MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
UN research panel says 'institutionalized racism' persists in Brazil
“To overcome the legacy of colonialism and slavery, the challenges Brazil faces are enormous”, said a UN reseracher 
Afro-Brazilians represent more than half of the Brazilian population Institutionalized racism persists in Brazil despite government efforts to tackle the issue, according to members of a United Nations panel examining conditions among black Brazilians in five cities. However Brazilian blacks ``still suffer from structural, institutional and interpersonal racism.''
Two members of the U.N.'s working group on Afro-descendants said their 10-day fact-finding mission to five Brazilian cities underscored that the government has finally acknowledged the problem and has “shown its willingness to combat racism.''
”Historical injustices continue profoundly affecting the lives of millions of Afro-Brazilians and are present throughout all levels of Brazilian society,'' panel member Mireille Fanon-Mendes-France told journalists at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil received more African slaves than any other country in the Americas and was the last major nation to abolish slavery, and people of color here still tend to languish at the bottom of the social pyramid.
“To overcome the legacy of colonialism and slavery, the challenges Brazil faces are enormous,'' Fanon said. ”Afro-Brazilians represent more than half of the Brazilian population, however they're sub-represented and invisible in most positions of power, in the media and the private sector.''
She added that blacks continued to face hurdles in accessing quality education, the courts, health care, basic sanitation and other state services.
“Although Brazil has progressed in reducing poverty, we note that there's still a great contrast between the situation of black Brazilians and the country's rapid economic growth,'' Fanon said, reading from a report with the group's initial conclusions.
She praised a series of recent government measures aimed at stamping out the lasting legacy of slavery, including affirmative action in universities.
Still, Fanon added that ”advances in dismantling of racial discrimination remains slow.''
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Read all comments“Afro-Brazilians represent more than half of the Brazilian population”
Dec 16th, 2013 - 05:19 pm 0Bull. It's amazing how “experts/UN Clowns” keep repeating this nonsense. The facts are, Brazilians of MIXED ( A: Afro mix with white, B: white mix with native american, C: native american mix with black, D white mix with asian, and very small minority up north asian mix with native american and asian mix with afro) decendants.
Those idiots at the UN enjoy this “divide and conquer” by using the “RACE” nonsense and tried something similar (Race issues) in Holland to ban Saint Nicholos (Sinterklaas) and his black slave helpers ( Zwarte pieten)...which is according to them “RACISM”.
I agree with Fido.
Dec 18th, 2013 - 11:46 am 0The one thing that struck me powerfully when I first went to live in North East Brasil was how mixed and integrated was the whole population.
My partner herself is a genetic complex of his A, B and C (#1), and she is totally unexceptional - except, of course, in her beauty.
There's a good mixture of people in Espirito Santo too where I live.
Dec 18th, 2013 - 02:52 pm 0My missus is also tidy like....
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