Spiders and Monkeys

Last week, another racist episode reopened the discussions over racism in Brazil. A 23 year-old-lady was spotted calling the goal keeper Aranha a "monkey" by ESPN’s video cameras. This type of verbal aggression is not news inside and outside Brazilian soccer fields. However, in social media era, it took few hours for outraged web users to find the young woman as a “criminal” and start a “virtual lynching” against her. She was accused of committing a racism crime, which is not correct. According to Brazilian laws she could be indicted for the crime of racial injury, and if she is condemned for that crime in the future, she will be made an example of for the Brazilian population. It will be a clear message that Brazil does not tolerate this kind of behavior. However, to what extent this case help to solve the matter of racism in such a complex society?

First, ever since the end of slavery in 1888 afro-descendants have been treated in a discriminatory manner by the countries’ society. The newly freed slaves were absolutely marginalized and abandoned by the government, which only started looking after this population many years later. Meanwhile, a huge amount of poor European migrants came to the country to replace the slave workforce. This population, on the other hand, was treated in a very different manner. They received jobs, land to cultivate, considered as hard workers, have their own businesses and some even became rich. Thus, the modern social configuration became a pyramid were the old rich families continued dominating money and power, the immigrants formed a medium class together with other middle class that was already in the country and the afro-Brazilians remained marginalized. Even though social mobility is possible in Brazil, this structure did not change much so far. But some progress has been made, like racial quotas and laws against racism.

Even though, the laws against racial offences and racial discrimination are very important, they are fighting symptoms of racism, which are easy to detect and punish. The process of reducing racial inequity is a long-term project, that will impact future generations. Afro-brazilians used to complain that they are not politically represented, don’t get the opportunity to attend universities and don’t get good jobs. In order to address the issue many public politics were put in place in the last ten years, for example the racial quotas for public universities and public jobs.