Afghanistan and the Northwestern Frontier in Pakistan are not Desi country, but we are South Asians. We just speak Farsi and Pashto versus Urdu. Plus, few Afghans need to use skin cream lightners.

BTW great reference to Last precinct!!

No. Anyone who spells Hussain with a “y” does not qualify as desi. Sorry.

According to most country and regional profiles, studies and stats I’ve encountered, Blacks are actually not a huge percentage of the population of Brazil as a whole, not as much as Native Americans; but that may mean “full-blooded” black Africans. There were huge areas of Brazil to which slaves were never taken, nor ever went on their own once they were free. Part of Brazil is dry, almost desert, something few peole visualize. The South of Brazil is mostly European and native, the Euros being especially German and Italian, the result of immense immigration (distinct from colonizing, they hasten to emphasize) prior to WWII. Oh–and Japanese. Lot’s of Japanese in South America. And you know what? The Germans tend to look German, the Italians tend to look like various Italian types, and the Japanese look like Japanese. Naturally some complex and startling mixtures are more common in Brazil than many other places you could name, but I came to the conclusion that the “melting pot” is a particular reality in the urban coastal areas, especially Rio. I don’t know what the percentages are, but you can always get another opinion. Here’s one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Brazil; or maybe get a few Brazilians to weigh in.

hmm, how did a tv show discussion lead to this…oh, well.

In Brazil a large population is of mixed ancestry (white, indigenous, african), and many people don’t identify themselves as “white” or “black”. Due to the large population of mixed ancestry, there is a lot of variation, within families even, so people often do not define themselves as one or the other– this could strangly put brothers or sisters in different categories. I watched a really interested documentary on Brazil– Brazil decided to make affirmative action for public colleges in Brazil and used the American model– saying affirmative action was for the “black” students. This created a controversy, because many people did not know who was “black” or not. People had to redefine their idea of themselves to decide whether or not to apply for affirmative action. They had to create a commitee to look at pictures of students and decide if they were “black” and eligible, or not. In one case, one identical twin was approved and the other denied.

So anyways, it is erroneous to artificially put the American racial labeling system on another culture.

I just checked wiki. They cite 2008 census figures. 48% are white. 43.8% are mixed raced or “brown.” And only 6.8% is black.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil