Note from BW of Brazil: Reading the comments that are posted to articles as well as one the social media pages, people often wonder how there can be so many black people in Brazil but yet Afro-Brazilians, even with noteworthy advances in recent years, continue to be on the bottom of the socio-economic structure of society. It’s not that hard to understand. When a community doesn’t have a say in the halls of political power, its members don’t own top 500 corporations and said community is not organized to use its spending power in ways that benefit the community, said community will continue to be exploited by other communities. In a recent post, we presented a network in Rio that seeks to increase the participation of black women in politics and we’ve also seen talk of the concept of “black money” in some circles. These are discussions that need to happen and need to be followed up with concrete actions. Even though this is an exciting conversation,I will continue to say, there is another factor that most Afro-Brazilians just don’t want to deal with that will undermine every effort to move forward. Hint: Before there are black politics and black money, there must be black family or all of this is a waste of time!
Representatives of blacks in politics need to increase, defend debaters
There is a lack of representation of blacks in Brazilian politics. The finding was a consensus among participants in the public hearing promoted by the Commission on Human Rights and Participatory Legislation (HRC) on Thursday on the black protagonism in the four spheres of power.
For the author of the meeting’s request, senator Paulo Paim (PT-RS), there is predominance of whites in Brazilian politics and this reflects negatively in affirmative action in favor of black protagonism.
“We want to know how the participation of the black community in the party fund will be. Poverty has color. The black usually has no financial structure to run and get elected,” he argued.
The president of the Núcleo de Pesquisas Clóvis Moura da Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo (Clóvis Moura Research Center of the Foundation School of Sociology and Politics of São Paulo), Tadeu Kaçula, cited data to demonstrate the lack of black representation in the spheres of power in the country.
“Of the 513 federal deputies, 24 are black. Of the 81 senators, three are black. Of the 5,570 mayors, 1,604 are black. Of the 57,838 councilors, 24,282, are black. Of the governors of the states and DF (Federal District), none are black. Of the STF ministers (Supreme Courts Justices), none are black. We can no longer cease from discussing and participating, especially in view of the political scenario in which we are experiencing,” he said.
Agendas
The representative of PSOL-DF Keka Bagno recalled the murder of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman Marielle Franco and said it represents an attempt to prevent the rise of black protagonism.
“We need to have a table with black people to talk about other agendas not being about black people. We can discuss other matters. When a black woman picks up the microphone, there is an attempt to infantilize her speech. How can a political party be able to assure us of our full dignity of political doing? How do we make it so that we don’t stay at home?”, He asked.
For the debaters, it is even more important to discuss public policies aimed at the black community in this election year. For Educafro’s human rights activist, Cesar Augusto dos Santos, it must be shown that the black population corresponds to 54% of Brazilians.
“If we want to be included in Brazilian society, we need to be at the forefront of a national project to talk about sustainability, tax reform and international relations,” he opined.
Affirmative actions
The Labor Attorney Valdirene Silva de Assis coordinates Coordigualdade, a coordination of the Public Ministry of Labor responsible for the promotion of equal opportunities and the fight against all forms of discrimination. She considers this theme important to the whole population and not just to those who are black.
“Femicide against black women increased 64%, while against white women it decreased by 10%. Blacks are not representative at the job posts in the labor market, and black women suffer more harassment than white women,” she said.
As a way of reversing this scenario, Valdirene de Assis recommends that Brazil be active in affirmative action policies, as the United States has done in the last decades.
“There, people are in the labor market, universities, press agencies and social awareness programs. These actions were instrumental in building the black American middle class and took more blacks to universities,” he said.
Source: Brasilidade Negra
Yes, we need more representation of Afro- Brazilians all around in courts, law enforcement etc. the more the better for the majority of people to have a fair chance.