Most multiracial Brazilians also have a range of degree of African ancestry. Brazilians whose African features are more evident are generally seen by others as Blacks and may identify themselves as such, while the ones with less noticeable African features may not be seen as such.
In the census, In , this perspective gained official recognition when Brazilian Congress passed a law creating the Statute of Racial Equality. However, this definition is contested [ 6 ] [ 7 ] since a portion of pardos are acculturated indigenous people or people with indigenous and European rather than African ancestry, especially in Northern Brazil.
In , Brazil determined the definitive prohibition of the transatlantic slave trade and in the country abolished slavery, making it the last one in the Americas to do so. With the largest Afro-descendant population outside of Africa, Brazil's cultural, social, and economic landscape has been profoundly shaped by Afro-Brazilians. Their contributions are especially notable in sports, cuisine, literature, music, and dance, with elements like samba and capoeira reflecting their heritage.
In contemporary times, Afro-Brazilians still face socioeconomic disparities and racial discrimination and continue the fight for racial equality and social justice. In the census, all individuals who did not identify as "white", "black" or "yellow" were subsequently aggregated into the category " pardo ". In other words, people who identified as pardo , moreno , mulato , caboclo , indigenous, among others, were classified as " pardos ".
In subsequent censuses, pardo was formalized as its own category, [ 12 ] while Indigenous peoples gained a separate category only in Pardo literally translates to brown , but it can also refer to racial mixture. Activists and scholars associated with the Brazilian Black movement argue that the inclusion of this category in the census distorts Brazil's demographic depiction.
