RIGHTS-BRAZIL: The Face of Poverty is Black and Female

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 11 2001 (IPS) - Afro-Brazilian women are the victims of social inequalities much more than any other group in Brazil, suffering the impacts of both race and gender discrimination.

Black women’s average income is 55 percent less than that of white women, who themselves earn less than men, according to a study by the non-governmental Association of Brazilian Women (AMB).

The report indicates that in 1999 there were 36.3 million female descendants of Africans in Brazil, constituting 23 percent of the total population and 44 percent of the female population.

Afro-Brazilian women are much more likely to hold unstable jobs. Among the five million women employed as domestic workers, who in general do not enjoy full labour rights, 56 percent are black or “brown” – as people of mixed race are known in Brazil.

Furthermore, they suffer higher unemployment and stay in school fewer years than the general population. And, counter to the global tendency of women’s greater longevity, they have a shorter life expectancy than white males, Guacira César de Oliveira, executive director of AMB told IPS.

It should come as no surprise then that black women were the majority among the 1,500 participants in the National Conference against Racism and Intolerance, held this week in Rio de Janeiro to prepare the Brazilian delegation to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to take place in Durban, South Africa, Aug 31 to Sep 7.

The document approved by the Brazilian conference includes nearly 300 measures proposed by activists from Afro-Brazilian, indigenous, women’s and religious movements or organisations, and other minority groups such as homosexuals, the handicapped and migrants.

Their demands range from establishing minimum quotas for the admission of blacks into universities to supporting reparations for indigenous communities for the losses they have suffered throughout the nation’s history.

The Brazilian government must “put into practice its good intentions and the commitments it made at previous conferences,” stated De Oliveira, who is also director of the Feminist Centre for Research and Consulting (CFEMEA), a Brasilia-based non- governmental organisation (NGO).

With that aim, all government programmes should involve special attention to the “ethnic question” in order to combat “the inequalities generated by racism,” she said.

Policies on public safety, for example, need to take into account the fact that “the majority of homicide victims are young black males and that the victims of domestic violence are mostly black women,” explained the activist.

Discrimination against blacks is perhaps most evident in the work arena. Afro-Brazilians receive lower wages, are laid off more often and hold lower posts, despite their merits, commented Claudia Regina de Oliveira, a cook for the Social Solidarity Fund of Guarulhos, a city in the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

In her case, discrimination is limited because she is an employee of the municipality who earned her job through a public application procedure, and she receives a “reasonable” monthly salary of 280 dollars, compared to the wages of other black women, she told IPS.

The great challenge confronting the anti-racism movement, at least in Guarulhos, is that the Afro-Brazilians themselves do not recognise discrimination when it occurs, according to Clea Dias da Silva, coordinator of the Social Solidarity Fund.

A widely held belief in Brazil is that there is no racism here, but rather a rejection of the poor. Even the government is divided on the matter, as some ministers deny that ethnic-based discrimination exists, she said.

But “poverty does have a colour in this country, and it is black,” charged Roberto Martins, president of the Institute of Applied Economic Research, an office of the Ministry of Planning, as he presented the conclusions of a study during the preparatory meeting for the World Conference against Racism.

Average per capita income among whites is 2.5 times greater than that of blacks, and 69 percent of poor Brazilians are of African descent, according to the report, prepared based on official data.

Descendants of Africans make up 45.3 percent of Brazil’s total population, and are disproportionately poor, says Martins, underscoring the need for policies that are specifically designed to reduce social inequality.

The differences are confirmed in other areas as well: unemployment was 11 percent among blacks last year, compared to 7.5 percent among whites. Just two percent of Afro-Brazilians reach university, versus 11 percent of whites.

Despite the anti-racism movement’s disappointment in the Brazilian government for its failure to take actions toward reducing inequalities, the country’s diplomats play a positive role in the international debate about racism, admitted AMB director De Oliveira.

The obstacles standing in the way of approval in Durban of a global action plan to fight racial discrimination and intolerance originate elsewhere, said the activist.

Europe’s refusal to condemn the slave trade as a crime against humanity and its rejection of the idea of reparations, the wealthy nations’ failure to recognise the rights of immigrants, and the numerous ethnic conflicts around the world make the conference in South Africa one of the most difficult of all, concluded De Oliveira.