The term

social apartheid Social apartheid is de facto Residential segregation, segregation on the basis of Social class, class or economic status, in which an underclass is forced to exist separated from the rest of the population. The word "apartheid", an Afrikaans wor ...

has been used to describe various aspects of economic inequality in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, drawing a parallel with the legally enforced separation of white and black people in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n society for several decades during the 20th-century apartheid regime.

Origins

According to Maria Helena Moreira Alves, early twentieth century inequalities between rich and poor in Brazil were exacerbated by the differing treatment of urban migrants during and following the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Internal migrants, who were mainly descended from

Amerindians In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

or African slaves, were given no government assistance or training in adapting to large urban centers. They became concentrated in a kind of "social apartheid", living in slums and taking menial and unpleasant jobs shunned by whites. By contrast, European,

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

, and Japanese immigrants, who tended to be better educated, were directly assisted by a number of government programs, including some sponsored by their national governments, as well as other benefits."Internal migrants from Brazil, many the descendants of Indians or African slaves, were totally abandoned to their own endeavors in the city, with no governmental subsidies, no programs of immigration support, no job training, and no housing programs to help the process of adaptation. In short, Brazilian migrants found themselves pushed into a ''social apartheid'' in the slums of the city, their jobs limited to those that white would not touch, such as garbage removal, hard construction work, and menial jobs in industry. In contrast, many European and Japanese immigrants came under the auspices of programs organized by their governments which assisted them with the cost of their transportation and of housing, helping them find employment, trained them, and provided a number of other benefits." Alves, Maria Helena Moreira. "São Paulo: the political and socioeconomic transformations wrought by the New Labor Movement in the city and beyond." In Gugler, Josef. ''World Cities Beyond the West: Globalization, Development and Inequality'', Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 202-203.

Income inequality

Income disparity is a major source of social inequality in Brazil. In 2001, Brazil had a relatively high

Gini coefficient In economics, the Gini coefficient ( ), also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution, income inequality, the wealth distribution, wealth inequality, or the ...

of 0.59 for income disparity, meaning that the disparity between the incomes of any two randomly selected Brazilians was nearly 1.2 times the average. The

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

estimates that the top 20% of the richest Brazilians have roughly 33 times the income share of the poorest 20%. The causes of Brazil's income disparity are linked to inequitable distribution of public resources, disadvantages in education, and a wage gap. Public spending is regressive overall; while social programs are largely progressive, other spending, such as pensions for public employees, constitutes a larger share of total spending, and is weighted toward individuals with higher incomes. According to the World Bank, this accounts for around 39% of income inequality. Access to education is highly unequal and weighted toward privileged groups, resulting in a gap in labor skills that is substantially greater than other countries in the Americas such as Mexico, Colombia, and the United States. The World Bank estimates that this accounts for about 29% of total inequality. Finally, there is a considerable and increasing wage gap between jobs requiring higher and lower skill levels. The world bank attributes 32% of inequality to the wage gap. Gender, skin color, and social standing are significant factors in income disparity, with women and Brazilians with African ancestry earning substantially less than males and white Brazilians, due to disadvantages in education and wages. Black Brazilians have levels of educational attainment that is two thirds the level of whites, which limits their access to higher paying jobs. Women earn 29% less than men, despite women having an average of one year more education.

Racial and class inequality

Some believe that these parallels between South Africa during the apartheid era and modern-day Brazil are associated with the country's history of

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

and associated racial castes, as inequities in the economic and social status particularly affect

Afro-Brazilian Afro-Brazilians (; ), also known as Black Brazilians (), are Brazilians of total or predominantly Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Most multiracial Brazilians also have a range of degree of African ancestry. Brazilians whose African features are mo ...

s in comparison to other groups. Buarque, Cristovam
Lula's Brazil Is Indebted to the World for So Many Broken Hopes
, ''Brazzil Magazine'', August 23, 2005. According to

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Congressman Aloizio Mercadante, a member of Brazil's leftist

Workers' Party Workers' Party is a name used by several political parties throughout the world. The name has been used by both organisations on the left and right of the political spectrum. It is currently used by followers of Marxism, Marxism–Leninism, Maoism ...

(PT), "Just as South Africa had racial apartheid, Brazil has social apartheid."Hall, Kevin G. "Brazil's blacks get affirmative action 114 years after emancipation", '' Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service'', May 31, 2002. Journalist Kevin G. Hall wrote in 2002 that

s trail White Brazilians in almost all social indicators, including

income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. F ...

and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

. Those living in cities are far more likely to be abused or killed by

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

, or incarcerated than are members of other groups. Brazil's social situation has negative effects on educational opportunities for the disadvantaged."In Brazil the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

have returned to the barracks but despite their replacement by elected governments, the drift into social apartheid and moral disintegration continues. Those who continue to orientate their

al practices by the principles of popular education now face a new and more complex conjuncture." Ireland, Timothy. "Building on experience: working with construction workers in Brazil" in Boud, David J. & Miller, Nod. ''Working with Experience: Animating Learning'', Routledge, 1996, p. 132. Critics note that the classes are mostly separated from any interaction other than service: the wealthy live in walled-off gated communities, and the disadvantaged classes do not interact at all with the wealthy "except in domestic service and on the shop floor"."Few studies, for instance probe the implications of these distressing conditions for social, class, and political relations. In those that do, "social apartheid" is a common theme—a class gulf so wide that interaction ceases, except in domestic service and on the shop floor. Social apartheid is the motive force behind the spread of closed residential communities in São Paulo—one of the few going concerns in an otherwise sluggish real-estate market. According to the advertisements, these communities are enclosed behind walls five meters high, protected by sophisticated security systems, and patrolled by round-the-clock guards who also carefully screen all visitors. Maids and other day laborers are searched every time they enter or exit. Inside are gracious homes and children playing in the street as in any affluent suburb in the United States, except that this is an island in a sea of squalor." Schneider, Ben Ross. "Brazil under Collor: Anatomy of a Crisis", in Camp, Roderic Ai. ''Democracy in Latin America: Patterns and Cycles'', Rowman & Littlefield, 1996, p. 241. According to France Winddance Twine, the separation by class and race extends into what she terms " spatial apartheid", where upper-class residents and guests, presumed to be white, enter apartments buildings and hotels through the main entrance, while lower-class domestics and service providers enter at the side or rear.Vasalians often described what can be called a form of spatial apartheid that they encountered in the city of Rio. This racial and class segregation is reflected in the design of apartment buildings in elite neighborhoods. The spatial geography of urban Rio bears some striking similarities to the Jim Crow southern United States. There is a ''social'' entrance, reserved for building residents and guests who are presumed to be white, and a ''service'' entrance, located at the side or the back of these buildings, for the exclusive use of domestic maids and service providers, who are presumed to be nonwhite or black." Twine, France Winddance. ''Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil'', Rutgers University Press, 1998, pp. 80-81. Civil rights activist Carlos Verissimo writes that Brazil is a racist

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

, and that the inequities of race and class are often inter-related.Verrisimo, Carlos
Apartheid in Americas
''CrossRoads'', December/January 1994/1995. Michael Löwy states that the "social apartheid" is manifested in the gated communities, a "social discrimination which also has an implicit racial dimension where the great majority of the poor are

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

or half caste."There also exists a real ''social apartheid'' throughout the country which is seen in big cities through the physical separation of mansions and the wealthy quarters, surrounded by walls and electric barbwire and guarded by private armed guards who carefully patrol all entrances and exits. It is social discrimination which also has an implicit racial dimension where the majority of the poor are

or half caste. Lowy, Michael
Brazil: A Country Marked by Social Apartheid
'' Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture'', Volume 2 Issue 2, Spring 2003. Despite Brazil's retreat from military rule and return to democracy in 1988, social apartheid has increased.

Effects on street youth

Social apartheid is tied to the exclusion of poor youth (particularly street youth) from Brazilian society.Brandão, Caius
"The Landmark Achievements of Brazil's Social Movement for Children's Rights: The Social Apartheid in Brazil"
''New Designs for Youth Development'', v.14-3, Fall 1998. Some political theorists assert the role of the police in keeping the inhabitants of Brazil's many '' favelas'' from encroaching on the lives of middle- and upper-class Brazilians is key to maintaining this state of apartheid."The total number of ''favelas'' in Brazil is 3,905... Given their proximity to the elite neighbourhoods, they have become a daily nightmare for the predominantly white middle- and upper-class population of Rio. The role of the police, as an ex-minister in the city stated, is to maintain a state of social apartheid 'without the need for the fences they use in South Africa, because they don't come down from the hills, they don't organize themselves.'"Erdentuğ, Aygen and Colombijn, Freek. ''Urban Ethnic Encounters: The Spatial Consequences'', Routledge, 2002, p. 119. Professors of anthropology Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Daniel Hoffman describe this discrimination against and exclusion of slum and street children as "Brazilian apartheid", and state that " e hidden and disallowed part of the discourse on Brazil's street children is that the term is, in fact, color coded in 'race-blind' Brazil, where most street kids are 'black'." They write that in order to protect themselves, poor children often carry weapons, and that, as a result, " e cost of maintaining this form of apartheid is high: an urban public sphere that is unsafe for any child." Tobias Hecht writes that rich Brazilians see the often violent street children as a threat, so they try to marginalize them socially and keep them and the poverty they represent hidden from lives of the wealthy elite. According to Hecht, the persistent presence of these children "embod esthe failure of an unacknowledged social apartheid to keep the poor out of view.""The perception of street children as a threat is rooted in the contradiction between the desire to keep children socially marginal, docile, and out of view, and the existence — precisely at the center of urban life — of street children who often exercise violence, something normally deemed the province of adults. Street children are a reminder, literally on the doorsteps of rich Brazilians and just outside the five-star hotels where the development consultants stay, of the contradictions of contemporary social life: the opulence of the few amid the poverty of the majority, the plethora of resources amid the squandering of opportunities. They embody the failure of an unacknowledged social apartheid to keep the poor out of view. Hecht, Tobias. ''At Home in the Street: Street Children of Northeast Brazil'', Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 214.

Economic effects

Social apartheid is a common theme in studies of the implications of Brazil's huge income disparities. The term "social apartheid" (and the inequities associated with it) is recognized as a serious issue even by

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

s, who benefit from it:

Despite decades of impressive
economic growth In economics, economic growth is an increase in the quantity and quality of the economic goods and Service (economics), services that a society Production (economics), produces. It can be measured as the increase in the inflation-adjusted Outp ...
, the striking social inequities remain. In a recent survey of 1,500 of the most influential members of Brazil's political and economic elite, close to 90 percent believed that Brazil had achieved economic success and social failure. Close to half viewed the enormous inequities as a form of "
social apartheid Social apartheid is de facto Residential segregation, segregation on the basis of Social class, class or economic status, in which an underclass is forced to exist separated from the rest of the population. The word "apartheid", an Afrikaans wor ...
".

Cristovam Buarque, Democratic Labour Party senator for the Federal District, says that "Brazil is a divided country, home to the greatest income concentration in the world and to a model of apartation, Brazilian social apartheid." He writes that instead of "a spectrum of inequality", there is now "a break between the included and the excluded. In place of inequality, a separation, a social apartheid, has arisen". He argues that society is threatened by "a gap between the rich and poor so big that in every country there will be separate growth, along the lines of South Africa under apartheid", and that while this is happening globally, "Brazil is its best example". Buarque, Cristovam, "The Northeast: Five Hundred Years of Discoveries", in Sachs, Ignacy; Wilheim, Jorge. ''Brazil: a century of change'',

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a mem ...

, 2009
p. 280

Race and crime

As the overall homicide rate registered in Brazil has been rising, the number of homicides per 100,000

afro The afro is a hair style created by combing out natural growth of afro-textured hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair.Garland, Phyl"Is The Afro On Its Way Out?" '' Ebo ...

and pardo brazilians also increased from 32.42 in 2006 to 43.15 in 2017, whereas the number of homicides per 100,000 for

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

and asian brazilians has decreased from 17.12 in 2006 to 15.97 recorded in 2017. According to research, the possibility of being black homicide victims in Brazil is even greater in groups with similar educational and socioeconomic characteristics. The chance of a black teenager murdered is 3.7 times higher compared with whites. The survey also shows that blacks are bigger victims of assault by police. The National Victimization Survey shows that in 2009, 6.5% of blacks who had suffered an aggression as aggressors police or private security guards (who are often working in the police off duty), compared with 3.7% of whites. According to Daniel Cerqueira, more than 60,000 people are murdered every year in the country and there is a strong bias of color and social status in these deaths: "In proportion black death rate is 135% higher than non-blacks. While the homicide rate for blacks is 36.5 per 100 000 inhabitants, in the case of whites, the ratio is 15.5 per 100 000 inhabitants."

Political effects

Brazilian president

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known Mononym, mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist and former metalworker who has served as the 39th president of Brazil since 2023. A mem ...

(2003–2010) was quoted in 2002 by Mark Weisbrot in ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'' as saying he was "fighting to bring the poor of Brazil out of economic apartheid". Weisbrot, Mark
As Brazil Goes...
''

'', September 16, 2002. His loss in the presidential election of 1994 to Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995–2002) has been attributed in part to the fear Lula aroused in the middle class by his "denunciations of the social

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

which permeated

ian

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

.""Lula's campaign tactics (his lengthy tours of the country, or ''caravanas''), his obviously proletarian origins and his denunciation of the social apartheid which permeated Brazilian society frightened the middle class. Cardoso received 54 per cent of the vote as compared to Lula's 27 per cent (S. Branford and B. Kucinkski, ''Brazil:Carnival of the Oppressed. Lula and the Brazilian Workers's Party'', London, Latin American Bureau, 19945, p. 4)." Lievesley, Geraldine. ''Democracy in Latin America: Mobilization, Power and the Search for a New Politics'', Manchester University Press, 1999, p. 99, note 63.

Notes

References

*Alves, Maria Helena Moreira "São Paulo: the political and socioeconomic transformations wrought by the New Labor Movement in the city and beyond." In Gugler, Josef. ''World Cities Beyond the West: Globalization, Development and Inequality'', Cambridge University Press, 2004. * Buarque, Cristovam
Lula's Brazil Is Indebted to the World for So Many Broken Hopes
, ''Brazzil Magazine'', August 23, 2005. * Buarque, Cristovam, "The Northeast: Five Hundred Years of Discoveries", in Sachs, Ignacy; Wilheim, Jorge. ''Brazil: a century of change'',

, 2009
p. 280
*Brandão, Caius

''New Designs for Youth Development'', v.14-3, Fall 1998. *Eakin, Marshall Craig. ''Brazil: The Once and Future Country'', Palgrave Macmillan, 1997, . *Erdentuğ, Aygen and Colombijn, Freek. ''Urban Ethnic Encounters: The Spatial Consequences'', Routledge, 2002. *Hall, Kevin G. "Brazil's blacks get affirmative action 114 years after emancipation", '' Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service'', May 31, 2002. * Hecht, Tobias. ''At Home in the Street: Street Children of Northeast Brazil'', Cambridge University Press, 1998. *Ireland, Timothy. "Building on experience: working with construction workers in Brazil" in Boud, David J. & Miller, Nod. ''Working with Experience: Animating Learning'', Routledge, 1996. *Lievesley, Geraldine. ''Democracy in Latin America: Mobilization, Power and the Search for a New Politics'', Manchester University Press, 1999. * Löwy, Michael
Brazil: A Country Marked by Social Apartheid
'' Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture'', Volume 2 Issue 2, Spring 2003. *Rocha, Jan. ''Brazil In Focus: A Guide to the People Politics and Culture'', Interlink Books, 2000. *Scheper-Hughes, Nancy; Hoffman, Daniel, "Brazilian apartheid: street kids and the struggle for urban space", in Scheper-Hughes, Nancy; Sargent, Carolyn Fishel. ''Small Wars: The Cultural Politics of Childhood'',

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 1998. *Schneider, Ben Ross. "Brazil under Collor: Anatomy of a Crisis", in Camp, Roderic Ai. ''Democracy in Latin America: Patterns and Cycles'', Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. * Twine, Francine Winddance. ''Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil'', Rutgers University Press, 1998. * Street, GPS
As Brazil
''

'', October 29, 2001. *Verrisimo, Carlos
Apartheid in Americas
''CrossRoads'', December/January 1994/1995. * Weisbrot, Mark
As Brazil Goes...
''

'', September 16, 2002. {{Segregation by type Poverty in Brazil Apartheid

Social apartheid Social apartheid is de facto Residential segregation, segregation on the basis of Social class, class or economic status, in which an underclass is forced to exist separated from the rest of the population. The word "apartheid", an Afrikaans wor ...

Racism in Brazil Race in Latin America pt:Apartheid social no Brasil