“Racism is at the root of inequality, which is why we must fight it like vermin on a plantation”launched, Tuesday, March 21, the Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brasilia.
It is here that the Head of State signed a decree which will reserve at least 30% of senior civil service positions in the country’s public administration for black and mixed-race people, with the aim of” encourage [leur] presence in decision-making and management positions”specifies a note from the government.
The left-wing president, re-elected on October 30, 2022 after four years in power of the far-right Bolsonarist, was accompanied by his minister for racial equality, Anielle Franco, icon of the fight against racism and police violence.
A structural under-representation
Lula, who in January began his third term as head of the country of 213 million people, pledged that his government would reflect “the face of Brazilian society”, mostly black and mixed race. Without the absence of racial and gender discrimination, “there will be no democracy”, underlined the president. This announced objective of 30% must be reached by the end of 2025.
Brazil is the last country on the American continent to have abolished slavery in 1888. It concentrates the largest black population outside of Africa. But the under-representation there is structural: less than 5% of executives in the 500 largest Brazilian companies are black or from a minority background, according to a study carried out in 2021.