Panel SA: We still have difficulty understanding racism in Brazil, says Business Initiative for Racial Equality

The death of Genivaldo Santos, asphyxiated in a car in Sergipe, had repercussions abroad with analogies to George Floyd murdered in Minnesota in 2020. At the time, amid street protests, a series of company presidents wrote public letters to support the movement. against racism and police violence.

Here, however, the demonstrations should not be repeated, according to the expectations of Raphael Vicente, director of the Business Initiative for Racial Equality, which brings together large companies around the topic.

“I find it difficult for any movement in Brazil to be close to what happened in the George Floyd case”, he says.

The murder in the Federal Highway Police vehicle in Sergipe this week was compared abroad to George Floyd. In that case, a series of company presidents, from big techs to Wall Street banks, released positions against racism and police violence. Does this new case in Brazil have the potential to generate this wave of corporate protests?I find it very difficult for any movement in Brazil to be close to what happened in the George Floyd case. We still have a lot of difficulty in understanding, even because of our history, what racism is and how it works in the social fabric.

Just listen to the arguments of those who defend the attitude of the police. It’s the old story: they attribute it to a social, economic, violence, security problem, but not to a racial problem. When this is not understood, it becomes difficult.

If the George Floyd case had happened in Brazil, there would not have been that repercussion. As it doesn’t have with so many similar cases. The closest one was João Alberto’s, at Carrefour. Child killed inside the house by police action does not generate that commotion.

Why is it so important to have an anti-racist movement from the corporate world?Because it is necessary to have decision making, to have positioning. The public power has an obligation to mobilize. The private initiative has the responsibility, but not the legal obligation, to manifest itself. But when they express themselves with such vehemence, it is because there was an understanding that there is a social problem and that it affects even business.

So everyone has to move to produce solutions. When this is understood as a matter of business, of image, of sustainability, when it is understood that these social distortions cause distortions in the business in the medium and long term, then comes the manifestation.

The murder of João Alberto, beaten by security guards in the Carrefour parking lot, took place in a private environment. Does this make a difference in business engagement?Happening in the private environment is not something new either. What changed was precisely this understanding. The point is that our society as a whole, media outlets, an important part of intellectuals, is beginning to understand the racial issue.

In the case of João Alberto, it was very symbolic because it was on the eve of Black Consciousness Day. The images are strong, bizarre, inhuman. Regardless of whether you understand racism, it provokes outrage. It contributes.

I think that many companies understood the potential for losses, of life, of image, of resources and they moved from that. Soon after, there were demonstrations by companies that supplied Carrefour condemning the action, demanding measures. You have to understand that, in the end, companies, governments, society, individuals are all in the same boat. See the result: customer killed, employees fired, arrested, sued, damage to the company. It could have been avoided.

How is the Business Initiative for Racial Equality?It is a movement that brings together companies for the promotion of ethnic-racial diversity in the labor market. We work with big companies. They give signals, they give a sense of what the big companies are doing, that is, they give references. And they have a big value chain, that is, if it’s important to the company, it needs to be important to your value chain.

The effort with organizations that are committed to diversity is to understand this scenario. To bring purposeful actions, we need to sit at the table with everyone, public authorities, large and medium-sized companies, schools, to build paths and be able to overcome racism, because it was built. He is not natural. So it can be deconstructed.

And the debate on the revision of the Quota Law this year? How are companies positioning themselves and what is their role in this issue?We talked a lot with companies over the past year about this understanding. They can and should take a stand, demand, activate representations, mainly because many of them are based precisely on that for the recruitment of black candidates. It’s part of the legal basis. The system revolves around that.

This is a discussion that was very emblematic in the business world, but we managed to make some progress, even with speed in that sense. But in general, the company first needs to understand what it is, which is not just for black people, it is also for indigenous people and public schools.

There’s no way. On this topic, you have to position yourself. Speech alone will not solve it. Now it’s positioning.

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Raphael Vicente, 36, is the general director of the Business Initiative for Racial Equality. Partner at Vicente Consultoria, he is a university professor, master and doctoral student at PUC-SP