Does race impact a Brazilian’s ability to attain a post-secondary school education?
Race is a complex issue in Brazil. Moreover, race and racial identity are quite different in Brazil than in the United States. It is imperative than one understand these divergent histories if one is to analyze the issue of race and education in contemporary Brazil.
Brazil was the largest importer of African slaves in the Western Hemisphere, bringing seven times as many African slaves to their shores compared to the United States. Moreover, slavery in Brazil continued for roughly another generation after the United States abolished slavery in the 1860s. After more than 300 years, slavery in Brazil was abolished in 1888.
Another very important difference in these two nations’ and their histories vis-à-vis race is the issue of miscegenation and intermarriage. Colonial Brazil was settled primarily by Portuguese men. The extremely high sex ratio among its colonial settlers led to very high levels of miscegenation and intermarriage—as many Portuguese men sought out female partners amongst the imported, and subsequently native born, African descent population. From very early on in its history, then, Brazil’s population was composed of a high percentage of black, brown, and mixed raced individuals. In fact, recent census data suggests nearly half the Brazilian population self identifies as black or mixed race. Most of these Brazilians, in fact, don’t actually self-identify as black. Roughly 40% of the Brazilian population self-identifies as mixed race. In the United States, though, a relatively high number of these self-identified mixed race Brazilians would be considered African-American or black. This stems from our “one drop rule—“ the socially constructed American notion that just one drop of African ancestry determines one’s racial identity as black. [To some degree, racial constructs and identities are also shifting in the United States].
In Brazil, then, race, to a large degree, exists on a continuum. Racial classification in Brazil is sometimes ambiguous and frequently class-based. While a mixed raced Brazilian inhabiting the middle or upper strata of society might self-identity as ‘white’ in Brazil, he or she might be identified as black in the United States.
Finally, another extremely important difference in the histories of these two nations as it relates to race and racial identity is the existence, or absence, of racial classification laws. In the United States, the end of slavery also marked the beginning of a very long history of racial classification and segregation laws that sought to engender a second-class citizenry. Jim Crow Laws, Poll taxes, the ‘Grandfather clause,’ housing restrictions, anti-miscegenation laws, and state-sponsored segregation of both public and private facilities [including public education] created a very unique, and unfortunate, history of race relations in the United States. Brazil, on the other hand, never had racial classification laws, anti-miscegenation laws, state-sponsored segregation based on race, or other race-based laws. High levels of miscegenation and racial fluidity seemed to make race based classification and laws unnecessary.
In fact, for much of the 20th century, Brazil and Brazilians sustained the ‘myth’ of racial democracy. Racism and discrimination did not exist in Brazil. As such, it was unnecessary to discuss matters of race. Brazilians simply had to look at their large mixed race population to understand that racial democracy thrived in their country. Moreover, Brazilians pointed to the United States and its multitude of racial classification laws [including state-sponsored segregation] and their own absence of such a history to support the notion of Brazil as a racial democracy.
Nevertheless, a snapshot of contemporary Brazilian society illustrates that racial democracy is in fact a myth. Blacks and mixed raced Brazilians are hugely underrepresented in higher education, in white-collar professions, in the media, and in the middle and upper classes. In fact, the middle class and the elite are almost entirely white, while blacks and mixed race Brazilians make up the majority of the poor and the working class. Non-white students represented a very small percentage of public university students. This is currently changing as Brazil recently adopted an Affirmative Action program aimed at increasing the number of students that attended public secondary schools.
The poor and the working class generally attend less rigorous public schools, while the middle class and the elite send their children to private schools for their primary and secondary schooling. Prior to the recent Affirmative Action Law—The Law of Social Quotas—high school students gained admission to the very competitive, and high quality, public universities via the Vestibular, a high-stakes examination. Because most mixed-race and black Brazilians are poor or working class and attend less rigorous primary and secondary level public schools, few of these students were gaining admission to the high quality, prestigious public university system. These federally funded universities provide, in essence, a free education. And while poor and working class Brazilians [read: majority mixed race and Black Brazilians] can afford to attend these universities—they were not gaining admission to these institutions because of their vestibular results.
It appears, then, that Brazil’s recent Affirmative Action law illustrates the importance race has had on a Brazilian’s ability to attain a higher education. Race does matter. Alternatively, though, one must also recognize that the inequities in higher education are actually class-based inequities. Poor and working class white Brazilians didn’t fare much better when it came to attaining a higher education. This is also addressed in the Law of Social Quotas. The law is not simply a racial classification system—its primary goal is to increase the number of students at the universities that attended primary and secondary public schools [read: the poor and working class, the majority of whom are black or mixed race]. A secondary component of the law stipulates that the number of black and mixed race Brazilians admitted to the federally funded universities should be representative of each individual state’s demographics. As such, a state such as Salvador de Bahia [with a large African/mixed-race population] would have a similarly larger student population of mixed-race and black students at their federally funded university. A state in the south of the country [where the percentage of white Brazilians is much higher] would have less mixed-race and black Brazilians. It is important to remember that this is a fairly recent law and the impact of said law will be analyzed for years to come. Moreover, the Law of Social Quotas will only remain in effect for ten years. It will be interesting to see the degree to which this law impacted the state of higher education in Brazil as it relates to the participation and graduation rate of black and mixed-race Brazilians.
The Law of Social Quotas represents a transformative shift in the politics of race and racial thinking in Brazil. As previously stated, for much of the twentieth century, Brazilians believed their nation represented a racial democracy. And on some levels, this cannot be discounted. Brazil, since colonial times, has had high levels of miscegenation—engendering a people that includes a sizeable mixed race population. Many Brazilians have struggled with this more targeted, and more open, approach to race. In reviewing feedback received via our two-day conference with Brazilian educators—as well as other oral discourses during my stay in Brazil—it is evident that many Brazilians continue to believe in this notion of Brazil as the racial democracy. Nevertheless, there also seems to be a newfound awakening and acknowledgement on the part of some Brazilians. Many recognize the great social and class disparities that exist in Brazilian society. And for the most part, most Brazilians also recognize that mixed-race and black Brazilians compose a majority of the poor and the working class, and that whites tend to occupy the middle class and the elite. Brazilians also understand that social and class stratification is directly linked to one’s education. There seems to be an acknowledgement that secondary level public schools have generally provided its students with less preparation than private schools. This in turn has lead to a much smaller number of secondary level public school students scoring high on their vestibular, and consequently, attending the well respected, federally funded universities. It is precisely because of these understandings that most Brazilians have in fact supported the Law of Social Quotas. Recent polling suggests that the great majority of Brazilians support this law.
Race, then, clearly matters in Brazil. Especially when one looks at the number of mixed-race and black Brazilians that attended the public universities. The situation is currently in flux as Brazil is experimenting with a new, Affirmative Action type law. Brazilians recognize the racial inequities prevalent in their society—but they also understand that many of the social and class disparities are tied to education. Clearly, Brazilians have taken it upon themselves to address these issues with the Law of Social Quotas. While it may not solve all of Brazil’s problems—especially the gross disparity between the poor and the rich—it is one small step in addressing the disproportionately small representation of black and mixed-race students in higher education.
Although the Law of Social Quotas represents an important step in the right direction, it is also important that Brazil continue to improve its primary and secondary level public schools. The majority of students in Brazil’s public schools are black and mixed race students. While in Brazil, I visited several schools, and spent an entire week at a public high school in the state of Espiritu Santo. It is apparent that public schools do not receive adequate funding from the state and federal governments. Moreover, anecdotal evidence [as well as official data on university admissions of public versus private high school students] points to a Brazilian public high school system that is less rigorous and fails to prepare many of its students for college [and the vestibular]. Private schools such as Serros, the school visited in Brasilia, seem to be awash in resources. In contrast, in my host public high school in Serra, there was an obvious lack of textbooks, technology, personnel [counselors, etc.], and other important educational resources. It was not surprising, then, that the private school’s student population appeared to be more than 90% white. On the other hand, my host school had a large [40-50%] mixed-race and black population. It is my sincere hope that Brazil continues to address its educational [and racial] disparities so that more and more Brazilians move out of poverty and into the middle class.
Bibliography
Carvano, Marcelo Paixão Luis and Rossetoo, Irene. “Educational Performance and Race in Brazil.” Americas Society/Council of the Americas: Education. Fall 2010.
Marteleto, Letícia & Hamrock, Caitlin. “Race Inequality in Education and Earnings in Brazil and South Africa.” Population Research Center. University of Texas at Austin.
Romero, Simon. “Brazil Enacts Affirmative Action Law for Universities.” The New York Times. 30 August 2012.
Stahlberg, Stephanie Gimenez. “Racial Inequality and Affirmative Action in Brazil.” Stanford Progressive. August 2010.
Telles, Edward E. “Discrimination and Affirmative Action in Brazil.” Wide Angle. 2009.
Telles, Edward E. “Racial Discrimation and Miscegenation: The Experience in Brazil.” UN Chronicle: The Magazine of the United Nations. September 2007.
Telles, Edward E & Paixâo, Marcelo. “Affirmative Action in Brazil.” LASA Forum. Spring 2013.
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