Unraveling the concept of race in Brazil: issues for the Rio de Janeiro Cooperative Agreement site.

ABSTRACT

PIP: Although Brazil has always prided itself as being a place in which racial discrimination is not tolerated, most Black Brazilians recognize that they are discriminated against. Considerable research has been conducted during the 20th century upon race and its meaning in Brazil, a country in which racial identity is a dynamic concept capable of being understood only if situated and explored within the appropriate cultural context. In 1993, the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded a cooperative agreement project in Rio de Janeiro designed and implemented to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS through behavioral change. Data collection instruments developed for US populations were standardized across intervention sites, which allowed program participants to self-identify as Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, or other. However, these limited terms failed to capture the full extent of racial diversity in Brazil. More than 1500 clients were initially recruited, with follow-up interviews completed with 849. By follow-up, 106 clients, 12.5% of the follow-up sample, had changed their racial self-identification: 5.7% from Black to White, 30.2% from Black to Brown, 20.8% from White to Brown, 3.8% from White to Black, 23.6% from Brown to Black, and 15.1% from Brown to White. The study of race and race relations in Brazil is a complex undertaking which requires the thorough examination of Brazilian culture and history. Theories of race in Brazil and the self-identification of race in the Brazil cooperative agreement are discussed. Race is of little use in Brazil as a construct for analysis.