The doctor asked what Bruno Santos de Oliveira would be when he grew up. The boy replied that he wanted to be a diplomat and heard: “It won’t be that, no. No one will accept you at Itamaraty”.
Oliveira grew up, studied law and international relations and, after two attempts, contradicted the forecast: he was approved in 2007 in the Instituto Rio Branco competition and today, at 42, the number of black people in Brazilian diplomacy is growing, a career that is still mostly white.
Officially, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have information on the racial profile of diplomats in the country. Survey by Ipea (Institute for Applied Economic Research), however, allows for an approximate dimension of the situation. In 2020, 11.7% of these professionals declared themselves black, while 58.2% said they were white — and the table has a large gap, given that 28.2% did not inform their racial classification.
For Oliveira, being black in a profession that is not very diverse poses challenges, and the biggest one is having to prove above-average competence to occupy spaces of power. “It is something that exists inside and outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is not exclusive to the institution. It is a mark of our structural racism.”
Diplomat Paula Gomes, 42, reports that the agency’s employees have thought several times that she was an employee of an African embassy.
“These people and Itamaraty do not hover over Brazilian society, they are part of it. And Brazilian society is racist,” he says. “She hopes that those who occupy positions of some projection will be white people, not black women.”
Although there has never been a formal ban on the entry of blacks into Itamaraty, sociologist Karla Gobo, who studies the presence of this group in Brazilian diplomacy, emphasizes that the institution has always been a place of difficult access for this portion of the population.
“In the empire, there was the idea that the image of Brazil should represent a European elite and, therefore, a white one”, he says. During this period, the selection of diplomats was done in a personal way: “Those who were close to the Court were selected”.
From 1946 onwards, entry into the career started to take place through a public examination carried out by the Rio Branco Institute, but in practice, little has changed. “The evidence ends up selecting what an ambassador has referred to as ‘the elite of the elite'”, he says. “And the elite of the elite in Brazil is white.” Only in 1961 did the country have its first black ambassador in another country —Raymundo Souza Dantas, nominated for the post in Ghana. And it would take another 49 years for the organ to have its first black career ambassador, Benedicto Fonseca Filho.
Considered one of the most difficult and competitive in the country, the Rio Branco contest currently has three stages, in which knowledge ranging from world history to international politics is required. Gobo highlights the English test as one of the main barriers to the entry of black people — something similar to what happens with public school students in the National High School Exam.
“Often, they get good grades in other tests, but English is a bottleneck.”
Diplomat Jackson Lima, 51, highlights other symbolic barriers, which go beyond the selection for Rio Branco. “I didn’t grow up seeing black diplomats, so internal deconstruction, of understanding that we can really get there, is the first big challenge,” he says.
Born in Bahia, he worked as an assistant to a mason and street vendor, but he always wanted to be a diplomat. As he did not have the resources to pay for his studies, he left his desire aside. “Twenty years later, I discovered affirmative action and decided to take the dream out of the drawer.”
Since 2002, Itamaraty has had an affirmative action program that grants scholarships to fund the studies of afro-descendant candidates. “That was the cornerstone for my approval. Without it, it would have been impossible to pass,” says Lima.
Of the 789 people who entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2002 and 2014, 20 were blacks covered by the scholarships (2.5% of the total). Between 2014 and 2020, 127 people joined the diplomatic corps, of which 27 through racial quotas (raising the proportion to 21.3%).
Today, Lima is one of three black people who represent Brazil in Washington — the first time that Itamaraty has had a trio of black diplomats in the American capital. “It’s a great pride and responsibility,” says he, who works in Brazil’s mission to the OAS (Organization of American States).
For diplomat Rafaela Seixas, 34, affirmative action was also crucial. With the money from the scholarship, she was able to take part in the preparation of a course considered elite — in which, however, she says she did not feel welcomed. “When I arrived, some people looked at me strangely, as if to say, ‘Is this girl crazy? This contest is not for her.’
Despite the problems, he says he works for a more diverse diplomacy. “In an institution that has very similar people, I think it’s important for us to occupy these spaces”, says Seixas. “If Brazilians pay our wages, it is a matter of justice that these people are represented in the high bureaucracy.”
wanted by sheet to talk about the cases of prejudice reported, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that it condemns any form of discrimination or prejudice based on race, color or ethnicity. The folder claims that in 2017 it established the CPADIS (Commission for the Prevention and Confrontation of Moral, Sexual and Discrimination Harassment). According to the MRE, the agency holds periodic meetings to deal with cases of harassment and discrimination.
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