Racial inclusion: hype or mission?

In Brazil, November 20 is “Black Awareness Day”, the date on which the death of one of the greatest leaders of the Brazilian black movement at the time of enslavement occurred: Zumbi dos Palmares.

The date usually brings a resistance from those who do not understand the background of the day, and the argument that “I do not consider myself racist so there is no need for a day dedicated to black conscience” . To delegitimize the date, others still say that "white people suffer equally as black people".

On the psychic aspect, the American clinical researcher Dr. Joy Angela DeGruy studied the “Post-traumatic syndrome of enslaved people”. According to the author, the period of slavery caused emotional and psychic effects in black people who reach the present day, since after abolition no one was subjected to a therapeutic process of restoration to treat the traumas resulting from the oppressive system. Still, these same traumatized post-slavery people had to create the next generations. She exemplifies as some of the symptoms of this syndrome the state of constant vigilance; the short-lived feeling; the exaggerated answer to problems and difficulty sleeping.

Besides, there would be no possibility of the theory supported by white people: “reverse racism”, since racism is a structural system that generates deep holes in education, economic conditions and health for black people. On the other hand, white people continue to be the majority in spaces of power. In other words, even if it was admitted that black people hate white people, structurally there is no equivalence with racism, as explained by the Brazilian intellectual Silvio de Almeida when conceptualizing racism as a "mechanism of power."

Another pretext for those who criticize the 20th of November is that slavery happened a long time ago, but the argument also falls apart, since the abolition of slavery happened in 1888 and was in force for almost 400 years in Brazil. In other words, Brazil has more time as a slave than the abolition. It means to say that many great-grandparents of people who are still alive today were enslaved people.

In terms of legislation, Brazil has internationally signed a series of treaties and conventions on the subject, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation, the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, the Declaration on race and racial prejudice, the Declaration and Program of Action adopted at the III World Conference to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, among others.

Nationally, we have the Federal Brazilian Constitution, the Law against racism n. 7,716, the Criminal Code and the Racial Equality Statute, also the racial affirmative actions law in public sector n. Law 12,990 of 2014 and the affirmative actions in Higher Education, Law n. 12,711 of 2012.

However, in the Justice System, topics that impact black people come slowly, especially when we considering the criminal, labor and civil areas. Although racism is very serious and deserves more severe punishment under Brazilian law, it is common for the crime to be disqualified and framed in the crime of racial offense, a crime of a less severe punished.

In companies, institutional racism that occurs in the workplace is very difficult to prove because the employers do not leave many clues when they practices racial discrimination. Even when there is evidence of the racial discrimination, when the lawsuit is filed in the labor or civil court it is common judges not to recognize moral harassment by fixing the moral damage. At this point, just to illustrate, it is important to note that the Brazilian judiciary is made up of 84.3% of self-declared white judges, according to the Conselho Nacional de Justiça - National Council of Justice.

I remember the speech of Brazilian actress and poet Elisa Lucinda in the series Diálogos Ausentes: “If you have territoriality, you have apartheid. There is nowhere to find black and where to find white, there is apartheid. Whether I can to find blacks and wheter I can to find whites, there is apartheid. We pretend that we don't see it, but it's because we don't see it at all. There is a social blindness. ” (sic)

To overcome racism, it is essential to think about policies of historical reparation that involve the education and maintenance of black in School who is suffering the lack of economics, food, health, security and basic sanitation. Wealso have to ensure that black graduates are absorbed into the market. Finally, guaranteeing black people economic growth, such as salary equalization, career plans including leadership positions and facilitating access to credit for black entrepreneurs.

It is necessary for the racial equality agenda to be a Brazilian State project accepting that we are diverse, rich and poweful.