Political Racialization

There are very few countries in the world that can compare to the level of racial complexity that has characterized that of Brazilian history. The portrayal of Brazil as a harmonious melting pot of different races and cultures dates back at least to independence. Faced with a vast black slave population as well as a large range of Indian communities scattered the length and breadth of the nation, early Brazilian intellectuals and statesmen found themselves obliged to defend the indigenous element in national culture, and assert a national identity based upon racial mixing. Moreover, despite a long history of slavery, it also has no history of legal segregation, as in countries such as the United States and South Africa. However, in the Brazil of today the doctrine of racial democracy has long outgrown its use, and now constitutes the principal obstacle to greater racial equality. The perception that Brazil is an example …show more content…
Unlike family-based colonization in North America, Portuguese and Spanish settlers were primarily single men, seeking wealth and women. As a result, they often sought out African, indigenous and mulatto females as mates, and thus miscegenation or race mixture was common. Moreover, the sheer numerical superiority of slaves from Africa over that of North America, especially in Brazil, is a major factor when considering the racial makeup that exists amidst a push for a shared national identity (Franklin, 1997). Of the 10.7 million African slaves shipped across the Atlantic to Brazil between the 16th and 19th centuries, 4.9 million landed there. In comparison, fewer than 400,000 went to the United States (Franklin, 1974). The slave trade was not just a blip on the radar of Brazilian history. In fact, Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, in