The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, has signed a decree that will reserve at least 30% of the high positions of the public administration of the country to black and mixed-race people.
“Racism is at the root of inequality, that’s why we must fight it like we fight vermin on a plantation,” Lula said. She was accompanied by her Minister for Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, an icon in the fight against racism and police violence. The objective of the decree is “to encourage their presence in decision-making and management positions,” adds a government note.
Lula, who began his third term as head of this country of 213 million inhabitants in January, promised that his government would reflect “the face of Brazilian society,” mostly black and mestizo. Without the absence of racial and gender discrimination, “there will be no democracy,” the president stressed. This announced target of 30% must be reached by the end of 2025.
Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888. It has the largest black population outside of Africa. But the underrepresentation is structural: less than 5% of the managers of the 500 largest companies in Brazil are black or belong to a minority, according to a 2021 study.
“The idea is that in the federal public administration as a whole, 30 percent of the vacancies are filled by blacks. We are going to apply that figure to all ministries,” declared the Minister for Racial Equality, Anielle Franco.
This measure is due to the fact that, according to data from the Ministry of Racial Equality, black people occupy around 1.3 percent of jobs.
In addition, Franco recalled that the number of black people in positions of responsibility “is still not enough.” “We are the majority of the population of Brazil”, he stressed, referring to the fact that the current cabinet has 37 ministers, five of whom are black and one indigenous.
This announcement coincides with the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Special Secretariat for Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality, which was the first body with the status of a ministry focused on racial issues in the country, founded during Lula’s first term.
