Today was a day in which we explored the concept of race in Brazil both inside and outside of the classroom.
Our lecture at ISC was given by Dr. Clarice Mota entitled “Racial Inequalities in Health and the Challenges of Implementing Equity Policies in Brazil.” In her lecture she gave us an overview of the plight of blacks in Brazil, explaining how minorities are treated Brazilian society, the private and public education system, and the health system. She prefaced her lecture with how her subject of study lacks the respect it should in the research community. When a claim is made it is expected to be accompanied by concrete data and calculations to help prove or disprove it. However, racism is a difficult concept to quantify due to its subtlety within society and the fact that it is fairly easy to present a racist occurrence into a non-racist one when desired. Without being able to provide quantified measurements along with claims of racism in certain instances, it is difficult to draw the required attention to the problem. I had a sense that this way of thinking was present in the scientific community but hearing Dr. Mota speak about her experience with it really made me think. The subject of science strives for definite answers, but with a concept as widespread and hidden in society it is hard to get a definite idea of racism.
I would argue that Dr. Mota’s lecture was one of our liveliest in terms of the flow of discussion between her and the students. Once she presented many of her main points it became clear to us that there were multiple similarities between blacks in Brazil and blacks in the United States. Affirmative action, police brutality, and racism in the healthcare system are present in both countries. The effects on the black community of all of these concepts also manifests in a similar way in the United States.
However, the solution for both countries is the adoption of an understanding and accepting society. Everyone has to understand the plight of blacks and realize that they are at a disadvantage in various aspects of life – economically, in education – before additional policies and laws can be implemented for their advancement. One last similarity is the rising prevalence of conservatism in both societies from a political sense. This could not bode well for the future of the poor or people of color, but only time will tell.
After learning about race in the Brazilian health system we visited Instituto Cultural Steve Biko. The Steve Biko Institute in Brazil is an NGO that is dedicated to preparing and empowering black Brazilian youth using his (Steve Biko’s) ideals. Students in their last year of high school or already graduated in the public school system use the Steve Biko Institute to learn math, chemistry, and hard sciences concepts to prepare for public university entrance exams. The institute applies the principle of “Cidadancia e Consciencia Negra” (Citizenship and Black Consciousness) to all of their programs to allow students to learn who they are as black Brazilians and what they need to do in order to be successful citizens in Brazil. Some programs they have include preparation for employment with interview practice and training and enhancing the popularity of science and technology careers.
Learning what the Steve Biko Institute is was beneficial in terms of knowing what the program does for young adult black Brazilians. It was a good leeway into actually hearing from these young adults during our meeting. They told us a little about themselves and we were able to ask them questions. What I took away from the conversation was that being a “Bikudo(a)” (what students of the institute are called) helps them start a dialogue at home about being a black Brazilian, it provides them with a positive and uplifiting community, friendship is a staple in the program, and they have been impacted by institutionalized and direct racism at times. The examples that they provided for each of these concepts was almost perfectly identical to experiences that most of us Americans in the room have experienced. There was one moment where I felt a sense of understanding between the Steve Biko students and us Georgia State and Morehouse students fall across the room. This definitely surprised all of us and made the experience even better than we could have expected.
