The Racial Issue in Brazil
By: Fundação Fhc
Tags: Brazil, Racial Justice, Racial Equity, Politics, English Version

The greatest challenge in the fight against racism in Brazil is ensuring that the legal tools built into the judicial system since the re-democratization take root in Brazilian society, both in public and private institutions, and that there are no setbacks. Translating the law into concrete actions is crucial in public safety and security, given the often-discriminatory treatment the police give to the poorest populations, most of whom are pardo (a Brazilian census category that refers to the admixed population) and black. It is also essential that a more significant number of black men and women — still flagrantly underrepresented — occupy positions of power in the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary Branches (at all three levels of government) for the anti-racism cause to advance.

These were the primary conclusions of this webinar. The objective was to discuss how and why the racial issue gained prominence in Brazil’s political agenda and the role the black movement has played in this process. Two young and talented black social scientists who compile significant research and experience in this area were the guest speakers: professors Flavia Rios (Universidade Federal Fluminense) and Luiz Augusto Campos (Rio de Janeiro State University).

The event not only included discussions about the anti-racism movement in Brazil during the wave of protests awoken from when a white Cincinnati policeman murdered an African-American, George Floyd, on May 25, 2020 but also intended to publicize the Linhas do Tempo (Timelines) Project 1985–2018, recently launched by the FHC Foundation, which highlights the “Racial Issue”, among other topics that signified the construction of citizenship in that period.

“Brazilian anti-racism has a long tradition dating back to before the abolition of slavery, but it has been mainly since the 1950s that activists, intellectuals, and artists became more organized and consistent in deconstructing the myth that our country is a racial democracy,” said Flavia, who coordinates the Social Science program at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) and the Grupo de Estudos Guerreiro Ramos (NEGRA).

Studies on race relations and prejudice in Brazil

Rios specifically cited academic studies on race relations and racial prejudice in Brazil conducted by French sociologist Roger Bastide (1898–1974), after his arrival in Brazil in 1938 to teach sociology at the newly created University of São Paulo (USP) and, in later decades, by Brazilians Luiz Aguiar Costa Pinto (1920–2002), Florestan Fernandes (1920–1995), Octavio Ianni (1926–2004), and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (born 1931).

“The imperative work of these and other researchers and the institutions where they worked had consequences at Brazil’s Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), which started to generate data more systematically on inequalities in Brazil, thus building a basis for future public policies to fight racism based on the growing pressure exerted by groups linked to the black movement, with the support of activists from other causes, including workers and feminists,” she said.

The fight for democracy drives the anti-racism movement

If the racial issue had already gained prominence in the academic world, from a critical perspective, it only won the political arena after the re-democratization of the country. The black movement was organized at the end of the 1970s. The movement established relations with political parties that opposed the military regime and took part in councils to defend the rights of the black population, which were created by elected governors from the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) and the Democratic Labor (PDT) Parties in 1982. The movement sought to incorporate their demands into the 1988 Constitution, managing to make racism a crime (under the Afonso Arinos Act of 1951, it was considered a misdemeanor).

Although the Sarney administration created the Palmares Cultural Foundation in 1988, in honor of the quilombola leader Zumbi dos Palmares (1655–1695), Rios believes it was during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration that “we began to see more interaction between the Brazilian government and the black movement, with Zumbi dos Palmares becoming recognized as a national hero, the progressive titling of quilombola lands, and the onset of debates on affirmative action policies.”

According to the researcher, public policies that favored racial equality made ground in the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration (2003–2010), who created a Department linked to the presidency for this purpose, with ministry status, and promoted the approval of the Racial Equality Statute in Congress in 2010. At the same time, an increasing number of federal universities began to adopt racial quotas for new student admissions, which was ruled as constitutional by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court in 2012. That same year, then-President Dilma Rousseff (2011–2016) signed the Higher Education Quotas Bill into law.

“I’m tracing back the history to refute the idea that the Brazilian population is passive in relation to racism. There is still much to be done, but it is fundamental to reject unsupported or even false information and to know the true political history of anti-racism in Brazil,” concluded the professor in her opening speech.

“The anti-racism movement is a complex and extensive network. Research from universities, public and private institutions, and NGOs has been instrumental in the production of studies, circulation of data, and political pressure,” agreed Luiz Augusto Campos. “But the Brazilian government only began to take responsibility for proposing anti-racist structural policies in the last 40 years. During the FHC, Lula, and Dilma administrations, these were progressive policies. It is important that the younger generations know this,” said the coordinator of the Estudos Multidisciplinares da Ação Afirmativa (GEMAA).

‘Brazilian politics are still mostly white’

Despite the advances, Brazilian politics are still mostly white. It will only be possible to talk about anti-racist policies in a more sustained way when politicians and public managers have more diverse profiles than now, said the author of “Ação Afirmativa: história, conceito e debates (Affirmative Action: history, concept, and debates)” (EdUERJ, 2018). “Why are there few black politicians in Brazil? The problem is not the lack of black and pardo candidates. They exist, but they hardly manage to get elected. The bottleneck is mainly in financing the campaigns of these black candidates,” he said.

“There is a myriad of possibilities for public policies to encourage more black participation in politics, but they have to be pragmatic. The Party Executives define how the resources of the Party Electoral Fund for each group are used. Hence the importance of having more democratic and diverse party leadership,” said the sociologist.

The researcher also highlighted the importance of racial quotas in public tenders, instituted in law since 2014 for the Federal Public Administration, mainly for the federal bench: “The Brazilian government mainly serves the poor and black communities, but it is run by white managers and politicians. That needs to change.” According to Campos, race in Brazil is not a topic among others, but a cross-cutting issue. “The racial dimension is expressed in all the leading problems Brazil has not yet overcome, including social inequality, violence, and access to education, health, and housing,” he concluded.

Black feminism

According to Flavia Rios, the Brazilian black movement is experiencing a period of women-led renewal. “It is the black women from the impoverished areas who are taking the front line in this fight. And this is great news,” she concluded.

Otávio Dias is a journalist specializing in politics and international affairs. A former correspondent for Folha in London and editor of the estadao.com.br website, he is currently the content editor at Fundação FHC.

Portuguese to English translation by Melissa Harkin & Todd Harkin (Harkin Translations)