Inconsistências e consequências da variável raça para a mensuração de desigualdades

Abstract

“It is not possible to separate people by race in Brazil” (Fry et al., 2007). This common and long-standing argument is part of the Brazilian racial classification system at least since the early 20th century. The inability to identify target populations has also been a reason to be skeptical about the success of affirmative action programs implemented to mitigate persistent racial inequalities in Brazil. This article investigates the association between inconsistencies in racial classification and the level and composition of inequalities in education and consumption. Using unique data from the 2002 Brazilian Social Survey (PESB), we show that individuals whose race/color was inconsistently reported account for at least half of total inequality and more than a third of inter-racial inequality. After excluding inconsistently classified individuals from our sample, however, the share of inter-racial inequalities does not substantially change, demonstrating that racial uncertainty has little influence on racial inequality in Brazil.