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{{Short description|Ideology in Brazil, prominent from 1889–1914}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Racial whitening''', or "'''whitening'''" (''[[blanqueamiento|branqueamento]]''), is an [[ideology]] that was widely accepted in [[Brazil]] between 1889 and 1914,<ref>Sánchez Arteaga, Juanma. "Biological Discourses on Human Races and Scientific Racism in Brazil (1832–1911)." Journal of the History of Biology 50.2 (2017): 267-314.</ref> as the solution to the "Negro problem".<ref name="Skidmore">Skidmore, Thomas. Black Into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought, [[Oxford University Press]]. NY, 1974.</ref><ref>Schwarcz, Lilia Moritz. (2011). Predictions are always deceptive: João Baptista de Lacerda and his white Brazil. História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos, 18(1), 225-242</ref> Whitening in Brazil is a [[Sociology|sociological]] term to explain the change in perception of one's race, from darker to lighter identifiers, as a person rises in the [[Social class|class structure]] of Brazil.<ref>NOGUEIRA, Oracy. "Tanto preto quanto branco: estudo de relações raciais no Brasil." ''São Paulo: TA Queiróz, Série'' 1 (1985).
Racial whitening became a social concept that was developed through governmental policy.<ref name="Schwarcz 225–242">{{Cite journal |last=Schwarcz |first=Lilia Moritz |date=March 2011 |title=Fontes |journal=História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=225–242 |doi=10.1590/s0104-59702011000100013 |pmid=21552698 |issn=0104-5970|doi-access=free }}</ref> Similar to that of the United States, Brazil experienced [[European colonization of the Americas|colonization]] by Europeans and [[Atlantic slave trade to Brazil|importation of African slaves]] in the 18th and 19th century.<ref name="Schwarcz 225–242"/>
As a way of making Brazil seem like a modernized country comparable with European nations, Brazil encouraged the immigration of white Europeans with the goal of racial whitening through miscegenation. Once they arrived, European immigrants dominated high-skilled jobs, and libertos (freed slaves) were relegated to service or seasonal jobs. Additionally, whitening led to the formulation of the Brazilian idea of "[[racial democracy]]", the idea that Brazil lacks [[Racism in Brazil|racial prejudice]] and [[Racial discrimination|discrimination]], allowing equal opportunities for blacks and whites alike, effectively creating a [[Racial color blindness|race-blind]] society.<ref name=":0"/>
== Initial Racial Policies ==▼
Prior to the abolition of slavery, plantation owners feared a post-emancipatory society of freed slaves who had, “deficiencies such as indolence and immorality” that needed to be wiped out.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aidoo |first=Lamonte |date=2018-11-13 |title=Genealogies of horror: three stories of slave-women, motherhood, and murder in the Americas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |journal=African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=40–53 |doi=10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |issn=1752-8631}}</ref> Brazil’s export based economy was largely reliant on slave labor, and slaveholders felt the freedmen would hinder the country’s development because of their inferior characteristics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aidoo |first=Lamonte |date=2018-11-13 |title=Genealogies of horror: three stories of slave-women, motherhood, and murder in the Americas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |journal=African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=40–53 |doi=10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |issn=1752-8631}}</ref> After the emancipation of slaves, Brazilians theorized about the ideal phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of future laborers. Initially, Brazil saw the success of Chinese immigrants in the U.S and other nations, but the risk of introducing another purportedly degenerate race like the Africans was too high. Arthur de Gobineau, a French diplomat sent to Brazil by Napoleon, felt introducing the Europeans was a perfect solution because it would purify elements of Brazil’s inferior race through interbreeding.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aidoo |first=Lamonte |date=2018-11-13 |title=Genealogies of horror: three stories of slave-women, motherhood, and murder in the Americas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |journal=African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=40–53 |doi=10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |issn=1752-8631}}</ref> This solution would return the white race to their superior place. Brazilian writers and politicians blamed Portuguese colonials for importing a large slave population.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aidoo |first=Lamonte |date=2018-11-13 |title=Genealogies of horror: three stories of slave-women, motherhood, and murder in the Americas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |journal=African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=40–53 |doi=10.1080/17528631.2018.1541959 |issn=1752-8631}}</ref>▼
The myth of racial democracy arose from the lack of a strict segregationist culture and the frequency of [[interracial marriage]]. Thus, it was argued that Brazil was not bound by racial lines, but issues caused by racism festered under the surface.<ref name=":0"/> This inattention to race implied that all Brazilians had an equal opportunity to attain social mobility.<ref name=":0"/>
Apart from its racial justification, Brazilian farmers argued that the post-emancipation labor market in Brazil would be controlled by supply and demand. Thus, incentivization of foreign immigrants would create a situation where laborers searched for employers at cheap prices instead of employers looking for a small pool of laborers at a high wage. This governmental stance is based upon three principles, which scholar Marcus Eugenio Oliveira Lima describes as “institutional relations towards ‘national eugenics;’ social perceptions and inter-group relations; and self-perception and interpersonal relations.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lima |first=Marcus Eugênio Oliveira |date=2007-12 |title=Review Essay: Racial Relations and Racism in Brazil: Telles, Edward Eric, Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil. Princeton, NJ/Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006. 324 pp. ISBN 978—0—691—12792—7 (pbk) |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1354067X07082805 |journal=Culture & Psychology |language=en |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=461–473 |doi=10.1177/1354067X07082805 |issn=1354-067X}}</ref>▼
However, this masked the true goal of whitening as a means to nullify the identities of [[Black people|black]] and [[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|indigenous]] identities. In Brazil, race is considered a spectrum upon which one's identity is subject to change based on a variety of factors, such as social class and educational attainment.<ref name="Schwarcz 225–242"/> Governmental policies like [[affirmative action]] seek to mediate identity problems associated with racial democracy.
Working with the São Paulo province, Brazil officially started incentivizing European immigration in 1884 when it created the semi-private Society for the Promotion of Immigration.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=George Reid |date=1988-08 |title=Black and White Workers: Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1928 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2516517?origin=crossref |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=491 |doi=10.2307/2516517}}</ref> The program was, “responsible for informing European workers of employment opportunities available in São Paulo, paying their passage, overseeing their arrival in Brazil, and dispatching them to the coffee groves”.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2017 |editor-last=Bértola |editor-first=Luis |editor2-last=Williamson |editor2-first=Jeffrey |title=Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9}}</ref> By 1895, the State Department of Agriculture had fully taken control of the operation because São Paulo province was officially transformed into a state. Until the abolition of slavery in 1888, Europeans were hesitant to emigrate away from their home countries because they believed that Brazilian farmers would treat them like slaves. After slavery’s abolishment in 1888, Brazil was flooded with European immigrants. Statistics demonstrate that, “compared to 195,000 immigrants who arrived in Brazil between 1870 and 1889, immigration between 1890 and 1909 totaled 1,100,000”.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2017 |editor-last=Bértola |editor-first=Luis |editor2-last=Williamson |editor2-first=Jeffrey |title=Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9}}</ref> There was a constant decline in the Afro-Brazilian population between the censuses of 1872 and 1990, decreasing from 19.2% to under 5%, although the rate recovered to 6.2% at the 2000 census.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lima |first=Marcus Eugênio Oliveira |date=2007-12 |title=Review Essay: Racial Relations and Racism in Brazil |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354067x07082805 |journal=Culture & Psychology |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=461–473 |doi=10.1177/1354067x07082805 |issn=1354-067X}}</ref> Once the European immigrants arrived in the late 19th century, most São Paulo immigrants worked as colonos (tenant farmers) which “received a fixed monetary income for maintaining a certain number of coffee trees plus a variable payment depending on the volume of the harvest”.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2017 |editor-last=Bértola |editor-first=Luis |editor2-last=Williamson |editor2-first=Jeffrey |title=Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9}}</ref> Apart from São Paulo, there was no subsidized immigration program in Brazil. In these areas, the libertos’ experience varied: in Sergipe, vagrancy laws were implemented to force the free black population back onto the plantation, but some libertos stayed with their former employers or emigrated elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2017 |editor-last=Bértola |editor-first=Luis |editor2-last=Williamson |editor2-first=Jeffrey |title=Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-44621-9}}</ref> However, Afro-Brazilians’ status improved with labor laws enacted during the great depression that required two thirds of businesses’ new hires to be Brazilian-born.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Creighton |first=Helen |date=2008-05 |title=How Far is the ‘Rhetoric of Inclusion; Reality of Exclusion’ Argument Applicable to the Relationship of Afro-Latin Americans to the Nation-State? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00532.x |journal=History Compass |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=843–854 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00532.x}}</ref> ▼
The arrival of European immigrants created a two-tiered labor market where immigrants dominated factory, commerce, industrial, and artisanal jobs whereas Afro-Brazilians were relegated to seasonal or service jobs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=George Reid |date=1988-08 |title=Black and White Workers: Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1928 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2516517 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=491 |doi=10.2307/2516517 |issn=0018-2168}}</ref> Freed slaves lacked the skill to compete with European immigrants in the technical jobs and preferred the variety of the service jobs. However, other historians like Florestan Fernandes attribute these labor market differences to a pre-emancipation mentality that avoided work during slavery and a lack of marketable skills to offer when the slaves were freed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=George Reid |date=1988-08 |title=Black and White Workers: Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1928 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2516517 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=491 |doi=10.2307/2516517 |issn=0018-2168}}</ref> For employed Afro-Brazilians, they demanded better working conditions after emancipation, but European immigrants, especially Italians, accepted lower pay and harsher treatment to secure a higher social position.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=George Reid |date=1988-08 |title=Black and White Workers: Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1928 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2516517 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=491 |doi=10.2307/2516517 |issn=0018-2168}}</ref> Apart from their willingness, the source of the immigrants’ vulnerabilities in the labor force was two fold: Brazil was populated with low-skilled immigrants who didn’t have bargaining power with their employers, and most immigrants valued their spouse or child over joining a labor union that could get them fired. In one area of Brazil, “Eighty percent of the people who passed through the immigrant hostel in São Paulo city came as families”.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=George Reid |date=1988-08 |title=Black and White Workers: Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1928 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2516517 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=491 |doi=10.2307/2516517 |issn=0018-2168}}</ref> In São Paulo, child-labor was common because of the meager pay that their parents received.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=George Reid |date=1988-08 |title=Black and White Workers: Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1928 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2516517 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=491 |doi=10.2307/2516517 |issn=0018-2168}}</ref>▼
===
{{Main article|Slavery in Brazil}}
As a result of the whitening-induced interracial marriage in the late 19th century and a lack of segregation laws, race in modern Brazil is defined by the concept of “racial democracy.” This inattention to race implies that all Brazilians have an equal opportunity to attain social mobility.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Creighton |first=Helen |date=2008-05 |title=How Far is the ‘Rhetoric of Inclusion; Reality of Exclusion’ Argument Applicable to the Relationship of Afro-Latin Americans to the Nation-State? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00532.x |journal=History Compass |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=843–854 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00532.x}}</ref> ▼
▲Prior to the [[Slavery in Brazil|abolition of slavery]], plantation owners feared a post-emancipatory society of freed slaves who had,
▲Apart from its racial justification, [[Agriculture in Brazil|Brazilian farmers]] argued that the post-emancipation labor market in Brazil would be controlled by [[supply and demand]]. Thus, incentivization of foreign immigrants would create a situation where laborers searched for employers at cheap prices instead of employers looking for a small pool of laborers at a high wage. This governmental stance is based upon three principles, which scholar Marcus Eugenio Oliveira Lima describes as
Such identity problems and inequities caused by racial democracy led Afro-Brazilians to take measures to identify closer to the white race in order to place them on a level playing field. In a 1995 national survey, Brazilian citizens were asked to consistently classify race on an overall and contextual basis. This study found that persons of lighter color tended to be consistently classified, while those of a darker skin tone tended to be classified more ambiguously.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Telles |first=Edward E. |date=2002-01 |title=Racial ambiguity among the Brazilian population |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870252932133 |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |language=en |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=415–441 |doi=10.1080/01419870252932133 |issn=0141-9870}}</ref> Factors that impacted consistency by 20% to 100% included education, age, sex, and local racial composition, trending in the direction of either “whitening” or “darkening.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Telles |first=Edward E. |date=2002-01 |title=Racial ambiguity among the Brazilian population |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870252932133 |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |language=en |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=415–441 |doi=10.1080/01419870252932133 |issn=0141-9870}}</ref> To combat this, the Campanha Censo of 1990 sought to combat the trend of self-whitening, the false identification of oneself as white, in Brazil.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Creighton |first=Helen |date=2008-05 |title=How Far is the ‘Rhetoric of Inclusion; Reality of Exclusion’ Argument Applicable to the Relationship of Afro-Latin Americans to the Nation-State? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00532.x |journal=History Compass |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=843–854 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00532.x}}</ref>▼
=== European immigration to Brazil ===
Furthermore, there is a widespread difficulty in admitting that racism exists in Brazil. Because many don’t consciously identify as black, many instances of prejudice are not recognized as racism, which becomes a cycle, and racism continues to exist in Brazil. Moreover, Brazil almost prides itself as having somehow moved past racial discrimination because it was built on the mixing of Amerindian, African and European ethnic groups.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-18/worm/p4 |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=dx.doi.org}}</ref> However, racism in Brazil exists and can take on a variety of forms of prejudices and stereotypes. In fact, a 2022 study on Racial Democracy and Black Victimization in Brazil finds that disparities in employment, income, education, access to justice, and vulnerability to violent death are heavily influenced by race, and in fact found that blacks are more exposed to homicides and physical assaults than whites, and 40% of this difference is evidence of racial discrimination.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Truzzi |first=Bruno |last2=Lirio |first2=Viviani S. |last3=Cerqueira |first3=Daniel R. C. |last4=Coelho |first4=Danilo S. C. |last5=Cardoso |first5=Leonardo C. B. |date=2022-02 |title=Racial Democracy and Black Victimization in Brazil |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10439862211038448 |journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice |language=en |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=13–33 |doi=10.1177/10439862211038448 |issn=1043-9862}}</ref> ▼
{{Main articles|European immigration to Brazil}}
▲Working with the [[São Paulo
▲The arrival of European immigrants created a two-tiered labor market
== Contemporary politics of Brazil ==
While black workers maintain sizable numbers in the workforce, especially in small and midsize retailers and restaurants, they still struggle to break into high-paying corporate landscapes such as the accounting and tech industries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Telles |first=Edward E. |date=2002-01 |title=Racial ambiguity among the Brazilian population |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870252932133 |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |language=en |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=415–441 |doi=10.1080/01419870252932133 |issn=0141-9870}}</ref> Based on a recent survey, 94% of top executives in Brazil’s top corporations are white, which translates into minuscule opportunities for black Brazilians to gain the experience of going into business independently. In fact, non-whites make up 45.3% of the Brazilian population, yet they make up only 17.8% of all registered entrepreneurs.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Figueiredo |first=Angela |date=February 18 2002 |title="The End of 'Social Whitening'." |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A82823241/AONE?u=nysl_ce_hamilton&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=1ae4cead. |journal=Newsweek International}}</ref> Much of this has to deal with the educational and economic roots of many black businesspeople in the country. While black business leaders are younger, they have spent less time in the classroom than whites, with nearly half of all black leaders dropping out of school by the eighth grade and only 15.8% completing twelve years of schooling. This is in contrast to the 35.8% of white leaders who have completed twelve years of schooling.<ref name=":1" /> Further evidence of the arduous path to black success in the private sector is the statistic that more than a third of black business leaders hail from poor rural or blue-collar urban families, compared to just a quarter of white business leaders. Such hardships within the business landscape for black Brazilians has led them to take measures to identify closer to the white race in order to place them on a level playing field.▼
{{Main article|Racial democracy}}
▲As a result of
▲Such identity problems and inequities caused by racial democracy led Afro-Brazilians to take measures to identify closer to the white race in order to place them on a level playing field. In a 1995 national survey, Brazilian citizens were asked to consistently classify race on an overall and contextual basis. This study found that persons of lighter color tended to be consistently classified, while those of a darker skin tone tended to be classified more ambiguously.<ref name="Telles 415–441">{{Cite journal |last=Telles |first=Edward E. |date=January 2002
An aspect that influences the upward mobility of individuals is education.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arteaga |first=Juanma Sánchez |date=2016-05-23 |title=Biological Discourses on Human Races and Scientific Racism in Brazil (1832–1911) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10739-016-9445-8 |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=267–314 |doi=10.1007/s10739-016-9445-8 |issn=0022-5010}}</ref> The education deficit between black and white entrepreneurs is better explained by a much higher illiteracy rate. In 1980, the number of illiterate black Brazilians was double that of whites, with blacks also being seven times less likely to graduate college.<ref name=":0" /> ▼
▲Furthermore, there is a widespread difficulty in admitting that racism exists in Brazil. Because many
== The Role of Affirmative Action ==▼
Employment disparities found in this study are supported by inadequate incentives for minority-owned businesses in Brazil, creating an every-man-for-himself survivalist environment for black businesspeople.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Recco |first1=Ianna |title=In the Flesh at the Heart of Empire: Life-Likeness in Wax Representations of the 1762 Cherokee Delegation in London |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-21/irecco/p6 |journal=British Art Studies |access-date=10 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318141437/https://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-21/wax-representations-of-the-1762-cherokee-delegation-in-london#p6 |archive-date=Mar 18, 2023 |language=en |doi=10.17658/issn.2058-5462 |url-status=live |issue=21|doi-access=free }}</ref> This is consistent with the increase in workplace discrimination indicated by the Brazilian censuses of the 1960s and 70s, despite the passage of federal non-discrimination legislation in 1953.<ref name=":0"/>
▲While black workers maintain
▲An aspect that influences the [[Social mobility|upward mobility]] of individuals is education.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arteaga |first=Juanma Sánchez |date=2016-05-23 |title=Biological Discourses on Human Races and Scientific Racism in Brazil (1832–1911) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10739-016-9445-8 |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=267–314 |doi=10.1007/s10739-016-9445-8 |pmid=27216739 |s2cid=254551700 |issn=0022-5010}}</ref> The education deficit between black and white entrepreneurs is better explained by a much higher illiteracy rate. In 1980, the number of illiterate black Brazilians was double that of whites, with blacks also being seven times less likely to graduate college.<ref name=":0" />
{{see also|Race and ethnicity in Brazil|Demographics of Brazil|Immigration to Brazil}}
Several political, cultural, and social groups have emerged in Brazil in an attempt to gain equal rights and a positive [[Afro-Brazilians|Afro-Brazilian]] image for and among black Brazilians. This trend identifies blackness as a separate and significant identity, in contrast to it being traditionally erased. These initiatives have been implemented in the twenty-first century thanks to the adoption of affirmative action policies by a number of educational institutions and the federal government, which are meant to assist Afro-Brazilian students in obtaining a higher education and pursuing better opportunities similar to those available to Brazilians who are not black.<ref name=":2">Cleuci de Oliveira,
[[File:Redenção.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|''A Redenção de Cam'' (''[[Ham's Redemption]]''), by [[Galicians|Galician]] painter [[Modesto Brocos]], 1895, [[Museu Nacional de Belas Artes]]. The painting depicts a black grandmother, [[Mulatto|mulata]] mother, white father and their [[quadroon]] child, hence three generations of racial [[hypergamy]] though [[Blanqueamiento|whitening]].]]
The [[University of Brasília|University of Brasilia]] (UnB), the first university in Brazil to implement a [[racial quota]] in 2004, served as the "guinea pig" for such initiatives. After the quota was implemented, UnB's white population fell by 4.3%, while mixed and black both grew by 1.4% and 3% respectively.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Evidence-Based Best Practice for Discharge Planning: A Policy Review
Although there is a blueprint, it is already evident that affirmative action has proven to be an uncomfortable fit for Brazil as a strategy for [[racial equality]]. Burnt white, brown, dark nut, light nut, black, and copper are just a few of the 136 categories the census department discovered Brazilians use for self-identification according to a 1976 research.<ref name=":2" /> Almost 50 years later, today, Brazilians still regard themselves as falling across a spectrum of skin hues with a range of names. The realization that a person's appearance matters, particularly in terms of social mobility and job opportunities, is what ties these categories together. To address inequalities in higher education, the federal government established the Law of Social Quotas in 2012.<ref name=":2" />
Regardless of color, the legislation guarantees public high school graduates half of all openings at institutions receiving federal funding. (Public universities, unlike high schools, are more prestigious in Brazil than private ones.) Half of those reserved seats go to students whose families make less than 1.5 minimum wage, or $443 per month, on average.<ref name=":2" /> According to the proportion of white to non-white residents in each state, a share of the openings in both categories are therefore reserved for black, brown, and indigenous students. Despite the fact that this is trying to address certain racial challenges, it is actually causing brand-new ones. In 2014, a statute was passed by the federal government allocating 20% of public sector positions to people of color.<ref name=":2" /> Where individuals don't cleanly fit into black-and-white classifications, it becomes difficult to label those eligible for affirmative action. After it became obvious that the law allowed for fraud, the government instructed all departments to set up verification committees in August 2016.<ref name=":2" /> However, it did not offer any guidance to the agencies. Verification committees attempt to fulfill this mandate mostly through checklists on physical appearance. Does the job applicant have a short, wide, and flat nose? How thick are their lips? Are their gums a deep enough purple color? ==People who have made reference to whitening in Brazil==
* [[João Batista de Lacerda]]: Director of the [[Museu Nacional]], wrote a paper named "Half-Breeds of Brazil".<ref>{{cite journal|title=The ''Metis'', or Half-Breeds, of Brazil|url=http://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Alacerda-1911-metis/lacerda_1911_metis.pdf|quote=Children of ''metis'' have been found, in the third generation, to present all the physical characters of the white race, although some of them retain a few traces of their black ancestry through the influence of atavism. The influence of sexual selection, however, tends to neutralise that of atavism, and removes from the descendants of the metis all the characteristic features of the black race. In virtue of this process of ethnic reduction, it is logical to expect that in the course of another century the ''metis'' will have disappeared from Brazil.}}</ref> In it he describes the differences in the different races. He also predicted that by the third generation of mixed breeding there are predominantly white characteristics.
* [[Theodore Roosevelt]]: After visiting Brazil in 1913 he wrote an article in ''[[The Outlook (New York)|Outlook]]'' magazine. In his article he talks about how the Brazilian Negro is disappearing.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Roosevelt |first=Theodore |date=21 February 1914 |title=Brazil and the Negro |magazine=Outlook |location=New York |publisher=Outlook Publishing Company, Incorporated}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Skidmore]]: Wrote the book ''Black into White'' which covers many of the aspects dealing with Whitening. Also gives his own theories and insights.
* Samuel Alexson: Wrote a pamphlet in [[New York City|New York]] explaining whitening to the common man.<ref name="Alexson">Alexson, Samuel. On the Whitening of the Brazilian Negro, Nonsensical Press. NY, 1967.</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Racism in Brazil]]
* [[Race and ethnicity in Brazil]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Multiracial affairs in Brazil]]
[[Category:Social history of Brazil]]
[[Category:Race in Brazil]]
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