The university, science and the fight against racism
Marcelo Knobel and Néri de Barros Almeida (*)
Diversity of minds, cultures and experiences is the fastest way to find answers to the gigantic challenges facing humanity
Machado de Assis, Lima Barreto, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Francisco José do Nascimento, Antonieta de Barros, Ruth Rocha, Pixinguinha, Milton Nascimento, Cartola, Solano Trindade, Abdias do Nascimento, Elza Soares, Milton Santos, Zezé Motta: these are names that arouse admiration and respect. Recognition of the valiant struggle they fought and the immense talent to which it is impossible not to pay tribute, however, took time to translate into recognition for a portion of the Brazilian people whose fundamental rights were violated by slavery supposedly disappearing more than a century ago. . The relationship between these (and many other) talented black people in our country is recognized, but it is generally not admitted that their memory of Brazilianness is black, and that the condition of black people in Brazil informs their art and science. This is one of the facts that testify that there is something that stands between black people and their rights. This something is called “racism”.
Many people believe they see racism only in grotesque pictures, like those presented by countries with blatant apartheid. It is important to note, however, that racism also manifests itself through the erasure of that which is not allowed to exist. This applies primarily to identity and extends to rights, due to the lack of recognition of their effective inaccessibility for the majority of the Brazilian people. Why bring such questions to the surface? Because ignoring them has reproduced inequality.
On March 21, the global black community remembers a tragic event that took place in 1960 in South Africa, which gave rise to the “International Day Against Racial Discrimination”, created in 1966 by the United Nations. An unarmed crowd of 20 people, who were fighting for rights, were contained by machine gun fire that left 69 dead and around 180 injured. The same violence occurs in Brazil, diluted but undisguised. According to the 2017 Violence Atlas, of the 10% of individuals most likely to be victims of homicide, black people represent 78,9%. According to the Public Ministry of Labor, black and brown people face more difficulties in career progression, equal pay and are more vulnerable to moral harassment. The report "The distance that unites us – A portrait of Brazilian Inequalities”, from the British NGO Oxfam, based on data from Ipea (Institute for Applied Economic Research) and Pnad (National Household Sample Survey), points out that 67% of black people in Brazil are among those who receive up to 1,5 minimum wages , while among white people, this rate is 45%.
The Sharpeville Massacre, as the episode mentioned above became known, reminds us of the struggle that led to the end of apartheid and the government of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. The death of Zumbi, leader of Quilombo dos Palmares — the fortified village that, for more than a century, it housed a society of men who themselves emancipated themselves from slavery — lends its memory to Black Consciousness Day. Despite its magnitude and precursor role in emancipatory struggles, this episode resists establishing itself as a living part of our collective memory. Why do struggles like this, with such evident justice, not definitively change the consciousness and actions of a significant portion of society? Because a vast and ancient value system fights with the perceptions of each of us. Therefore, the defeat of racism resides in each subject and it begins with the realization that the mistakes of the past make us make mistakes today, and that they are not compatible with the vision we want to have of ourselves, nor with the peaceful and fair world. that we insist on dreaming about. For now, just dream...
The university must be open to discuss the reconfiguration of knowledge in an inclusive logic, and the community that fights for inclusion needs to be prepared to accept the facts of science
Having overcome the legal challenges to the recognition of equality and freedom in the 18th century, we still do not demand — therefore, we do not allow — that black people have access to social, economic and cultural rights. The facts continue to betray the commitments and ideas that we proudly point to as the cradle of modernity. In this context, modernity displays all the contradiction of which it is constituted, alerting us to the fact that, faced with this scenario, choices need to be made. The fundamental question, therefore, is: what choices have we made? Have we chosen equality and freedom for all, or just for ourselves? In a world where everyone's humanity is not uncompromisingly protected, is respect for anyone's humanity truly assured?
In Brazil, black people have always fought. They had no other choice. Only recently, however, did the leading role they played in the struggle itself begin to be recognized. We are honored to be part of one of the universities that led this change, rescuing in the writing of history the role of black people in their own emancipation. We have seen, in recent decades, the centuries-old struggle of black people take large and firm collective steps. Due to its own merit, the organization of the black community became broader, denser and more complex, and the fight for rights was incorporated into the country's daily social life. And it is clear to everyone that there are no signs that it will back down, despite the political moment we are experiencing. Access to education played, and continues to play, an important role in this achievement. Universities woke up late and need to make up for lost time.
At Unicamp (State University of Campinas), which in 2019 held its first entrance exam with ethnic-racial quotas, the discussion of inclusive policies introduced a reflection that transformed us and continues to transform us, and we are convinced that this change is happening for the better.
Unicamp is aware that the place that now returns to diversity, seeking to reflect the rich complexity of the Brazilian people, will result in a decisive impact on the expansion of creative processes fundamental to scientific and technological innovation. And perhaps never in the history of humanity have we needed to make such radical changes in such a short time.
We can say that the social role of the public university has been strengthened by the implementation of ethnic-racial quotas, not only because we now receive entrants who are more representative of the profile of the entire Brazilian society, but also because new themes, questions and experiences flow in our direction . Following this, a broader and faster return to society of the benefits of what we do for health, education, decent work, childhood and all other fronts involved in the promotion and defense of fundamental rights established in the article 5 of the Federal Constitution.
The university today is more prepared for a world that is faced with gigantic challenges, of which violence, the climate emergency and the depletion of natural resources are the most serious and urgent. Faced with the facts of the global crisis, an elite of thoughtless consumption and the economy without tomorrow prefers to take refuge in anti-intellectualism and anti-democratism, displaying its inadequacy to the present time. The scientific community has pointed out that responses need to break with the current development model, which is environmentally unsustainable and socially exclusionary. It is up to scientists to put their intelligence into the search for solutions. And, without a doubt, the diversity of minds, cultures and experiences is the fastest way to reach the answers that humanity needs. The university must, therefore, be open to discuss the reconfiguration of knowledge in an inclusive logic, and the community that fights for inclusion must be prepared to accept the facts of science that have universal validity and from whose knowledge all humanity must become beneficiaries. .
Young people will have a difficult task. It is up to our generation to leave doors open for the inclusive scientific-technological revolution that they will have to carry out. Along this path, the black community has a lot to teach us. Your fight for equality and freedom points the way that we will have to follow to resolve our problems in a peaceful, constructive and democratic way. Your confidence in the face of immense obstacles is an example, it shows us the meaning of the fight and helps us to relearn the value of freedom.
The world is changing. For this very reason, reactions that deny these changes and try to distort their meaning, robbing them of what is fair, dignified and true have been prominent in our days. Thus, in a perverse way, prejudice can distort the claim to justice, denying facts relating to the lives of people from the past and present. Denialism violates the right to memory and historical recognition of those who have never been fully recognized.
In the face of adversity, what should young people who love and respect humanity fear? Mario Benedetti posed this question in a book that celebrates human memory in the face of the misfortune of exile, and here we can consider the condition of the black population as a long exile, first from ancestral Africa, then in the very homeland and society that they recognized as their own. Says the Uruguayan writer: “Sometimes young people have bulletproof courage and, however, they do not have disenchantment-proof courage. If only I and other veterans could convince them that their only obligation is to stay young. Not to grow old from longing, from boredom or from resentment, but to remain young, so that when it comes time to return, they return as young people...”
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Marcelo Knobel is rector of the State University of Campinas
Néri de Barros Almeida is executive director of Human Rights at the State University of Campinas
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Nexo Newspaper, 19/11/2019
