Afro-Brazilian - Brazilian Race/colour Categories

Brazilian Race/colour Categories

The first system referred by Telles is that of the IBGE. In the Census, respondents choose their race or color in five categories: branca (white), parda (brown), preta (black), amarela (yellow) or indígena (indigenous). The term "parda" needs further explanation; it has been systematically used since Census of 1940. In that Census, people were asked for their "colour or race"; if the answer was not "White", "preta" (black), or "Yellow", interviewers were instructed to fill the "colour or race" box with a slash. These slashes were later summed up in the category "pardo". In practice this means answers such as "pardo", "moreno", "mulato", "caboclo", etc. In the following Censuses, "pardo" became a category on its own, and included Amerindians, which became a separate category only in 1991. So it is a term that describes people who have a skin darker than Whites and lighter than Blacks, but not necessarily implies a White-Black mixture.

Telles' second system is that of popular classification. Two IBGE surveys (the 1976 PNAD and the July 1998 PME) have sought to understand the way Brazilians think of themselves in "racial" terms, with the explicit aim of adjusting the census classification (neither, however, resulted in actual changes in the Census). Besides that, Data Folha has also conducted research on this subject. The results of these surveys are somewhat varied, but seem to coincide in some fundamental aspects. First, there is an enormous variety of "racial" terms in use in Brazil; the 1976 PNAD found 136 different answers to the question about race; the July 1998 PME found 143. However, most of these terms are used by very small minorities. Telles remarks that 95% of the population chose only 6 different terms (branco, moreno, pardo, moreno-claro, preto and negro); Petrucelli shows that the 7 most common responses (the above plus amarela) sum up 97%, and the 10 most common (the previous plus mulata, clara, and morena-escura) make 99%. Petrucelli, analysing the July 98 PME, finds that 77 denominations were mentioned by only one person in the sample. Other 12 are misunderstandings, referring to national or regional origin (francesa, italiana, baiana, cearense). Many of the "racial" terms are (or could be) remarks about the relation between skin colour and exposition to sun (amorenada, bem morena, branca-morena, branca-queimada, corada, bronzeada, meio morena, morena-bronzeada, morena-trigueira, morenada, morenão, moreninha, pouco morena, queimada, queimada de sol, tostada, rosa queimada, tostada). Others are clearly variations of the same idea (preto, negro, escuro, crioulo, retinto, for black, alva, clara, cor-de-leite, galega, rosa, rosada, pálida, for White, parda, mulata, mestiça, mista, for "parda"), or precisions of the same concept (branca morena, branca clara), and can actually grouped together with one of the main racial terms without falsifying the interpretation. Some seem to express an outright refusal of classification: azul-marinho (navy blue), azul (blue), verde (green), cor-de-burro-quando-foge. In the July 1998 PME, the categories "Afro-Brasileiro" (Afro-Brazilian) and "Africano Brasileiro" (African Brazilian) weren't used even once; the category "Africano" (African) was used by 0.004% of the respondents. In the 1976 PNAD, none of these were used even once.

The remarkable difference of the popular system is the use of the term "moreno". This is actually difficult to translate into English, and carries a few different meanings. Derived from Latin maurus, meaning inhabitant of Mauritania, traditionally it is used as a term to distinguish White people with dark hair, as opposed to "ruivo" (redhead) and "loiro" (blonde). It is also commonly used as a term for people with an olive complexion, a characteristic that is often found in connection with dark hair. In connection to this, it is used as a term for suntanned people, and is commonly opposed to "pálido" (pale) and "amarelo" (yellow), which in this case refer to people who aren't frequently exposed to sun. Finally, it is also often used as a euphemism for "pardo" and "preto".

Finally, the Black movement system groups "pardos" and "pretos" in a single category, "negro" (and not "Afro-brasileiro" or any other hyphenated form) This looks more similar to the American racial perception, but there are some subtle differences. First, as other Brazilians, the Black movement understands that not everybody with some African descent is Black, and that many or most White Brazilians indeed have African (or Amerindian, or both) ancestrals – so a "one drop rule" isn't what the Black movement envisages, as it would make affirmative actions impossible; second, the main issue for the Black movement isn't "cultural", but rather economic: it is not a supposed cultural identification with Africa, but rather a situation of disadvantage, common to those who are non-White (with the exception of those of East Asian ancestry) that groups them into a "negro" category.

However, this binary division of Brazilians between "brancos" and "negros" is nevertheless seen as influenced by American one-drop rule, and attracts much criticism. For instance, sociologist Demétrio Magnoli considers the sum of pretos and pardos as Blacks an "assault" on the racial vision of Brazilians. He believes that scholars and activists of the Black movement misinterpret the ample variety of intermediate categories, characteristic of the popular system, as a result of Brazilian racism, that would cause Blacks to refuse their identity, and hide themselves in euphemisms. According to the same author, a survey about race, conducted in the town of Rio de Contas, Bahia (total population about 14,000, 58% of whom White), replaced the word "pardo" by "moreno". Not only "pardos" choose the "moreno" category, but also almost half of the people who previously reported to be White and half of the people who previously reported to be pretos also choose the moreno category.

According to a 2000 survey held in Rio de Janeiro, the entire self-reported preta population reported to have African ancestry. 86% of the self-reported "pardo" and 38% of the self-reported White population reported to have African ancestors. It is notable that 14% of the Pardos (brown) from Rio de Janeiro said they have no African ancestors. This percentage may be even higher in Northern Brazil, where there was a greater ethnic contribution from Amerindian populations.

Racial classifications in Brazil are based on skin color and on other physical characteristics such as facial features, hair texture, etc. This is a poor indication of ancestry, because only a few genes are responsible for someone's skin color: a person who is considered White may have more African ancestry than a person who is considered Black, and vice-versa.