Essay Topics: Racial and Social Challenges in Brazil

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Latin America today has many inequalities in its social and racial classes.In many Latin American countries, the most highly populated areas are in the slums of the major cities.Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, all four of these cities have population masses near the outskirts of the city limits.These areas are mostly lower-class, sometimes below poverty-level people who have no other means of shelter over their heads except for some cardboard boxes, and if they're lucky, some plywood or cement blocks. Why are there so many people in these areas?The answer is mass urbanization, which has taken Brazil, among other Latin American countries, to a new level of poverty among the dwellers of these urban areas.These people face extreme racial and social challenges everyday, and the end of these inequalities and challenges does not appear to be coming anytime soon.

In Brazil, like the rest of Latin America, there are many social challenges and inequalities.Very little of the population has most of the money, and the majority are left to live just above, or even below poverty level.Population rises in Brazil since 160 have become enormous, and the majority of the children being born in this period have been born into lower-class families.Because of this, Brazil now has one of the worst population and social class inequalities in the world.However, the challenges that face Brazil today are not solely caused by social class.Some of these problems are also caused by racial discrimination, racial stereotypes, and miscedination, or the mixing of racial groups.Now, more than ever, Brazil must take a step forward to help those people who have been left behind because of their racial lineage, their family's social history, and even their ability earn a minimum-wage level income.

Income distribution in Brazil is very lopsided.Most of the population, about 6%, earns less than five times the minimum wage per month, including .5% who live with no income whatsoever .In Brazil, the minimum wage level is considered to be $75 per month .This is equivalent to about forty cents per hour, for a forty-hour workweek.In this sense, three in five people in Brazil live on about 75 dollars or less per month.To put this in perspective, a minimum wage earner in the United States earns approximately 885 dollars per month .In addition to this, about 85% of the population in Brazil earn less than ten times the minimum wage level per month .This leaves 15% of the 170 million Brazilians who earn more than ten times the minimum monthly wage.This 15% is considered the upper class, where as the middle class is made up of about 18% of the population, leaving an astonishing 67% of Brazilians in the lower class .Adding to this inequality is the fact that the percentage share of income by group has become further and further from being even.In 160, the poorest 50% of the population earned only 17% of the income, while the richest 10% earned .6% of the income.Even more unequal is that the richest 1% of the population in 160 earned 1.1% of the income .These numbers have not improved since then.In fact, by 170, the richest 1% earned 14% of the income, and the poorest 50% earned only one percent more at 15%.By 180, the richest 1% was earning 4% more than the poorest 50% .These trends continued through the 180s and 10s.In 16, it was determined that the ratio of people represented by the top 0% of income earners to the lowest 0% of the income earners was 5.5 in Brazil.Also by 16, the top ten percent of income earners earned almost half of the national income of Brazil (47.6%) .This inequality of income distribution in Brazil shows why there is such a large lower class, and such a small percentage of Brazilians who live in the upper class.

The reason for such an unequal distribution of income in Brazil"points to deeper historical causes than these recent [181-15] decades, including a grossly uneven distribution of land ownership" .In fact, most of the people in Brazil do not own much land.Vast majorities of the population, those in the lower class, own nothing more than the shelter they have over their heads.In most cases, the "favelas" or slums on the outskirts of the larger cities hold most of the population.In the whole of Latin America, 7% of the populations live in urban areas .It is no different in Brazil.In fact, almost 80% of Brazilians live in urban areas .These areas are mostly cities of 500,000 or more, and the poorest of the people in each city live towards the outskirts of the city limits.These areas are densely populated, mostly filled with the lower class and extremely poor.Custom Essays on Racial and Social Challenges in Brazil

The reason that so many of the poor move into the same areas, is because that is where they might be able to find work.The poor in Brazil "make their homes, however precariously, close in [to the city], because that is where they find work, shops, and a modicum of services" .These neighborhoods have become so poor that now Brazil is trying to come up with ways in which they can help clean up these "favelas".These are the areas that have the least amount of schooling, the lowest possible incomes and in some cases no income.The houses in these slums are sometimes made out of cardboard, sometimes wood, and sometimes cement blocks.The slums have the highest crime rates, and they are not looking any better for the future than they are now.

The racial breakdown in Brazil is also very unequal.Out of approximately 170 million people living in Brazil, a majority, 54%, is considered, and considers themselves white.5.4% are considered black, and .% are "pardos" some kind of mixture between races.Less than one percent of the population is of Native Brazilian Indian or Asian descent .This breakdown in race is mostly the cause of white Europeans conquering Braziland then migrating to Brazil in later years, especially after World War II.However, these numbers may be misconstrued, because social class and income also determine what color Brazilians consider themselves to be.For example, "in Brazil, very dark-skinned persons who are also poor are likely to be thought of-and to classify themselves-as black, but high-status persons of the same skin tone are more likely to be thought of-and to classify themselves-as "pardo" or some other term closer to the white end of the color continuum" .This method of thinking shows that skin color and appearance are not the only factors in social rank, or even racial class.

The average household in Brazil has .4 people in it.For the 67% of Brazilians living in the lower class, this means an average of almost two people live in each room of a house.While most (5%) of Brazil now has electricity, only 76% of the population has safe water to drink, and only 5% have plumbing in their home .However, these numbers only show the whole of Brazil.Studies have now shown that the color of your skin in Brazil can mean certain advantages or disadvantages, depending on what skin color a person has or is considered to have.Among whites in Brazil, 8% have safe water, and 6% have plumbing.Among blacks and "pardos", only 67% have safe drinking water, and 40% have plumbing .This shows that the color, or perceived color, of one's skin in Brazil has an effect on what kind of living conditions one has.With this in mind, being white in Brazil gives one the best chance at a long, successful, and healthy life in Brazil.There are also some other areas in which whites in Brazil have a distinct advantage over blacks and "pardos".These areas include income, life expectancy, and education.

The first thing that all Brazilians, regardless of skin color and social class, must face is living past the age of five years old.While the life expectancy in Brazil is now up to 68.4 years, there is still a .5% infant mortality rate, and a 6% under 5-years old mortality rate .However, whites are expected to live an average of seven years longer than blacks or "pardos".This is mostly because the whites in Brazil, in general, have better jobs, are in a higher social class, and have more education and education possibilities.Whites that are born into higher income class families also have an even longer life expectancy than blacks and "pardos" who are born into a higher income class family.While the life expectancy increases according to the income level of the home in which they are born into for blacks, whites, and "pardos"; it is a significantly larger increase in white families than in black or "pardo" families .

The color of one's skin in Brazil also has an influence on the level of education a child will receive, and the possibilities for a child to even go to school.While only 5.5% of Brazilians are still enrolled in school at the age of sixteen, 56% of white children are enrolled at 16, but only % of black and "pardo" children of the same age are enrolled in school .An even more significant inequality among racial classes in Brazil is that the average white child in Brazil receives overmore years of enrollment in a school than blacks and "pardos" .Although 5% of Brazilian children between the ages of seven and fourteen are enrolled in school, there is still a 1% illiteracy rate among Brazilians.This shows that whites in Brazil have a distinct advantage in education and chances for education than blacks and "pardos" in Brazil.

While racial and social classes determine where a person in Brazil might live, their have been some changes in Brazil, in an attempt to make living conditions for the 67% of the population in the lower class a little bit better.In recent years, their have been some tries at land reform, that is, taking large quantities of unused or dormant land from the owners and making it available to the poor at premium prices.One of the most successful attempts at land reform has been in Curitiba, a city of 1.4 million people located in southern Brazil.They implemented a plan for the city to build housing plots for the people of the lower classes and slums.After this, the city sold the plots to the poor at very low mortgage rates, and let the people build the rest of their house in any way they could.The city would add sewage and electricity, and the homeowner was responsible for the rest.This worked very well because the people were able to use the electricity and sewage to their own advantage and begin to build their house on their own terms.Another land reform plan that was not as successful was the land reform project in Sao Paolo.In this reform, the people of the poor areas were moved into a barracks, while the state rebuilds their homes in the same location and sells them at low interest mortgage rates.This was not as successful because the poor did not have the money to pay for even these simple homes, even at the low rate.

This need for land reform has been brought on Brazil because of the mass migration to the larger cities of Brazil that has been occurring since 160.Since that time, the urban population in Brazil has increased from 44.7 million to 78.4 million in 11 .For example, the population of Sao Paulo, Brazil and Latin America's largest city has increased from only .8 million in 160 to over 16 million today.The same is true for Rio de Janeiro, where the population in 160 was .4 million.Today the city has over 10 million .While these two cities are among the extreme cases of urban migration, in total, 0 million people in Brazil have moved from rural areas to urban areas since 170 .These people have moved to the city to try and gain a better life for themselves and their children, knowing that they might not be able to find jobs or a place to live.One positive thing about the urbanization movement is that the education that urban dwellers receive is somewhat better than those in the rural areas can get.In 11, 86% of Brazilians living in urban areas were literate, but only 60% of those in rural areas could read and write , giving yet another reason for Brazilians to move from rural areas to urban areas.

At the same time, these mass movements into the urban areas are the source of the overpopulation in Brazilian and Latin American cities.As more and more people move into these cities, there becomes less and less space to put them.Enter the slums.Most of these areas have houses that are so small, they look like jail cells.They are built extremely close to each other, and in a lot of cases, they were built on land that did not belong to the builders.Another problem that has developed because of this mass migration is that of finding jobs for all of the people that are constantly moving into the cities.Without the jobs to support all of the people that are moving into their cities, the Brazilian economy has seen it's per capita income suffer.The average income per month in Brazil is only $17 .This includes all classes, and all income earners, whether minimum wage level or the highest income earners in the country.This further shows that the distribution of income is not even.When over 0% of Brazilians earn less than the national average per month, a great inequality in income distribution is obvious.

These social and racial challenges that face Brazil have taken their toll on the Brazilian social classes.The perception of one's color in Brazil does not necessarily tell what skin color a person has, or even what racial background a person might have.There is mass inequality in income distribution, in schooling and chances for an education, and in life expectancy among those of different colors and different social classes.Brazil certainly has many problems ahead of them, but the important thing is how they deal with these problems in the future.