“Racism is at the root of inequality, which is why we must fight it like vermin on a plantation,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday, March 21, in Brasilia.
It was here that the head of state signed a decree that will reserve at least 30% of positions of trust in the country’s public administration for black and mixed-race people, with the aim of “encouraging [their] presence in decision-making and leadership positions,” said a government memo.
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 began his third term in January as leader of the country of 213 million people, pledged his government would reflect “the face of Brazilian society”, which is largely black and mixed-race. Without the absence of racial and gender discrimination, “there will be no democracy,” the president stressed. This announced target of 30% must be achieved by the end of 2025.
Brazil is the last country on the American continent to have abolished slavery in 1888. It has the largest black population outside of Africa. But the underrepresentation 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.
