burn me sun
travel inspiration + cultural realties
What is race, really?
Defining breeds more problems than progress.
Brazil is known for it’s very mixed population and diverse culture. The ethnic groups are classified as white, white-black mix or mulatto, black, asian and indigenous.
The latest census report showed that 47.7% of people identified as white, 43.1% as mulatto, 7.6% as black. Many articles concluded that this was the first time “African-Brazilians outnumbered whites as the majority.” However, what constitutes one race from another differs from country to country. Thus, the methods used, in any case, are highly subjective and unscientific. In Brazil, race is classified by “what you look like.” In the U.S., racial identification is based largely on ancestry.
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As stated in the article by Psychology Today,
“Brazilians would say that the American census over-counts the number of blacks, while Americans would say that the Brazilian census over-counts the number of whites.”
This summarizes the very problem with identifying and categorizing people via race. Brazilians are said to be “highly critical” of Americans “calling people black who aren’t black.”
The point is...
Where one race begins and ends - is quite arbitrary. Whereas biological science claims that there are only gradual variations within one human species, the social sciences would say that race is differentiated by culture.
Whatever the case, we all bleed the same blood.
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Today we are free to travel and move where we please, todays disputes are moving far from race. The question should be, where does your loyalty lie?
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https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html