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This week one of Brazil's chief partners in the fight against racial inequalities urged the country to diversify the affirmative action models used in government policies.
Carlos Lopes, coordinator of the UN system and representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Brazil, believes that Brazilians continue to confine themselves to copying American models in projects for racial inclusion.
"The Brazilian government has adopted a series of measures that demonstrate an interest in the promotion of racial equality. But it needs to act more comprehensively, on the basis of the experience of such countries as South Africa, Malaysia, and India," he suggests.
Lopes is one of the speakers at today's international seminar, "Promoting Racial Equality: A Dialogue on Policies," in Brasília.
"The word 'quota' itself is very controversial, as is the concept. The focus should be broader. It is necessary to search for asymmetrical policies that favor historically disadvantaged groups," he added.
In the United States, setting aside places for black workers in companies or black students in universities is a legal requirement imposed by the government.
The more comprehensive asymmetrical policies to which Lopes refers even include official financing. In South Africa, for example, the government gives fiscal incentives and credit to companies that promote the inclusion and retention of blacks in the labor market.
New affirmative action models are the object of intensive evaluation in the UN this year, designated as the year of promoting racial equality.
Parallel to the debates, the UN is developing projects in countries such as Brazil, where, in conjunction with the British Development Department and the Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Seppir), the UNDP is sponsoring a campaign against institutional racism, providing guidance to businessmen, administrators, and workers.
Another area in which this partnership functions is in the preparation of studies on the theme.
In 2004, with support from the UNDP, the Federal University of Minas Gerais did a racial breakdown of data compiled from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the National Residential Sample Survey (Pnad).
The studies show that blacks (blacks and mulattoes) constituted 39.5% of the Brazilian population in 1976 and 57.6% of the poorest segment. A generation (25 years) later, the situation hadn't changed: in 2001, blacks formed 46.1% of the population and 69.6% of the poorest segment.
Agência Brasil
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I am an American residing in Brazil. I have extensive experience living and working in South Africa also. I mention this because I have grown up during the enlightenment that the strife for racial equality has brought upon the USA. I have also seen the effects of the same in South Africa.
Please note, Brazil indeed has some inequalities that should probably be addressed and while the bleeding heart liberals may take you to task and put a racial label on it, I have first hand experience in Brasil that tells me that the racial inequality cannot be compared to the USA or to South Africa. We in the USA and also South Africa are the last ones that you should copy. We have not succeeded in attaining racial equality in the USA, we have, however, succeeded in shutting down the dialogue and keeping the races apart by imposing a guilt trip on anyone who would disagree with the federal standard. Both the USA and South Africa have followed the same pattern of forced quotas and they are a dismal failure in both cases.
Racism in Brasil does exist, but the degree of racism is indeed more of an economic issue. Take the correct road for YOU Brasil not the one that we have taken. Yours is a racially unique situation and you do not have the huge racial/cultural gap that the USA has. Don't let the bleeding hearts prompt you into following a path that will destroy one of the things that makes Brazil special and that is the ability to incorporate Blacks, oriental and even Americans and teach us that we can all learn one language, marry one another and make beautiful children and still be black, oriental and Americans.
I truthfully do not know how Brasil got ahead of the rest of us in respect to racial issues, but face it, you are ahead of us. Don't copy us, teach us. I will help in any way that I can.
If anybody cannot see the truth of what I am saying, they cannot see anything. I live in Brazil with rich and poor, I have inlaws that farm, labor in factories, go to school, struggle to make ends meet and other inlaws and friends and colleagues that are better off or even rich. You have taught me how to bridge gaps that have helped me to be a better American and also to be a better guest in your country.
Make your own course. The rest of us have had our best chance and we have not done so well.