Inequality in Brazil

Elida Waggoner

Democracy and Exclusion Brazil LAS 6936Professor Reiter

The story of Brazil's social inequalities is one that deals with constant change, suffering,

violence, disenfranchisement, and perpetual injustice. Do the stories of the past still ring true today?

How far has Brazil come in its struggle to balance opportunities for all races? From Pedro I to Dilma

Rousseff all leaders promise improvements that many fall gravely short of fulfilling. Some social

programs have performed better than others. Still, the majority of Brazilians on the unequal scale

would argue that more needs to be done to improve the living standards of the poor and disadvantaged.

Brazil has worked hard to eradicate the system of patronage that plagued and corrupted its

political systems of the past. Under military rule Brazil cleaned up its act and almost eradicated

patronage. Democracy promised representation, greater suffrage, and elected leaders, with it patronage

slithered its way back into the limelight. Democracy requires equality to work, without it democracy

does not exist and you have a system of oligarchy with a few fighting to maintain dominance.

Brazil inches closer to a true democracy every day. Many social programs have been put in

place to bring greater opportunities to those who need it most. Local governments have created

wonderful cities and created vast opportunities for the poor to earn honest wages. The question

remains, will this be enough to significantly lift a desperate stratus of the population into greater

socioeconomic standing. In Brazil there exists the illusion of equality, the reality is that blacks lag

behind whites in healthcare, education, and income.

Historical Racial Relations

Brazil and its history of slavery are closely married. Without slavery it is questionable whether

Brazil would be the country that it is today. For a nation that was built on the backs of slaves, it is a sad

state of affairs that the very people who built the nation do not reap the rewards of their labors but

rather a small group of elite thrived and continue to thrive with the help of the excluded. Blacks largely

make up the poor class in Brazil. Blackness is measured on a scale from dark to light with the darkest

members of society being the poorest.

Brazil was claimed in 1500 by the Portuguese, soon thereafter slavery became an integral

component of life. Slave populations grew to encompass a third of the population by the 19th century.

Slavery was abolished in Portugal in 1776 but it was much too important in Brazil to abolish slavery so

soon in the countries history. Brazil's economy greatly utilized slaves for domestic work, sugar

plantations, coffee plantations, cattle and other hard labors. Brazil formally seceded from Portugal in

1820, and ended slavery in 1888 almost one hundred years after mainland Portugal.

In 1808 slavery came to a halt in England.1 Despite international pressures by the mid 1800s

Brazil continued the importation of slaves past the social expiration date. Unlike England whose slave

economy changed, Brazil's agriculturally focused infant economy still would hinge greatly on slaves.

Several practices continue the spirit of slavery to the present day. The use of Agregados perpetuated

slavery in the past, while the racial roots of slavery can be seen in modern day Brazil by racial wage

disparities and occupations.

Agregados could be family or someone who depended greatly on a land owner to survive, but

mainly Agregados represent an enslaved class of the extremely poor and likely black who sold their

political liberty in order to survive.2 Freedom was for the privileged few who were rich and white and

were rarely threatened of losing it. Blacks were threatened with incarceration if they were

unemployed, and the only jobs made available to them were the same jobs they historically held.

Blacks lacked the education to secure employment in other occupations. The promise of land

grants never materialized. Faced with little prospects they turned to familiar work in agriculture, hard

labor, and domestic work to survive. The end of slavery only changed their employer. The economics

of their freedom enslaved blacks for future generations.

Regional Racial Demographics

Location is given as one of the reasons for inequality rather than race. 44.5 percent of black live

in northeastern Brazil. This area is characterized by poverty stricken areas and underdeveloped

industry. The majority of whites live in Southeastern Brazil. This area is more developed and offers

more opportunities to its residents. Not only is the south more developed it also receives most of the

financial resources the country has. The government chooses to invest heavily in urban infrastructure

while the north sparingly gets money for its programs.

Location inequality can be attributed to patterns of development since the nations beginning.

Economically driven changes occurred because of the success of coffee plantations in the south, the

discovery of gold in the south and central areas of Brazil, and sugar crop decline in part due to other

forms of sweeteners being developed in the industrial world such as high fructose corn syrup.

Racism is evident when you consider the racial recruiting that replaced black labor in the south

with white European immigrants. Late nineteenth century Brazilians believed that great civilization

could only be obtained through white people.3

By white washing the population Brazil could progress

and become a great nation. When location is viewed in this context its evident that the racial makeup

by location is racist in its nature.4

Colonial Brazil was also heavily influenced by the United States. Brazil, looked toward the

United States with admiration.5 In the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith believed that the inferior races

would not reproduce and become prosperous. He believed that over time whites would dominate and

black numbers would be reduced. Smith specifically states:

Every species of animals naturally multiplies in proportion to the means of their subsistence,

and no species can ever multiply beyond it. But in civilized society it is only among the inferior

ranks of people that the scantiness of subsistence can set limits to the further multiplication of

the human species; and it can do so in no other way than by destroying a great part of the

children which their fruitful marriages produce.

Feeling blacks were inferior Brazil aided the eventual decline of blacks by also encouraging European

immigration, and mixing.6

The Beginnings of Change

Racial inequality was officially attacked in 1990 when then president Cardosa denounced

discrimination. Some of the things that Cardosa did to promote equality was that he required public

schools to acknowledge and teach Afro-Brazilian history. A topic that previously was taboo, and

seldom talked about let alone studied. Most Brazilians went so far as erase black family members from

their family trees. Cardosa also created the role of state secretariatto to promote racial equality.

Cardosa's quota initiatives were met with fierce critiques who argued that quotas would create

racial discord. Brazil is no stranger to denying racial inequality, and racism. A study was published

indicating that 6% of university students were black. This number appeared to correlate with the

number of blacks in Brazil, in reality 45% of Brazilians were of African Ancestry at the time of the

study and only 6% were considered preto leaving pardos out of the equation. The university figures

included both classifications. Lula also further tried to promote equality with his ending hunger

initiatives In response, the official statistics agency published a study indicating that 40% of Brazilians

were overweight.7

Education

World-wide there has been an increase demand and enrollment for institution of higher

education. By 1991 global enrollment was at 65 million a sharp increase from the 1960s. This trend

continues to the present with no indicators of slowing down. More recently demand for education has

increased in Brazil from 1.5 million in 1992 to 3.8 million in 2003.8 To understand education in Brazil

one must first understand who is attending private and public institution at different levels of schooling.

In Brazil public universities do not require tuition, students can attend free of charge. Since cost does

not act as a regulator on who attends, the University system has put in place entrance examinations to

determine who enrolls. Entrance based on merit appears to be a fair qualifier for entrance until you

factor in early education.

Inequality can also be seen by the funding between rural or municipality schools and urban state

run schools. Rural schools get much less money than urban schools. The disparity is so great that

schools must call upon parent volunteers for upkeep and maintenance of schools. The grades are

usually combined with 1 or 2 teachers teaching 4 school grades in the same year. In addition, there is

less administrative staff to support the schools. Further compounding the problems, the teachers are

less trained in rural schools. In most state schools the teachers have graduated high school, while in

rural schools this qualification is rare. The teachers who are more qualified aspire working for state run

schools. Teachers receive greater wages in state run school than in municipal run schools.9

Students who attend public school below the university level are ill prepared to pass the

rigorous entrance examinations required of them to gain entry. In a society with clear demarcation

between black and white socioeconomically. Blacks dominating the poorer class also dominate public

school matriculation. The white dominated upper class can afford early private education for their

children, and insure their students are prepared to pass the entrance exams for public universities. 10

Parents can also purchase additional courses that focus on taking the entrance exam solely.

Competition for matriculation is intense, only 9 percent of applicants secure entrance. Blacks

are underrepresented in the applicants that secure entry to public universities. Another factor that

excludes blacks are the fees associated with taking these exams. Naturally the ultra-poor struggle to

pay these fees, and retaking these exams might not be an option for most. White upper class students

would have the luxury of multiple repeated attempts.

Under the Cardosa administration a push for privatization was initiated by the recommendations

of the World Bank. With this push more private institutions opened, and existing ones expanded their

programs and enrollment. Due to early educational inequality the population segment that can afford to

pay less is overrepresented in these institutions. The government has responded by increasing loans for

students, while this does increase the education of blacks this does not increase equal opportunity for

students.

Gross misuse of quota programs by students who can claim little African ancestry is another

factor that greatly exasperates the fairness of university admissions. Most families have the previously

and often forgotten member that was black in their family tree. The quota systems have given these

family members a new birth and emergence back into the familial linage. The students attempt to

gain entry as blacks to ease their entrance.

Committees have been enacted to authorize and legitimize the racial self assessments of student

applicants. The problem with racially categorizing students is that race is very subjective. In some

instances siblings were split racially by these committees ruling one sibling white and other black.

Further calling attention to the unfairness inherit in the system are two identical twins who were ruled

separate races.

President Cardoso initiated a public discussion on Affirmative Action in 1996, at the same time

conceding racial discrimination in Brazil. 11 Cardoso underlined the necessity for a Brazilian-styled

solution to racism in the country. Universities in Brazil began enacting affirmative action policies in

2001, placing quotas on admissions that required a certain number of black or indigenous students to be

accepted each year. The purpose of affirmative action is to reduce inequality in Brazil by allowing

some disadvantaged students an opportunity to attend a university. The largest group of

disenfranchised and disadvantaged people in Brazil are Afro-Brazilians.

There are two primary considerations toward the suitability of an applicant for affirmative

action, which are race and class. Universities apply different weight to these considerations, which

affects the make-up of the beneficiaries of affirmative action at that university. The current federal

proposal for affirmative action dictates that half of all students accepted to a university have attended

public rather than private school. This creates a pool of applicants hailing from the disadvantaged

classes of Brazil.

Within this applicant pool, a number of Afro-Brazilians proportionate to the number of Afro-

Brazilians in the local state must be accepted. Although this is the most common approach used by

universities, it is not the only one used. Six universities currently accept only Afro-Brazilians from

public schools into the affirmative action program, entirely eliminating white Brazilians that attended

public school. Seven universities elect to create a pool utilizing either race or class, allowing white

public school students as well as black private school students to compete for affirmative action slots.

Another approach, used by three universities, is to award seats at the school based on entry

examinations, but to allocate additional points toward the score based on the race and class of the

applicant.

In 2010, fifty-one Brazilian public universities had affirmative action programs. Of these fifty-

one universities, six attempt to affirm the black identity of applicants. Four of these universities

depend on brief interviews with a candidate, one depends on photos of near relatives such as a parent or

grand-parent to prove their black ancestry, and one depends on official documents that affirm

blackness.

The remaining forty-five universities have implemented other measurements to determine the

applicants suitability for affirmative action. These measures include family income and public school

attendance. These institutions have not attempted to determine the accuracy of the applicants stated

ethnicity. Each of these identity verification techniques attempts to ensure that beneficiaries of

affirmative action will aide the overall goal of reducing inequality. The programs aim to ensure that

people likely to be prejudiced during their lifetime have additional opportunities to overcome racism,

prejudice, and inequality.

Health Care

Similar to education Brazil's healthcare system is characterized by inequalities. Two main

systems are in place that provide care one run by the pubic sector and the other by the private sector.

The rich can afford the higher fees of private care while the poor seek their care in the cheaper public

sector. Privatization is one of the forces that is reforming healthcare. Private facilities are much more

efficient keeping the total cost of care for a facility lower per patients, and at the same time providing

better care to patients.

Beginning in 1988 Brazil set out to reorganize its healthcare. Previously care was divided by

function. Sick patients sought cures from facilities managed by the Instituto Naional de Assistencia

Medica Previdencia Social. While preventative focused care was managed by the state health

secretaries. Under the new system currently underway local governments manage the facilities, the

health secretaries manage the care, and the federal health ministry is responsible for all care. 12

Politics unfortunately is very closely intertwined with the new system. Fear abound of political

favoritism, and stalemates between political parties that dominate different regions. Corruption has

also plagued the system historically so these fears are legitimate. Funding is provided unequally to

different regions with the North, poor, and mostly black receiving less funding that white dominated

southern areas. Proximity of care is another factor that contributes to inequality. The rich urban areas

benefit from state of the art facilities exhibiting all the bells and whistles. In favelas the healthcare

facilities are ill equipped and the staff is under-trained. Many times there are no healthcare facilities

nearby.

Poor Brazilians many time forgo treatment from a healthcare center and simply receive their

healthcare by purchasing medicine from nearby pharmacies. Even still the poor still pay a larger

portion of their wages on healthcare. The rich spend much more money overall but the the percentage

of their income spent on healthcare is relatively small comparatively. Medical schools are training

mostly specialists which mainly find work in urban areas while primary care doctors can not find work

and as a result trained doctors avoid practicing in this area. Further exasperating the situation, public

sector doctors receive smaller wages than private sector doctors, and end up having to supplement their

income with other employment.

Primary care in rural areas is carried out by under-trained workers who receive some training

from different agencies. These workers usually are already acting as midwives. In the Northern area of

Ceara 4000 of these women have been recruited to obtain health training as health agents. Compared

to other countries of equal development, Brazil suffers from higher mortality rates for children under 5

years of age. These programs have helped to reduce infant mortality by 32%.13

One program that has helped improve the primary care crisis in Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do

Sul, is the Link Programme. This program seeks to increase communication between health facilities,

and train additional primary care personnel. It has developed a program where students receive up to 3

years of health training. The program has sought to address areas of the community that can improve

by better health measures such as sanitation and immunizations. In 1986 immunization were at 60% of

the population. The figure increased to 90% by 1991.14 The hope foundation is working on similar

programs for villages near the Amazon.

Brazil is a freshwater rich nation hosting a large majority of our planets freshwater reserves.

Yet in Salvador many favelas lack clean drinking water, standing in sharp contrast to the clean water

the urban rich enjoy. Water is a basic necessity and its quality can have profound health impacts on the

community. Gamboa de Baixo was a community that struggled to secure clean water for its citizens.

Their land and water supply was being contaminated by raw sewage. The leak ran through the middle

of the community. 15

Income

Afro-Brazilians are at a distinct disadvantage in the labor market in Brazil. Black Brazilians

live primarily in an impoverished region of the country that has lagged behind the more industrialized

regions. Their ability to relocate for more opportunities is diminished by the state of education in the

poorer regions. The government has not provided sufficient opportunities for Afro-Brazilian

advancement, and in the past actively worked against them even after slavery was abolished. Even for

Afro-Brazilians that overcome some of the many hurdles placed in their path, wages remain

disproportionate in favor of their white co-workers.

The boom and bust cycle of Brazil's historical economic growth left a large black population

abandoned in the Northeast after the price of sugar on the global market collapsed, while expansion

took place in the Southeast as coffee and gold resources were developed or exploited and benefited

whites predominately. This racial grouping still exists, with a 1999 census placing 44.5 percent of

blacks in the poverty-stricken Northeast, and 52 percent of the white population residing in the

wealthier Southeast. Sao Paulo represents the wealth of the Southeast region, contributing greatly to

the region's production of 56.2 percent of the nations GDP. The Northeast region, epitomized by the

state of Bahia, produce a meager 15.9 percent of the GDP. 16

The distinct difference between the northeast and southeast is primarily one of race rather than

class. Between 1820 and 1930, the government of Brazil encouraged European immigration into the

southeast region in an acknowledged effort to whiten the population. During this time, between 4.5

and 5 million white Europeans immigrated to the country, and at least 3.5 million of these immigrants

established a permanent residency. This is roughly equal to the 3.6 million African slaves brought to

the country during the three hundred years prior to abolition.

All of the growth and expansion that accompanied this rapid immigration wave was centered in

the southeast. Additionally, whites that do reside in the poorer northeast are still 5 times more likely to

complete twelve years of education than their black neighbors, and professional or skilled jobs in the

region are far more likely to be filled by white candidates. Wage disparity between whites and blacks

in the northeast is also greater than it is in the southeast.

Afro-Brazilians in general make far less money than whites. In the state of Bahia in 1991, Afro-

Brazilians that identified themselves as pardo or preto made 44.02 percent and 35.53 percent of their

white counterparts respectively. Even blacks that have relocated to the wealthier southeast region

cannot find significantly better wages, with pardo and preto Afro-Brazilians making just 58.91 and

57.47 of their white counterparts respectively in Sao Paulo. Due to the disparity in education and work

experience, blacks are unable to meet the skill requirements of higher paying jobs in Sao Paulo.

Therefore, black employment continues to center around agriculture, construction, and domestic

service, all of which rank among the lowest paying sectors in the country. The lack of opportunity

prevents most blacks from leaving the poor northeast region, and as a result the self-identified pardo

workforce in the impoverished area fell only 6.2 percent between 1890 and 1991, while the preto

workforce fell only 7.9 percent during the same time period. 17

Race discrimination can also be measured by the government benefits provided to the citizens

of Brazil. While both black and white men had access to social security in roughly equal numbers in

1991, white women had a clear advantage over black women. In Sao Paulo, white women were 8.8

percentage points more likely to have access to social security than a black woman who self-identified

as pardo, and 9.1 percentage points more likely than a black woman who self-identified as preto. In the

state of Bahia the difference was even more distinct with white women 11.5 percentage points more

likely to have access to social security than pardo women, and 13.9 percentage points more likely than

preto women. 18

Human Development 1980-2010

The UNDP or United Nations Development Programme has been collecting data to generate

human development reports. The program was developed as an alternative way of viewing a countries

progress. Traditionally GDP was used to analyze how a country ranks against other countries. Not all

countries are equal in how they govern, so naturally this number was not sufficient to determine the

actual impact GDP has on the population.

GDP stands for gross domestic product, it is an economic term that indicates the value of all the

goods and services that a country has produced for a year. Dividing GDP by the population results in

GDP per capital can be more reliable than GDP alone to determine how the economy is performing.

But again this number doesn't indicate how well the government is doing to distribute wealth among a

populace and how well the population is enjoying the nations success. The United Nations

Development Programme has filled the gaps with its human development reports which look at how

countries are performing against living standards.

The human development reports include five main categories: life expectancy, average amount

of education, the expected years of schooling, GNI pc 2008, and HDI. GNI pc is a measure of a

nations income per person, and HDI is a measure of human development index. HDI figures are

calculated by analyzing health, education, and income. HDI is measured via a gradient of zero to one.

A country that is rated as zero would represent a country who's quality of life was worse than a country

who had a rating of 1 being the best. 19

HDI figures for Brazil have shown a steady increase since 2000. In that year HDI was 0.649,

the latest figure reported was 0.699 in 2010. In figure 1 you can see how Brazil compares to other

countries in the region, the world, and to high human development countries. Brazilians enjoy a life

expectancy of 73.5 years which is only 5 years behind the United States who had a life expectancy of

78.5 years in 2011. In 1980 life expectancy was 62.46 years. Brazil has had a dramatic increase in life

expectancy since 1980.

Fig. 1. Source: UNDP (1980-2012)

More Brazilians are on average staying in school longer. But the racial disparities have

remained consistent between blacks and whites. As more blacks complete middle school, more whites

complete high-school and attend college. This data is consistent with increasing schooling figures for

adults who are over 25. In 1980 the average amount of time adults attended school was 2.57 years in

2010 the figure jumped to 7.18 years of school. This translates to an average annual increase of 54

extra days per year. GNI per capita also grew from $7,929 in 1980 to $10,607 in 2010. As a result of

the steady increase in health, education, and income HDI reflects the growth Brazil has undergone.

From 1997 to 1999 HDI per racial group was researched. The study shows that Human

development is improving for both Brazilians of African descent and for Whites. For Afro-Brazilian

the improvement was 0.013 and for Whites the improvement was 0.006. While overall table 1 shows a

closing of the gap between Afro-Brazilians and White-Brazilians the difference between the two shows

the inequality that characterizes Brazilian society. In 1999 blacks had an HDI of 0.691 and whites had

an HDI of 0.805.20

Table 1

Source: UNDP (1997-1999)

GINI Index

Another useful figure for determining the inequality of a society is the GINI Index. This index

measures how much a country deviates from a perfectly equal society. Again this index is measured

from zero to one. The more equal a society is the closer to zero the country is ranked. High number in

this instance are equivalent to a society that is more unequal income wise, in other words there is a

large income disparity. In 1980 Brazil had a GINI coefficient of 0.575 by 2010 Brazils coefficient

decreased to 0.54 as can be seen in figure 2.

Fig. 2. Source: Trading Economies (2012)

Conclusion

Brazil as a country has pulled together and is aggressively working to reduce inequality and

improve quality of life. Historically corruption and Brazil have gone hand in hand. Today Brazil

struggles with regional inequalities between rural and urban regions. It struggles with the inequalities

between the poor who are usually black and the rich who are usually white. Every part of society is

plagued by inequality the healthcare industry faces the same inequalities that favor the rich urban

white. Brazil's educational systems are set up to give whites an advantage. Blacks face a struggle

trying to compete against whites. They are disadvantaged during early education, and they are

disadvantaged financially. Fees, tuition, and preparation courses make higher education impossible for

some blacks.

Brazil is working to remedy these disparities between the races. Recent data shows that

inequality is very much a part of Brazilian society. There have been some improvements but this isn't

enough to lift blacks out of their socioeconomic realities. Much of the efforts have worked to improve

living standards and well-being in the country across all races. However, racial inequalities though

shrinking remain deeply ingrained in the social fabric of Brazil. Black routinely receive inferior

healthcare, inferior education, and inferior wages.

Future Research

Equality is fundamental to democracy, without it a democracy cannot exist. A society that

suffers from extreme inequality is a society that breeds violence. It is not by coincidence that societies

with the most socioeconomic inequality problems are also the most violent. This violence has its roots

in feelings of inadequacy and disdain. The greater the gap between classes, the larger the disdain a

society will feel. These feelings will materialize into more violence and discord. I hypothesis that

violence in Brazil is in large part due to inequality.

To begin to attack the problem of violence in Brazil and Latin America for that matter,

inequality between the classes must be addressed first. Many of the social programs being put in place

are helping society as a whole but they are failing to significantly reduce the racial gap in equality.

One of the most important avenues for change is to eliminate the slave/servant class. Minimum wages

need to be erected and a strong middle class needs to be created.

It has been reported that Brazil still is suffering from rapidly growing violence, yet the GINI

coefficient seems to be decreasing. Future inquiries could look at violence verses the GINI coefficient

perhaps during smaller time frames. To see what impact if any it has on violence in favelas. Further a

comparison between middle eastern countries of similar development might prove useful in reducing

violence, and it could provide an alternative to the clash of civilization theory.

Waggoner 18

Notes

1. Leslie Bethell, The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade (New York: Cambridge, 1970), ix.

2. Richard Graham, Patronage and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil (Stanford: Stanford, 1990), 17.

3. Kia Lilly Caldwell, Negras in Brazil Re-envisioning Black Women, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity (New Brunswick: Rutgers, 1971), 30.

4. Peggy A. Lovell, “Race, Gender and Regional Labor Market Inequalities in Brazil,” Review of Social Economy 58, no. 3 (2000): 278-285.

5. Graham, Patronage, 159.

6. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1723-1790), 1909-14.

7. Mala Htun, “Playing Brazil's Race Card,” Foreign Policy 151(2005): 86-87.

8. Tristan McCowan, “Expansion without Equity: An Analysis of Current Policy on Access to Higher Education in Brazil,” Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning 53, No.5 (2007): 579-598.

9. Claudia Fonseca, “The Impact of Primary School Administration on Students Parents in Rural Brazil,” Anthropology &Education Quarterly 13, No. 1 (1982): 29-45.

10. McCowan, Expansion, 585.

11. Seth Racusen,“Affirmative Action and Identity,” Brazil's New Racial Politics, no. 6 (2010): 89-122.

12. Andy Haines, “Health Care In Brazil,” BMJ: British Medical Journal 306, No. 6876 (1993): 503-506.

13. Haines, Health Care, 505.

14. Haines, Health Care, 505

15. Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, “Racialized History and Urban Politics: Black Women's Wisdom in Grassrots Struggles,” Brazil's New Racial Politics, no. 8 (2010): 149

16. Lovell, Labor Market, 279.

17. Lovell, Labor Market, 279.

18. Lovell, Labor Market, 283.

Waggoner 19

19. “Human Development Reports.” United Nations Development Programme, 2011, http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/chapters/ .

20. Marcelo Paixao, “Waiting for the Sun: An Account of the (Precarious) Social Situation of the African Descendant Population in Contemporary Brazil,” Journal of Black Studies 34(2004): 743-765.

Waggoner 20

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Appendix 1: Concepts and Definitions

Agregado – An adult dependent that lived on a rich landowners land in return for political votes.

Although the Agregado could be a family member usually this class of people were black, poor, and

dependent on the landlord for survival. Sometimes these persons would be required to perform labor

for the landowners and other times they were given a small plot of land to work for their own

subsistence.

Black Brazilians – A group of people who were brought over from Africa for the purpose of slavery.

Class – Generally there are three main groups of classes: lower, middle and upper. These classes can

be later broken down into subclasses such as upper middle class. For the purposes of this research

paper only three will be used since in Brazil the distance between classes is significant.

Equity – Equal opportunity for all socioeconomic strata to obtain education in equal quality institutions

compensating for disadvantage.

Favela – A makeshift town located on the outskirts of cities in Brazil. These towns are built from crafty

materials such as plywood, cardboard, and reclaimed materials.

Racism – The inferior treatment of a group of people based on their skin color, or nation of origin.

Racial Inequality – Unequal lifestyle opportunities that arise as a result of race.

Poor – A group of people who make less than half of the minimum wage (Reiter 2009).

Socioeconomic Status – The position of a group of people that measures lifestyle factors such as

profession, income, community standing and education as it relates to other citizens in a country.

Shantytown – Another word for favela.