Reverse Racism: Dissimulation of Discourse

In the Brazilian reality, ironically, racial policies actions have always been in favor of whiteness and I will explain why. Brazil ensured that blacks did not enter school (1824 Constitution); did not have access to land (Land Law 1850, n 601) and that, even after the "legal abolition" the distribution of land was addressed to European immigrants (Legal Decree 528 of 1890). In other words, the colonizing Europeans were also historically the quota holders and favored by national law.

The promotion of affirmative policies or positive discrimination is based on the Legal Principles of Equality and Isonomy, which are even admitted in the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988, so that this practice aims to bring a historical balance that promotes redress for minorized groups. Therefore, it is not surprising that actions like that of Magazine Luiza - a Brazilian company that recently promoted affirmative actions for the position of trainee - cause such discomfort because it subverts the logic of subordination of black people.

To admit that there is reverse racism, it would also be necessary to admit that political, legal and economic hegemony is dominated by black people and they are the biggest owners of properties or they are majority in power and in the lawmakers, what is not true.

Data from the “Instituto Ethos” show us that in the 500 largest companies based in Brazil, the number of black people in senior management positions does not reach 05%. These numbers are equally discouraging when we analyze the reality of the judiciary using data from the Brazilian National Council of Justice, which points out that only 15% of judges declared themselves as black. In advocacy, the number drops to 01%, according to a CEERT survey in the 09 largest Brazilian law firms. In the Brazilian National Congress, only 17% of parliamentarians are black.

The decision-making role of these social actors is fundamental in the management of public and private life, be it in the access and distribution of income, in the educational, social and economic development of citizens. However, the meritocracy argument can be a trap, as it disregards the historical debt that Brazil has with the Black population and Indigenous Peoples.

As the Portuguese Psychoanalyst Grada Kilomba would say in her book "Memórias da Plantação" there is "a colonial glorification" and ironically Brazilian historian Luiz Antonio Simas adds, "Brazil worked". This glorification of the colonial project kept the Whiteness Narcissistic Pact intact, which is a phenomenon named by Cida Bento in her PhD at University of São Paulo (USP) to explain the economic, social and political connection between whiteness.

According to Grada Kilomba, historian Paul Gilroy will describe five mechanisms for defending the ego of whiteness: denial, guilt, shame, recognition and reparation. From the point of view of "collective conscience", Brazil remains in the stage of denial, admitting that there are racist actions and attitudes, but not admitting the layers of systematic racism as a nation-state. This Brazilian blindness is deliberate, since whiteness never recognized the “Post-slavery traumatic syndrome”, described by psychologist P.hd Joy DeGruy in her book of the same title.

After the pseudo-scientific racism of the Brazilian doctors Raimundo Nina Rodrigues and Renato Kehl, instead of joining the team of the guilty colonizers, Brazil preferred to exalt the literature of Monteiro Lobato and Gilberto Freyre, who reiterated stereotypes about black people, placing them in slave quarters, kitchens and in the condition of servants and subordinates, which later gains a new guise with the tenements, slums, chains and in the condition of “street dwellers” or homeless, as if the street was naturally a place to live.

Public policy management was the main financier of the Narcissistic Pact of Branquitude so that it could continue to be renewed generation after generation. Thus, it is not surprising that hate speech is given in relation to affirmative action laws, which has considerably increased the number of blacks in Brazilian public universities (50.3% according to the 2018 national census) and in public tenders . It is also not surprising that affirmative actions by the private sector in the exclusive hiring of black people for leadership and executive positions are considered “reverse racism”. Initiatives like these cause a crack in the whiteness pact, despite the social gap between whites and blacks in Brazil, and the first group continues to be a majority in the ownership of properties and high-level positions.

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