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Brazil Enforces Tough Anti-Racism Laws Amid Persistent Racial Inequality
Brazil's constitution treats racism as a crime without bail or statute of limitations. An Argentine tourist faces court proceedings after allegedly directing racial slurs and gestures at waiters in Rio de Janeiro. Black Brazilians remain underrepresented in positions of power and overrepresented in poverty and homicide statistics despite legal measures adopted since 1988.
May 13, 6:00 AM·3m read1 source
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Brazil's constitution recognizes racism as a crime without bail or statute of limitations, making its anti-racism laws among the strictest in the world. The country received global attention earlier this year when the laws were used to indict an Argentine tourist who made monkey gestures and used racial slurs toward waiters in Rio de Janeiro.
A judge is expected to decide on a sentence in the coming weeks. João Gilberto Lima was in his fifth year at a prestigious private university in São Paulo when a white classmate sent a WhatsApp message calling him a "slave" along with a photo taken without his knowledge.
Mr. Lima, who is Black, reported the incident to police. The classmate was convicted of racism and racial insult and received a two-year sentence that was converted to community service and financial reparations. Brazil received an estimated 5.5 million trafficked Africans between the 16th and 19th centuries, more than any other country in the Americas.
It was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery on May 13, 1888. No post-abolition policies were created to integrate newly freed Black citizens, African cultural practices such as samba and capoeira were criminalized, and the state encouraged European immigration to whiten the population.
From the 1930s, Brazil promoted the idea that it had become a "racial democracy" through miscegenation. Érika Frazão, a history and ethno-racial relations professor at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, said this idea is a fallacy. Black Brazilians earn 65 percent less per hour than white Brazilians, Black men face a 49 percent higher risk of being murdered, and Afro-Brazilians make up 55 percent of the population but hold just 15 percent of judgeships and one quarter of seats in Congress.
