Residential Segregation by Skin Color in Brazil Author(s): Edward E. Telles Source: American Sociological Review , Apr., 1992, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 186- 197 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2096204 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Sociological Review This content downloaded from 68.8.165.204 on Fri, 19 Feb 2021 07:02:54 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION BY SKIN COLOR IN BRAZIL* EDWARD E. TELLES University of California, Los Angeles I examine residential segregation by skin color in 35 of the largest metropolitan areas in Brazil, using census tract data from the 1980 Brazilian census. Residential dissimilarity among whites, mulattoes (browns) and blacks is only moderate by U.S. standards. White- black dissimilarity is the highest,followed by brown-black and then white-brown dissimilar- ity. Residential segregation within income groups is lowest for the low income groups and increases with increasing income level. For most of the white middle class, residential sep- aration is ensured by the concentration of blacks and mulattoes in low socioeconomic class- es and in distinct regions. Multivariate analysis reveals that an urban area's socioeconomic status and housing market are strong predictors of overall residential segregation.* segrega- tion is significantly higher in urban areas with high occupational inequality, low mean in- come, high levels of housing turnover, and high homeownership. Measures of industrializa- tion, immigrant influence and color heterogeneity were not significant. Implicationsfor Bra- zilian race relations are discussed. R esidential segregation occupies a central role widespread racial inequalities. For example, in in the sociological literature on race rela- Brazil in 1976, the mean income of African-ori- tions and racial inequality. Although there is a gin males was 47 percent of that of white males growing recognition of the importance of com- (Silva 1985, p. 45).l Blacks and mulattoes are dis- parative studies, virtually nothing is known about proportionately represented among the lower so- racial residential segregation outside of the Unit- cial classes - they have considerably lower in- ed States. Brazil's African-origin population is comes than whites, experience less social mobil- the second largest in the world only after Nige- ity than whites and and are more likely than whites ria's. Unlike the United States, Brazil has had no to be in the urban informal labor market (Olivei- race-based laws that encourage residential segre- ra, Porcaro, and Araijo 1985; Silva 1985; Hasen- gation since Abolition in 1888, yet segregation balg 1985; Lovell 1989; Telles forthcoming a). by skin color is prevalent. I examine overall lev- Since the abolition of slavery in 1888, three els of white-black, white-brown and brown-black important features have distinguished Brazilian residential segregation as well as segregation pat- race relations: (1) a color continuum rather than terns among color groups within income groups. a color line, (2) its racial ideology, and (3) an I then analyze factors that may contribute to vari- avoidance by the Brazilian government of legis- ation among Brazilian metropolitan areas in res- lation that mentions race. idential segregation. An important difference between U.S. and Bra- zilian race relations is that Brazilians conceive of race as a continuous color variable rather than a BACKGROUND categorical variable (Hoetink 1967; Skidmore A resurgent academic interest in race issues in 1972; Denton and Massey 1989). Throughout Brazil has been fueled by the recent availability it's colonial period, Brazil's white population had of national statistics that reflect persistent and a very high ratio of males to females. At the same time, white males had relatively unlimited ac- * Direct all correspondence to Edward E. Telles, Department of Sociology, University of California, anonymous reviewers. Data were gathered while I Los Angeles, 264 Haines Hall, Los Angeles, CA was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Population 90024-1551. I thank Arlindo Mello do Nascimento, Sciences at the State University of Campinas (UNI- Luisa Pinheiro Texeira and Luis Armando de Medei- CAMP) in Brazil and with the support of a UCLA ros Frias of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Academic Senate Grant. Estatistica for providing the data. I benefited from I In the United States in 1979, mean income for valuable comments by Walter Allen, David Lopez, black males was 61 percent of white male mean in- Joe Potter, Donald Treiman, the ASR editor, and the come (Farley and Allen 1989, p. 315). 186 American Sociological Review, 1992, Vol. 57 (April:186-197) This content downloaded from 68.8.165.204 on Fri, 19 Feb 2021 07:02:54 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION BY SKIN COLOR IN BRAZIL 187 cess to Indian slaves and later, African origin racism of the time caused European countries to slaves. These two facts led to high levels of mise- look down on Latin America because of its large genation (Degler [1971] 1986) and in Brazil to- African and Indian populations (Skidmore 1974). day racial intermarriage is not uncommon (Silva The Brazilian legislature decided to encourage 1987).2 Although some localities recognize many the immigration of European workers to increase color gradients, all Brazilians recognize at least a the proportion of whites in the population. These tripartite color distinction: white, mulatto (brown), white immigrants would also be expected to mar- and black (Hutchinson 1957; Degler 1986). Dur- ry with the nonwhite population to eventually ing slavery, the color distinction often became a create a "whiter" population (Degler 1986; Vain- social distinction in which the common practice ner 1990). The whitening ideology has subse- of manumitting the offspring of white males and quently been blamed for preventing the forma- black slave women made mulattoes predominant tion of ethnic identities based on race and for among an intermediate social category while defeating attempts to form a black consciousness "blacks" made up most of the slave population (Skidmore 1974; Nascimento 1982). (Harris 1964; Schwartz 1974). This process has- Another feature of Brazil's racial ideology that tened the acculturation of nonwhites and thus dates to the 1920s is its claim to being a racial forestalled the development of rigid and legal- democracy in which race makes no difference to ized color lines, such as emerged in the United opportunity or status. Gilberto Freyre popular- States (Schermerhorn 1978; Degler 1986). How- ized this idea in his historical accounts by extol- ever, findings based on recent national surveys ling the virtues of the Brazilian race system while and census data demonstrate that the earnings of overlooking its subtle forms of racism (Freyre mulattoes are much more similar to black earn- 1933).3 The racial democracy idea was grafted ings than to white earnings and the earnings "cost" into official ideology by the mostly conservative due to racial discrimination is often similar be- and military elite that had ruled Brazil since the tween mulattoes and blacks (Silva 1985; Lovell 1930s to forestall racial uprisings and to show- 1989). By contrast, findings for intermarriage case Brazil internationally as a positive example reveal a continuum where white-brown and of race relations (Skidmore 1972). brown-black marriages are far more common than With one exception, laws in post-Abolition white-black marriages (Silva 1987; Telles forth- Brazil have not been directed at racial segrega- coming b). tion or integration (Eccles 1991). Furthermore, The lack of clearly defined color lines has made there has never been a legal basis for racial cate- racial self-identification somewhat flexible in gorization, unlike the United States or South Af- Brazil and Latin America, and sometimes varies rica. Brazilian law has also never been used to depending on social context (Rodriguez and Cord- encourage racial equality, probably because this ero-Guzman forthcoming; Wood 1991). Persons would mean acknowledging the existence of rac- identifying as white or black often are not "ra- ism and racial inequalities (Skidmore 1972). The cially pure" but are "relatively white" or "rela- only exception to this generalization was the re- tively black" and there is a tendency for persons luctantly passed Alfonso Arinas law of 1951, on the border of a color category to "pass" into which made racial discrimination in public plac- the lighter category (Hutchinson 1957; Degler es a misdemeanor sanctioned by fine or impris- 1986). The high value placed on light skin color onment (Eccles 1991). The rare cases prosecuted and the continued importance of the mixed-race under this law have been of a blatantly racist category emerges largely out of the Brazilian ide- nature, leaving the subtler institutionalized forms ology of whitening. of racism - including clear cases of housing The goal of whitening was made explicit in discrimination - free of penalty or reparation nineteenth century debates among the Brazilian (Skidmore 1972; Eccles 1991). elite about how to replace the largely slave labor force that would soon be manumitted through I Freyre left his native Brazil to study in the U.S. Abolition. The elite were concerned about Bra- South between 1917 and 1920. It is easy to imagine zil's international status in which the scientific how the contrast between the two systems at that time may have led him to such conclusions.