Opinion – Michael França: A new look at racial bias

We’re moving forward. There is currently a more open discussion in Brazil about the challenges linked to the racial agenda. Some discriminatory practices have dissolved over the years. There was a process of valorization of black identity and several anti-racist initiatives have been discussed by civil society and public managers.

Despite this, racism, along with social discrimination, covertly or not, still finds space in our institutions. There is a generalization of small prejudices, often subtle, but just as harmful as the overt ones.

Part of the population is unaware that racial bias is not just the manifestation of prejudice in a visible way. The overrepresentation of blacks in degrading positions tends to affect the collective imagination, creating unconscious biases that influence the way we are seen and treated in social interactions.

Although several explicit forms of racial bias have been dismantled over time, only the inclusion of blacks in all social spaces can mitigate those that are implicit. Prejudice towards the other usually arises from the lack of coexistence. So we have a big challenge: deep racial inequality remains persistent and segregates the country.

As a society, we will need more effort to ensure better opportunities not only for blacks, but also for disadvantaged “whites”. The quotes here were not used by accident.

If we look carefully at the family tree at the top and bottom of the Brazilian social pyramid, we will notice an interesting pattern. Many of those who declare themselves white among the poorest have had a process of miscegenation in their lineage in the past. At the top of the pyramid, such an event tends to be more unlikely. Throughout history, high-income whites intermarried and passed on a number of advantages to their descendants.

In this context, the material gap between whites and blacks can only be overcome through more effective public policies. However, there are many distractions that prevent us from facing with greater serenity the profound reasons for Brazilian social immobility.

The educational level in the peripheries, for example, was already low before Covid-19. But mismanagement during the pandemic ended decades of progress. There is a chronic problem in our education system and in the training of the most disadvantaged that restricts the country’s advancement.

Spatial segregation in housing and education represents another driving force of inequality. Subsidies for rent and for admission to private elementary and high schools represent possibilities for interventions that could be considered in the near future.

In summary, the challenge we face as a society is to develop responses that cause the greatest social benefit at the lowest cost. To think about these questions, at the end of 2020 we created the Insper Racial Studies Center. In their short period of work, researchers from the Nucleus have made relevant contributions to the Brazilian public debate.

Last year, we developed the Racial Balance Sheet Index and the Racial Equity ESG Index. We recently launched two studies that analyzed the racial imbalance in Brazilian politics and that contributed to breathing new life into the debate on the subject.

Next Friday, November 18th, there will be the first event of the Núcleo. Thus, I invite all readers not only to participate in person or remotely, but also to go, after the event, to a get-together that we will have around 6:30 pm at Shaw – Bar and Shawarma. Interestingly, the assembly of the party playlist was up to me.

The text is a tribute to the song “Palco”, by Gilberto Gil.