Mayors Are Up for Election in Brazil. It's a White Game
Mayors Are Up for Election in Brazil. It's a White Game
Newsroom 19 September 2016
Brazil, a country where a majority of residents identify as non-white, will head to the polls next month for municipal elections but in a stark example of the racial dynamics of the South American country, voters in nearly half of the municipalities will have only white candidates to choose from for mayor.
An investigation by the daily newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo found that 2,512 of the 5,568 municipalities, or 45 percent, only have white candidates for mayor. Meanwhile, in the whole country, 65 percent of mayoral candidates are white despite only 48 percent of the country identifying as white, according to the 2010 census.
Even cities where people of color are the overwhelming majority — such as Jandaíra in the northeastern state of Bahia, where 90 percent of people identify as non-white — white candidates exclusively are running for mayor.
The figures come directly from the country's electoral authority, known as the TSE, which is tracking the race of the candidates in municipal elections for the first time.
More:
http://www.brazzil.com/24066-mayors-are-up-for-election-in-brazil-it-s-a-white-game
