that aim to combat racial prejudice and support victims of this type of crime. A government policy, much criticized, which aims to reduce social contrasts between the black population and the white population is the quota system in universities and public examinations for low-income blacks and those coming from school public.
¹ Image Credit: Shutterstock.com and CREATIST
By Thamires Olimpia
Graduated in Geography
