"White-Looking" Brazilian Man Turned Down From Job
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When the test scores came out, Lucas Siqueira, 27, was really excited. His high mark on the Foreign Service exam earned him a coveted position at Brazil's highly competitive Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"They hire 30 diplomats a year and thousands of people sign up," he says in fluent English from his home in Brasilia, the capital.
It was, he says, a great day.
Siqueira considers himself to be mixed race, known in Brazil as pardo, or brown.
How he defines himself matters because he was required to self-identify on his application. In 2014, the government introduced a quota system for federal jobs. The affirmative action regulations require that 20 percent of all government positions be filled by people of color — either black or mixed race.
The problem came once the announcement of the appointments was made public.
People started investigating the background of who had gotten the slots. They got into Siqueira's Instagram, his Facebook feed and they sent his personal photos to the government.
"A lot of people sent pictures saying, 'Oh, this dude is white, he's a fraud,'" Siqueira says.
Job offer put on hold
People basically said he was gaming the system, lying about who and what he is to get one of the jobs. The backlash shocked him. He said he hadn't even considered the quota system. He just put down what he considered himself to be.
But the controversy wouldn't go away. The government was getting so much flack that it put Siqueira's offer on hold.
He was asked to present himself to a panel of seven diplomats in a room who would decide if he was really Afro-Brazilian, as he claimed.
They asked him a bunch of questions such as, "Since when do you consider yourself to be a person of this color?"
And then it was over.
What they decided was that he was not pardo, or mixed race. No explanation. No discussion. So he decided to sue.
And that's when this story gets even more complicated. Because in order to "prove" that he was Afro-Brazilian, his lawyers needed to find some criteria. He went to seven dermatologists who used something called the Fitzpatrick scale that grades skin tone from one to seven, or whitest to darkest. The last doctor even had a special machine.
A few weeks ago, these race tribunals were made mandatory for all government jobs. In one state, they even issued guidelines about how to measure lip size, hair texture and nose width, something that for some has uncomfortable echoes of racist philosophies in the 19th century.
Even though the majority of the population is of African descent, only 5 percent of Afro-Brazilians were in higher education as recently as 10 years ago. Because of affirmative action, that number is now 15 percent. Vaz says these are hard won gains, but there is a long way to go.
"Only 5 percent of executives are black in Brazil, politicians, diplomats, all things, so the black people don't access the space of power in my country. This is the real issue we have," he says.
I firmly believe in affirmative action, and especially in Latin America where the social class disparity between whites and minorities is still very pervasive.
But, this man is a person of color Genetics are strange--sometimes mixed people are born lighter. Doesn't mean they didn't experience life as a POC, despite passing as white sometimes. And I don't think measuring people's lips and faces to prove they are truly black is the way to go
Edit: The article also says his grandfather was black.
I'm literally the same ethnicity as him (Pardo Brazilian) and I'm significantly lighter than my dad (who's Native). Sometimes I hesitate to call myself a POC because of that but I technically am Americans view me as Latino or "Hispanic" so I don't think it matters in the grand scheme of things.
It's weird how much differently the US dealt with race/colonization than Latin America.
I don't think this should've happened... it's great that they give people who had to fight harder to get there more chances, but he's not really white.
Because in order to "prove" that he was Afro-Brazilian, his lawyers needed to find some criteria. He went to seven dermatologists who used something called the Fitzpatrick scale that grades skin tone from one to seven, or whitest to darkest. The last doctor even had a special machine.
I don't agree with this, cause this is just another way of segregation. Black or mixed people already have a quota system to enter in the university (which it's fine) and they now have for federal jobs too. And we can't even tell if someone is white, black, mixed, etc.
They get the people who said that are black/mixed and examines them to see if it's true....
Genetics are strange--sometimes mixed people are born lighter. Doesn't mean they didn't experience life as a POC, despite passing as white sometimes. And I don't think measuring people's lips and faces to prove they are truly black is the way to go 
Americans view me as Latino or "Hispanic" so I don't think it matters in the grand scheme of things.
