Afro-descendant women Bolsa Familia and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and women, infants, and children beneficiaries’ perceptions of skin color and class discrimination in Brazil and the United States

Abstract

We examine the impact of class and racial discrimination on Afro-descendant women social welfare beneficiaries in Brazil and the USA. We focus on the cities Salvador, São Paulo, Charlotte, and Milwaukee. We find that in all these cities, more than a majority of social welfare beneficiaries ate dark skinned thus showing that both countries are pigmentocracies where disadvantage is based on skin color, class, and gender. We find that of those admitting they experienced skin color discrimination more than a majority ate dark skinned. Women in the USA are generally more likely to acknowledge skin color discrimination while women in Brazil are more likely to acknowledge class based discrimination.