(AP) Many Brazilians cast their country as racial democracy
where people of different groups long have intermarried,
resulting in a large mixed-race population. But you need only
turn on the TV, open the newspaper or stroll down the street to
see clear evidence of segregation. In Brazil, whites are at the
top of the social pyramid, dominating professions of wealth,
prestige and power. Dark-skinned people are at the bottom of the
heap, left to clean up after others and take care of their
children and the elderly. The 2010 census marked the first time
in which black and mixed-race people officially outnumbered
whites, weighing in at just over 50 percent, compared with 47
percent for whites. Researchers suggest that Brazil actually may
have been a majority-nonwhite country for some time, with the
latest statistics reflecting a decreased social stigma that
makes it easier for nonwhites to report their actual race. It is
a mix of anomalies in Brazil that offers lessons to a United
States now in transition to a "ma