Brazil is undergoing a strange racial reckoning after bombshell revelations that thousands of veteran politicians had changed their self-identified race between the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Afro-Brazilians – a category that includes Black and mixed-race people – comprise 56% of Brazil’s population but 43% of elected officials. So when almost 29,000 Afro-Brazilian city council and mayoral candidates took office on Jan. 1 after winning their races last November, communities of color celebrated their growing political representation.
But Brazilian politics may not be as diverse as official statistics suggest.
More than 42,000 veteran politicians who ran for office in 2020 had changed their self-declared race since their last campaign, potentially to gain access to new campaign financing earmarked for Black candidates.