Global Affirmative Action Praxis Project (GAAPP)

We met with the CEO and other members of a São Paulo group focused on law and racial relations today, CEERT, http://www.ceert.org.br/.  They deploy legal initiatives in a variety of areas, including, labor and employment, unreasonable use of police force, and education. This group is incredibly active in pursuing real strategies for change in Brazil. Their discussion about some recent research they performed on hiring practices in the banking industry across Brazil was quite breathtaking. They conducted a census consisting of 400,000 bank employees. They looked to see how the stated qualifications of bank positions tracked the hiring practices.  Their study revealed that Brazilian banks across states consistently hired white men and women who had not met the stated educational level requirement.  Conversely, they consistently did not hire black men and women with the requisite education level.  So, for example, in one state, 35% of the black men studied had the requisite education level required, but the banks only hired about 19% of these qualified applicants.  The striking study resulted in the denouncement of these practices by the Public Ministry of Law and banks were required to create Action Plans to remedy this discrimination.

 

Presence of White Men (Bars represent required education level and line graph represents educational level actually hired. X axis presents information by state)

Presence of Black Men

Presence of White Women

Presence of Black Women

Throughout our time here, we have asked whether and how people identify who is black since the country has such a long history of concerted miscegenation and racial democracy is still a strong philosophy among Brazilians. The response over and over again has been a laugh and, “Just ask the police. They know.” Well, apparently the banks know too.  It’s quite romantic to imagine that Brazilians don’t see race.  However, the more I learn about institutionalized practices and the more stares I receive when ambling the upscale neighborhood of Jardins, the more the toxicity of the romance becomes revealed. In the United States, blackness is marked and self-identified in the United States in more definite terms. The question of who is black is not so negotiable as it is here in Brazil.  Nevertheless, in both places, whiteness occupies a space of dominance and blackness occupies a space of disempowerment.  In addition, notions of white supremacy have permeated not only the minds of whites, but blacks alike in both countries. In Brazil, because blackness is negotiable (through self-declaration or changing one’s hair or gaining economic status) for those who might be called prado, we see the effects of an incentive structure which privileges whiteness. It makes sense that many Afro-descendants choose to identify as white if blackness is perceived as inferior, unattractive, uneducated, poor, and all things negative. Just like in the United States, racial hierarchy is arranged with whiteness on top and blackness on the bottom.  The racial allegiances made in Brazil serve to highlight that people very much recognize and perform against this hierarchical structure.