Day of Black Consciousness:  A Moment to Reflect on Racism in Brazil

This year, Brazil officially celebrated a new national holiday on November 20th called National Black Consciousness Day.  It commemorates the death of Zumbi dos Palmares which happened on this day in the year 1695.  In past years, National Black Consciousness Day has been recognized, but never treated as a national holiday.  Although the federal government declared the day a national holiday, not all cities and states officially recognized it as such.  In some parts of the country, post offices, banks, offices, schools, stores, etc. were open.  Some calendars for 2008 still do not list the day as a national holiday.  Brazil has been called a "paradise for racial unity", and certainly commemorating a black leader is a step forward for the black movement. Yet when some are still not willing to honor this day by closing government offices and businesses, one can ask the question, how is Brazil really doing on the race card?  This article will take a look at racism in the areas of school, the work place and religion.

First, a word about Zumbi of Palmares.  He is said to have been born in the year 1655 in the quilombo (quilombos are communities of runaway slaves and their descendants) Palmares in the Northeast of the country.  He was a descendant of Angolan warriors.  Shortly after he was born, a Portuguese slave trader captured him and delivered him to a priest named Antonio Melo, who baptized him and gave him the name Francisco.  When he was fifteen years old, he escaped and went back to Palmares where he adopted the name Zumbi.  He was a natural leader, and at a relatively young age took over as military commander of the quilombo.  As stories of the young man's leadership began to spread, the colonial power began to be nervous about this community.  Besides this, Palmares itself was becoming a symbol of resistance to the colony's economic center, which was sugar cane production.  In Palmares, the people grew beans, cassava, potatoes and fruits.  The community was beginning to develop a whole economic network with other quilombos in the area.  Further, the people protected their areas with traps, making access difficult for the Portuguese.  In the year 1678, Zumbi broke an accord with the colonial authorities and lead a revolution against the Portuguese.  The revolt went on for 14 years.  Finally, on November 20th, 1695, the Portuguese captured Zumbi and put him to death, and managed to dissemble the Palmares network.    But the memory of Zumbi continued, and he is still remembered today as one who struggled for social justice, dignity,and human rights.

This story lived on in the collective memory of blacks in Brazil, but no thanks to the schooling system.  Zumbi and other stories like his simply were not taught in the schools.  Some progress has been made in this area with the passage of Law 10,639 in 2003, making the teaching of black history obligatory in public schools.  But Camila Ferreira, 16, from São Paulo, can't remember the last time her class talked about the history of black people in Brazil.  "We only talk about it one or two times a year", commented Ferreira.  Another student, Isabel da Silva complained, "And when we are discussed, we always appear as slaves and downtrodden people, taking away that part of our history which is full of great accomplishments."

Kabenguele Munanga, on of the few black professors at the University of São Paulo questioned along these same lines:"  Have you ever seen a book which states that Africa is the birth place of civilization, or that the Egyptian civilization was black?  Africa is simply dismissed as a continent of tribes."  Andreia Lisboa of the Ministry of Education stated, "Blacks are presented as slaves.  The books only discuss the period of slavery, not showing how black history was before and after colonization."  Rare are the stories about black movements that struggled for citizenship, or for their right to practice African and Afro-Brazilian religions.  This has a negative impact on the self-esteem of black students who are not able to see black figures as role models in the books they read.

The main problem with the books the Ministry of Education currently approves of for use in the classroom is that the books are written by authors who really do not know and understand black culture.  "The absence of black authors influences the content of the books.  The authors are always white men writing about black history," said Lisboa.  But the problem is not only with the books, but the teachers who ask the students to read them.  Few are prepared to give presentations and lead discussions on black history. Fortunately, the Ministry of Education is trying to help remedy this situation by offering a free course on African and Afro-Brazilian culture to educators.  Over 25,000 teachers have already taken the course.

It is not only in the schools where blacks encounter difficulties, but in the work place as well.  According to the latest statistics from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the percentage of people of color who have some sort of "profession" is less than half, at 42%.  "The actions of the black movement have helped changed the disparity in the work place, but the Brazilian society is racist," commented Maria Aparacida da Silva Bento, researcher for Center for Studies of Work Relations and Inequality, a non-government organization which promotes conscientization on the part of business owners in including blacks in the work place.  "It is amazing how procedures set up racism.  This is what we call institutional racism.  It is pervasive in all of the rules, even those that were not specifically made to discriminate."  The problem points to another:  how much access to jobs in linked to education.  Black people have less access to schools.  Observe the follow statistics.  percentage of those who have no or have only up to three years of schooling:  blacks, 18.1%, whites, 10.4%.  Percentage of those with only 4 to 10 years of study:  blacks, 56.8%, whites, 46.6%.  Percentage of those with 11 or more years of study:  blacks, 24.9%, whites, 42.9%.  Yet, for Da Silva Bento, the problem also extends beyond education.  There is a whole system of cultural bias in the work place.  "It is like what happens with a woman.  You take a business which is very machista, and begin to bring women into the business.  Naturally they will choose women who are more masculine, more impersonal....she is a man in a dress because that is what the business has come to expect.  It is the same thing with blacks.  They have to be as less black as possible, they have to have white 'characteristics' in order to be in line with the image of the company.  They want a black person as less black as possible."

Even in the area of religion, blacks do not escape discrimination.  Ricardo Nery, 18, has been practicing his family's African-descent religion (Candomble) since he was two years old, in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro.  There are two things that he and other children and adolescents who practice have in common.  The first is the pride they have in participating in a religion practiced by their African ancestors.  The second, paradoxically, is that in order to not be discriminated at school, they say that they are Catholic.  Ricardo has already been called "Son of the Devil" by a teacher when it was discovered that Ricardo practices Candomble.  Joyce de Santo, 13, commented, "I am proud of my religion, but in school I lie about it so I won't be discriminated by classmates and teachers.  Sometimes in the street people point at me and say, "Black magic is from the Devil."  Racism in society has many faces, and worse, it simply becomes accepted as natural.  The problem of religious discrimination is old, but made even worse in Rio in the year 2000 when the city adopted a law that religion must be taught in public schools.  In January of 2004, 500 teachers were hired for the task, but not one personally practiced an African religion.  The Coordination of Religious Studies of Rio says that the goal is that Catholic teachers will teach Catholic students, and Evangelical teachers will teach Evangelical students.  Those who practice other religions are left behind.  The state of Rio is challenging the federal constitution which determines that the State is non-religious, separate from churches.  Besides this, it is sabotaging the efforts of educators who want multi-cultural education in their classrooms,who want to celebrate and respect the diversity of Brazil.

Brazil has every reason to celebrate National Black Consciousness Day.  The country is imbued with Africa culture--its music, dance, language, holidays, etc.  Blacks have made significant contributions to the building of this nation.  Now is the time for all to equally reap the benefits.

Source:  Revista Viração, Number 31, Year 4.  www.revistaviracao.com.br