Notes on slavery and racism in Brazil

Abstract

The present text seeks to understand the relationship between race and slavery, throughout the constitution of Brazilian society, and its contribution to the maintenance of the predatory exploitation of certain social groups, notably African and Native American people, and their descendants, that is, those perceived as non-white. Through bibliographic research, it is noticed that the current idea of ​​race and racism was constituted from the 15th century, with colonial slavery, was consolidated in the 19th century with the "second slavery" allied to "scientific racism" and persisted throughout the 20th century, supported by the “myth of racial democracy” and the “whitening ideology”. In these first two decades of the 21st century, although some researches indicate that most people subjected to labor analogous to slavery are black, mixed race or indigenous, there is little data on the race of those involved. The omission of color as a relevant factor in the analysis of contemporary slavery prevents the adoption of affirmative measures aimed specifically to black workers, limiting the possibilities of eradicating contemporary slave labor.