The Impact of Brazilian Tax System for Perpetuating Racial Inequality In Brazil

Abstract

This work aims to reflect on the impact that the Brazilian tax system has on blacks and browns people, operating as an instrument for perpetuating racial inequality, given that they mostly belong to the low-income population that, paradoxically, suffers from the heavy tax burden concerning consumption. In this way, it is stated that Brazilian taxation does not fulfill the purpose of income redistribution not even with the preservation of the existential minimum as provided in the Federal Constitution of 1988 in order to achieve social justice. Bearing it in mind, this work was structured in three parts. The first part describes the impact that the tax system has on the Brazilian social reality in general. The second part investigates the myth of racial democracy as an ideological parameter responsible for the racial color blindness of the Brazilian society, responsible for impersonal public policies in the face of a structurally unequal reality. Finally, the third part reflects on the impact of the mentioned taxation on the specific condition of Afro-descendants.