Changing Dynamics of Race, Class, and Politics in Brazil and South Africa
Image of a favela in Rio de Janeiro. PLBechly. 17 September 2019. Image from Wikipedia Commons.
South Africa and Brazil, two of the world’s most unequal countries, both have long histories of settler colonialism and racialized dispossession, and forced labor. But when both countries finally democratized roughly three decades ago, their popular leaders approached inequality in very different ways. In South Africa, apartheid had long enshrined white minority rule, and enforced racial difference; in Brazil, where the national myth of ‘racial democracy’ had obscured racial inequalities, democratically-elected leaders tended to emphasize economic disparities and class differences. Over the past thirty years, however, how people in both countries see those persistent inequalities, and how they hope to address them, have changed: poor South Africans seem more focused on class inequalities, while in Brazil, racial identity has become far more visible in shaping political identities.
What has changed, and why? A century ago, Du Bois—who famously wrote in 1903 that ‘the color bar is the problem of the 20th century’—argued that in order to understand what that means in context, we need to examine how people experience race and class in different settings. Like much interdisciplinary work, historical-comparative studies push social scientists to ask new questions, and following Du Bois’ logic, it’s worth looking at how both South Africa and Brazil have tried to address inequality since their first democratic elections, and how political dynamics have changed because of changing popular demands.
In the first decade of democracy, elected leaders’ efforts to address stark inequalities in both countries took fairly predictable paths. In South Africa, the ruling African National Congress focused on addressing racial exclusion, removing racial barriers in education and housing, providing services like water and electricity to Black communities, and pushing the white business community to bring Black directors and subcontractors into their circles. In Brazil, both centrist and left-leaning leaders expanded education and health policies, implemented cash transfer programs, and pursued economic growth strategies aimed at ending poverty, rather than focusing on longstanding patterns of racial stratification.
But in both South Africa and Brazil, shifting political pressures have begun to force politicians to rethink the character of inequality. Especially as in the face of COVID’s economic and social impact, rising tensions over how to address persistent inequalities are playing out in political campaigns, in ways that few could have predicted just a few years ago.
In South Africa, issues of class and economic inequality have become increasingly central to political tensions — as illustrated by the violent protests and looting which destroyed businesses and fancy shopping malls across South Africa in 2021, highlighting stark differences between the lives of the poor, and those of elite and middle class South Africans. Today, while the country’s leaders are mainly Black, and the upper class now includes many people of color, for people living in poor households — who are almost entirely Black — the promise of a ‘rainbow nation’ where all South Africans can enjoy prosperity still seems ‘a dream deferred (Gevisser, “What Happens”).
South Africa’s elite is no longer entirely white: thirty years since the end of apartheid, most Black South Africans who have managed to find a path to a stable job in government or in the private sector have moved to formerly-white areas, where they are closer to their work, and where their children can attend better schools. Although apartheid’s legacies — especially, the unequal distribution of the country’s wealth — mean that many Black middle-class households must rely on loans and credit cards to maintain their lifestyles, at least they can hope to enjoy the benefits of living in comfort, and to see their children go on to a better future (Southall).
In the areas that were designated for Black people under apartheid—the so- called ‘homelands’ in rural areas, or peripheral urban ‘townships’ and squatter settlements where most Black South Africans still live today (Makgetla, “Inequality“) -- middle class status seems almost unattainable, particularly for those whose opportunities are limited by their lack of wealth or connections, and whose daily lives are shaped by inadequate public services and frustrating gaps in service (Paret). People who lack either skills or contacts, or both, struggled to find even low-paid jobs in a country whose urban unemployment rates often rose to nearly 30 percent, even before COVID.
Those stark economic inequalities were further exacerbated by the pandemic. About 14 million South Africans, about a quarter of the population, were living in poverty before the pandemic; by the end of 2020, two million South Africans had lost their jobs, and about 47 percent of households had run out of money to buy food by April 2020 (Megannon “Unemployed”). By 2021, although most payments amounting to little more than $20 per month, social grants made up between about a quarter and two-thirds of the incomes of households in the lowest three-fifths of the population.
Despite the governments’ ongoing efforts to distribute aid, South Africa’s economic inequalities are only getting worse. Even more obviously, the party that has been in power since democracy was introduced is facing a crisis of identity: the ANC leadership seems to be struggling to mobilize its popular base, and current predictions suggest it may not win a majority in the next election. If class-based differences, rather than race, becomes the issue that voters focus on, democracy may push the ANC’s leadership to take more visible, and more effective, steps to address the country’s persistent poverty.
In Brazil, by contrast, the politics of race have become far more visible than they once were, and could play some part in the country’s upcoming presidential election. While economic inequality can hardly be ignored—with some 30 million Brazilians going hungry during the pandemic—President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently running for reelection, continues to use racist and nostalgic comments about a mythical colorblind past to mobilize his base.
Those who cling to the idea that merit, not historical exclusion, have shaped Brazilian society, often criticize the Workers’ Party for its efforts to offer new opportunities for poor Black Brazilians, including, especially, the college admissions affirmative action policies put in place in 2012, reserving about half the seats in the country’s public universities for students from Black and poor households (Paischel 68). Patricia de Santana Pinho has argued that Bolsonaro’s supporters often express what she calls “injured whiteness”, reflecting their fear that policies designed to offer new opportunities for poor Black citizens will undermine their social status (de Santana Pinho).
But, for many Brazilians, those same policies have prompted more positive conversations, shifting understandings of inequality by requiring Brazilians “to talk openly about race, racial difference, and unequal access to opportunity” (da Silva and Larkins 899). As Luciana Brito writes, today, “In the social imagination and across the spheres of health care, politics, employment, and, above all, education and housing,” she writes, “two distinct Brazils are observable. One is a country of privileged people, while the other is a country of people whose lives are marked by poverty, the absence of multiple rights, and personal experiences of violent and traumatic events motivated by racial hatred” (Brito “Portraits”).
In addition to expanding support for broad social policies that might provide new opportunities for poor and excluded Brazilans, these conversations have also prompted some Brazilians to acknowledge personal backgrounds they might previously have denied. Surveys suggest that more Brazilians today identify as black than at any time in the past: over the past decade, the percentage of Brazilians who describe themselves as White has dropped from 48 percent to 43 percent, and the number of people who identify as Black or mixed has risen from 51 percent to 56 percent (McCoy and Traiano “He grew up”).
Brazil’s upcoming presidential election is likely to involve new debates about whether, and how, Brazil should address inequalities of race, as well as class. Bolsonaro’s disastrous pandemic response—which gave Brazil one of the highest mortality rates in the world—will of course be a central theme in Lula’s presidential campaign, and the unequal impact of COVID on poor black and indigenous communities will likely be part of that conversation. Lula’s campaign is likely to emphasize broad policies designed to improve the lives of all poor Brazilians, but perhaps this time, with a more explicit acknowledgement of how class and race are intertwined. As Douglas Belchior, an organizer for the nation’s Black Coalition for Rights, said recently, “Lula has listened to many Black activists, intellectuals, and politicians. He knows that the reconstruction of Brazil requires tackling racism”(Nugent “Brazil’s”).
Of course, most policy-makers understand that ‘tackling racism’ also requires tackling inequalities rooted in class dynamics; in Brazil as in South Africa, Blacks are far more likely to be living in poverty, and less likely to be able to find their way out of poverty, than their White counterparts; inequality shapes lives, in ways that continue to reproduce stark inequalities. As both countries emerge from the pandemic, we can only hope it will be possible to open new doors.
About the Author
Gay Seidman is a Martindale Bascom Professor of Sociology at UW-Madison, where she has been on the faculty since 1990. Her research has mainly involved historical-comparative and ethnographic studies of labor and social movements in various countries, including Brazil, Guatemala, South Africa and India. Her books include Manufacturing MIlitance: Workers movements in Brazil and South Africa (1994) and Beyond the Boycott: Labor Rights, Human Rights and Transnational Activism (2007).
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