Category Archives: Wikipedia

Wikipedia Article: Church of Saint Francis of Assisi (Ouro Preto)

For my Wikipedia entry, I hope to expand upon the current “Church of Saint Francis of Assisi (Ouro Preto)” article. While completing my research proposal on the sculptor and architect Aleijadinho, I found the page for this church which was one of his primary works. Sadly, the current page just exists. Wikipedia is questioning its notability based on a lack of secondary sources, as the entire article is based on only one source. There is nothing more than a brief outline of where the church is, who it was built by, and its major features. Note, none of these components are detailed sections, but mere mentions of each as the whole page is only five sentences long. At the very least, I would like to add sections on the architect, Aleijadinho; the baroque style of the church; and the most prominent architectural features, statues, paintings, and carvings.

Ouro Preto is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for primarily due to its baroque architecture. It also has a rich history as a major mining town in colonial Brazil, which played an important role in the colonial economy. This church is important to Brazilian history and culture because it is a well preserved example of colonial Portuguese architecture. It, along with the artwork inside, are examples of the baroque revival style (also known as rococo or late baroque) which draws from the wealth gained from gold mining in the eighteenth century. This church is evidence of the colonial economy and importance of the Church in Brazil and, therefore, is worthy of a Wikipedia page that outlines its historical and architectural significance.

There is significant scholarship on Ouro Preto, the baroque revival style, Aleijadinho, and this specific church, all of which will contribute to this article. The only content on the talk page of the article is a correction to the one and only external link last August (2017). So, there is currently not any published plan to update or expand the article. It is currently considered a stub-article by Wikipedia which means that it provides some information but is wholly incomplete and far from sufficient coverage of the topic, but has potential for expansion. With my preliminary research, there appear to be enough secondary sources to produce a significantly more developed and complete article with enough verifiable information to merit its own space on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia Link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Francis_of_Assisi_(Ouro_Preto)

UNESCO classification:

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/124

Secondary Sources:

Bury, J. B. “The ‘Borrominesque’ Churches of Colonial Brazil.” The Art Bulletin 37, no. 1 (1955): 27-53. 

Castriota, Leonardo. “Living in a World Heritage Site: Preservation Policies and Local History in Ouro Preto, Brazil.” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 10, no. 2 (1999): 7-19. 

Luiz Gonzaga Teixeira. “Ouro Preto: Brazil’s Monument Town.” Ambio 12, no. 3/4 (1983): 213-15.

Reily, Suzel Ana. “Remembering the Baroque Era: Historical Consciousness, Local Identity and the Holy Week Celebrations in a Former Mining Town in Brazil.” Ethnomusicology Forum 15, no. 1 (2006): 39-62.

Smith, Robert C. “The Colonial Architecture of Minas Gerais in Brazil.” The Art Bulletin 21, no. 2 (1939): 110–59.

Tongtong Wu Wikipedia potential article “Chinese Brazilians”

As a Chinese international student while taking Modern Brazil, I would like to explore the connection between China and Brazil because most of the time in class, the focus of discussion was still Euro-Brazilians, Afro-Brazilians and indigenous people so far, and there was only a little about the Asian influence in Brazil. While reading for the class, I found out that there were Chinese in Brazil at the end of 19th century for cheap labors. Nevertheless, there is always a little content about Chinese contribution to Brazilian history. To expand my knowledge about Brazil, I would like to explore how my Chinese fellows live and are placed in Brazil. My plan is to edit the “Chinese Brazilians” article because this article still needs further improvement.
While reading the article “Chinese Brazilians”, I found out that there was limited description of Chinese immigration with fragmented history. The article missed the part that the Brazilians were hiring Chinese labor after the abolition of slavery to compensate for the labor loss as one of the reasons for Chinese settlements. They focused more on the historical events that the Chinese moving from Lisbon as laborers in Europe, Chinese Communist Revolution, and Cantonese immigration. However, the historical events they presented were so brief without any further elaboration on the specific reasons and backgrounds. I am planning to elaborate on those existing events and incorporated the periods in China to present the push and pull factors for immigration to Brazil. The article also failed to write about the social life of Chinese Brazilians in communities. There was too much underrepresentation in the history of Chinese Brazilians immigration.
The English version of “Chinese Brazilians” only had introduction page, notable Brazilians and references. The page only provided limited knowledge to readers who were interested about Chinese in Brazil, which would result that less people know about the existence of Chinese immigrants. Furthermore, Brazil portrayed the country as a diverse country, whereas they neglected the impact of Chinese influence to their country, as they have aimed to whiten the country. Chinese Brazilians have contributed themselves as laborers starting the 19th century. To an extent, Chinese immigrants also built Brazil, but they were not credited properly in the Brazilian history. Chinese Brazilians made up of Brazilian historical development, and readers should learn about the impact of Chinese to Brazil to better understand Brazilian social issues and immigration.
To help the edition of the article, I would take advantage of my language background, so I am going to read some articles written by Chinese authors on Chinese Brazilians. Those primary sources would be reliable because those are interviews, pictures and journals from Chinese. I would also track back to history timeline by combining Chines History, European history and Brazilian History to find the overlaps among them. By incorporating the historical backgrounds in different countries, I am going to investigate the factors that led to the Chinese became laborers and the reason why they started the immigration to Brazil. I would like to read scholarly works like Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil by Jeffrey Lesser. Those secondary sources would aid my overall understandings of Chinese immigration and their social struggles.

Wikipedia Article: Zélia Gattai

For my Wikipedia Article assignment, I hope to improve the page of Zélia Gattai. Zélia Gattai is a writer of various forms of Brazilian literature who primarily lived during Vargas’ “Estado Novo.” She was married to a man who was an active anarchist that was targeted by the regime. Gattai’s life experiences connect well to my overall research topic for the end of the semester. I am conducting research looking at the expectations of women under the Vargas dictatorship. Through researching Gattai, I can look into how she specifically was effected during this time period.

Currently, her article only contains one short lead section, so there are many content gaps that can be expanded upon. There is basic information about her life, but through the expansion of the article it can provide a deeper look into her experience in Brazilian history. I would hope to expand her article by dividing it up into sections where I can provide more background history on both her and her literary works. Some sections I would add are:  Early Life, Late Life, and Literary Works (maybe dividing them up separately).

In her current article, there are only two sources listed. Based on a general search conducted, there appear to be many more sources such as literature reviews and bibliography entries that I can draw on to complete this article. I could also possibly utilize parts from her own memoirs to provide more insight into her life. The current talk page on this article does not have any comments. This article is considered part of a few Wikiprojects, but it looks like they have not really completed any edits or suggested anything as of now. The article link is listed below. I would love to hear any ideas that others may have to help me to improve this article.

Article link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%A9lia_Gattai

Wikipedia Work: “Football in Brazil”

Article “Football in Brazil” consists of five chapters alongside with two subsections that present the historical, cultural, and social background of soccer in Brazil. This source discusses important historical transitions and the sport’s impact within the nation; however, lacks to capture core ideas of the Brazilian football and fails to properly incorporate evidences. Although the article needs huge improvements on reconstructing its format, I plan to focus on adding cultural significance that addresses how race intertwines with soccer in Brazil. The text emphasizes the sport’s history through underscoring its improvements throughout the years, and further defines football as strictly Brazilian. For example, the article introduces football as an European culture, which underwent a series of adjustment period and became a global sensation. Moreover, it argues that football is perceived as a popular trend which its distinctive styles and international success function as major contributors. However, I noticed that the article disregards race as key component in the Brazilian football. Thus, this project will pursue adding another perspective—race—to the article.

It is important to improve contents of “Football in Brazil” for reflecting Brazilian history and culture because football serves as a representative figure in popular trends alongside with music and carnivals. Marshall Eakin, a history professor at Vanderbilt University, argues that football provided “shared national experiences” in Brazil [1], which indicates that soccer plays an important part in understanding Brazil. Although various factors constitute Brazilian history, popular cultural trends such as soccer should be prioritized. Furthermore, football conveys historical significance that it exemplifies racial diversity, transculturation, and social mobility in Brazil, which all appear as crucial components in contextualizing Brazilian history. However, the article omitted these aspects, rather highlighted the Brazilian football’s status in the international realm without taking account of its main features. Overall, football with its prominence in representing popular cultural trends in Brazil should be recognized for better understanding Brazilian history and culture through adding racial diversity as a key component.

The article relies on news articles for its citation. Scholarly or primary sources appear inconsistent in the reference list as well as the editing process on the Wikipedia Talk Page. For instance, the last update covered women’s soccer culture in 2009, modified few external links, and corrected grammar mistakes—showing no content upgrades over the past five years. For this project, I plan to incorporate two interviews and scholarly sources, which are presented below under “Sources” section. Kittleson discusses race as a major component in Brazilian football, whereas Lever expands Kittleson’s views through highlighting the racial dynamics within the sport. Moreover, two interviews—Ronaldo and Neymar—will be referred for addressing the importance of race in understanding the football culture in Brazil. The interviews demonstrate racial discrimination and mobilization across Brazilian football players. Through utilizing these above sources, I plan to add a new category—race—within the article “Football in Brazil.”

[1] Jeffrey Needell, Emergent Brazil: Key Perspectives on a New Global Power (University Press of Florida, 2015), 22.

Works Cited
Needell, Jeffrey D. Emergent Brazil: Key Perspectives on a New Global Power. University Press of Florida, 2015.

Sources
“Brazil: The ideology of “whitening” and the struggle for a black identity.” Black Women of Brazil. May 09, 2013. Accessed February 13, 2018. https:// blackwomenofbrazil.co/2012/02/09/brazil-the-ideology-of-whitening-and- the- struggle-for-a-black-identity/.

“Neymar Jr, Brazilian Racism and The World Cup of Football (soccer).” The Corn Dealers House. July 30, 2014. Accessed February 13, 2018. https:// tcdh.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/neymar-jr-brazilian-racism-and- the-world-cup- of-football-soccer/.

Kittleson, Roger Alan. The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil. Vol. 2. Univ of California Press, 2014.

Lever, Janet. “Soccer as a Brazilian Way of Life.” Games, Sport and Power, ed. Gregory P. Stone 156 (1972): 138-159.

Fixing Wikipedia’s Coverage of the Festa Junina

Alongside the start of winter comes the end of the rainy season in most of Brazil. To commemorate this event, Brazilians partake in a tradition originating from Portugal known as the Festa Junina, or June Festival. It commemorates the birth of St. John the Baptist and serves as a way to thank him for the past season of rain. Though this annual event spurs mass festivities across all of Brazil, Wikipedia’s English coverage of the topic is rather barren and unprofessional. The article is plagued by a general lack of information and poor formatting, despite being a national holiday with festivities comparable to that of Carnival. The English version of this page is in desperate need of improvement, as the lack of proper information is inhibited English speaking audiences from accessing information on Brazilian culture.

Specific mention of the English version of this page is made, as in Portuguese, it is a well-structured Wikipedia article. There are various subsections that go into detail about aspects of the festival, including clothing, dancing, cuisine, and the purpose of the fire pit, or fogueira. Each section is properly cited with credible sources, a template for what the English version ought to be. Unfortunately, an English-speaking audience is locked out of a proper general overview of the tradition, as the current page is simply four paragraphs with no subsections. There is only mention of clothing and dances, with only one link to another page on Brazilian culture, whereas in Portuguese there are links to articles that further explore each aspect of the festival.  In fixing this page, a helpful first step would be to borrow citations from the Portuguese page for the English page and translate them for a wider audience. This way, rather than being a vague explanation of a few cherry-picked ideas, the article can cover a wide variety of topics concerning an integral part of Brazilian culture.

Sources for a proposed editing of this page, as mentioned, would primarily arise from already established citations on the Portuguese version of this page. However, the point of this refurbishment is not to simply translate the Portuguese page. Rather, those sources will serve as a foundation for recreating this page. Along with that, some sources can be found online using the College of Wooster’s partnership with OhioLINK. These offer various criticisms surrounding the celebration, including the racial exclusivity underlying the festivals (Packman). This database already has various works which analyze and describe the culture and history surrounding the tradition. Even websites run by the Ohio State University offer articles surrounding the celebration of a rural lifestyle in an urban location (Chisholm). Reputable coverage of this events exists, the only issue is simply summarizing it into a properly formatted article, crediting each source of information properly.

Evidently there is already mass coverage on this event, but there are crucial reasons to give this topic such delicate attention. Not only is the Festa Juina celebrated throughout the entire country, but Brazil holds the record for having the largest celebration of Saint John in the world (Bastos). This is a festivity celebrated in Europe as well, so not only would this expand knowledge on Brazil, but it would also give insight into the European traditions themselves. The page itself is recognized by Wikipedia as being crucial to the understanding of Brazilian culture, as it has been added to “WikiProject Brazil” and “WikiProject Holidays”. Fixing the article would be contributing to a wider goal of spreading information about all of Brazilian culture. Doing so would also bring justice to the page, as it has been vandalized on more than one occasion. The talk page barely focuses on any of this however, as the only entries are from nearly a decade ago, followed by a single post asking a question that has yet to be properly answered with a reputable source. Helping alleviate the issues on this page would not only contribute to diversifying information for more users, but it would bring retribution to a page that has been ignored by the Wikipedia community.

The Festa Junina is an integral part of Brazilian culture. It gives insight into how Brazilians value their origins from rural farm life in a modernized age. To allow the coverage of such a vital topic on Wikipedia to remain vague and without citations is an injustice to a brilliantly intricate festivity. Thus, a plan has been set forth to repair the page and improve its status on Wikipedia, not only for English readers, but for the credibility of Wikipedia’s platform, and for Brazilians who hope to spread information of their culture.

 

Sources

  • Packman, Jeff. 2012. The carnavalização of são joão: Forrós, sambas and festive interventions during bahia, brazil’s festas juninas. Ethnomusicology Forum 21 (3): 327-53
  • Chisholm, Jennifer. “Festa junina and the Changing Meanings of Brazilian Rural Festivals in Urban Spaces.” Alter/nativas, no. 4 (2015).
  • Bastos, Ângela. “Na maior festa de São João do mundo, público chega a 1,5 milhão de pessoas.” NCS DC, June 25, 2011. https://goo.gl/WjFkUE.

Portrayal of Indigenous Brazilians by Wikipedia

The introduction of Wikipedia’s article on the “indigenous peoples in Brazil” contains several interesting pieces of information – most starkly the scale by which the region’s indigenous population declined following the arrival of the Portuguese, but also the manner through which they gathered food and other necessities for themselves. Their domestication of tobacco is particularly interesting from an American and Eurocentric perspective, since this innovation would yield a vital cash crop for some of the British colonies in North America in subsequent centuries.

The first “body” section of this article concerns itself with the geographical “origins” of Brazil’s indigenous populations, specifically the exodus of their ancestors from Siberia and East Asia. The free encyclopedia deserves praise for its differentiation between the vast multitude of these groups, tracing existing tribes back to individual waves of migration using genetic and linguistic analysis. There does appear, however, to be a deficit of source material in the small section that claims an absence of records or monuments left by defunct native civilizations; while it is quite possible that this claim is true, there is only one source to support it at the end of the section.

Though rich in detail and interesting to read, the next section is abysmal in terms of having been adequately sourced. Only a few citations are made throughout this portion of the text, with most constituent paragraphs containing none at all. To be fair, however, the sources listed for this section appear to be very broad and comprehensive. A significant portion of recorded history is covered here as well, ranging from as early as 1500 to as recent as November 2012. As such, depictions of the interactions between the indigenous peoples and others in the world around them range from their first contact with Europeans, to Brazilian independence, on into contemporary struggles to reassert control over their own land and natural resources.

The final paragraph concerns itself with additional issues confronting indigenous populations today, and discusses what actions some groups have taken to address them. It contrasts with some of the others in that it is very well-sourced, but is fortunately similar to them in that it makes efficient use of the space that it covers. “Urban,” “environmental,” and “territorial rights” movements are addressed, the last of which, it is claimed, has occasionally escalated into violent skirmishes with national authorities in recent years.

Critiquing Wikipedia’s Coverage of Brazilian History

The Wikipedia on the Afro-Brazilian population in Brazil gave a fair and unbiased depiction of the history and current situation of black people and people of color in brazil. The author(s) manage to treat a very sensitive issue without being partial; they managed to present the facts and depict an accurate picture of what it means and has meant to be black in America. Majority of the article was focused on the topic with only relevant information being used. However, the section in which they discussed the genetic make-up of the average black Brazilian in-terms of racial ancestry was, in my opinion, much longer than it needed to be since this information does not affect the daily experience of the average Brazilian.

In terms of things that could be added or improved, the section on sports and music were very short and lacked a lot of information. Such topics could be used to reveal a lot about Afro-Brazilian culture. The author(s) should also include information about current activists who are fighting for more inclusion of black and iced raced people in Brazilian media, politics and education.

Due to the language barrier, which is expected, I was unable to evaluate whether the sources supported the claims in the article for most of the sources and whether or not they were unbiased. Most of the sources cited in this article were PDF and seemed to be from credible sources.

This article is in 3 WikiProjects: WikiProject African diaspora, WikiProject Brazil/Gepgraphy and WikiProject Ethnic groups; it is rated with a B-class in all these projects. The Talk page shows that this article has undergone a lot of editing and critiquing already; most of which includes modification of sources and the wording of the article to make it less biased and inoffensive.

Wikipedia takes a very objective role when addressing this topic which is very different from how we discuss it in class. In class, we tend to examine Brazilian culture from an American perspective so we often compare and contrast the two cultures instead of taking a more objective view.

Indigenous Peoples of Brazil Blog Post

Everything in the article has something to do with the Indigenous people of Brazil, but that doesn’t mean all is relevant useful information for the sole Wiki page. Some of the stuff is important to the page but should be more explained on a separate page with a hyperlink and not take up too much space. Upfront the article has no biases, some may say it does if they are looking through a very euro-centric lense. There are no claims or frames that would shift the article to one way or another. The article does an okay enough job of describing what actually happened to the Native population of Brazil. No viewpoint is over or under-represented in the history. However, the contemporary Indigenous movement is extremely underrepresented. That is odd considering that the history of the Natives People is a huge part of the page (something that is said they do not know a lot about) and not something that is so easily accessible in this day and age.

The citations and links look extremely credible. Many of them go towards official government websites, scholarly books, and credible news sites. From what I can tell, most of the sites do not support or bash the article but simply provide information. As far as I can see every fact is paired with a reputable reference. The news sites are traditionally seen is unbiased, but are very centered around white people. Many people will not note this bias in many news outlets. The information seems up to date. There definitely needs to be more added to the contemporary section or a whole new page created for it.

There are many conversations on the talk page. Many other Wiki users have been conversing about changing the name to include “in” and how previous contributors have some gross prejudice towards Native People. The article is a part of the  WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the Americas and WikiProject Brazil. It has an overall C rating. We discuss this topic in a much more intersectional way.

Criticism of Wikipedia’s “Afro-Brazilians” Coverage

Wikipedia’s coverage of Afro-Brazilians offers an acceptable overview of the concept, though lacking in crucial details and plagued with American bias. In an attempt to stay neutral, the page relies heavily on factual evidence from surveys and genetic testing. The majority of citations come from government websites and literature discussing the topic, most of which are in Portuguese, but all of which are an even mix of recent and somewhat dated information. This places a heavy burden on translators, given the duty of accurate transformation of information from one language to another. It adds a level of uncertainty to the article, as phrasing can create altered interpretations. Many of these authors having opposing views, which helps create a fuller version of how Brazil has constantly struggled to find an ideal way to categorize its diverse population. When these writers are in contrast, the article makes sure to address both sides while staying neutral, such as in its discussion of Sérgio Pena and Edward Telles. Unfortunately, the potential this article has is underscored by subpar editing, cultural bias, and constant interference by emotionally charged edits.

Properly structuring information in an article helps readers find what they hope to learn more about. Repeating the same thought throughout a page takes away from this. Citation [9] and [10] are used twice to explain that Afro-Brasileiro and Africano Brasileiro were not selected by as identifiers by the Brazilian public; once in the introduction of the page, and again in the Brazilian race/colour categories section. Both mentions are close paraphrasing of one another. The survey used is abbreviated as PME in the introduction, but not defined as the Monthly Employment Survey until the second time it is mentioned. This shows a reverse thought process, where attention was given to the body first, in a situation where outside sources will be using a chronological pattern while reading. Citations become an issue again in the section Revaluation of Black Identity, where the entire first paragraph only has two citations with credible sources, and the rest lacking any support. Not having backup to any claims shows a lack of dedication to the subject and makes way for personal beliefs to be interpreted as fact. The section Geographic distribution of Black Brazilians constantly mentions (see table) though no captions are added to any of the tables in this section. Rather than saying “see figure 1.1”, all references to data tables in this section are assumed to be referring to whatever is directly above the text. This way of presenting information allows for more errors than necessary, and could be resolved by a quick labeling of all charts, rather than leaving untitled calculations strewn about.

Mixed in with actual constructive information about the dynamic identity of Afro-Brazilians lies American authors attempting to draw comparisons between the United States of America and Brazil. Most of these connections are justified, such as mentioning that the term “afrodescendente” may have been created due to influence from “politically correct” movements in the United States of America. However, irrelevant information such as the formation of a “racial caste” in United States in the section Conception of Black and prejudice is it’s own paragraph and is out of place in a section discussion Brazilian social issues. When reading the article in Portuguese, this point is not mentioned at all, hinting that Americans have been contributing their own biases to the development of this page. Also when reading the article in Portuguese, most sections are much more fleshed out, especially Discriminação (Discrimination). In English, there is very little discussion on Afro-Brazilian’s impact on cultural activities such as soccer, carnival, and capoeira, despite being large sectors of Brazilian identity.

The “Talk Page” provides much needed insight into the odd structure of this article. Many contributions and edits have been made by users allowing personal opinion to cloud the unbiased nature of Wikipedia. Most interactions between users are of a negative nature, a mix of Brazilians defining race in their own terms and American believing that they’re concepts of race are the global norm. The term “Afro-Brasilerio” is of constant debate. As user Ninguém argues, the creation of the term is entirely by Americans who have imposed their lebeling of African Americans into Brazilian anthropology. Others, such as user Lecen, fail to acknowledge that Brazil lacks a black/white contrast that Americans use constantly, and uses it to define Brazilian relations. Other conversations on this page are simply insults aimed at other users for removing information that contained personal opinion, such as Opinso who failed to add reliable sources to claims that turned out to be their own. Rather than correct the mistake, Opinsos accused other users of not having any lives outside of editing Wikipedia. This kind of interaction prevents any real progress, and allows what could have been valid information to be discarded due to immaturity. That being said, the majority of this page is users fixing broken external links.

Wikipedia’s page on Afro-Brazilians is a part of WikiProject Brazil, which aims to provide more information on the South American nation for an English audience. Generally speaking, the page provides a very basic introduction into identity and African decent in Brazil, though some issues of formatting, biases, and personal ideas interfere with the information in this article. Compared to in-class discussions, the page most obviously has much more factual backup, compared to us students who base our comments on personal opinion and observation from a limited number of sources. Wikipedia strives to be an authority on all subjects of the known world, though it’s mission relies on the work of community efforts. Constant discourse and unprofessionalism destroy this ideal. It’s up to future editors to be critical of past additions, and be able to filter information to produce an unbiased representation of a controversial subject.

The Identical Strengths and Weaknesses of “Race and Ethnicity in Brazil”

There are multiple positive critiques I can give this article: It is overall well informed, gives extensive detail and contains a good structure. However, while these are strengths of the article, they are also weaknesses.

The article appears to be overall well informed. However, it fails in multiple areas of the article to include citations and its sources. While the author appears to have done his research, the accuracy of the article must be brought into question due to his lack of listed sources. In addition, there are instances where the article discusses the actions of “some people” as opposed to stating explicitly who “some people” are.

There is a problem in the amount of detail used throughout the article. In some areas of the article, the detail is necessary and welcome, such as in the history and controversy over race and immigration both preceding and following the abolishment of slavery. In other sections, however, the detail is unnecessary and takes away from the interest and quality of the article, such as in the controversy over the IBGE’s categorizations of race. While one could argue that the details in this section of the article are necessary in order to gain a full account of the history of race and racism in Brazil, they do not add anything to an argument that has already been well proven and analyzed. In addition, this excessive use of detail causes a conflict of interest. The first half of the article appears to remain neutral, while the second half reflects the author’s personal views on the topic. One example of this is in the section “Genetic Studies,” which goes into extensive detail about the prevalent racial mixing that exists within the DNA of the Brazilian population. While it could be said that the study of DNA is crucially important in the study of race and racism in Brazil, its only purpose in the article appears to be the exposure of racial hypocrisies and ignorance in Brazil, therefore breaking the neutral state of the article.

In some sections, the structure is well organized and helps progress the article. In other sections, majorly towards the end, the structure becomes loose. The author appears to forget what his/her/their main point is. An example of this is in the sections that discuss the racial makeup of Brazil’s different regions. While this section is interesting, it appears to detract and detour from the changing and evolving ideas of race in Brazil that the article begins with.

This article is overall well written and well informed. It is informative, engaging and fairly well organized. However, while the article excels in these aspects in some areas, it falls short in others. As one reads through it, the article becomes decreasingly informative, engaging and organized. A potential consequence of this may be that the reader loses sight of the article’s main point and topic.