'I Know How Far I Can Go': Black Entrepreneurs Overcome Challenges In Brazil
Afro-Brazilian culture is so central to Brazil's port city of Salvador that the city has earned the nickname Roma Negra, or "Black Rome." The nickname resonates with Brazilians who recognize Salvador as a black cultural and intellectual capital — a place where city and culture are as deeply intertwined as Christianity is with Rome.
Afro-Brazilian drummers, snack vendors and visual artists hum through Salvador's streets and plazas. These cultural fixtures are also small businesses — and their challenges are emblematic of those shared nationwide by black Brazilians in business.
Souvenir salesman Paulo Costa wants to expand, he says, but "it's really hard. No one makes this investment."
Black Brazilians make up the majority — — of Brazil's population, and a higher majority among Brazil's poorest. (Many Brazilians are mixed-race and define themselves by a wide range of skininclude those who self-identify in the census as black — or often translated as brown or mixed-race). On average, black Brazilians earn as much as whites. The wage gap for black Brazilians with a college degree than for those without. And black Brazilians are not well represented in the upper echelons of business, accounting for of directors of companies with two or more people and of directors of the country's largest 500 companies.
