Terrance McCoy and Heloisa Traiano’s Washington Post article, “He Grew Up White. Now He Identifies as Black. Brazil Grapples with Racial Redefinition,” implies that shifting racial identity is a new construct in Brazil. During Brazil’s making as a nation, people always shifted their racial identity, and sometimes they did so in vastly contradictory ways. McCoy and Traiano are wrong to suggest this is a new phenomenon.
Brazil has the largest population of people of African descent outside of Africa. White colonists imported the most significant number of enslaved Africans to Brazil, and they did not abolish slavery until 1888. The early Portuguese settlers, predominantly men, routinely raped African and indigenous women, creating a mulatto population. “From their first contact with women of color, the Portuguese mingled with them and procreated children of mixed race” (Freyre 168). Throughout Brazilian slavery, miscegenation was common, and today Brazilians commonly accept racial identity as something fluid. In contemporary Brazil, Black people make up a racial majority, yet they are the most marginalized and politically underrepresented.
McCoy and Traiano’s article examines how political candidates identify racially in Brazil. They find that “More than a quarter of the 168,000 candidates who also ran in 2016 have changed their race, according to a Washington Post analysis of election registration data. Nearly 17,000 who said they were White in 2016 are now mixed. Around 6,000 who said they were mixed are now Black. And more than 14,000 who said they were mixed now identify as White” (McCoy & Traiano). I argued that the Washington Post oversimplifies the issue of Brazilian racial identities. Brazilians have always claimed a mixed racial identity. According to historians, “Portuguese colonies in tropical America became, in their demographic composition, hybrids of European, Indian, and later, African [sic]” (Freyre 166). Thus, for many contemporary Brazilians, they consider themselves not a race but rather just Brazilian. Consequently, skin color is just the skin color and not tied to any understanding of one’s race.
Today, Brazil’s marginalized Black population has become more politically vocal. Perhaps the protests against racial injustice in the United States have awakened this Afro-Brazilian voice. Ideologies of Black power has empowered Afro-Brazilians to become vocal about the disparities they face from their government. “In Brazil, which still carries the imprint of colonization and slavery, where class and privilege are strongly associated with race, the racial reconfiguration has been striking” (McCoy & Traiano). According to McCoy and Traiano, Brazilians are now redefining their identities.
In conclusion, Brazilians are not redefining their identity, but rather have always been fluid with how they racially categorize themselves. In the Washington Post article, the politicians who changed their racial identity multiple times did so to maintain or obtain power. Their behavior is not a new phenomenon. People in Brazil have always opted to change their racial identity to benefit themselves socially, politically, and economically. These politicians are merely continuing historical continuities of racial identity in Brazil. Racial identity is about power, not just skin color. Brazilians once saw Blackness as a political weakness, but today they see it as social capital and a benefit.
Terrence McCoy, H. (2020, November 19). He grew up White. Now he identifies as Black. Brazil grapples with racial redefinition. Retrieved December 10, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/brazil-racial-identity-black-white/2020/11/15/2b7d41d2-21cb-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html
Problems in Modern Latin American History (Latin American Silhouettes). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kindle Edition.