{"id":233,"date":"2026-08-01T17:03:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/?p=233"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:08:12","slug":"changing-dynamics-of-race-class-and-politics-in-brazil-and-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/?p=233","title":{"rendered":"Changing Dynamics of Race, Class, and Politics in Brazil and South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Changing Dynamics of Race, Class, and Politics in Brazil and South Africa<\/h1>\n\n\n

Gay Seidman<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Closely
Image of a favela <\/em>in Rio de Janeiro. PLBechly. 17 September 2019. Image from Wikipedia Commons<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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South Africa and Brazil, two of the world\u2019s 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 \u2018racial democracy\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has changed, and why? A century ago, Du Bois\u2014who famously wrote in 1903 that \u2018the color bar is the problem of the 20th century\u2019\u2014argued 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\u2019 logic, it\u2019s 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\u2019 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\u2019s 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 \u2014 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\u2019s leaders are mainly Black, and the upper class now  includes many people of color, for  people living in poor households \u2014 who are almost entirely Black \u2014 the promise of a \u2018rainbow nation\u2019  where all South Africans can enjoy prosperity still seems \u2018a dream deferred (Gevisser, \u201cWhat Happens\u201d).

South Africa\u2019s 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\u2019s legacies \u2014 especially, the unequal distribution of the country\u2019s wealth \u2014  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\u2014the so- called \u2018homelands\u2019 in rural areas, or peripheral urban \u2018townships\u2019 and squatter settlements where most Black South Africans still live today (Makgetla, \u201cInequality\u201c) —  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<\/a> by April 2020 (Megannon \u201cUnemployed\u201d). 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<\/a>.

Despite the governments\u2019 ongoing efforts to distribute aid, South Africa\u2019s 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\u2019s leadership to take more visible, and more effective, steps to address the country\u2019s 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\u2019s upcoming presidential election.   While economic inequality can hardly be ignored\u2014with some 30 million Brazilians going hungry during the pandemic\u2014President 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\u2019 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\u2019s public universities for students from Black and poor households (Paischel 68). Patricia de Santana Pinho has argued that Bolsonaro\u2019s supporters often express what she calls \u201cinjured whiteness\u201d, 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 \u201cto talk openly about race, racial difference, and unequal access to opportunity\u201d (da Silva and Larkins 899). As Luciana Brito writes, today,  \u201cIn the social imagination and across the spheres of health care, politics, employment, and, above all, education and housing,\u201d she writes, \u201ctwo 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\u201d (Brito \u201cPortraits\u201d).

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 \u201cHe grew up\u201d). 

Brazil\u2019s upcoming presidential election is likely to involve new debates about whether, and how, Brazil should address inequalities of race, as well as class. Bolsonaro\u2019s disastrous pandemic response\u2014which gave Brazil one of the highest mortality rates in the world\u2014will of course be a central theme in Lula\u2019s presidential campaign, and the unequal impact of COVID on poor black and indigenous communities will likely be part of that conversation. Lula\u2019s 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\u2019s Black Coalition for Rights,  said recently, \u201cLula has listened to many Black activists, intellectuals, and politicians. He knows that the reconstruction of Brazil requires tackling racism\u201d(Nugent \u201cBrazil\u2019s\u201d).  

Of course, most policy-makers understand that \u2018tackling racism\u2019 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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gay Seidman<\/strong> is a Martindale Bascom Professor of Sociology at UW\u2013Madison, 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).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Works Cited<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Brito, Luciana. \u201cPortraits of Black Politics and Resistance in Brazil.\u201d NACLA<\/em>, 17 June 2022, https:\/\/nacla.org\/black-politics-resistance-brazil<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

de Santana Pinho, Patricia. \u201cWhiteness has come out of the closet and intensified Brazil\u2019s reactionary wave.\u201d Precarious Democracy: Ethnographies of Hope,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despair and Resistance, <\/em>edited by Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, Alvaro Jarrin, and Lucia Cantero, Rutgers University Press, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

da Silva, Antonio, and Erica Larkins. \u201cThe Bolsonaro Election, Antiblackness, and changing race relations in Brazil.\u201d Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology<\/em>, vol. 24, no. 4,  2019, pp. 893-913.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gevisser, Mark. \u201dWhat happens to a dream deferred?\u201d Daily Maverick<\/em>, <\/em>18 July 2021, https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2021-07-18-what-happens-to-a-dream-deferred\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makgetla, Neva. \u201cInequality in South Africa\u201d in The Crisis of Inequality<\/em>, edited by Gilbert Khadiagala, Wits University Press, 2018, pp. 14-42.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCoy, Terence  and Heloisa Traiano. \u201cHe grew up White. Now he identifies as Black. Brazil grapples with racial redefinition.\u201d The Washington Post<\/em>, 15 Nov. 2020, https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/the_americas\/brazil-racial-identity-black-white\/2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

020\/11\/15\/2b7d41d2-21cb-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megannon, Vayda. <\/em>\u201cUnemployed South Africans depended on COVID relief\u201d The Washington Post, <\/em>19 Aug. <\/em>2022, https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2022\/08\/19\/south-africa-covid-relief-income\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nugent,  Ciara. \u201cBrazil\u2019s most popular president returns from political exile with a promise to save the nation.\u201d Time,<\/em> 3 May 2022, https:\/\/time.com\/6172611\/brazil-president-lula-interview\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paischel, Tiana. Becoming Black Political Subjects: Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil<\/em>. Princeton University Press, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paret, Marcel. Fractured MIlitancy: Precarious Resistance in South Africa After Racial Inclusion<\/em>. <\/em>Cornell University Press, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Southall, Roger. The New Black Middle Class in South Africa<\/em>. James Currey, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do South African households look like?\u201d Stats SA<\/em>, 23 June 2022, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?p=15473<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brazil<\/a>, <\/span>law<\/a>, <\/span>mobility<\/a>, <\/span>politics<\/a>, <\/span>poverty<\/a>, <\/span>race<\/a>, <\/span>South Africa<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gay Seidman South Africa and Brazil, two of the world\u2019s 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, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3828,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uw_seo_meta_title":"","_uw_seo_meta_description":"","_uw_seo_twitter_card_type":"summary_large_image","_uw_seo_meta_image":"","_uw_seo_meta_image_url":"","_uw_seo_meta_image_sizes":[],"_uw_seo_custom_meta_tags":[],"uw_external_link":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[114,159,161,160,149,158,162],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-1-fall-winter-2022","tag-brazil","tag-law","tag-mobility","tag-politics","tag-poverty","tag-race","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3828"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":886,"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lacisreview.lacis.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}