Note from BW of Brazil: Today is Brazil’s National Day of Black Consciousness which is the focal point of November which is the Month of Black Consciousness. And this month, as in previous years, we’ve seen a number of great Afro-Brazilian oriented events, debates and performances. These commemorations of the month have been held in hundreds of cities across the country and just on our little blog alone, this month we’ve brought you:
A black Brazilian women recognized for her work in the The Economist magazine
The play Pentes (combs) that discusses the acceptance of black hair and black identity
A 26-year old black woman crowned Miss Rio Grande do Sul
A documentary on the importance of hair in the development of identity
You Tube’s first Black Beauty Encounter
The arrival of Malaak Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X to Brazil
The first ever National March of Black Brazilian Women
We’ve also brought you studies that demonstrate the harsh realities of being a black woman in Brazil in two reports:
1.5 million black women are victims of domestic violence in Brazil, reveals unpublished analysis
And today, we bring you another report showing that the population of Brazilians who self-identify as non-white continues to grow.
Research of the IBGE reveals that pretos and pardos have a new proportional increase
The Brazilian population grew 0.9% in 2014 and totaled 203.2 million people, according to the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (Pnad or National Survey by Household Sampling) released on Friday (13th) by the IBGE. The study shows that the number of inhabitants who declared themselves preto (black) or pardo (brown) continues to grow, and currently amounts to 53.6% of the population (109.8 million people), compared with 48.17% in 2004.
By Silvia Nascimento with information from Vermelho.org
The number of persons that declare themselves preta (black) or parda (brown) continues to increase and today makes up 53.6% of the Brazilian population against 48.17% in 2004.
In that year, 51.24% of Brazilians declared themselves branco (white) but today this number has fallen to 45.5%. The contingent of whites continue being the largest individual group but the persons that consider themselves pardas came to the same level with 45%.
8.6% declare themselves pretas against 5.92% in 2004. The increase of recognition of color is seen as a reflection of movements for greater consciousness-raising, pride of color and public policies for the appreciation of afrodescendentes (African descendants).
Division of color by regions
Five categories are considered for people to classify themselves in terms of color or racial: branca (white), preta (black) amarela (yellow/Asian) (understood in this category are people that declare themselves to be of Japanese, Chinese or Korean origin), parda (brown) (included in this category are people that declare themselves mulata, cafuza, cabocla, mameluca or mestiça (mixed race) of preto with a person of another color or race) and indígena (indigenous or Indian) (in this category are those persons that declare themselves indigenous or Indian).
In the North region resides the greatest number of persons that declare themselves pretas or pardas (69.3%), followed by the Northeast region (61.9%). The region with least pretos and pardos is the south, where 76% of people declare themselves brancas. In the Southeast region the number of declared brancos is 53%. In this, the richest region of the country, those declaring themselves pretos are 9.2% ad pardos and others 37.8%.
According to the survey, in 2014, Brazil had more women (104.8 million) than men (98.4 million). More children up to 9 years of age (28 million) than seniors aged 60 and over (27.9 million). Nevertheless, the older population continues to rise. People aged 60 or older accounted for 13.7%, meaning it is 0.7 percentage points higher than in 2013.
Source: Mundo Negro, Vermelho.org
In 5 years, more Brazilians will be able to look at themselves and understand – without shame or distaste – that they are, in fact, Black or Brown, rather than white. I suspect that the actual number is closer to 65-75% of the total population.