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So from what I can understand...
Comparisons between the Brazil and USA are valid in many regards. Comparable areas and populations, ended slavery latter in the 1800's, large surges of European immigrants around 1900, and so on.
Looking at it with lackluster knowledge of Brazil, I think that one benefit Brazil might have is the concept of a "Multiracial" group. In the USA, we've rarely ever acknowkledged one of these existing, outside of some recent censuses. Back in the day, somebody with mixed heritage in the USA was either treated as one race or the other, usually black or white, on a legal and social level. In Brazil, it seems the mixed race concept predated independence, and included aboriginal populations as well. Point being, there is a long social and legal history of races meeting, mixing, and so on. And it has historically been about as prominent as "White" Brazilians. In the USA, the binary continued until 1990, when the census first acknowledged that people with multiple races exist.
Thinking about it, even some things that improved quality of lives in the USA might have helped. Education of blacks in the USA from around 1870 into the 1950's was based around creating schools separate from those that taught white students. The black community largely supported this because they did not trust white teachers. And ultimately, these schools did a decent job at providing necessary education. But they closed no divides.
