Racial fluidity in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte: individual characteristics and local context in the construction of race

Abstract The article discusses how individual variables and neighborhood characteristics influence heteroclassification and its differences with racial self-classification, in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area. The analysis seeks to understand the social construction of race and its fluidity in society, given that different types of classifications reflect distinct experiences and interpretations of race. Data used are from the BH Area Survey (2005), the Brazilian Demographic Census (2010) and the Human Development Atlas (2013), for the analysis we used logistic regression models. Results indicate that hetero-classification is influenced by individual and contextual characteristics. For those who self-identify as white, schooling, income and local racial distribution are associated with opportunities of being hetero-classified as white, whereas for individuals self-identifying as black, only schooling increases the chances of being hetero-classified as white. Thus, we conclude that there is racial fluidity in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area, in the sense that classification is influenced by socioeconomic and contextual characteristics.