Opinion – Cida Bento: Two facets of the meritocratic system

The “meritocratic system”, which is often the main justification of institutions to explain the absence of black people in leadership positions, is built slowly throughout the country’s history and begins long before the period of insertion in the labor market.

One of the many characteristics of the Brazilian “meritocratic system” is to ensure the best social places for those who follow the European, white standard. Even in cities where the majority of the population is black, this standard is required.

This is what can be observed in the case of the teenager RMS, 13 years old, a student at Colégio Municipal Dr. João Paim, in São Sebastião do Passé (BA), who was sent home, without prior notice to her parents, because her hair was considered “bloated” and inappropriate for her to attend classes.

Asked by Jaciara, the teenager’s mother, the school official suggested that the girl straighten her hair, showing a photo of a white girl with straight hair, as an appropriate pattern for attending classes.

Jaciara says that her daughter came home crying a lot and saying that she no longer wanted to study at school and, in the moment of anger, she even cursed her own hair. The teenager’s reaction shows what thousands of black children, teenagers and young people experience in inhospitable schools that cause them discomfort, impacting their affective-emotional skills, fundamental elements to ensure learning.

And the teenager’s desire not to go back to school also reveals one of the facets of school dropout, which affects the black population much more than the white population.

This situation also shows a school that creates more welcoming environments for a student profile to the detriment of others, which will also materialize, in the future, in employing organizations.
CEN (Coletivo de Entidades Negras) monitors the student’s case, seeking to ensure her rights, and that the authors of racist acts are punished.

The collective signals discrimination against signs and symbols of Afro-Brazilian culture, which needs to be debated, as advocated by the LDB, amended by law 10.639/03. In other words, public power is essential to ensure a more equitable school, but what is unfortunately observed is exactly the opposite.

The School Census, the main instrument for collecting information on basic education and the basis for building public policies, as it guides the division of resources between states and municipalities and the implementation of programs under the responsibility of the Federal Government, has been undergoing silent changes.

The database on gender, color and race of teachers and students were changed and only appear in large blocks, preventing the expansion of studies and the deepening of knowledge about the impact of attitudes of schools such as the one mentioned above, on learning and truancy.

When comparing the microdata bases of the 2020 School Census with that of the year 2021, a number of variables are no longer available.

It is no longer possible to access the Census microdata from 1995 to 2020, only the 2021 one and, unlike in previous editions, the microdata bring a single data file, which does not include the profile of teachers and managers (gender, race/color and formation).

In short, inequalities are not fought by hiding information about them, but by complying with the law and implementing policies that qualify teaching and make the school welcoming to all children.