Founded in Brazil on the foundations of a racist society, at the end of the sécentury, the university is now looking for ways to dismantle this apparatus. In 1808, the year the family arrivedíPortuguese royal lia to Rio de Janeiro, the foundation of the first medical schools formed theórich inaugurals of Brazilian racism.
"In Salvador, for example, Nina Rodrigues contributed to scientific racismíI am. She has a book that says that black people naturally tend towards crime because they are biologically inferior.", says Juarez Xavier, professor at Unesp (Paulista State University) in Bauru. Xavier was one of the guests for the premiere of the web cycleináRivers "Black lives matter at the university", organized by Cader, Diversity Advisory Committee Éethnic-racial, in last Monday, July 20. The commission is part of the DeDH (Executive Directorate of Human Rights) of Unicamp, founded in Marçthe 2019 to promote toleranceânce, citizenship, inclusion, diversity, plurality and equity at the university.
Based on the theme "Institutional racism", the debate made a historical recoveryórich in the main milestones of the struggle of the black movement inside and outside the university. "The black movement é educator. It is necessary to understand the structure that feeds racism", said Xavier.
Quoting the North American writer Cornel West, the Unesp researcher recalled that the university é the spaceçwhere State agents are formed and that, over time, it helped to reproduce the genealogy of racial supremacists. "The ciênce was deeply contaminated by this"He says.
In Brazil, this sceneáriver eatsçor to suffer slight changesçfrom the 2000s onwards, with theíAffirmative action tactics. The first to implement quota systems for graduates from p schoolsúblic, black, indígen and disabled peopleíThese were Uerj (University of the State of Rio de Janeiro), Uenf (Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro) and Uneb (University of the State of Bahia). In 2004, racial quotas were adopted by UnB (University of Brazilília) and the national debate on the topic intensified.
This política did not yet exist at Unicamp when Márcia LúAnacleto de Souza, a teacher at the Municipal Education Department of Campinas, passed the entrance exam in 2001. "Many black students were asked about their intellectual capacity", recalled Souza, who alsoém participated in the webináriver. The quotas, he assesses, were important. "But not yetyouare enough. We are talking about 56% of the Brazilian population", justified Marcia at the virtual event, highlighting that black and brown people are the majority of the populationo.
When citing one of the definitions adopted by black author and activist Jurema Werneck, Souza detailed how é institutional racism. "SThese are everyday organizational instruments that speak of the organization's culture that prevent or hinder the implementation of policiesíethics of racial equality. It concerns a certain lóoperating logic of institutionsis that sare produced by a racist society and are expressed in staffárivers, in órgãthose who areare crossed by racism". The fight against institutional racism at the university alsoém needs to undergo teacher training. "Graduates of pedagogy and education coursesonãhave shapetion about Africanity, racism. Além of that, é need to strengthen the production of knowledge on racial issues as an ally to the policequota ethics", scores.
To DéBora Jeffrey, a researcher at Unicamp who organized the event as coordinator of Cader, the web cycleináRivers é an important opportunity for the community to debate institutional racism. "We have more than 10 black collectives at Unicamp, and this númere increase following the adoption of quotas by the university, for example", commented.
Néri de Barros Almeida, executive director of DeDH, believes that the discussiono é an important for the university to open spaceço, welcome, give voice to the black community. "We have to discuss, learn and respect the black community’s place of speech", commented Almeida. The Rector of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, congratulated the initiative and said that é It is a priority to combat racism and inequality. "We need to talk, we need to discuss in Brazilian society and the university é a key place for this to happenhere".
The webinarriver "Institutional Racism" still availableível on the DeDH YouTube channel. Your accountúof, according to Eliana Amaral, Pró-Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Unicamp, serveá as a tool to beá used within the university to discuss the topic and combat racism.
Check out the full webinar on Institutional Racism:
