Racial inequalities in adolescent mortality: biological, social determination or institutional racism

Abstract

The myth of racial democracy, built by the model of race relations in Brazil, by denying racism (FREIRE, 1933; PIERSON, 1971)
and, consequently, by not analyzing health indicators disaggregated by color, concealed, for a long time, the inequalities in
the health situation of the black and brown population compared to the white population. For this reason, the current color
classification of the Fundação Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (FIBGE) is used: white, black, brown, yellow,
indigenous and not informed, where the term 'black' refers to the group of blacks and browns. However, since the first census
of the Brazilian population (1872), the item color has been collected and analyzed, except in 1900, 1920 and 1970 (PETRUCELLI,2000),
revealing the unfavorable socioeconomic situation of the black population. The distribution of the Brazilian population by color
and sex varied regionally in 2000, raising complex questions about the color classification criteria and their meaning that will
not be addressed here. In that year's Census, the proportion of people without information about color was negligible.