When asked what color he would use to describe his life, Ricardo Mendes, 17, of Salvador, Brazil, said he would choose black.

"I think black means history, and my color is history," he said.

Jefferson Sosazo, 18, also would choose black "because the black color says it all. It means suffering. It means that we want a better life."

Centuries of slavery have left their legacy in Brazil. Although the practice ended in 1888, many young Brazilians of color still feel the suffering, exploitation and yearning for a better life that it created. This is particularly evident in Salvador and the state of Bahia: 8 million slaves passed through Salvador's port during the Portuguese reign, and 85 percent of the Bahian people are Afro-Brazilian, compared to 6 percent in Brazil overall.

Elias Santana de Oliveira, 15, is very interested in this legacy. "I like to understand what happened in the past because it's what makes us who we are today," he said.

Seven Y-Press members and four adult chaperones traveled to Salvador, Brazil, for 10 days in July and interviewed 110 youths about the hardships they face every day. Many reported discrimination from police, employers and people on the street.

Slavery was abolished in Brazil, but there was never any revolution, civil war or violent rupture of the status quo. Instead, an unofficial set of first- and second-class citizens emerged that continues to the present day. For the Brazilian youths we spoke with, this manifests itself in economic ways -- unemployment, poverty and crime.

Although Afro-Brazilians make up nearly half of Brazil's population of 173 million, they make up 63 percent of the poor and less than 16 percent of graduating university students, according to government figures.

Mariana Bastos, 24, shared her interpretation of these statistics: "Well, I guess it's part of history. We live almost in a system of castes. You can't go up."

Mariana has a unique perspective. She described herself as black, because she has a black grandmother, but her skin tone is lighter. "Here in Brazil I am brown. I'm not black, so I have the same chances as you, but you are white. If there is one white kid and one black, they would prefer you. You understand that?"

From the first mix of Native Americans, African slaves and Portuguese settlers to more recent immigrants from around the world, Brazilians have always had a racially diverse, culturally mixed heritage. Marinete Souza, 20, from Barra do Garcas, described this as what sets Brazil apart from other countries. "The people, there's many races, there's many cultures that could be representative of Brazil," she said.

Most Brazilians take pride in their nation's mixed cultural identity, but many young people said that this does not prevent discrimination and prejudice.

"(My family) is very poor. . . . The white people that have very (much) money, they discriminate (against) the black people. In Salvador, the rich is white and the poor is black," said Luciano Dibeiro, 21, a resident of Favala Calabar, one of the poorest areas of Salvador.

"When black people are walking down the streets, white people are scared to be robbed by them. Always, always it happens," he added. According to the Sao Paulo State Socio-Economic Research Foundation, which monitors labor statistics, an Afro-Brazilian man will earn on average 48 percent less than his white counterpart in the same job.

Dark-skinned youths have seen this problem firsthand. "There's a kind of slavery still going on, the way that work is distributed and the discrimination that happens as a result of that," said Saulo Fernandez, 18. "It disregards equality."

Daniel Strand, 17, is president of Free the Children Brazil, a part of the international Free the Children organization that works to end child labor and exploitation around the world. On the issue of discrimination, he explained, "(In Brazil) the white get the opportunities first. The black become like slaves. It's history. It's a fact."

A perfect example of this is Brazil's school system. When describing schools in Salvador, Daniel said that the biggest difference between public and private schools is how much darker -- and poorer -- the public school students are. The illiteracy rate for Afro-Brazilians is 26 percent; for light-skinned Brazilians, it's 10 percent.

This lack of equality carries over to higher education. Only 2.2 percent of Brazil's 1.6 million college students are black. The government is proposing racial quotas in which universities would have to reserve 20 percent of admission openings for blacks.

Brazil is also proposing quotas in civil service jobs and in television studios. In Brazil's Congress, only 12 of the 513 members of the Chamber of Deputies are black, and only two of the 81 senators are of African ancestry. Similarly, outside of Pele and other sports figures, black Brazilians are almost invisible on television.

Diana Fernandes, 22, emphasized that opportunities for youths are not equal now. "We don't have education for everybody in our country. We don't have a strong police for everybody, and a lot of people don't have anything and so many people in Brazil have so much," she said.

Some Afro-Brazilian youth in Salvador have reported discrimination from police.

"They have lots of discrimination because of color, especially for the black people. They just think we are suspicious and thieves or something. They tell us to lie down on the floor, and they put guns on our heads," said Valdomiro Franco, 17.

Still, many youths have hope for their country and their futures. Said Diana Fernandes "The people from Brazil are friendly and happy. We have problems, but every time (we are) fighting for solutions to get a better place."

Assistant editors: Clay Smith, 14; Emma Hulse , 14; Brian Reissaus, 15; Laurann Brown, 16.

Reporter: Maria Srour, 13.