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LIBRARIES

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

EAST LANSING, MICH 48824-1048

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This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled

THE QUEST FOR AFRO-BRAZILIANS’ EQUAL

OPPORTUNITY: THE ARTICULATIONS OF AFFIRMATIVE

ACTION POLICIES AND PROGRAMS BY AFRO-BRAZILIAN

ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS AND THE STATE IN BRAZIL,

1990-2004.

presented by

VERA LUCIA BENEDITO

has been accepted towards fulfillment

of the requirements for the

Ph.D

degree in

SOCIOLOGY/URBAN

   

STUDIES

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Major Professor’s Signature \

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Date

MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record.

TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due.

MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested.

 

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THE QUEST FOR AFRO-BRAZILIANS’ EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: THE

ARTICULATIONS OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES AND

PROGRAMS BY AFRO-BRAZILIAN ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS

AND THE STATE IN BRAZIL, 1990 - 2004.

VOLUME I

By

Vera Lucia Benedito

A DISSERTATION .

.

‘

Submitted to

Michigan State University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Sociology and Urban Affairs Programs

2005

ABSTRACT

THE QUEST FOR AFRO-BRAZILIANS’ EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: THE

ARTICULATIONS OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES AND

PROGRAMS BY AFRO—BRAZILIAN ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS

AND THE STATE IN BRAZIL, 1990 - 2004.

By

Vera Lucia Benedito

This dissertation examines the changing meaning of “race” in social policies in

Brazil through the implementation of equal opportunity policies, namely affirmative

action and diversity policies, by Afro-Brazilian advocacy organizations and the state. The

study looks at three concrete case studies in which these policies were developed and

implemented in the areas of education and the labor market. The case studies in the area

of education refer to the University of Brasilia’s implementation of a 20 percent quota

system aimed at Afro-Brazilians, and the Generation XXI, a project developed by an

Alto-Brazilian nongovernmental organization (N GO) and a U.S-based foundation in

conjunction with a Brazilian federal agency for black community affairs. The case study

related to the labor market discusses the initiatives developed by a labor-based Afro-

Brazilian NGO that influenced federal legislation regarding racial discrimination in the

workplace. This dissertation seeks to answer three interrelated questions: What factors

account for the changing perceptions and definitions of “race” in Brazil? How have

affirmative action programs and policies been developed and implemented in the selected

case studies? What have been the spill-over effects of such programs on the government,

corporate sector, and civil society? Strategically, this dissertation follows the historical

sociology approach whereby events of the past shed meaningful light in the socio-cultural

and political developments in the present. The study is interdisciplinary which has

equally benefited fi'om analysis and theories drawn from sociology, political science,

international relations, social movements and international human rights literature. The

research is based primarily on qualitative data consisting of interviews utilizing open-

ended questionnaires; secondary resources such as documentaries, and available

bibliographic materials published in Brazil concerning equal opportunity policies, such as

diversity and affirmative action. It also contains demographic and statistical analysis

relevant to the research. This dissertation endorses previous conceptual and theoretical

formulations such as: “everyday racism”, “political consciousness”, “mobilizing

opportunities” and the interplay of structures of governance, such as “domestic

structures” and “international institutions”. The study finally suggests that the interaction

of these five conceptual domains, among other factors, partially explains the content,

scope, and latitude of the ongoing political economy in Brazil propelling small and large-

scale processes of social change.

Copyright by

VERA LUCIA BENEDITO

2005

Dedication

In memory of my mother Suzana Alves de Souza Benedito,

my spiritual source of strength, courage and guidance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have a long list of people that I would like to thank for their encouragement and

support throughout the process of thinking and writing this dissertation. First of all I

would like to thank Dr. Ruth Simms Hamilton who brought me to Michigan State

University to assist her in the African Diaspora Research Project, while at the same time

pursuing my graduate studies. I know how much she wanted me to finish, and

unfortunately she is no longer with us. Her memory, however, is quite present and I hope

to humbly honor her trust in me.

I want to thank Dr. Kevin Kelly, who generously took on the task of serving as

my advisor afier Dr. Hamilton’s untimely death. A thousand words would not be

sufficient to express my gratitude for his patience, the countless hours we spent

discussing this project, and the wonderful intellectual insights he offered me along the

way.

I also want to thank each member of this committee for being there for me: Dr.

Richard Hill, Dr. Marilyn Aronoff, Dr. Rita Gallin and the dean’s Representative Dr.

Marvel Lang. In addition, I want to acknowledge the wonderful spiritual support and

fiiendship extended to me by Dr. Richard Thomas, professor of history. I am equally

grateful to Dr. Peter Beattie, a Brazilianist historian from the history department at

Michigan State University, who read the early drafi of this dissertation and offered me

useful suggestions and comments. I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Rita Gallin and

Joan Reid who provided me with detailed editorial suggestions. I could not have

completed this research without the precious contribution of my research assistant in

Brazil, Mr. Flavio Carranca.

VI

Over the years, the unconditional love and support of several members of my

extended family members and friends kept me focused, for which I am grateful to: Edite

Alves Soares de Andrade, Juliana Salles de Andrade, J 050 Francisco Salles de Andrade,

Joao Salles de Andrade, Eulalia Maria dos Santos, Gelton de Oliveira, J uliece D’Avila,

Andrea Ferrari, John T. Tookes, Chantalle Verna, Dr. Dé Bryant, Dr. Kabengele

Munanga and Dr. Josidelth Gomes Consorte. I want to thank Robert Adams, Jr. and Ivair

Augusto dos Santos, who, on many occasions, sent me precious bibliographic materials

relevant to my research. Ruth Harris, Reber Dunkel, Linda Meeks and Luiza Bairros read

the first chapter and offered valuable insights. I am the sole person responsible for any

imperfections this study may reveal.

The following Afro-Brazilian activists, among others, inspired me to look beyond

the veil: Maria Aparecida Bento, Cidinha Silva and Hédio Silva who were very generous

in granting me and my assistant time to share their stories and experiences. Their

commitment to racial and social justice mirror the efforts of hundreds of less known

social and political activists who have struggled over generations in order to change the

state and civil society discourses and practices related to equal opportunity policies.

Likewise, I am appreciative of the intellectual and financial support extended to

me by the project Race and Democracy in the Americas, a joint research project between

the California State University at Sacramento, and the Federal University of Bahia, in

Salvador. 1 want to thank particularly: Luiza Bairros, David Covin, K.C. Morrison,

Dianne Pinderhughes and Michael Mitchell.

This research was partially funded by the African Diaspora Research Project, the

Graduate School, the Office for International Students and Scholars, and the Sociology

VII

Department at Michigan State University. A Ford Foundation Dissertation Grant through

the LASPAU Program at Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and the Hans-Biickler-

Foundation granted me a three-month scholarship program at the International Women’s

University (IFU), from July to October of 2000 in Hanover, Germany.

Last, but not least, I want to thank Joan Reid and Tammy Spangler for

painstakingly keeping me abreast of academic paper work in order to meet deadlines. I

am also very grateful to Amelia Opubor, Gwen Taylor, Juliene Price, Marvel Lang,

Maureen Eke, Marvy Olsen, Ollie Johnson, Scott Whiteford, Silvia Camargo and Silvia

de Souza for their solidarity in difficult times.

VIII

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

 

---XIII

-

-

LIST OF FIGURES

 

-

....

--

-- XIV

INTRODUCTION

 

-

................

-

........... 1

CHAPTER 1

The Reality of Racial Inequalities

Introduction

.............................................................................................. 21

“Race” and Color by the Numbers ..................................................................................... 22

Population Distribution ..................................................................................................... 22

“Pigrnentocracy”: The Hierarchy of Color ....................................................................... 24

Preto, Negro, Pardo or Mulatto: The Insignia of Discrimination ..................................... 26

Afro-Brazilians and the Opportunity Structures: Education and

Labor Market Outcomes

.............................................................................................. 32

Educational Attainment Levels .......................................................................................... 34

Gender and Labor Market Outcomes ................................................................................. 39

The Micro-Level Domain: Subjectivities in the Production of Difference .......................44

Connecting the Micro to the Micro Domains .................................................................... 49

Life-Expectancy and Violence ........................................................................................... 52

The Academic Interpretation of Racial Inequalities In Brazil .......................................... 53

Testing the Tropical Waters of Tropicalism: The Macro-Structural Approaches ............. 56

Critical Standpoints ............................................................................................................ 60

Renewing Structural Inequality Analyses: Intersection Structure and Culture ................. 62

CHAPTER 2

“Race” the State and Social Policies in Brazil

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 70

The “Sleight of Hand” of the State and the Racial Question ............................................. 71

Racial Democracy and Racial Cleansing: Two Sides of the Same Coin? ......................... 78

Census Policy a Contested “Field of Action”: Academia and Advocacy

Groups Efforts in Debunking the Racial Democracy Thesis ............................................. 81

Does the ‘Pardo’ Census Category Stand the Test of Time? ............................................. 82

Deconstructing the Intermediate Category: Pardo=Negro ................................................. 86

CHAPTER 3

The Changing Role of the Corporate sector, the State and Civil Society

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 91

IX

Changing the Political Culture of the Corporate Sector .................................................... 92

Racing for the Marketplace: The Rise of Ethno-Consumerism? ....................................... 95

Diversity as Global Organizational Strategy ................................................................ . 100

Diversity in the Marketplace: “It Simple Makes Good Business Sense” ........................ 107

Diversity Policies in Brazil: Is it Good for the Business or for the

Government? .................................................................................................................... 110

The Bottom Line: Market Beyond Demographics ........................................................... 112

Advocacy Organizations in the Global Political Economy ............................................. 116

Defining Advocacy Organizations ................................................................................... 1 18

The Changing Role of State: Racing to Adjust to Markets and Advocacy

Organizations’ Pressure ................................................................................................... 124

Declining Role of State? .................................................................................................. 127

CHAPTER 4

Equal Opportunity Policies in the US. and Abroad: Looking Back, Looking

Forward and Beyond

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 32

Conceptual Considerations on “Political Consciousness”, “Mobilizing

Opportunities” and “Structure of Governance” ............................................................... 133

Looking Back: “Race” and Social Policies in the United States ..................................... 137

Antecedents of Affirmative Action Policies .................................................................... 140

Affirmative Action at the Dawn of an Era ....................................................................... 143

The World Audience is Watching America ..................................................................... 145

The Hope from the East: Afiican Americans in Search of the “Imagined

Community" ..................................................................................................................... 146

Defining Affirmative Action ............................................................................................ 153

The Turning Point: Gradual Shifts ................................................................................... 159

The Gains from Affirmative Action Programs and Policies in the US ........................... 163

Mend it, Not End it? The Debates Continue .................................................................... 170

New Factors for the 21St Century ..................................................................................... 174

The International Context of Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Policies ............... 179

The European Union Dilemma: Gender & Equal Opportunity Policies .......................... 181

India: Quota Policies in a Caste System .......................................................................... 183

Malaysia-Ending Quota Policy? ...................................................................................... 184

CHAPTER 5

Equal Opportunity Policies

in

Brazil: Debunking the Ideology of “Racial

Democracy”

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 89

Early Background of Affirmative Action Policies in Brazil ............................................ 190

1984-1985 When Afro-Brazilians Entered S50 Paulo State Apparatuses ....................... 194

Getting the Word Outl: Connecting Local, State, National and

International Constituencies ............................................................................................ 197

“The Tree of Words” (Arvore das Palavras): Globalization Tools at the Service

of Advocacy Groups or Organizations “From Below” .................................................... 203

“Mobilizing Opportunities”: Intersecting National and International Interests ............... 205

Embracing Affirmative Action Policies Despite Controversy ......................................... 209

Affirmative Action at the Sub-National Level ................................................................. 220

Affirming Actions “from Below”: Transforming the Social fabric at The Top? ............ 221

Corporate Social Responsibility Policies ......................................................................... 228

CHAPTER 6

Generation XXI — Case Study N. 1

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 235

The Importance of Place and Space ................................................................................. 237

The Occasional and the Emergent Negro — A Dilemma of a

Multiracial Society ........................................................................................................... 240

Preventing Opportunistic Behavior and Socioeconomic Criteria .................................... 243

The Program’s Methodology ........................................................................................... 244

The Pedagogic Component .............................................................................................. 245

Citizenship and Culture Programs ................................................................................... 247

Communication and Social Mobilization Programs (Cultural Cafés) ............................. 248

“Family XXI”: Incorporating Family Members ............................................................. 249

Stumbling Blocks: Adjusting to Succeed ........................................................................ 253

What Students Have to Say about Generation XXI ......................................................... 254

Speaking About the Unspoken: Racism and Discrimination ........................................... 256

Future Leadership? ........................................................................................................... 260

Generation XXI, Corporate and Advocacy Organizations: Differing

Racial Projects ................................................................................................................. 262

Outside Opinions ............................................................................................................. 267

Generation XXI — Affirmative Action Beyond Quotas ................................................... 274

CHAPTER 7

Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities - Case Study N. 2

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 276

Defining Racial Discrimination in the Workplace ........................................................... 279

The Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequality (CEERT) —

Early Background ............................................................................................................ 283

Changing Tunes ............................................................................................................... 286

Ensuing Developments .................................................................................................... 290

Uneasy Relationship State-Advocacy Groups and Organizations ................................... 292

The Nature of the Methodologies Developed .................................................................. 293

The Diversity Mantra ....................................................................................................... 296

Monitoring Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies ................................................... 297

Diversity and the Weight of Structural Inequality ........................................................... 300

XI

Trade Union Representatives’ Perception on the Diversity Mantra ................................ 300

The Confluence of National and International Interests .................................................. 303

Spillover Effects of CEERT’s Methodologies ................................................................. 306

CHAPTER 8

University of Brasilia (UnB) - Case Study N. 3

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3 10

A Glimpse at the University of Brasilia: Mirroring the Public Universities

In Brazil ........................................................................................................................... 312

“Negative Action” ........................................................................................................... 313

Ariovaldo Lima Alves’s Biographical Sketch: An Uncommon Trajectory ..................... 316

Life at UnB ...................................................................................................................... 318

The Incident ..................................................................................................................... 319

Spillover Effect ................................................................................................................ 321

Articulating Race-Based Compensatory Policies at UnB ................................................ 323

The 20 Percent Quota System at UnB: Requirements and Methodologies Used ............ 326

Embracing Class-Based Policies of Inclusion at UnB ..................................................... 328

School Officials, Policy Makers and the Academic Community at UnB Voice

Their Opinions ................................................................................................................. 330

Forming Consensus despite Some Dissension among the Student Population ............... 333

The Personal Impact of These Processes on the Major Protagonists ............................... 334

CHAPTER 9

Analysis of the Case Studies

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 339

Answering the Main Research Questions ........................................................................ 342

Critical Juncture ............................................................................................................... 388

Redistribution and Recognition: A Synthesis on Democratic Possibility ....................... 351

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 354

Policy Implications .......................................................................................................... 357

Future Research Agenda ................................................................................................. 358

XII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 — Population Distribution by Color and Region in Percentage 2000 .................... 23

Table 2 - Poverty Line by Racial/Color Categories 1999 .................................................. 33

Table 3 — Percentage of Students who Attend College by Type of

Of Institution and Color — Brazil, 2000 ............................................................. 37

Table 4- Percentage of the Population in the Labor Market by Color and

Gender — Metropolitan Regions and Federal Capital — 2001/2002 .................... 41

Table 5 — Average Monthly Earnings by Color & Gender — Metropolitan

Regions and Federal Capital 2001-2002 ............................................................ 41

Table 6 — Federal Affirmative Action Efforts, Methods, Spheres of Activity

And a Few Illustrative Programs ..................................................................... 158

Table 7 — Educational Attainment of the US. Population 25 Years of Age

And Older by Race/Ethnicity and Sex in Percentage, 2000 ............................ 165

Table 8 - Percentage of 25 to 29 Year Olds Who had Completed 4 Years

Of College in 1978 and 200 by Race/Ethnicity and Sex ................................. 166

Table 9 — Unemployment Rates in 2001 for Persons 25 Years of Age and

Older by Education, Race/Ethnicity and Sex ................................................... 167

Table 10- Employed Persons in 2000: 16 Years of Age and Older by

Occupation, Sex and Race/Ethnicity in Percentage ........................................ 168

Table 11 - Median Family Income in 2001 by Race/Ethnicity and Type

Of Family ....................................................................................................... 169

XIII

Table 12 -— Race/Ethnicity of All Firms on Average: Receipts of All

Firms, 1997

............................................................................................ 170

Table 13 — Female and Total Distribution of Population in Selected

Countries, 2001 (Millions) ............................................................................. 185

Table 14 - Characteristics of Equal Employment/Affirmative Action

Programs in Six Countries .............................................................................. 186

Table 15 — Characteristics of Equal Employment/Affirmative Action

Programs in Six Countries ............................................................................. 187

Table 16 - Types of Equal Opportunity Policies — Ministry of Education

(MEC) ........................................................................................................... 213

Table 17 — Equal Opportunity Policies at Ministry of Foreign Relations

(MRE)

............................................................................................ 214

Table 18 — Equal Opportunity Policies at Ministry of Culture (MINC) .......................... 215

Table 19 — Equal Opportunity Policies at Ministry of Health (MS) ................................ 216

Table 20 — Equal Opportunity Policies at Ministry of Justice (MJ) ................................ 217

Table 21 — Executive Power/Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) ...................... 218

Table 22 — Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management ............................................ 218

Table 23 — Executive Power/Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE ....................... 219

Table 24 - Equal Opportunity Policies - Judiciary Power .............................................. 220

XIV

LIST OF FIGURES

Brazil Map by Regions

.............................................................................................. 24

XV

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS

ACDI — Canadian Agency for International Development

ACOA — American Committee on Africa

ADC — Aid to Dependent Children

AFL-CIO — American Federation of Labor-Confederation of Industrial Organizations

ANC - African National Congress

ANPOCS — Associacao Nacional de Pesquisadores em Ciéncias Sociais (National

Association of Social Sciences Researchers)

CEAAL — Concejo de Educion de Adultos de la America Latina

CECF — Conselho Estadual da Condica'o Feminina (Council on the Feminine Condition)

CEERT — Centro de Estudos das Relacdes do Trabalho e Desi gualdades (Center for the

Study of Labor Relations and Inequality)

CEO — Corporate Executive Officers

CEPES - Conselho de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extenséo (Council of Teaching, Research and

Extended Learning)

CERDS — The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

CGT — General Confederation of Workers

CSR — Corporate Social Responsibility

CUT — Central Unica dos Trabalhos ( Central Union Workers)

DDS — Diretorio de Desenvolvimento Social (Directorate of Social Development)

EEOC —— Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

FUNAI — Fundacao Nacional Indigena (Indigeneous National Association)

GTEDEO — Grupo de Trabalho para Eliminacao de Discriminacfio no Emprego e

Ocupacoes ( Working Group for the Elimination of Discrimination in Jobs and

Occupations)

GTI — Grupo de Trabalho Interrninisterial de Valorizacao da Populacfio Negra

(Interrninisterial Working Group of Valorization of the Black Population)

IBGE — Instituto Brasileira de Geografia e Estatistica (Brazilian Institute of Geography

and Statistics)

ICCR — The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

ILO — International Labor Organization

IMF - International Monetary Fund

IRA - Indice de Rendimento Académico — Index of Academic Return

IRRC — Investor Responsibility Research Center

MEC — Ministério da Educacao (Ministry of Education)

MERCOSUR — Mercado Comun do Cone do Sul (Common Market of the South Cone)

MINC — Ministério da Cultura (Ministry of Culture)

MJ - Ministério da Justica (Ministry of Justice)

MNC — Multinational Corporations

MPOG - Ministério de Planejamento, Orcamento e Gerenciamento (Ministry of

Planning, Budget and Management)

MRE — Ministério das Relacoes Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Relations)

MS -—— Ministério da Sande (Ministry of Health)

XVI

MTE - Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (Ministry of Labor and Employment)

NAACP — National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NAFTA- North American Free Trade Agreement

NEAB -— Nucleo de Estudos Afro-Brasileiros (Afi'o-Brazilian Nuclei)

NGO — Non Governmental Organization

NOW — National Organization for Women

OAS — Organization of American States

OBC — Other Backward Castes

OFCCP - Office of Federal Contracts Compliance

OMBE — Office of Minority Business

PNAD — Programa Nacional de Amostra de Domicilios ( National Houselhold Survey)

POAs — Planos de Orientacao Académica ( Plans of Academic Orientation)

PROUNI — Programa Universidade para Todos (University for All Program)

PT —- Partido dos Trabalhadores ( Workers Party)

SBA — Small Business Administration

SCLC — Southern Christian Leadership

SEPPIR — Secretaria Especial de Promocao de lgualdade Racial (Special Secretariat for

Racial Equality)

TEN - Teatro Experimental do Negro (The Experimental Black Teatre)

UERJ — University of Rio de J aneiro

UFBA -— Federal University of Bahia

UN - United Nations

UnB — University of Brasilia

UNESCO — United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

USIA — The United States Information Agency

USP — Universidade de 850 Paulo

WEAL — Women’s Equity Action League

WTO — World Trade Organization

XVII

Introduction

The September 27, 1995 edition of the magazine Exame (the Brazilian counterpart

of Fortune 500) ran an article entitled: “Afro-Brazilians First: American Subsidiaries

Introduce Brazil to Affirmative Action. It guarantees job opportunities for blacks,

women. . .”lA year later, The Wall Street Journal published another article under the

heading: ‘Seeking Equality: A Racial ‘Democracy’ Begins Painful Debate on Affirmative

Action.” The sub-headings emphasized: “Blacks Make Up 45% of Brazil but Stay

Marginalized: Fear of a White Backlash, Looking to US. Companies.”2 Interviewed by

the US. newspaper, Thomas Skidmore, a well known Brazilianist at Brown University,

voiced his surprise with the following question: “Is it possible? This isn’t the Brazil I

know.”

Skidmore’s reaction echoed in Brazil, where scholars, despite their familiarity

with the local “racial politics and dynamics,”3 were late to take notice of the changes

ahead of them. In the 1995 article, an US. agri-business subsidiary was showcased as

introducing an “African-Brazilian Program” aimed at recruiting, training and promoting

Afro-Brazilians4 for positions in the company. The 1996 article acknowledged the

 

l

Claudia Vassalo. “Afro-Brasileiros Primeiro: As filiais Americanas introduzem no Brasil acao affirrnativa.

Ela garante oportunidades no trabalho para negros, mulheres. . .” Exame, 27 de Setembro de 1995:74-76.

 

Matt Moffett. ‘Seeking Equality: A Racial ‘Democracy’ Begins Painful Debate on Affrrrnative Action.

Blacks Make Up 45% of Brazil But Stay Marginalized. Fear of a White Backlash. Looking to U.S.

Companies.” The Wall Street Joum_al, Tuesday, August 6, 1996, Page A6, Column 1.

‘ The concept ‘racial politics and dynamics’ used here follows Michael Hanchard’s interpretation. It

“encompasses the role of social constructions of race and racial difference in formal, institutional politics as

well as in the political interactions of daily life.” Racial Politics in Contemporary BraziL edited by Michael

Hanchard. Durban and London: Duke University Press, 1999:]

4 Racial/Color Terminologies. The US. subsidiary in Brazil titled in English its affirmative action program

as the “African-Brazilian program.” In Portuguese, the terms Afro-Brazilian, Afrodescendant and Negro

(Black) are the terminologies of choice used by the active political segments of African descendant

populations, and the public at large. These categorizations are used along with the terms Preto (black) and

Pardo (mixed) as registered by the census records. In this study I will be using interchangeably the words

Afro-Brazilians, Black Brazilians, Blacks and Afrodescendant (s).

changing debate on racial politics in Brazil, citing a protest movement waged by black

students from the University of S50 Paulo (USP). The students formed the “Comité a

Favor das Cotas” (Committee in Favor of Quotas) aimed at increasing the number of

Blacks in that traditional and elitist institution. In 1996, out of thirty five thousand plus

USP students, black students accounted for only one percent.’ The aim of the protest

movement was twofold: a) it called on the USP administration to reserve ten percent of

admission slots for black students from public high schools; and b) it called into question

the university’s entrance exam. In addition to the controversies generated by the black

student protest movement, the article also explained how Brazilian government officials

saw the US subsidiaries operating in Brazil as important allies in educating Brazilians

about the workings of affirmative action and diversity programs geared towards the labor

market and education. Though the Brazrlrans interViewed were very adamant about

.

5

.

.

.

.

devising their own methods and solutions to the racial inequalities, they, nevertheless,

relied on US expertise because of their long-term experience in dealing with the

struggles to eliminate racral inequalities in the United States. Significantly, in both

examples, the US companies were cited as role models and agents of change in a social

 

. The Folha Online of March 2“, 2004, reported that Black students at USP accounted for 9.64% or 1.3%

Pretos and 8.34 % Pardos.

The former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a sociologist by training, confirmed

government perceptions of US. subsidiaries operating in Brazil in relation to affnmative action. Having

been asked about the low number of Afro-Brazilians working in the service sector in comparison to the

US, Cardoso pondered: “ It is beginning to change. Paradoxically these changes have been effected via

multinational companies because of the American pressure. I knew the racist United States. The change that

took place in the United States over the past thirty years honors the American democracy. In Brazil it is not

sufficiently appreciated the spirit of innovation and persistence of egalitarian values as in the United States.

A certain change is beginning to take place here. In the television something is beginning to be shown in

favor of equality. This is important because it signals something to the country...” (my translation) Excerpt

from the book titled O Presidente Segundo o Sociologo (The President According to the Sociologist). Sao

Paulo: Compahia das Letras, 1998, and published at Egg, Maio 6, 1998:50-53.

6

The Folha Online of March 2nd, 2004, cited above.

context where, until recently, inequalities of any sort were attributed to class differences,

and “race”7 was understood as an appendage to socio-economic processes.

When those initial news articles on affirmative action and diversity policies and

programs were written in 1995 and 1996, they created a sensation in Brazil, but, by 2004,

the concepts of affirmative action, diversity, and corporate social responsibility policies

are no longer taboo. In spite of that, these concepts are still fiercely debated among those

who favor and those who are against race-based social policies. Two ideas have been

central to these debates: a) exactly how to determine who is Black in Brazil, and b) how

race-based social policies can be implemented in a country lacking a rigid color/racial

line. Both questions have been addressed by race relations specialists, policy makers,

political activists, and by the general public, as has been demonstrated in editorials and

letters—to-the editor sections of leading Brazilian magazines and newspapers.

This dissertation seeks to answer three main questions: What factors account for

the changing perceptions and definitions of “race” in Brazil? How have affirmative action

programs and policies been developed and implemented? What have been the spillover

effects of such programs on the government, corporate sector, and civil society? In order

 

7 The term “race” leans towards the social constructivism paradigm, which according to Beth Kolko et all

argues that: “social constructionist view of race argues that there is no biological or genetic basis for diving

the world’s population into distinct racial groups. While we typically see racial difference residing in

physical traits that are genetically determined (e.g., skin color, hair texture and color, nose and eye shapes,

etc.), attempts to map out those traits across the world’s population (a) generate patterns that don’t match up

with the racial categories we already have, and (b) don’t add up to coherent patterns that would support any

model of people as racially distinct from one another. Moreover, there is more genetic variance within

allegedly homogenous racial groups than there is between supposedly distinct groups - which simply

wouldn’t happen were the differences between those groups rooted in biology. It bears emphasizing,

however, that the socially constructed nature of race doesn '1 mean that our understanding of race and race

categories isn’t somehow real or that it have tangible (an all too ofien deadly) effects on the ways that

people are able to live their lives. What it does mean, however, is that the systems of racial categorization

that permeate our world derived from culture, not nature”. Beth E. Kolko, Lisa Nakamura, and Gilbert B.

Rodman, “ Race in Cyberspace” Race in CMrspace, edited by Beth E. Kolko, Lisa Nakamura and Gilbert

B. Rodman. New York and London: Routledge, 2000: 2. Thus, my use of the term “race” conjures up the

idea that racism and attendant discriminatory practices give meaning to “race”.

to address these main questions, three case studies with those programs and policies will

be examined:

Case-Study n. 1: In 1999, a US. based foundation, an Afro-Brazilian non

governmental organization (NGO), and a Brazilian federal agency for black community

affairs formed an unusual “partnership” in 850 Paulo city, Brazil, in order to carry out an

affirmative action project titled Generation XXI. Since its inception, the project has

received considerable national and international media attention.

Case Study n.2: Since early 1990, the Center for the Study of Labor Relations and

Inequality (CEERT), an Afro-Brazilian NGO, has developed a series of innovative

seminars and workshops with trade unions, the corporate sector, and public schools,

aimed at de-constructing discriminatory practices and prejudices against women and

black Brazilians in the workplace. Their initiatives led to broad discussions with national

and international labor organizations such as the North American Federation of Labor —

Confederation of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the International Labor Office

(ILO), forcing state compliance with international conventions against racial inequality,

which, in turn, influenced federal legislation against racial discrimination in the

workplace.

Case Study n.3: In the year 2000, two professors from the Department of

Anthropology of the University of Brasilia (UnB) conducted a series of discussions to

address discriminatory practices that had resulted in the elimination of a first year

doctoral student from the same department. Known as the “Ari case”, the controversies

surrounding the case spurred a series of internal discussions at the university, which

ultimately led to the development and implementation of an affirmative action program.

The UnB became the first federal university in the nation to embrace race-based

compensatory policies.

Study Background

The remarkable transformations in Brazil regarding race-based social policies

have taken place in a country where, until recently, common sense interpretations of”

race” and “racial politics and dynamics” were attributed to Carl N. Degler’s mulatto

escape hatch8 and Gilberto F reyre’s racial democracyg ideology. The former stressed that

people of mixed ancestry, mainly Afro-Brazilian and European descendants, well-

educated and upward mobile, were most likely to be accommodated within the

mainstream Brazilian-European oriented social-racial structure. The latter argued that

everyone should be entitled to unconstrained upward mobility, regardless of his or her

“race”, class, color and religious affiliations. Scholars sponsoring these conceptual and

theoretical formulations interpreted the Brazilian social reality as a viable alternative for

oppressed racial groups willing to elude racial oppression. These discussions emphasized

class rather than racial dynamics and politics as mediating mechanisms that concealed

possible socio-racial conflicts.

 

3

Carl N. Degler, Neither Black nor White:Slavery and Race Relation;and Brazil and the United States.

New York: Macmillan, 1971.

9

Gilberto Freyre. The Masters and the Slaves. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946.

The power elrte’s rac1al democracy ideology, for instance, was vowed by those in

,

lO

,

,

.

.

.

charge of managing the state, the military, and sectors of the intelligentsia, academic

circles, and the media, as well as by the public, in general, and by selected Afro-Brazilian

politically active segments since the 19303 and 19405.ll The Brazilian exceptionalism

was interpreted by members of the academic community and political elites who

compared the local pattern of “racial politics and dynamics” vis-a-vis patterns of racial

disengagement and violence that typified social relations in the United States and South

Africa. Evidently, ideological discourses do not necessarily mirror the entire reality of the

social spectrum. It may reflect the willingness of selected social groups interested in

changing or maintaining a given social structure, or it may reflect the contradictions and

tensions inherent to that social milieu.

Thus, for almost a century, the racial democracy ideology enjoyed a firm

stronghold in the hearts and minds of the power elite and large segments of the Brazilian

population as a symbolic metaphor embedded in a nationalist discourse of affirmation of

Brazilian identity. Such sentiment explains in part the resistance with which Brazilians

contemplate the idea of implementation of race-based social policies, since such policies

question the racial democracy ideal and attendant power structure. Among the charges

directed against the idea of government-sponsored affirmative action programs was the

 

lo The North American sociologist, C. Wright Mills, defined the concept of power elite as “composed of

men whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environment of ordinary men and women; they

are in positions to make decisions having major consequences. Whether they do or do not make such

decisions is less important than the fact that they occupy such pivotal positions: their failure to act, their

failure to make decisions, is itself an act that is ofien of greater consequence than the decisions they do

make. For they are in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society. They rule the

big corporations. They run the machinery of the state and claim its prerogatives. They direct the military

establishment. They occupy the strategic command posts of the social structure, in which are now centered

the effective means of the power and the wealth and the celebrity which they enjoy.” C. Wright Mills. '_l‘_h_e_

Power Elite London, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1956: 3-4.

understanding that the concept of “race” was being Americanized into the harsh

Black/White bipolar system of racial classification deployed in the US.12 Those opposed

to affirmative action policies insist that in a country where, for centuries, a fluid color

continuum has allowed Brazilians to identify themselves according to the conveniences of

class, color, and status, race-based social policies have no validity. Pierre Bordieu and

Ldic Wacquant made explicit such an argument in a controversial article published in

1999 where the authors accused an Afiican American scholar, along with US. based

foundations to impose a dichotomous racial categorizations in countries that had

undergone a different historical trajectory. [3

Critics of such pervasive perspectives have cogently pointed out that throughout

history, the Brazilian security forces, such as the police and the military apparatus, have

always identified who is Black and who is White in the population. The celebrated Afro-

Brazilian civil rights activist Abdias do Nascimento once told me “the police was the

government of the poor in Brazil.”

This criticism is backed up by a 1999 report stating

14

,

that Afro-Brazilian men “are more likely to be arrested as suspects for both violent and

.

.

.

l5

.

.

non-Violent crimes than any other population group.”

These critics have argued further

that in the periodic government surveys and census data, the fluidity of the color

 

11

Antonio Sérgio Alfredo Guimaraes “ Intelectuais Negros e formas de Integracéo Nacional” In Estudos

évangados 50: Dossié: O Niro no Brasil Vol. 18, Numero 50, Janeiro/Abril 2004: 271 —.284

2Pierre Bourdieu and Loic Wacquant articulated an example of such assumption in the controversial

lasrticle “On the Cunning of Imperialist Reason,” Theory Culture and Society. Vol. 16 N. 1, 1999: 41 -.58

l4Ibid.

:Interview with Senador Abdias do Nascimentoin January 03, 1998, Rio de Janeiro

SSérgio Adorno. “Racial Discrimination and Criminal Justice in Sao Paulo” in From Indifference to

Inequality: Race in Contemporary Brazil edited by Rebecca Reichmann. University Park, Pennsylvania:

The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999:123-137; Antonio Sérgio Alfredo Guimaraes. Preconceito e

Discriminagao: Queifl de OfenLas e Tratamento Desigual dos Ngggs no Brasil. Salvador: Novos Toques,

1998; Darién Davis. Afro-Brazili_ans: Time for Recognition. London: Minority Rights Group International,

1999226.

continuum thesis collapses in light of the evidence that inequalities in Brazil are colored

and gendered. As a matter of fact, in Brazil, people are classified by skin color and are

divided into five categories: Branco (White), Preto (Black), Pardo (brown or mixed),

Amarelo (yellow and referring to Asian descendants), and Indigenous groups.

Nevertheless, Preto (Black) and Pardo (mixed) groups, according to the census, are more

likely to be located at the bottom of the social hierarchy and discriminated against.

The Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development reinvigorated these debates

when the Brazilian federal government announced its first affirmative action program.

The announcement came at the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial

Discrimination, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance, held in Durban, South

Africa in 2001. Afro-Brazilian activists preceded the announcement by almost two years

of intense national and transnational mobilization. On several occasions these activists

used international structures of governance, such as the UN-sponsored meetings and

conferences, to denounce the Brazilian government for its consistent lack of attention to

the rampant racial inequalities and to characterize Brazil as one of the most unequal

societies in the world.

In the aftermath of this world event, several affirmative action programs have

been implemented in local state governments, such as Bahia, Para, Rio de Janeiro and

Mato Grosso, in addition to the federal program of the Ministry of Agrarian

Development, Labor and Justice Ministries. Even more interesting are the affirmative

action programs and projects “from below,” comprised of previously unthinkable

partnerships between the corporate sector, Afro-Brazilian NGOs and the state.

Early studies have addressed the relationships between the state and civil society,

or the state and corporate sector. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of knowledge and

academic research about the interactions between these social actors and the

implementation of race-based social policies and programs, particularly in relation to the

interactions between the state, the corporate sector and Afro-Brazilian NGOs that account

for the changing meanings and perception about “race” in Brazil.

Conceptual Framework

The theoretical foundation orienting this investigation is comprised of five

interrelated conceptual references derived from an interdisciplinary framework:

“everyday racism” as elucidated by Philomena Essed;I6 “political consciousness” as

formulated by Aldon D. Morris;'7 and “mobilizing opportunities” as elaborated by Jackie

.

.

.

.

,

18

Smith, which are anchored in the socral movements literature;

and “structures of

governance,” as advanced by Thomas Risse-Kappen, grounded in the international

relations and human rights Iiteratures.19 The historical narrative, which accounts for the

implementation of equal opportunity policies in Brazil, emulates John David Skretny’s

historical sociological approach regarding the implementation of affirmative action

policies and programs in the United States, which points to the convergence of national

and international contexts. Of particular importance are Skrentny’s “administrative

 

no

Philomena Essed. Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory. New York & London:

Sage Publication, 1991.

Aldon D. Morris. “ Political Consciousness and Collective Action” in Frontiers in Social Movement

Theogy, edited by Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller. New Haven and London” Yale University

Press, 1992:351.
18

Jackie Smith, “Transnational Political Processes and the Human Rights Movement” Research in Social

Movements;Conflicts and Change, Vol. 18, 19952192.

19

Thomas Risse-Kappen. editor, Bringing Transnational Relations Back In: Non-States Actors. Domestic

Structures and International Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995:6-7.

pragmatism ,

99

‘6

crisis management” and “activist government” conceptual model that I

borrowed to explain historical events in Brazil concerning equal opportunity policies. 20

“Everyday Racism” — Philomena Essed refined this concept in her ground breaking

analysis of the intersections of gender and racism which characterized the lives of a

selected group of well educated and professional African American and African

Surinamese women in the United States and in the Netherlands respectively. In her

analytical model, Essed sought to incorporate the macro and micro aspects of social

reality in which daily experiences of racism shaped those women’s lives and their

responses to structural oppression. Their personal accounts exemplified relations of

power, domination and subordination. In doing so, Essed was able to bridge the gap

created by previous studies that uncovered the structural basis of racial oppression, while

leaving untouched or unaccounted for, the extent to which the social meanings derived

from racism and discriminatory practices impacted the realm of the private sphere. These

insights are relevant for all chapters of this dissertation, and particularly to the case

studies presented in Chapters 7, 8 and 9 on account of the interfacing macro and micro

aspects of social reality experienced by Afro-Brazilians.

“Political Consciousness” — I relied on Aldon D. Morris’s concept of political

consciousness to advance my understanding of collective action in the context of social

movements’ struggles as well as the political actions undertaken by advocacy

organizations “from below.” As posited by Morris, political consciousness is an

overarching concept that gives expression to different kinds of consciousness vis-a-vis

structures of domination and subordination. In this sense, “race”, class and gender

 

20

John David Skrentriy (l). The Ironies of AffirmLive Action: Politics. Culture. and Justice in America.

Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996: 67-110.

10

consciousness, just to name a few, represent the types of collective action in which each

domain corresponds to a set of specific political action undertaken by those engaged in

power relationships and redefinition of group identity. However, depending on

specificities of time, place and space, these domains — “race”, class and gender - may

overlap contributing to cross-class-race and gender alliances promoting small or large-

scale processes of social change. In relation to this study, the concept of “political

consciousness” is relevant in advancing our understanding of the various processes that

have contributed to the implementation of affirmative action policies in the United States

and Brazil as demonstrated in Chapters 5 and 6.

“Mobilizing opportunities” - In Chapters 5 and 6 of this dissertation, Smith’s concept

of “mobilizing opportunity” is borrowed in reference to the historical experience of

African Americans communities in the processes of implementing equal opportunities,

and the ongoing processes taking place in Brazil, where Afro-Brazilian advocacy

organizations seek national and international support for equal opportunity policies and

programs in areas of education and the labor market. Previous studies have shown that

under unfavorable political circumstances, Afro-Brazilian advocacy organizations have

been oftentimes prevented by the state from organizing along racial lines on the allegation

that such activities are subversive and un-Brazilian. The same reasoning has included

.

.

.

,

,

21

censorship in the academic realm as related to race relations’ studies.

 

”I See for example, Thomas E. Skidmore “Race and Class in Brazil: Historical Perspectives” in Race Class

and Power in Brazil. edited by Pierre-Michel Fontaine. Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies,

University of California, 1985:11-24; Peter T. Johnson, “Academic Press Censorship under Military and

Civilian Regimes: The Argentine and Brazilian Cases, 1964-1975,” Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 15, N.1,

(Summer 1978): 3-25; Michael Mitchell, “Black and the Abertura Democrética” in “Race, Class and Power

in Brazil”: Historical Perspectives” in gee, Class and Power in Brazil, edited by Pierre-Michel Fontaine.

Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies, University of California, 1985:95-119.

ll

 

The overall framework advanced by John David Skrentny in his study of the

historical development of affirmative action policies in the United States provides a

conceptual map which clarifies how the socio-political developments at the domestic

front responded in part by the international configurations of the Cold War era. The

propaganda machinery deployed by the Soviets aimed to expose the US. hypocrisy in

championing human rights abroad while neglecting to do the same at home in relation to

African Americans resonated with the ascending political leadership of the emergent new

nations in Afiica and Asia. Although the expediency with which the Americans finally

implemented compensatory policies cannot be attributed to this single factor, it helped

Civil Rights leaders to gain momentum in their struggles to obtain equality.

Unlike the North Americans, who grappled with the changing social, political and

racial structures in the context of the Cold War, in Brazil, globalization processes

underscored the international background where the changing discourse and political

practices related to “race” took place. More specifically, globalization processes

intensified simultaneously not only the interrelatedness of socio-economic, political and

cultural events, but also the transnationalization of social movements “from below.”

Hence, the interplay of the national and international contexts leading to the outcomes of

the Civil Rights movement and the implementation of equal opportunity policies by the

state offers an interesting counterpoint to the Brazilian experience.

12

Research Design and Methodology

Selecting the Subjects

In this research, I use the purposeful sampling technique, also known as the

criterion-based selection. According to Joseph A. Maxwell,22 it is a qualitative research

strategy, which consists of deliberately selecting people and events that may provide

relevant information to the main research questions. I selected the Generation XXI project

spearheaded by the Afro-Brazilian NGO Geledés, because of its pioneering affirmative

action project “from below” with the financial and logistic support of BankBoston

Foundation and the Palmares Foundation, a Brazilian federal agency.

Though non Afro-Brazilian NGOs had for decades made partnerships with US.

based organizations and institutions to establish a myriad of projects, in the contemporary

period it was the first time that such a partnership took place with the full support of the

federal government. In 1978 similar attempts by Afro-Brazilian NGOs to promote joint

projects with the Inter-American foundation resulted in the expulsion of the latter from

the country. The military government of the time perceived the American foundation as

.

.

.

.

.

.

23

.

.

.

.

.

supporting subversrve actrvrties in the country.

In light of the historical underpinnings

surrounding such collaborations, I considered studying this project as a watershed since it

could determine the future of similar efforts in the years to come, particularly when one

considers the sensitivity with which so many Brazilians perceive affirmative action. For

 

22

Joseph A. Maxwell. Qualitative Research Design: An Interpretative Approgh. Thousand Oaks: Sage

Publication, Vol. 41, and 1996:] 16-137.

23 In the peak of the military regime, public discussions on racism and racial discrimination were severely

limited and under scrutiny by the government. In 1979 the IPCN - Instituto the Pesquisas das Culturas

Negras (Institute for Research of the Black Cultures) of Rio de Janeiro was to form a partnership with the

Inter-American Foundation in order to promote study and projects aimed at the poor communities of that

state. The initiative created an international incident, and the North American Foundation was kept out of

the country for many years. Thomas Skidmore analyzed the episode, “Historical Perspectives” in m

13

Generation XX], I interviewed twenty people closely related to the project, including

coordinators, students, and the BankBoston Foundation representative for the project.

Respondents answered my questions through direct contact, e-mail and phone interviews.

I also hired a research assistant who conducted part of the interviews and transcribed all

of the tapes in Portuguese, and I translated them into English. As a participant observer, 1

attended one of the events promoted by the students, called Café Cultural - which takes

place once a month. My investigation regarding Generation XXI took place during two

different time periods: January to July of 2000, and October to December of 2001. The

data derived from this primary source of investigation was complemented by subsequent

publications on the project, as well as reports conducted by independent researchers and

by news media coverage.

The second case study refers to the Center for the Study of Labor Relations and

Inequality (CEERT) where interviews were conducted with two members of the

organization. Additionally, I was given access to the CEERT’s files and documents

related to the various projects undertaken by the organization. The period of my field

investigation at CEERT was from January to February of 2000. As a participant observer

I took part in CEERT’s two events about the role of the corporate sector in promoting

affirmative action policies. In addition to the members of the organizations

aforementioned, on these occasions I interviewed eleven people among corporate

executives, union leaders, and one person who, for many years, participated in the

African-Brazilian program of another U.S. subsidiary agri-business corporation.

 

Class and Power. edited by Pierre-Michel Fontaine. University of California, Los Angeles. Center for Afro-

American Studies, 1985:16.

14

I obtained materials for the third case study through interviewing the three main

protagonists of the study, in addition to reports, newspaper articles and academic journals,

in relation to the process of discussing and implementing an affirmative project at a

federal university. I conducted additional eleven interviews with people from different

sectors and activities not directly involved with the organizations and the state institution

under investigation. I wanted to assess their perceptions about the affirmative action

policy prospects in Brazil. These interviews included state officials, scholar-activists and

non-activists, students, and policy-makers. Though most of the interviews were

conducted between the 2000 and 20001, I continuously updated information and checked

new developments regarding affirmative action debates in Brazil until December of 2004.

Forty-two interviews constituted the primary source of data. I obtained a wealth of

Interviews

information from these interviews, which were conducted at several levels: 1) Afro-

Brazilian advocacy organizations, mainly Geledés and CEERT; 2) Members of the

Generation XXI project, such as the coordinators, students and their parents; 3) human

resource managers; 3) an Afro-Brazilian employee hired under a diversity program, 4) a

former Labor Ministry, and representatives of Ministry of Justice, notably the head of the

National Secretary of Human Rights; 5) trade union representatives; 6) academics,

scholars-activists, and media journalists.

Each interview took approximately 45 to 60 minutes. Most interviews were taped

with the permission of the respondents. This technique allowed me to preserve accuracy

and prevent validity threats to the research findings. In all of the interviews my research

assistant and I started by explaining the purpose of my study and then began the actual

15

interviews with an open-ended question, which generally evolved into more structured

questions. When a face-to-face interview was not possible, e-mails and phone interviews

were utilized. When the main protagonists were well known public figures their real

identities were not concealed. For instance, the name of the advocacy organizations, the

sponsoring state and private foundations as well as the public university with their

respective affirmative action programs and policies are real, and so the main protagonists

of the labor advocacy organization and the public university subjects who were directly

involved in the case that originated the movement for affirmative action at that institution.

Otherwise respondents’ privacy was protected through numerically coding the interviews

so their names did not appear in the drafts or in the final document. 24

I selected the interviewee based on the principle of theoretical sampling: that is,

choices of respondents and events were oriented according to the main research questions

rather than through random statistical representation. This process helped me to select

additional subjects in the process of doing the research. The main objective of using this

sampling was to help me to clarify particular concepts or theories related to the subject

under investigation.25 Furthermore, this particular modality of investigation allowed me

to expand the number of interviews, so that the variations of the information collected

provided a sound basis for establishing significant comparisons among case studies.

Initially, I had estimated conducting a maximum of 30 interviews. However, the

unanticipated additional information led me to include 12 more subjects in order to get

more clarification on particular issues.

 

24

This observation relates to the two CEERT’s founding members, UnB three main protagonists and

Geledés, BankBoston and Palmares foundations the sponsoring institutions of Generation XXI project.

The remaining informants had their real identities protected.

16

Gaining Access and Setting for the Study

My previous work as a scholar and activist for human rights in Brazil facilitated

my contacts with the state, corporations and non-govemmental organizations under

investigation. On the occasions of public seminars promoted by the state, trade unions,

corporations and non-govemmental organization, I introduced myself and explained my

purpose in conducting this research. I was always welcomed, and when the time came for

conducting the field research I confirmed my intentions through subsequent phone calls.

Two case studies took place in S50 Paulo: Generation XXI spearheaded by Geledés - The

Black Women Institute, and the labor advocacy NGO - Center for the Study of Labor

Relations and Inequality (CEERT). The third case study related to the University of

Brasilia, took place in Brasilia, the federal capital. While face-to-face interviews

constituted the primary source of investigation for the case studies in S50 Paulo, mainly

phone interviews and e-mails, in addition to secondary sources and available institutional

reports obtained data for the third case study.

Additional Research Methodology

Qualitative methods were chosen as the most appropriate for this research because

there was no previous studies regarding the implementation of affirmative

action/diversity policies in US based companies conducting business in Brazil in

conjunction with Afro-Brazilian NGOs. Qualitative methods in this case, allowed me to

explore and obtain "rich data" related to all the aspects involved in these projects.

Qualitative data collection guiding this study included:

 

25

Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman. An Expanded Sourcebook: Qualitative Data Analysis,

Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage Publications, 1994:27-34.

17

1) Primary source materials via face-to face interviews, participant observation at

meetings and seminars taking place inside or outside the scope of the advocacy

organizations, trade unions and corporations;

2) Secondary source materials included documentary bibliographic methods

related to affirmative action and diversity policies introduced in Brazil. Documents

produced by corporations and Afro-Brazilian NGOs regarding affirmative action and

diversity policies were incorporated in data collection.

3) Quantitative methods were used selectively whenever appropriate.

The Specific Problem and Additional Research Questions

The literature on racial politics produced in Brazil and abroad regarding the

Brazilian experience has consistently pointed out that social policy addressing racial

inequalities would not prevail until the mixed populations assume a black identity.

Despite this common sense perception, US. based subsidiaries operating in the country

since the early 19903, have gradually embraced the idea of diversity policies/affirmative

action programs without being required by the Brazilian government. More interestingly,

civil society advocacy groups have implemented programs of affirmative action/diversity

policies either by themselves or in collaboration with the state and corporate sector. In all

case studies, “race” or color has been the guiding principles around which those

initiatives have been implemented. How can these examples succeed in light of the fluid

color continuum argument? How have “race”/color been defined in these particular

contexts? In relation to the three case-studies provided in this study, what are the

strategies being deployed by school officials, advocacy groups, and the corporate sector

in order to implement diversity policies or affirmative action programs? What has been

18

the outcome of such programs within the scope of the corporate sector? What has been

the impact of these programs on the government and other institutions?

The above, in addition to the following additional questions, undergird the

investigation: How were these projects conceptualized, developed and implemented?

How have they impacted the students and their families involved in the project? How do

these examples contribute to the discussion of public policies aimed at curtailing race,

class and gender based inequalities?

Significance of the Study

One of the basic contributions of this study is to reflect upon the nature of a

changing racial perception and definition of “peoplehood,” contributing to the ongoing

discussions in Brazil related to the implementation of affrrrnative action and diversity

policies in the public as well as in the private sectors. More importantly, the examples

presented here move a step forward in explaining intricate aspects of racial politics and

dynamics not yet explored by any previous studies of advocacy groups, “race,” class,

' inequalities and social policies in Brazil. For example, the ongoing interactions between

Afio-Brazilian NGOs, international donor agencies and foundations and the state mark a

new moment in the history of Brazilian racial political mobilization, which require new

interpretations.

Organization of the Study

The chapters are organized as follows: Chapter 1 introduces a demographic profile

in order to draw an overall picture of where Afro-Brazilians are located in the

socioeconomic, cultural and political social structures. Chapter 2 relates the previous

discussion to the role of “race” and the state in structuring racial categorization and

I9

citizenship. It emphasizes the meaning of a color continuum category over periods of

time, and the challenges it poses to the formulation of race based social policies vis-a-vis

civil society contestation of established racial/color categorization in light of

overwhelming racial inequalities. Chapter 3 explores the literature regarding the changing

role of “race,” the state, corporate sector, and advocacy organization in the context of the

global political economy. Taking the US. experience as the primary example it traces a

brief historical background of affirmative action, diversity and corporate acts of social

responsibility policies in the US. and Brazil. Chapter 4 contextualizes the historical

developments underpinning the implementation of affirmative action policies and

programs in the United States as a counterpoint of the discussion about the

implementation of these policies in Brazil. Chapter 5 demonstrates the historical

foundations of the Brazilian experience and debates with affirmative action policies in

Brazil. Chapter 6 introduces Generation XXI, the first case study. Chapter 7 details the

evolving affirmative action initiatives developed by the Center for the Study of Labor

Relations and Inequality (CEERT), the second case study. Chapter 8 illustrates state-

sponsored affirmative action policy by a federal university, the third case study. Chapter 9

summarizes the findings, analysis and recommendations, and concludes the study.

20

CHAPTER 1

The Reality of Racial Inequalities

Introduction

Social inequalities in Brazil are widespread. However, some groups are more

likely than others to be located at the lower end of the social scale, whereby color

ascription seems to indicate systematic processes of racialism and attendant racism. The

former refers to “the unequal treatment of a population group purely because of its

possession of physical or other characteristics socially defined as denoting a particular

race.” The latter indicates “the deterministic belief-system which sustains racialism,

linking these characteristics with negatively valued social, psychological, or physical

traits.”26 In Brazil, for the most part, social science students have examined inequalities

through the macro-structural lens to the detriment of every day discriminatory practices;

that is, the micro-level domain that informs the structural, social and institutional levels.

In this chapter, I begin by introducing the socio-demographic data related to spatial

distribution of the population by color and region. I proceed to locate Afro-Brazilians

within the extant opportunity structures as measured by education and labor market

outcomes. I conclude this chapter by presenting an ensemble of various interpretations of

the socio-racia] inequalities. The macro-structural level, anchored on the assimilation and

structural interpretations of Brazilian society, is juxtaposed with brief ethnographic

accounts. The latter highlights Philomena Essed’s concept of “everyday racism,” which

clarifies the extent to which inequalities in Brazil are experienced by Afro-Brazilians.

21

“Race”/Color by the Numbers

It has been widely publicized by the academic and non-academic literature, and

the news media, that Brazil has the largest concentration of African descendant people in

the Americas. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE),

the last census of 2000 registered a total population of approximately 170 million people

distributed in the following color categories: 6.2 percent (+-10 million) could be

unmistakably identified as Pretos (Blacks) and 38.4 percent (+- 66 million) were

comprised of Pardos (brown or Mixed), mainly people of African and European ancestry.

Excluded from this total were 0.4 percent (+ - 734,000) Indigenous groups representing

more than 2000 ethnic nations. Brancos (Whites - European descendants) comprised 53.7

percent (+ - 90 million), and Amarelos (Y ellow- Asian descendants) accounted for 0.4

percent (+ - 761,000). Most Asians were of Japanese descendant, but the category also

included Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean. Additionally, more than 1 million people, or

0.4 percent of the population, did not declare their color to the census takers.

Combining

27

the "pure" and "mixed" populations, there are 75 million plus African descendant people

in Brazil.

Population Distribution

The regional distribution of the Brazilian population by color according to the

census of 2000 was the following:

 

26 Gordon Marshall. A Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

27Censo Demografico 2000. Caracteristicas Gerais da Populac5o. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e

Estatistica. Rio de Janeiro, 2000; See also Jo5o Pacheco de Oliveira. “Entering and Leaving the “Melting

22

Table l — Population Distribution by Color and Mon in Percenta e - 2000

 

Color

Brasil

North

Northeast

South

Southeast

Center-West

 

53.7

28.0

32.9

83.6

62.4

49.7

Branca

 

Preta

6.2

5.0

7.7

3.7

6.6

4.6

 

Parda

38.5

64.0

58.0

11.5

29.5

43.7

 

Amarela

0.4

0.2

0.1

0.4

0.7

0.4

 

Indigena

0.4

 
  
  

Color not

declared

 

 

 

 

0.7

1.2

0.8

0.4

0.6

0.7

 

0.9

1.7

0.4

0.3

0.2

Source: IBGE. Censo Demografico, 2000, cited in Jose' Luis Petrucelli, “ Mapa da Cor no Ensino

Superior,”Programa Politicas da Cor na Educac5o Brasileira. Se'rie Ensaios & Pesquisas. Laboratorio de Politicas

Publicas: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro & Secretaria Especial de Promoc5o de Politicas de lgualdade

Racial, Setembro de 2004: 13.

Table 1 shows that: Brancos (Whites) are primarily concentrated in the South, Southeast,

and Center-West regions with 83.6 percent, 62.4 percent and 49.7 percent respectively. Pretos

(Blacks) are mainly concentrated in the regions of the North, Northeast and Southeast regions,

accounting for 5.0 percent, 7.7 percent and 6.6 percent respectively. Pardos (Mixed) are

concentrated in the North, Northeast, Center-West and Southeast regions comprising 64.0

percent, 58.0 percent, 43.7 percent and 29.5 percent respectively. The Indigenous populations are

concentrated mostly in the North and Center-West regions totaling 1.7 percent and 0.9 are almost

evenly distributed in the remaining regions. Amarelos (Asians) are mainly concentrated in the

Southeast, South and Center-West regions comprising 0.7 percent, 0.4 percent, and 0.4 percent

respectively. People who did not declared color were mostly concentrated in the North, Northeast

and Southeast regions accounting for 1.2 percent, 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. The

spatial distribution of the population by regions is demonstrated in the following map:

 

Potz” A History of Brazilian Indians in the National Censuses” Joumflf Latin American Anthropology. 4,

23

Brazil Map by Regions

AM '

PA

CE.£_

0&5

  

 

MT

BA

RORAIMA
AMAZONAS

ACRE
AMAPA

PARA

RONDONIA

 

 

MARANHAO

CEARA

RIO GRANDE DO NMTE

PARAIBA

PERNAMBUCO

ALAGOAS

SERGIPE

BAHIA

  PIAUI

 

 

CENTER-WE ST

TOCANTINS

DEBRASILIA

MATO GROSSO DO SUL

NA

SANTA CATARINA

RIO GRANDE DO sun.

 

M NAS GERAIS

ESPIRITO SANTO 

RIO DE JANEIRO

O PAULO

 

Source: Map elaborated by Eduardo de Arar'ijo Cardoso, 2005

 

“Pigmentocracy”: The Hierarchy of Color

A word of caution: Brazilians classify themselves according to color and not

ancestral lineage or “race” as in the United States. The range of color categorization was

registered by the National Household Survey (PNAD) of 1976 that revealed the existence

of 136 color categories, which were lumped under the catchall terminology Pardo. Some

of the terms included: white dark, white pink, yellow, burned yellow, Morena (brunette),

brunette-cinnamon, silver brunette, parda clara (light mestica), purple, redhead, burned

.

,

23

pink, wheat, toasted, sun burned, purple brunette, white molasses, etc...

This apparent non-essentialist categorization is epitomized by the category Pardo,

whose fluidity in the color continuum equates to biological and social mobility. In other

words, the term Pardo relates mostly to the offspring of African and European

descendants, but also to those whose good fortunes are considered well off by European

Brazilians as measured by educational achievements or income. For example, depending

on the local or regional social etiquette of racial politics, a successful dark skin man or

woman who in the United States would be considered ‘Black’, in Brazil he or she may be

considered Pardo (a) or the preferable term ‘Moreno’ (a). and even White, in the eyes of

the beholder. It is the notion of ‘one drop rule’ as applied in the United States turned

,

29

upsrde down.

In Brazil, social conventions, firmly rooted in time, have established a color

hierarchy or pi grnentocracy, which attaches positive social values to light skinned people

 

" Clovis Moura.m. N. 10. S50 Paulo: Editora Trés, 1982: 112.

. In contemporary Brazil, the term ‘Moreno’ refers to European descendant person with dark hair, however,

in popular usage ‘Moreno’ is an euphemism to the terms ‘pardo’ and ‘negro.’ See Antonio Se'rgio

Guimar5es, “Race, Class and Color: Behind Brazil’s “Racial Democracy” NACLA, Report on the

Americas, 34, N6, May-June 2001: 38-9.

25

to the detriment of dark skinned ones, a process comparable to the racial categorizations

found in other places. I define the range of people’s self-definitions of color as color

euphemism, which I perceive as an attribute of discrimination. It informs the

discriminatory patterns of those who utilize it as well as those who receive it. This

contradictory and dialectical component is, nonetheless, based on a non verbal consensual

agreement: individuals who utilize color euphemism do so in order to confer exceptional

honorability to one particular individual in a way not accorded to others espousing the

same group characteristics or identity. Those on the receiving end of the color euphemism

endorse such an unspoken social rule. Some perceive themselves as the exceptional

individuals whose good fortune is not extended to others sharing the same group

characteristics or identity. In order to make the above conceptualization explicit, in the

next section few historical examples contextualize the color euphemism.

Preto, Negro, Pardo or Mulatto: The Insignia of Discrimination

During the colonial (1500s-1822) and the imperial periods (1822-1890) in Brazil

terminologies such as Preto, Negro, Pardo, Mulato or Moreno were used to exclude

people from mainstream social-political arrangements based on conquest, domination and

.

.

30

.

subordination.

For a free or fieed person to be called Preto or Negro was the ultimate

insult resulting in serious misgivings, bitter brawls and even death. The expression

mulatto in this context was another expression charged with derogatory meaning, since it

literally implied the crossing of she mule, and when applied to a person of mixed ancestry

 

29 Carl Degler. Carl N. Degler, Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations and Brazil and the

United States. New York: Macmillan, 197].

30 Jack D. Forbes. “The Manipulation of Race, Caste and Identity: Classifying AfroAmericans, Native

Americans and Red-Black People.” The Journal of Ethnic Studies. Vol. 17, N4, and (winter 1990): 1—33.

26

it conjured up illegitimacy, and/or bastardization. l Pardo, on the other hand, indicated

3

.

.

the status of a freed person of color regardless of miscegenation, which according to Hebe

Maria Mattos indicated how the stratification system worked. Thus:

It is a known fact that since the colonial period, any perspective of

social mobility implied a process of individual whitening. But, the

preferential use of the term ‘pardo’ for free men, without the necessary

reference to miscegenation, represents very well the hierarchical ideal

of this society, which reserved a specific social place to slayes, freed

people, free African descendants and old white Christians.

Hebe Maria Mattos recounts an incident in 1850 in Rio Claro, a municipality of

Rio de J aneiro, when Antonio J osé Inacio Ramos, a free man, committed a double

.

.

.

33

homrcrde because he was insulted as a Negro.

In the early twentieth century another situation took place, also in Rio de Janeiro,

when Machado de Assis, the founder of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, died. Machado

de Assis was a man of mixed ancestry who transcended his humble origins to become

well known in the elite and academic circles. His mother was an African descendant and

his father was Portuguese. A very close fiiend of his, J osé Verissimo, a respected

intellectual and public figure at that time, wrote an article in Machado’s homage. Like the

deceased, Versisimo also shared mixed ancestry, and in his eulogy referred to his dead

fiiend as a mulatto. He was immediately reprimanded by another towering political

figure, J oaquim Nabuco, who made the following remark on Verissimo’s piece:

Is very beautiful but there is one sentence that caused me chills:

Mulatto, he was a Greek. . .I would not have called Machado mulatto

 

See also the excellent book by the same author African_s and Native Americans: The Langr_r__age of Race and

the Evolution of Red-Iiack Peoples. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

' Jack 0. Forbes, 1993: 131-189.

32 Hebe Maria Mattos. firs Cores do Siléncio. Rio de Janeiro. Nova Fronteira, 19982361. Also cited in

Andreas Hofbauer. “Raca, Cultura e Identidade e o ‘Racismo A Brasileira’” In De Preto a Afro—

Descenden_t_e: Traietos de Pesquisa sobre Relacées Etnico-Raciais no Braail. S50 Carlos: Edufscar, 2003:

62.

33Hebe Maria Mattos, p. 93.

27

and I think that nothing would have hurt him more. . .I beg you to omit

this remark when you convert your article into permanent form. The

word is not literary, it is derogatory. . .For me Machado was a white and

I believe he thought so about himself.”

One could argue that to whiten somebody’s color with a euphemism such as the

term Pardo and correlated terminologies has served ideologically to: a) construct a sense

of self based on the possibility of change to a higher status towards whitening, the

ultimate positive social value and b) as a buffer circumventing interpersonal and social

conflicts. This second example in particular invokes a conceptualization based on color

euphemism. The former enforces the latter and vice-versa. Such a definition attempts to

give expression to what Hebe Maria Mattos emphasized was an historical interpretation

of color categorization without paying attention to the context in which such a

categorization evolved would attribute both examples as tributaries of the ideology of

whitening. The first example reflected a man’s desire to be perceived as a free man and a

citizen. To be called Negro was to deprive a man from his right to be treated in the same

way as a white man. The second example did not escape the same reasoning since, if the

expression of Negro conjured up a past and present condition of second class citizenship,

the expression mulatto, on the other hand, had indeed a pejorative meaning. This is not to

say that the whitening idea] was not present. After all, from the 18803 to the 19303

immigration policies were implemented embedded in such ideological construct whereby

millions of poor European immigrants supplied the Brazilian labor market while in the

.

.

.

,

_

35

expectation of the ruling elite they were expected to whiten the population.

 

3‘ Emilia Viotti da Costa. “The Myth of Racial Democracy: A Legacy of the Empire” in The Brazilian

Empire: Mas and Histories, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1985:241.

B Thomas E. Skidmore. Black Iato White: Race and Nationalig in Brazilian Thought. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1974, particularly Chapter 2. See for instance, The Idea of Race in Latin America. 1870-

l9_40, edited and introduced by Richard Graham. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.

28

At the present time, the official census category Pardo still encodes an ideal of

whitening, and some power elite intellectuals have used such a “de jure” ambiguity to

dismiss the implementation of social policies based on racial/color criteria. One example

refers to the countless public debates regarding the color of the population instead of

focusing attention on to the meanings attributed to the race/color hierarchy whose

primary effect results in unequal distribution of life-chances and opportunities. For

instance, after an intense debate promoted by several web sites in Brazil regarding the

adoption of affirmative action, which has been understood as a system of quotas, Shag, a

participant in the debates answering the question, “Who is Black?” offered the following

answer on October 11, 2001:

That’s it! Here is a question whose answer is essential for affirmative

action to be implemented one day in this country. How to decide who is

black and who isn’t? Do mulattoes also have rights? Gee, a lot of sun

tanned people will try to pass as Black when applying to the ergtrance

exams to college. I do not want to think about the confusion! '

Confusion and opportunism have gone hand in hand in Brazil in matters of

politicization of racial identity. In 1998, in an interview to the news weekly magazine

Veja, when asked about the fact that the majority of congress members could not be

easily categorized as White by European and North American standards, the former

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso offered the following comments:

It is not white, but they don’t know. They don’t want to know. This is

why I always call attention to my skin color. I say: “Look at my skin! I

did this with the Pope. “Do you think I am white?” This concept varies

a lot in Brazil. There are people who call themselves white, drink they

are white, but they are not. People who have the training I have in

matters of race soon discover when a person has black blood. As the

mixture in Brazil is very wide, which I consider very good, very

positive, this favors confusion. It would be better to say: “I am a little

mixed.” But in politics is not like that. The individual whitens.

37

 

3" hapzflwww.mundonegro.com.br/forum/read.th?+4&i+l 34&i+134&t+134.

37 Roberto Pompeu de Toledo. “0 Sociologo segundo o Presidente” Veja, 6 de maio, 1998: 51-52. (my

translation)

29

Raul Jungrnann, the former minister of the Agarian Development, who pioneered

the implementation of a quota system in a federal agency under his leadership, offered an

interesting example of whitening. During a public session that judged the pros and cons

on affirmative action policies and the mandatory requirement of a defined racial identity,

Jungrnan declared: “I am a Pardo, son of a mulatto mother. Thus, I claim my mix

ancestry!3

99

By the Brazilian standards of racial etiquette both Fernando Henrique Cardoso

and Raul Jungrnann could not possibly identify themselves Pardo. Both do not present

any immediate resemblance with African ancestry. Their social position and station in life

has already placed them within the white elite group. Claiming a racialized identity,

Cardoso and J ungrnann defied established social conventions on issues of ‘race,’ and in

both instances, their public stand could be interpreted as political opportunism. In the

larger society, the stigma of color does not save those well off social groups from

suffering the indignities of daily discriminatory practices, as for instance, the case that

took place in Vitoria, capital of the Espirito Santo. In 1993, the daughter of former

governor Albuino Azevedo was physically attacked and verbally abused by a white

woman and her son in an upper-class residential building. Ana Flavia, the daughter’s

governor, had gone to visit a fiiend, and on the way out of her host’s apartment, she held

the social elevator‘ door for a few minutes while saying goodbye. When the elevator

 

38 “Juri Simulado - Cotas para Negros (as) no Brasil,” 30/10/2001 - Teatro TUCA, an event that discussed

the Brazilian proposals that were sent to the Durban Conference in South Africa, in September of

2001 .www.mondonegro.com.br

' Brazil is one of the few countries in the world where every single building (residential or commercial) has

a social and a service elevator. This practice serves to establish the social hierarchy where servants, mostly

blacks, ought to use the service elevator. Though this practice has been prohibited by local city ordinances,

in most places, this practice is deeply entrenched in the social architecture of the Brazilian landscape. Diana

Jean Schemo registered this phenomenon of Brazilian political culture in The New York Times, on August

30, 1995 in “Elevators Don’t’ Lie: Intolerance in Brazil” Section International, page A7.

30

reached her floor, the businesswoman, Teresina Stange irritated asked Ana Flavia who

was holding the elevator. The latter answered “nobody, I just took few minutes” and the

former, unsatisfied with the answer, began yelling: “You’ve got to learn that the residents

are the ones who bosses around in this building and black and poor have no place here.”

To what Ana Flévia replied: “You should respect me.” Teresina Stange got even angrier

continuing to yell: “Shut up! You are just a maid”. At the lobby the commotion continued

and the business woman’s son entered the altercation and not only threatened to beat Ana

Flavia up but also he punched her in the face and the case ended up in a police station. It

made headlines in all major newspapers in the country, and Ana Flavia became known as

the black Cinderella.39

The case is emblematic of the symbolic uses of color, which in the above case,

class and social distinction did not prevent a non-white person from suffering the physical

and emotional injuries of racism. As observed by Hofbauer, the color categories should

not be interpreted as simple metaphors for the eschewing of a racial identity. People’s

self-perceptions and definitions are important because they provide the analytical tools

 

’9 “ A Cinderela Negra” Veja, 7 de Julho, 1993: 66-71. Major Brazilian newspapers have reported countless

examples of well off Afro-Brazilians who irrespective of their status or class positions are publicly

humiliated and that include incidents with diplomats, heads of state, business people. The case with Evaldo

Brito, the first Afro-Brazilian who, in the 19803, became mayor of the city of Salvador, Bahia is

emblematic. In the early 19903, he assumed the post of Secretariat of Juridical Business in the city of S50

Paulo. As such, he was driven back and forth to his office by the official car. On one occasion the police

who got suspicious of a black man being driven in an official car stopped him. Secretary Evaldo Brito and

his assistant were searched and held for almost one hour in the middle of an important intersection in

downtown S50 Paulo. His position did not save him from being humiliated. The policemen who stopped

him were also Afro-Brazilian descendants. See for instance, Suzana Iakatos “Cara de Suspeito”.

Www.Sampa.org.br/default.asp? idn=7458p=2 In this case the racialization of color was embedded in the

state apparatus, as well as in a financial institution that criminalized Black Brazilians irrespective of their

social standing, confining them into a system of permanent vigilance and punishment. It is in this context of

widespread discriminatory practices that the popular adage gains expression: Guilty until proven innocence!

Or when the encounter is with the police: We shoot first, and ask the question later!

31

with which one can adequately interpret local variances of racism, as well as processes of

.
incluSion and exclusron, and the attendant socral meamngs attached to it.

.

.

.

.

. 40

There is an intrinsic relation between reality and discourse about reality

— and it is not necessary to assume Marxists standpoints to support this

statement. Then, it seems necessary to analyze the historical, political

and social contexts along with a plan of discourse (s), that is, along with

the construction of ideas if we ought to understand the functioning of

the phenomenon ‘racism.” Henceforth, it is possible to show the non-

existence of a “Brazilian ethos” detached from the ‘race relations’ as it

is possible to show that ‘races’ and or colors do not have an existence

on their own, it does not have a meaning independent of the ‘world of

values’ and the ‘cultural ideas.’

Afro-Brazilians and the Opportunity Structures: Education and Labor Market

Outcomes.

In 1999, socio-racial inequalities in Brazil reached unprecedented levels placing

the country as one of the most unequal societies in the world, according to the World

Development Report for 1999-2000.42 Ricardo Henriques, a researcher affiliated with the

Institute for the Applied Economic Research (IPEA), considers that countries with similar

per capita income have exhibited an overall poverty index around 10 percent in contrast

to Brazil with a total index of 34 percent. As Ricardo Heriques, notes the origins and

persistence of such income gap, stretched for such a long period, have somewhat

“naturalized” inequality, which by extension is also colored and gendered.43 Such a

pattern:

...Results from a social exclusionary agreement, which does not

recognize citizenship for all, whereby the citizenship of the included is

distinct fi'om those excluded, and consequently, are also distinct the

rights, the opportunities and the horizons.

 

7: Andreas Hofbauer, op. cit. 51-68.

42 Ibid. page 66. (my translation)

0 World Development Report, 1999-2000, World Bank: Washington, DC. 2000.

Ricardo Henriques. Desigu_aldade Raaial no Bmsilevm5ms CODCIICOCS de Vida mecada de 90.

Texto para Discuss50 N. 807. Rio de Janeiro:Instituto de Pesquisa Econémica__Aplicada (IPEA)

Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF):2001 :1

Ibid.

32

Ricardo Henriques also reflects that, “the naturalization of inequalities engenders

in the heart of civil society theoretical, ideological and political resistance that prevents

the identification and the fight against those inequalities as priorities of public policies.”45

In 1999, the IPEA revealed the parameters of racial exclusion, where 53 million people

were poor, and 14 percent (22 million) were poverty-stricken. The IPEA defines “poverty

line as individuals’ minimum expenses with food, clothing, housing and transportation.

The line of extreme poverty, or poverty-stricken refers to individuals’ minimum

expenses, regionally defined, and measured according to the minimum caloric intake.

.

.

.

.

.

.

,,46

The distribution of the two categories of people along color/racial lines was the

following:

Table 2 - Poverty Line by Racial/Color Cmories — 1999

 

Color

Lived below poverty line

Poverty-Stricken

 

Blacks (Pretos & Pardos)

Whites

64%

36%

69%

31%

 
 
  

 

Source: Ricardo Henriques. Desigualdade Racial no Brasilevolucéo das Condicées de Vidflra década de

_9__OaTexto para Discuss50 N. 807. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Pesquisa Economica_Aplicada (IPEA)

Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF):2001 :9.

Table 2 clearly demonstrates that Blacks were over-represented by those living either

below the poverty line or were under the poverty-stricken category. Translating the above

percentages in absolute numbers for both categories, Blacks accounted for 33.7 million and 15.1

million people respectively. In contrast Whites in both categories represented 19 million and 6.8

.

.

.

4

.

.

.

.

.

million respectively. 7 The data decrsively show that poverty impacts socral groups differently

 

‘5

Ibid.

:Ibid. p. 9.

Ricardo Henriques. Desigualdade Racial no Brasil: Evolrge‘io da_s Condicées de Vida na de'cada de 90.

Texto para Discuss50 N. 807. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Pesquisa Economica_Aplicada (IPEA)

Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF): 2001:9.

33

and according to color lines, debunking previous arguments that inequalities in Brazil were

mostly ascribed to class-based differences rather than any other social attributes.

Educational Attainment Levels

Inequalities as measured by education and financial rewards constitute only two

concrete examples, among others, where it can be adequately investigated. Because the

case studies focus on the areas of higher education and the labor market, a deliberate

attempt was made to illustrate the context in which colored and gendered inequalities are

produced and reproduced in these two sectors to the detriment of other areas that have

been extensrvely studied elsewhere such as spatial segregation,

media and political

.

.

.

.

48

. 49

.

.

representation.

,

50

A closer look at the Brazilian official censuses over the past sixty years indicates

that in 1940, out of total Black Brazilian population of 14.8 million people, less than

17,000 were employed in white-collar positions, 20,000 had graduated from high school,

 

‘8 See for instance: Raquel Rolnick. “Territorios Negros nas Cidades Brasileiras: Etnicidade e Cidade em

S50 Paulo e Rio de Janeiro.” Estudos Afro-Asiaticos, Vol. 17, (Setembro 1989): 29-41; Raquel Rolnick.

 

Territorial Exclusion and Violence: The Cage offio Paulo. Woodrow Wilson International Center for

Scholars. Washington DC. 1999; Edward E. Telles. “Residential Segregation by Skin Color in Brazil”

American Sociological Review. Vol. 57, N.2, 1992: 186-297; Edward E. Telles. “Race, Class and Space in

Brazilian Cities” International Journal of Urban and RegionaLResearch. Vol. 19, 1995: 395-406 and Teresa

P.R. Caldeira. City of Walls: Crime. SegregzLion. and Citizenship in S50 Paulo. Berkeley: University of

California Press, 2000.

‘9 David Covin. “Black Consciousness in the White Media: The Case of Brazil” The Western Journal of

Black Studies, Vol. 15, N2, 1991: 95-102; Joel Zito de Arar'ijo. A Negacao do Brasil: 0 Negro na

Telenovela Baasileira. S50 Paulo: Editora Senac, 2000.

5“ See for instance: Bolivar Lamounier. “Raca e Classe na Politica Brasileira” Cademos Brasileiros, N. 47,

(Maio/Jun.) 1968: 39-50; Ana Lucia Eduardo Farah Valente. Politica e Relaaces Raciafls Negros e g

Eleicées Paulista de 1982. S50 Paulo: FFLCH-USP, 1986; Cloves L.P. Oliveira. “Os Negros Candidatos a

Vereador em Salvador, em 1988. Cademos CRH, Salvador, 1991: 94-116; Cloves L. P. Oliveira. “A Luta

por urn Lugar: Género, Raca e Classe: Eleicces Municipais de Salvador-Bahia, 1992” (Se'rie Toques).

Programa A Cor da Bahia-UFBA, 1997; Ollie A. Johnson 111. “Racial Representation and Brazilian Politics:

Black Members of the National Congress: 1983-1999” Journal of InterAmerican Studies and World Affairs,

Vol. 40, N4, 1998: 97-118.

34

and 4,000 obtained a college degree.“ Perhaps, in light of such ingrained inequalities,

Brazilian officials excluded the item race or color from the census tables of 1900, 1920

52

.

and 1970.

Subsequently, in the official as well as in the popular socral mythology,

Brazil came to be perceived as a ‘racial democracy’ where differences based on race,

color, class or gender did not exist. However, public campaigns by Afro-Brazilians

activists, advocacy organizations, and research centers in Brazil were able to convince

government officials to include color categories in the census of 1980.53

The census of 1980 revealed that 1.8 million Black Brazilians had moved up to

the white-collar professions (doctors, lawyers, and accountants). Out of the total 53.3

million Blacks, 1.1 million graduated from high school and 172,000 from college. The

1980 census also pointed out that out of the total 64.5 million Whites, 4.4 million had

obtained a high school diploma, and 729,000 graduated from college, contributing to 6.0

million professional and white-collar jobs.54

The National Household Survey (PNAD — Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de

Domicilios), published in March of 1999, reported that in 1997 illiteracy continued to

disadvantage Black Brazilians. Out of an estimated total population of 157 million

residents, 9 percent of Whites had never attended school, whereas 22 percent, out of

almost 60 million people of Afiican descendant fell under this bracket. On the other hand,

while Whites attended six years on average of basic instruction, Blacks attended on the

 

5' George Reid Andrews. “Black Political Mobilization in Brazil, 1975-1990”, in The Social Construction of

Denmacy. 1870-1990. edited by George Reid Andrews and Herrick Chapman. New York: New York

University Press, 1995:223-224.

Lilia Mortiz Schwarcz. “ Nomes, Cores and Confus?o” in Racismo no Brasil. S?o Paulo: Publifolha,

2001: 67

53 For example the campaign “N50 Deixe sua Cor Passar em Branco” spearheaded by Fase, and financially

ss‘upported by the Ford Foundation and the Italian Foundation Nuova Terra.

Ibid. George Reid Andrews, 1995.

35

average only four years.55 These percentages improved slightly from the 1991 census that

registered estimates at that time of an illiteracy rate of 28 percent for Blacks against 11.8

percent of Whites.56

According to the 2000 census, the population 18 years of age and older accounted

for almost 109 million pe0ple. This population of 81.4 percent had not finished high

school, and 18.6 percent, or three million plus people, had done 30. Among those who

concluded secondary school, 22.7 percent, or almost 14 million people, classified

themselves as Whites against 25.5 percent or 6.2 million Blacks and 10.2 percent or

45.479 thousands of Indigenous people. Asian descendants within this universe accounted

for 29.7 percent or 172,340 thousand that had concluded high school. Proportionally, this

latter category outperformed all, the other color/ethnic categories. In general terms,

among the European descendants, 1 out of 10 graduated from college in the year 2000,

contrasting significantly with African descendants and indigenous people, where only 1

out of 50 had attained similar success. 57 As for higher education, regardless of age, 83

percent or 4.5 million Whites graduated from college in 2000, while 14.] percent or

798,772 Blacks, 0.1 percent or 7,051 Indigenous people, and 2.3 percent or 126.866

.

.

.

.

.

58

respectively Asrans obtained Similar success.

Public universities in Brazil are free of charge; consequently, these institutions are

highly competitive whereby admittance is made through entrance exams. For the most

part, those who can afford to pay for private and expensive preparatory courses or who

were able to attend the best private high schools manage to enter. In 1999 there were

 

: Impz/Awww.ibge.gov.br/English/noticiaa/ 1 trim99/press 1003 A.HTM-Synthesis (Mar. 10/1999).

Ibid.

57 Jose Luis Petrucelli, op. cited, pp. 7-8

36

1,097 institutions of higher education in Brazil, 60 were federal universities, 72 were

local state-funded, and 60 were funded by local municipalities. The remaining 905 were

private institutions, which according to their missions were classified as:

i)

universities, which carry out the traditional missions of teaching

and research at the graduate and undergraduate levels;;

ii)

university centers, tertiary institutions, whose main mission is

teaching;

iii) multiple faculty facilities, known as federacées e integradas, non-

university institutions, which offer programs in more than one

knowledge area, such as social sciences and technology;

iv) singly faculty facilities, or instituicdes isoladas, non-universities,

which offer programs in only one knowledge area, such as social

sciences.

The student population divided by color attending these institutions in 2000

corresponded to the following:

Table 3 - Percentage of Students who Attend College by Type of Institution and

 

Color-Brazil 2000

Type

of

Institution

Public

Private

Color

White

Black (Preto+Pardo)

Asian

Indigenous

Color not declared

Total

78.8

19.2

1 .3

0.2

0.5

 

71.0

26.8

1.4

0.2

0.5

82.4

15.8

1 .3

0.1

0.4

100.0

 

Total

100.0

100.0

 

Source: IBGE: Censo Demografico, 2000, cited in Jose' Luis Petrucelli, “ Mapa da Cor no Ensino Superior,’

9

Programa Politicas da Cor na Educac5o Brasileira. Série Ensaios & Pesquisas. Laboratorio de Politicas

Pr'rblicas: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro & Secretaria Especial de Promoc5o de Politicas de

lgualdade Racial, Setembro de 2004:28.

Table 3 demonstrates that white Brazilians are overwhelmingly represented in

higher education in Brazil whether in public or private universities. Although black

Brazilians have made impressive inroads into higher education, comparing the data of the

19403 and 19803, they are still underrepresented considering their absolute number in the

total population in the country. Table 3 clearly shows the enormous gap between the

 

” Ibid. p. 26.

59 Higher Education in Brazil: Challenges and Options. A World Bank Country Study. Washington DC,

2002:3.

37

populations categorized by color?0 When José Petrucelli analyzed the Census of 2000, he

made a dreadful assessment based upon the census findings. He noted that in the year

2000, 284 thousand medical doctors identified themselves as Blacks. Annually, at least

eleven thousand students graduate from the field of medicine. According to his estimates,

even if all medical schools in the county reserved slots for Blacks and Indigenous

populations, it would take 25 years for these groups to catch up with the White majority.

.

.

.

6|

Recent studies point to the segmentation of the undergraduate education whereby

white Brazilians are more likely to enter more prestigious careers in comparison to black

Brazilians and the indigenous populations.62 For instance, Whites were overrepresented in

the fields of Medicine, Law, Engineering, Architecture, and Foreign Relations, among

others. Blacks were more likely to be concentrated in less prestigious professions, which

correspond to a social hierarchy. For example, black women were overrepresented in the

fields of Nursing, Education, Geography, History, Social Work and Pedagogy.

Exceptions include the significant presence of Black men in the fields of Theology and in

.

.

63

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

the Military. The next section w1]] briefly examrne the financral rewards in relation to

the career choice by color and gender.

 

6“ Jose Luis Petrucelli, op. cited, p. 28.

6|

.

Ibid.

62 Kaizé Iwakami Beltr50 and Moema de Poli Teixeira. O Vermelho e o Negro: Raca e Género na

Universidade Brasileira — Uma Analise da Seletividade das Carreiras a Partir dos Censos Demogréficos de
 

1960 a 2000. Texto para Discuss50 N. 1052. Instituto de Pesquisa Econémica Aplicada. Rio de Janeiro,

Outubro de 2004. See also: Delcele Mascarenhas Queiroz, org. 0 Negro na Universiadarfi. Programa A Cor

da Bahia/Propgrama de Pos-Graduac5o em Ciéncias Sociais da Faculdade de F ilosofia da UFBA. Salvador:

Novos Toques, N. 5, 2002; Moema de Poli Teixeira. O Negro na Universidade: Identidade e Traietorias de

Ascensao Socialfir Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Pallas: Ford Foundation, 2003.

" Kaizo Iwakami Beltr50 and Moema de Poli Teixeira, pp. 35-36

38

Gender and Labor Market Outcomes

The past two censuses (1991 and 2000) and periodical national household surveys

have consistently demonstrated that Afro-Brazilian’s median earnings averaged 57

percent of the total wages in contrast to non Afro-Brazilians. This pattern of racial

disparities becomes even more accentuated when gender is incorporated into the analysis.

For instance, the 1989 national household survey demonstrated that women 10 years of

age and older accounted for 57,756,612 million of the total populationf54 And yet only

8.79 percent of Afro-Brazilians women had 9 to 11 years of school in comparison to

15.21 percent and 25.07 percent to European and Asian descendant women.

65

The double bond of discrimination as experienced by Afro-Brazilian women has

been magnified by the fact that irrespective of the extraordinary educational achievements

over the past two decades, it has not necessarily translated into financial rewards or social

.

.

66

.

.

.

.

.

.

recogrntion.

Lovell, in a comparative study on regional inequalities has demonstrated

that Afro-Brazilian women continue to fare less well either in the industrial sectors,

“where men are concentrated” or in the domestic service, where women, mostly Afro-

.

.

,

67

,

Brazrlians outnumber other racral segments.

According to Lovell,

Across all color groups, the wage differential was greatest by gender.

The largest wage gaps were between white women and men. For

example, at the highest level of schooling, white women earned less

than one-half of white men’s wages. A comparison ofparda and preta

women and men shows a similar pattern of gender differences: Afro-

Brazilian women were paid less than Afro-Brazilian men were in all

 

6‘ Anuario Estatistico do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro, V. 54, 2-67.

6’ Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicilios (PNAD) - National Household Survey. Rio de Janeiro,

1989.

66 Peggy A.Lovell. “Race, Gender and Regional Labor Market Inequalities in Brazil”. Review of Social

Economy, Vol. LVIII, No.3, (September 2000):277-293.

m Ibid.,See also Maria Aparecida da Silva Bento. “A mulher Negra no Mercado de trabalho”. Estudo_s

Feministas, Vol. 3, No.2, 1995:479.

39

educational categories. These patterns of wage inequality suggest that

gender inequality in wages was even greater than racial inequality.

.

6

The wage gap between Afro-Brazilians and European Brazilians tends to increase

in the same proportion as economic development, as measured by GDP, suggesting, “that

the modern urban labor market in Brazil continues to be segregated by race and

69

,

.

.

.

gender.”

Illustrating such an assessment, the 1999 socral indicators reported that 45

percent of total Brazilian families received on average a monthly minimum wage, or

$110.00 (equivalent to US. dollars). Of this total, 34 percent of the European descendant

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

70

families were in this category in contrast to 59 percent of African descendant famrlres.

Individually, European descendants are more likely to receive five times the minimum

wage on average, whereas Afro-Brazrlian received just two times the minimum wages.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

7|

Paradoxically, as the years of schooling increase the distance between African

descendant people and other groups of color increases. Previous research has indicated

that an Afro-Brazilian with 15.5 to 30 years of experience was more likely to receive

$359.17 less by the end of the month in comparison to a European descendant having the

sanie experience and educational background. Afro-Brazilians, particularly women, are

more likely to receive 50 percent less income even if they present the same amount of

experience and educational background than any other group.72

Edward Telles obtained similar findings in relation to his research on the

intersection of industrialization and “race” conducted across 74 metropolitan areas based

 

: Peggy Lovell, 20001286.

Peggy A. Lovell. “Race, Gender and Development in Brazil” Latin American Research Review, Vol. 29,

No.3, 1994:31; Peggy Lovell and Charles H.Wood. “Skin Color, Racial Identity, and Life Chances in

Brazil” Latin American Perapectives. Issue 100, Vol. 25, N03, May 1998:90-109.

7| Eighttp: //www.ibge.gov.br/English/noticias/1trim99/pre331003A. HTM.

i

.

40

on the 1980 census.73 The most recent available data confirm the previous gender and

color gaps based on earnings in contrast to the overall labor force participation in six

metropolitan regions and the federal capital, as the following tables demonstrate:

Table 4 — Percentage of the Population in the Labor Market by Color and Gender

Metro olitan Regions and Federal Capital - 2001-2002

 

Metropolitan

Blacks

Non-Blacks

 

Rggions

Total

Women

Men

Total

Women

Men

 

Belo Horizonte

59.1

Federal Capital

64.9

Porto Alegre

Recife

57.7

53.5

51.5

58.4

52.1

44.2

67.4

72.2

64.3

64.1

57.8

61.9

58.1

52.8

49.0

55.6

49.]

44.1

68.2

70.0

68.0

63.9

Salvador

850 Paulo

 
 
  

62.4

52.8

56.5

73.3

64.5

73.1

 

 

 

 

 

62.2

55.7

51.9

69.7

59.3

68.3

Source: . “Mulher Negra: Dupla Discriminac5o nos Mercados de Trabalho Metropolitanos.” Boletirn

DIEESE — Edic5o Especial S50 Paulo: 20 de Novembro, 2003:4.

Table 5 — Average Monthly Earning by Color and Gender

Metropolitan Regions and Federal Capital 2001-2002

(Equivalent to US - January 2003)*

 

Metropolitan

Black

N on-Black

 

ngions

Total

Women

Men

Total

Women

Men

 

Belo Horizonte

177.14

136.57

212.57

253.14

203.71

Federal Capital

294.00

232.85

348.28

445.74

364.28

Porto Alegre

155.71

128.28

180.57

252.00

204.28

Recife

134.57

102.85

157.71

233.43

184.00

296.28

525.43

288.86

273.71

Salvador

850 Paulo

 
 
  

216.00

394.00

333.14

256.00

141.14

182.28

 

 

 

 

 

159.14

124.28

190.85

336.86

266.57

401.43

Source: . “Mulher Negra: Dupla Discriminac5o nos Mercados de Trabalho Metropolitanos.”Boletim

DIEESE — Edic5o Especial S50 Paulo: 20 de Novembro, 2003: 31.

*30 January of 2003 l$= Brazilian Real- RS3. 5.

"' Blacks (Pretos+Pardos)= Non-Blacks (Whites+ Asians)

Table 4 shows that between 2001 and 2002 Blacks were slightly over-represented

in the labor market of the five out of six metropolitan regions. Likewise, black women

had a higher participation in the labor market in all six regions in comparison to non-

black women. However, in table 5, despite the greater participation in the labor market,

 

n Peggy Lovell Webster and Jeffrey W. Dwyer. “The Cost of Being Non-White in Brazil.” Social Science

R_a____search, Vol. 72, 2 (January 1988): 136.

Edward E. Telles. “Industrialization and Racial Inequality in Employment: The Brazilian Experience”

American Sociological Review, Vol. 59, (February) 1994: 46- 63.

41

Blacks earned on average 40 to 50 percent less than their non-black counterparts. The

above statistical analyses refer by and large to the private sector and to those who receive

social benefits such as health care, retirement pension etc. Nonetheless, workers allocated

in the so-called informal sector experience income differentials based on gender and

color, whose persistence suggests a racial division of labor at work In Brazil, as studies

by Nilo Rosa dos Santosuand Nadya Araujo Castro and Vanda S5 Barreto75 have

suggested. These studies consistently pointed out that difference in earning might be

attributed to several factors such as educational achievement and type of work, but also to

a degree of discrimination against Blacks. How does the public sector compare to the

private sector in relation to “race”/color and gender?

Recent data on the Brazilian Civil Service profile by gender, color and occupation

demonstrate that in general, Blacks are under-represented in comparison to the population

economically active between ages 20 and 69. For instance, out of an estimated total

population of approximately 172 million in 2002, 58 percent constituted 99.5 million

people between ages 20 and 69. Men presented Forty eight million, and women

represented 52 million. Including color category for these two populations, 55 million

were White, 45 million were Black and 0.7 million were Yellow (Asians) 76.

In the same year, approximately 580 thousand people constituted the Civil

Service. Women represented Forty five percent and men represented 55 percent. Sixty

three percent was represent by Whites, Blacks represented 35 percent, and the remaining

categories (Indigenous and Asians) account for 2 percent. Including the gender variable

 

7‘ Nilo Rosa dos Santos. Mercado Informal & Etnia. Salvador: Centro de Reflex5o e A050 Enrico-Social

(CRAES) 2000;

75 Nadya Araujo Castro & Vanda S5 Barreto (orgs). Trabalho e Desiggldades Raciais: Negros e Brancos no

Mercado de Trabalho em Salvaagg. S50 Paulo: Annablume Editora Comunicac5o Ltda., 1998.

42

for black and white groups, white men accounted for 35 percent, black men was

represented by 19 percent, white women accounted for 29 percent and black women 15

77

percent.

Since the Civil Service has a highly educated population, earnings across color,

gender and occupation are directly related to time of employment or years of experience,

even thought some discrimination might occur. The study reported that the higher the

level of education, black men and women were more likely to receive comparable wages

in relation to their white counterparts. Curiously, such parity referred to those hired less

than 10 years ago. As the years of experience increased, such as between 10 and 19 years

of employment, wage differential also increased: The highest level of wage differential

regarding gender and color related to those averaging 20 and 29 years of experience, and

that also correlated to level of education.

Considering white as the standard, in general, black men earned, on average, 9.3

percent less, white women earned, on average, 12.6 percent less and black women earned

on average 19 percent less.78 Even though, the Civil Service tends to be more democratic

in terms of wage differential in comparison to the private sector, nevertheless, it presents

some disparities that may not necessarily be attributed to education or positions occupied.

Finally, the study suggests a selective brand of affirmative action in order to address

discrepancies where they arise.

In summary, as a middle-income country, Brazil's educational attainment

distributions demonstrate high levels of inequality with large segments of the total

population having four years or less of schooling. Afro-Brazilians have even higher levels

 

:: Rafael Guerreiro Osorio. Raga e Género no Servico Publico Civil. IPEA-PNUD, 2003.

Ibid. Page 6.

43

of educational disadvantages in comparison with other groups. Access to higher

education is even more stark in White and Black comparisons except for the very small

(almost eight hundred thousand) Asians - mainly Japanese.

This evidence is, to say the least, puzzling, since basic education in Brazil is

mandatory and free for all citizens. Educational attainment is the most important tool for

socio-economic mobility. However, for Afro-Brazilians, higher educational attainment

does not necessarily translate into socio-economic rewards as discussed in the previous

pages, particularly in relation to the private sector. Statistical analysis can only tell us one

part of the story. Since educational systems are part of the state apparatuses, it must be

asked why such disparities continue to occur, and what the role of the state is in

structuring such inequities.

The Micro-Level Domain: Subjectivities in the Production of Difference

In 1991, Philomena Essed, a social scientist in the Netherlands, published, a path

breaking book entitled, Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory, in

which she presented the results of her research with black women professionals. This

research she conducted in the Netherlands as well as in the United States aiming to

understand the intersections of the structural and personal consequences of racrsm.

.

.

.

79

The thrust of Essed’s research was to bridge the gap between the macro and

micro-structural levels of social reality. Previous conceptual formulations as “individual”

and “institutional” racism did not adequately address the complexities involved in the

 

” Ibid. p. 57-60.

79

I

I

O

I

l

I

Philomena Essed. (a) Understanding Everyday Racrsm: An Injerdrscrplim Theog. Newbury, London &

New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1991. See also Philomena Essed, (b) “Everyday Racism: A New Approach

44

interactions between these two domains. Essed contended that individuals do not exist

outside of institutions, and racism, as a process, is an ideological construction embedded

in relations of power. Thus, the cognitive perception that establishes the notion of

difference - between “us” and “them”- empower individuals as well as groups through

everyday affirming racist practices, which reinforce a sense of belonging or group

membership. These practices, in turn, permeate all spheres of social life, from the macro-

structural level to the micro landscape of personal and interpersonal domain of social

relationships. In a nutshell:

...Racism is a structure because racial and ethnic dominance exists in

and is reproduced by the system through the formulation and

application of rules, laws, and regulations and through access to and the

allocation of resources. Finally, racism is a process because structures

and ideologies do not exist outside the everyday practices through

which they are created and confirmed. These practices both adapt to

and themselves contrilgute to changing social, economic, and political

t

O

I

O

8

conditions in socrety.

These conceptual aspects raised by Essed can be illustrated by the level of cultural

hegemonic control of the white Brazilian population over the Blacks, which has impacted

negatively on how Afro-Brazilians perceive themselves in society. Abdias do

Nascimento, a well-known Afro-Brazilian political activist and former member of

Brazilian Congress, recalls that the lack of institutional incentives, such as textbooks and

curriculum which emphasize the positive participation of Afiicans in the construction of

society, is detrimental. He clarifies:

The educational system becomes a key instrument of control in this

network cultural discrimination. The material taught on all academic

levels is simply the pomp and circumstance of Western Europe, and

more recently of the United States. If consciousness is memory and

future, where is Afiican memory in the Brazilian consciousness? Where

 

to the Study of Racism” in ch Critical Theories: Text and Conte_xt, edited by Philomena Essed and David

Theo Goldberg. Maiden, Massachusetts: 2002: 176-194.

Philomena Essed, (b), 2002: 185.

45

and when is African history or the development of African culture and

civilization taught in Brazilian schools?

8

Corroborating with Nascimento’s standpoint, Vera Figueira, a scholar who has

studied the Brazilian educational system and the effects of racial discrimination on Afro-

Brazilian students, calls attention to the poor appraisal white students and teachers display

toward black children.82 This factor is even more aggravated by the static approach

textbooks use to portray Afro-Brazilians. Africans and their descendants in Brazil are

depicted in terms of past contributions in which the realm of slavery and serfdom

constitute the only social space occupied. The contemporary reality and present

participation of Afro-Brazilians are practically invisible. Because of a lack of knowledge

about African history in Brazil on the part of teachers, and a bias in textbook content, the

values that are taught are European values and cultural aesthetics. 83

Completely disregarded are the positive contributions of Afi'o-Brazilians in the

realm of political activism, organizations, religions and cultural expressions. The same

research informs us that low-income students, besides considering personal attributes

such as beauty, intelligence, and richness to be white-related assets, also perceived that

legitimate aspirations of Whites were to be doctors or engineers. On the opposite side of

the scale, these students perceived Blacks as naturally inclined to be maids or cooks.

In F i gueira's assessment, the circle of prejudice encapsulates students, teachers

and textbooks, producing a long—term impact in the socio-economic sphere including the

notion of citizenship. This state of affairs perpetuates a vicious circle of discrimination

 

8' Abdias do Nascimento and Elisa Larkin Nascimento. “Dance of Deception:

A Reading of Race Relations in Brazil” in Beyond Racism: Race and Inequality in Brazil, South Africa, and

The United States, edited by Charles V. Hamilton, Lyn Huntley, Neville Alexander, Antonio Sérgio

Smimar5es and Wilmot James. London: Routledge, 2001:86-87.

Vera Moreira Figueira. “O Preconceito Racial na Escola.” Estudos Afro-Asiaticos, N0. 18, (Maio 1990):

63-72.

46

against black children. Consequently, from the earliest age, children from the low-income

households are predisposed to perceive the misconstrued rules Afro-Brazilians should

play in society. However, beyond the issue of textbooks and curriculum, which are

important, the early socialization processes experienced by children in the secure

environment of their homes, and at the pre-schools, pre-conceived rules established the

parameters of success and failure of Afro-Brazilians in society84as one recent study

revealed.

Eliane Cavalleiro conducted an ethnographic research study in the late 19903,

with children ranging from 4 to 12 years old. The study demonstrates the devastating

effect of discriminatory practices on those who learn at an early age, within the realm of

their family environment, how to differentiate and hurt those perceived different from

themselves. It was during classroom breaks that researchers observed how their teachers

watched indifferently children’s disputes and aggressive exchanges.85 Researchers noted

that teachers are equally part of the problem when they fail to intervene in those

situations. Further examples attest to this assertion: On the one hand, subtle psychological

damage emerges sometimes during classroom exchanges among students through

negative jokes that stereotype those perceived as different. Such unfortunate events

contribute to the negative impact on children’s self-esteem and later development. On the

other hand, the affected children either respond aggressively to the insults or withdraw in

silence. Silence then becomes the unsuspected mechanism of feelings of

inferiority/impotency vs. superiority/strength molding small children’s socialization

 

” Ibid. P. 64.

" Ibid. p. 70.

'5 Eliane Cavalleiro. Do Siléncio do Lar ao Siléncio Escolar: Racismo, Preconceito e Discriminag5o na

Educa§5o infantil. S50 Paulo: Humanitas: Contexto, 2000.

47

processes. Cavalleiro illustrates this point quite well in her eight month research study

observing children at a pre-school:

In one occasion, during the break time, several boys were at the

bathroom. One of them told the kitchen help that Augusto, a black boy,

had pissed in the bathroom sink. The woman called Augusto: “Your

nasty pig! If you do that again I will put you on curfew all day long!”

The boy responded with silence. . ..

Cavalleiro continues...

I also took notice when four children - two white boys and two black

girls — were playing fighting. They were all six years old. It was visible

that the boys were outsmarting the girls with theirs moves. The girls on

the other hand tried to get back at them with fearful and uncertain

movements. Two teachers watched everything without intervening.

After three minutes of “fight” the game was over. The boys went into

one direction and the girls into another. Nobody made any single

comment about what had happened.86

Another ethnographic study with high school students, between the ages of 12 and

14, demonstrated the complexities embedded in the educational system in relation to

recognition, or lack thereof, of social signifiers of difference, which in many ways

contribute to a student’s loss of interest in the learning process and school truancy. Ivone

Martins de Oliveira conducted classroom research between June and December of 1990

about student’s perceptions, interactions with others, definitions of self and identity

construction.87 Oliveira reached the conclusion that along with socioeconomic factors and

gender differences, white and black students developed an elaborate set of discourses

aimed at reinforcing racial stereotypes, presupposing the naturalization of differences,

that is, markers of inferiority. Skin color constituted the axis of power around which the

meaning of difference was articulated involving everyone in the school environment.

 

“ Ibid.

‘7 Ivone Martins de Oliveira. Preconceito e Autoconceito: Idengade e Interac5o na Sala de Aula.

Campinas: Papirus Editora, 1994.

48

However, the internalization of difference was by no means passive. Tension,

necessity of calling attention to one, aggressive behavior or withdrawing into complete

silence represented some of the defense mechanism deployed by those students perceived

as different.

On the other end of the educational scale, at the level of college and post graduate

education, current and former university students are beginning to tell their side of the

story once they enter the institutions of higher learning. Case studies reporting incidents

at federal and state universities in several states seem indicative that racial discrimination

is no small accident that individuals encounter in their educational and professional

trajectory. Studies are beginning to unravel that these are examples of systematic

discrimination, and may in part explain why so many Afro-Brazilians students quit

college after their first year of study. For instance, Jose' Jorge de Carvalho reported

dozens of cases where hostilities against Afro-Brazilian students were manifested in

dismissive attitudes by professors and colleagues in classroom discussions,

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

88

disqualification of their work, persecution and outright disrespect.

Connecting the micro to the macro domains

The interactions between the macro and micro levels can also be exemplified by

cases related to the labor market. As early as 1942, Oracy Nogueira conducted study

observing newspapers job advertisements in Sao Paulo. The study revealed that potential

 

1” Jose Jorge de Carvalho. “Exclus50 Racial na Universidade Brasileira: Urn Caso de Ac5o Negativa” Q

Neggo na Universidade Brasileira. Salvador: Novos Toques, 2002: 79-100.

49

employers routinely expressed preference to white employees even though the

Constitution prohibited racial discrimination.89

In the early19903, two social scientists, Nadya Araujo Castro and Antonio Sérgio

Alfredo Guimar5es, conducted similar research in the city of Salvador in the state of

Bahia. They arrived at the same conclusions as Oracy Nogueira in 1942. One should keep

in mind the study was published just five years after the implementation of a new

Constitution, which declared racism crime. Nevertheless, such discriminatory behavior

was exercised openly, suggesting that individuals engage in discriminatory practices as

long as they have the consent (real or imagined) of the group to which they belong,

confirming Essed’s insights.

Another difficult task of tackling discriminatory practices in the workplace refers

to the invisibility of color categories in the employees’ files, whether at private or in the

public sector. Until recently, companies were not required to do so, and according to the

employer’s discretion, “race”/color categories could be filled or not. The lack of

systematic data on “race”/color categories is partially attributed to the scant research on

the professional trajectory of Afro-Brazilians employees. There has been a change in this

type of practice since in 1992, the federal government began conducting an internal

census in the civil service in order to tackle the professional trajectory of Afro-Brazilians.

This is one of the reasons why in the early 19903, Afro-Brazilian advocacy organizations

engaged in a national campaign prodding the population to declare its color. For the

segments involved in this campaign, an accurate census record would: a) give ‘visibility’

to a majority of the population lacking the proper recognition of citizenship; and b)

 

'9 Oracy Nogueira. “Atitude Desfavoravel de Alguns Anunciantes de S50 Paulo em Relac5o aos

Empregados de Cor” In Tanto Preto Ouanto Branco: Estudos de Relacoes Raciais. S50 Paulo: T.A. Queiroz,

50

provide policy makers concrete evidence, anchored on scientific tools, of the widespread

inequalities based on race, color, class or gender affiliations.90

J osé Aparecido Monteiro, studying the professional mobility of 91Afro-Brazilians

in a public company, observed that in addition to perceived discriminatory practices,

those employees also pointed to the nepotism and corporativism within the company,

which prevented many Afro-Brazilians and non Afro-Brazilians opportunities for

professional mobility. Those who had reached the higher echelons of the company were

more likely to downplay discriminatory practices, in contrast to those at the lower levels.

When discrimination occurred, many choose to forget, because in the Brazilian political

culture there were no institutional mechanisms inside or outside of the companies that

could address those subjective issues, even though it had concrete implications for ones

life-chances.

Though one can discard these cases of subjective or systematic discrimination, or

as victimization syndrome, the macro-structural implications of these anomalies may

impact negatively the comparative advantage of countries such as Brazil in the global

political economy. In relation to education, the worldwide campaign spearheaded by the

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other

multilateral agencies, including International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank

to improve the quality of education, speaks very closely to the problems faced by public

education in Brazil. The international media that foreign companies operating in Brazil

are pitching in to cover for the educational gap of their Brazilian employees where the

 

Editor, 1985:95-124.

9° Regina Domingues. “The Color of a Majority Without Citizenship.” Conexc‘ies 4, N02, (November

1992a). African Diaspora Research Project. Urban Affairs Program. Michigan State University. East

51

public education left off has reported it.” Companies are helping their employees to

improve basic skills in language and math in order to operate the modern machinery.92 A

cursory comparison regarding the percentage of the population who had some high school

education, showed Brazil last place, out of the eight countries showcased, behind South

Afiica and Thailand. While those two countries registered a total percentage of 40.7 and

18.8 respectively, Brazil registered only 17.4 percent of people 10 years of age and older

who had obtained a high school diploma. The United States was the top country on the

list registering 91.3 percent of the total population that had some high school education,

followed by Sweden, Japan, Chile, and Mexico with 79.8 percent, 67.3 percent, 46.2 and

43.5 percent respectively.

The above examples apparently confirm that structural inequalities impact

negatively on African descendants in Brazil, even though there are reasons to believe that

subjective criteria may have also contributed to such a state, in light of the few studies

available on this subject.

Life-Expectancy and Violence

According to the National Household Population Survey of 1990, over the past 30

years life expectancy increased for Whites and Blacks in Brazil. It is noticeable that in the

19503, Pardos and Pretos had a life expectancy of 40 years in comparison with Whites

who lived 7.5 years longer. In the 19803, the gap was almost the same. While Whites had

a life expectancy of 66.1 years on average, Pretos and Pardos lived an average 59.4 years.

 

Lansing. MI. See also Melissa Nobles. SERIES of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics.

Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.

9' Diane Jean Schemo. “The ABC’S of Business in Brazil: Companies Pitch In Where Public Education

Left Off” New York Times, C], Thursday, July 16, 1998.

52

Since the majority of Pardos and Pretos lived in the poorest areas of the country, which

are the North and Northeast regions, they are more likely to benefit less from

improvements in health care and sewage systems and other urban improvements.

Consequently, black children present higher rates of mortality in comparison with white

children from the same socio-economic background. In addition, black children are more likely

to die of violent deaths, as a result of death squads, or drug related crimes.

93

In 1991, in the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, it was reported that every

day at least two children were assassinated; abortion is the fifth cause of death among

girls up to 13 years old. Among the boys who died of violent deaths, 82 percent were

blacks (pretos + pardos). In 1991, 420 children died violently.94 Corroborating these

studies on violence, Caldeira registered in her analysis on new urban segregation in major

cities the staggering data that in 1992, in the city of S50 Paulo 1470 civilians were killed

by the police in contrast to 25 and 24 civilians who were killed by the police force in Los

Angeles and New York in the United States. Evidences such as these are critically

assessed by Muniz Sodré, who in a poignant article about the violence facing young Afro-

.

.

.

,

95

Brazrlrans stressed ", racrsm not only shapes but also reflects socrety."

The Academic Interpretation of Racial Inequalities in Brazil

The Assimilation Approaches

In the 70 years of academic production in the area of social sciences, mainly in the

field of sociology, few theories became predominant in the explanation of racial

 

92

Ibid.

9'1 Pesquisa Nacional por Amostragem de Domicilios, 1990; See also Charles H. Wood and José Alberto

Magno de Carvalho. The Demography of Inequality in Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1988: 144-153.

9‘ Folha de S50 Paulo, Sébado, Dezembro 7, 1991 :10.

53

inequalities in Brazil. We can distinguish three currents of thought around which uneven

distribution of material and symbolic resources, intersected with color and class

dimensions, characterized the Brazilian system of social stratification as reflected in the

assimilation, structural, and revisionist approaches.

The assimilation approach encompasses two distinct phases. The first is identified

with the early 19303 Gilberto Freyre’s lusotropicalism theory.96 The second refers to the

studies undertaken during the 19403 until early 19603 by Donald Pierson (1942) , Thales

97

de Azevedo (1955),98 Charles Wagley (1963),99 and Carl Degler (1971).'°°

In 1933, Gilberto Freyre, a former student of Franz Boas at Columbia University,

published his, Casa Grande e Senzala. (The Mansion and the Shanties), which came to be

praised nationally and internationally by the academic community.101 In this book, Freyre

developed the seminal concept of "ethnic democracy. " The underlying thesis of

racial/ethnic democracy stressed that in Brazil racial antagonisms, unlike the ones

prevalent in the United States, did not exist because of the large-scale miscegenation that

took place in Brazil for five centuries. This was attributed to the historical long-term

relationship between the Portuguese and the Moors, when the latter dominated the Iberian

Peninsula from the seventh to the fourteen centuries, and because of the early Portuguese

trade and settlement in Afiica. These previous relationships helped the Portuguese to

 

:Muniz Sodré. “The Abomination of the Other.” Conexées Vol. 5, N0. 1, (April 1993): 9.

Gilberto Freyre. Casa Grande d Senzala. Rio de Janeiro: José Olimpio Editora, 1977 (1933), and New

9World In the Tropics. New York: Vantage Books, 1954.

Donald Pierson. lfigroes in Brazil: A Study of Race Contact in Bag. Chicago: The University of

Chicago Press, 1942.

98 Thales de Azevedo. As Elites de Cor: Um Estudo de A3cens5o Social. S50 Paulo: Companhia Editora

Nacional, 1955.

99 Charles Wagley. gee and Clas_s in Rural Brazil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.

m Carl Degler. Neither Lhrck nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States. New

York: The MacMillan Co, 1971.

54

 

establish a New World in the tropics, a historical process labeled by F reyre as

lusotropicalism. The lack of "de jure" segregationist legislation in Brazil was the concrete

evidence of such an assertion. In broader terms "ethnic democracy " implies that anyone

in Brazil, independent of sex, class, color or religious affiliation has equal opportunity to

upward mobility. If problems arise, they are more likely to reflect political differences

rather than racial antagonism. This notion was clearly expressed in several of Freyre's

works, such as The Racial Factors in Contermrorary Politics, published in 1966.102 It is

interesting to note that Freyre uses the terminologies “race” and ethnicity interchangeably

when referring to African or European descendants. Freyre did not dismiss the existence

of problems among ethnic groups in Brazil, which he considered mild problems of

integration of marginalized groups into the mainstream society. After all, Brazil still

represented a model of ethnic democracy that should serve as an example for other multi-

racial societies. Discussing the future of the Brazilian society and the remote possibility

of an upsurge of racial confrontation because of the multi-racial character of the country

in comparison with other societies, he argued:

If this is happening in Brazil, then, its style or its technique of

developing a new type of civilization, with evident political

implications, may offer a few valuable suggestions or anticipations, if

not to all, to some of the other multi-racial societies that face problems

of integration similar to those that Brazil has faced, and is still facing,

without becoming a victim to race-hatred or to race prejudice in its

extreme or violent expressions. This style implies interpenetration of

cultures, on the sociological level and, on the biological level

miscegenation. It implies also such ideologies as ‘negritude', its

narrower political-racial sense, and Indo-American, in its equally

narrow political-racial sense, being superseded or supplanted by a

disregard for race as a decisive or powerfully conditioning factor of

political behavior. '0

 

m Gilberto Freyre. Op. Cit.

'02 Gilberto Freyre. The Racial Factor in Contemporary Politics, published for the Research Unit for the

 

Study of Multi-Racial Societies at University of Sussex. MacGibbon & Kee Limited, 1966:27.

103

Ibid.

55

Freyre's interpretation of movements of racial pride and racial consciousness is

revealing. As suggested in the quotation above, the existence of ideologies such as

Negritude and Indigenismo implies, in today’s jargon, "political incorrectness" since the

race factor in Brazil did not, in his opinion, influences political behavior. Moreover, he

excluded the possibility of flaws in the ideal of ethnic democracy. He believed that race,

as a politically conditioning factor, was far from being a reality in Brazil. Freyre gave

intellectual coherence to a thought already entrenched in the minds of the power elite

since the early twentieth century.

Testing the Tropical Waters of Lusotropicalism: The Macro-Structural Approaches

The image of Brazil as a racial democracy dates back fi'om the nineteenth century

and early twentieth century when foreign visitors demonstrated mixed reactions about

what they considered the ultimate fluidity of social-racial relationships. From Gobineau

to Theodore Roosevelt, including African American visitors, they all reached the

conclusion that the extant socio-racia] system in the tropics was far more benevolent in

comparison to harsher systems of white supremacy exemplified by the United States,

France and other European societiesm In the 19303, when Gilberto Freyre’s ethnic

democracy thesis made headlines all over the world, in a time where fascism and Nazism

were threatening the world civilization, his theorizing was an exercise of hope for the

future of human kind.

Consequently, in the early 19503, with the inception of the Cold War and the

upsurge of liberation movements in Africa and Asia, the UNESCO commissioned an

56

international group of scholars comprised of Brazilian, French and North American

specialists to uncover the positive and the negative aspects conducive to harmonious

socio-racial environments. Initially, Bahia was the preferred focus of investigation but

pressure exerted by social scientists resulted in the incorporation of other states as well.

Aware of the different patterns of race relations in various regions of Brazil, the

UNESCO project centered the focus of investigation in the Southeast and the Northeast

regions that included the states of Rio de J aneiro, S50 Paulo, Bahia and Pernambuco.

105

The division of labor in these two regions was comprised of: a) French scholar Roger

Bastide, the Brazilians Oracy Nogueira and Octavio da Costa Eduardo, in S50 Paulo; b)

Luiz de Aguiar Costa, in Rio de J aneiro; c) Charles Wagley, in the rural communities of

Amazonas and in Northeast backlands; d) Thales de Azevedo, in the city of Salvador; and

Gilberto Freyre, in Pernambuco. A series of studies were published as result of the

UNESCO endeavor. Several of these studies became classics in the study of race relations

in Brazil. A group of scholars under Charles Wagley’s leadership published an excellent

book, in 1952, containing several essays reflecting patterns of race relations in rural

,

,

106

communities.

In the following year, Thales de Azevedo published a study about the upward

mobility of Blacks in Salvador. '07 Contrasting the Northeast region with the ebullient

industrial cities of the Southeast, in 1953, Costa Pinto exposed the contradictions of the

 

W David Hellwig. African-American Reflections on Brazil’s Racial Paradis_e. Philadelphia: Pa: Temple

University Press, 1992.

ms Marcos Chor Maio. “UNESCO and the Study of Race Relations in Brazil: Regional or National Issue?”

Latin American Research Review, Vol. 36, Issue 2, 2001: 118-137.

E Charles Wagley, editor. Race and Class in Rural Brazil. Holland: Unesco, 1952.

Thales de Azevedo. Les elites de couleur dfl une ville brasilienne. Paris: UNESCO.

57

.
industrial development in Rio de J aneiro Vis-a-vrs discriminatory practices and racrsm.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

108

In 1955, similar studies undertaken by Roger Bastide and Florestan Femandes juxtaposed

the industrialization process in S50 Paulo and local discriminatory patternsmg Femandes

would become the dean of race relation studies in S50 Paulo. The subsequent research

projects spearheaded by Femandes and associates came to be known among the academic

establishments as the “Paulista School” as opposed to the “Bahia School” of race

relations under the leadership of Thales de Azevedo and collaborators. By and large these

studies informed the world audience that Brazil was no racial paradise but had social and

cultural elements which could transform the society to a truly racial democracy. Even in

the most relaxed atmosphere of the Northeast, Wagley, for instance, warned of the

necessity of providing Brazilians with educational opportunities so they could better

themselves in a society that places more weight on social attributes such as class, jobs and

education rather than the exclusive burden of race. He, however, did not simple dismiss

.

.

.

,

,

no

racral tensrons but concluded it was not as exacerbated as in other countries.

The Southeast research group reached almost the same conclusions, even though

they registered more rigid patterns of social-racial interactions in Rio de J aneiro and Sao

Paulo, noting the prevalence of racism. Nevertheless, the cautionary optimism with which

these researchers concluded their work insisted that class constituted the main articulating

principle of social stratification around which all the other variables were mere

appendages. Variables such as “race” and color were considered transient inconveniences

bound to disappear with the advancement of capitalist development.

 

m Luiz de Aguiar Costa Pinto. O Nagro no Rio de Janeiro: Relacces de fica Numa Sociedade em

Mudanga. S50 Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1953.

‘09 Roger Bastide and F lorestan Femandes. Relacées Raciais entre Negros e Brancos em S50 Paulo. S50

Paulo. Anhembi, 1955.

58

In the 19603 and 19703, as previously mentioned, Florestan Femandes became a

household name, nationally and internationally, in the studies of contemporary race

relations in Brazil. The expression “Brazilians have prejudice about having prejudice” is

attributed to him. He conducted extensive research projects in S50 Paulo about Afro-

Paulistas, studying their organizations, cultural and political behavior. The result was the

1965 publication of two volumes entitled: A Integga§5o do Negro aa_Sociedade de

M The English version received the title The Negain Brazilian Society published

in 1969. The great merit of Femandes was to uncover the extent to which discrimination

was not subtle in S50 Paulo, as one was led to believe, based on Gilberto Freyre’s studies.

The solution for erasing the “weight of the past” and attendant discrimination relied on

the expansion of capitalist economic development.

Femandes advanced several theses such as: a) discrimination against Blacks was

carried over from slavery, and because capitalist development required skills that the

former descendants of enslaved people did not have, they were relegated to the menial

jobs; b) because this segment was basically out of the social and economic development

they ended up forming a sort of caste system; c) Pretos and Pardos were to be blame for

not being able to compete with white Europeans, and therefore Pretos and Pardos did not

take part in the bourgeoisie revolution; (1) their inaptitude prevented them from seizing

Opportunities in the capitalist development; c) consequently, they were unfit to run

modern organizations of mutual assistance, and were unfit to develop normal family

lives; f) capitalist development would finally integrate Blacks into the system when the

other segments had moved up in the social ladder; g) discrimination was mostly related to

‘

”0 Charles Wagley, pp. 142-153.

59

class rather than race.l H This view from the left would become the common sense

interpretation of race relation’s studies in Brazil until the 19703.

Intrigued by the extensive miscegenation processes, Charles Wagley, endorsing

Pierson and Freyre in their overall interpretations of Brazilian society, advanced the

concept of “social race” in order to account for the perception that Brazilians

discriminated more on the basis of class rather than race as in the United States. A few

years after Wagley’s study another North American, Carl Degler, advanced the mulatto

escape hatch thesis, which gained wide currency among scholars. As previously

explained, such a standpoint emphasized the opportunity structure available to those of

mixed ancestry. According to this thesis, upwardly mobile mixed background people

willing to assimilate into the European Brazilian value systems would downplay their

racialized identities in order to accommodate themselves within the dominant structures.

Critical Standpoints

Criticizing the above perspective twenty years later, the Afro-Brazilian

sociologist, Eduardo de Oliveira e Oliveira called attention to the entrapments of

language, since “mulatto escape hatch” could either indicate an easy exit or an

entrapment into the system of inequalities revealing the complexities of the “mulatto” as

an etymological category.l 12 Oliveira e Oliveira was not alone in his assessment. In 1954,

Guerreiro Ramos, another sociologist from a previous generation and also an Afro-

Brazilian intellectual, abhorred the sociological generalizations espoused by Brazilians,

 

N F lorestan Femandes. “The Weight of the Past” in Color and Race, edited by John H0pe Franklin. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968:282-301;

112

Eduardo de Oliveira e Oliveira. “O Mulato, um Obstaculo Espistemologico” Argumento, Vol. 1, No.3

(Janeiro 1974): 65-73.

60

Europeans and North American scholars in relation to racial inequalities.l ‘3 Ramos

considered the Brazilian sociology of the 19503 and 19603 to be in crisis primarily

because the categories of analysis deployed by mainstream scholars, for the most part, did

not correspond to the local reality. According to him, the analytical tools were

transplanted from other societies at the whim of intellectuals’ representative of the power

elite, and the studies they produced were consequently outdated and out of place. It is

interesting to note his position on this subject:

Sociology in Brazil, particularly the ‘official’ and the most celebrated in

circle of ‘experts’ is outdated. Partially because such a state reflects the

current state of European and North American sociology, in light of the

progress of philosophical ideas in the last forty years and the new image

in the world. As our sociologists take too seriously and at face value the

foreign sociology, the outdated process increases. Furthermore, our

sociology is currently outdated considering the particularly problematic

of the Brazilian society, lost in the investigation of pseudo-problems,

lesser questions, such as “assimilation,” “community structure,”

“lusotropicology,” “the mansions and the shanties,” ...or certain themes

treated as thesis, pregnant with erudition, and lacking any urgency,

.

.

.

I I4

necessrty or functionality.

It is obvious that in his nationalist fervor, Ramos was alluding to Gilberto Freyre,

Arthur Ramos, Donald Pierson and others. Guerreiro, like Freyre and Assessed

considered Brazil to be one of the most racially democratic societies in the world, despite

the existence of discrimination. Unlike Freyre and others, he concluded there was no

“Negro problem” in Brazil, except for the pathology of Whites, who were willing to

fabricate one as a pre-condition to conceal their racial privilege. In this sense, he

perceived as a mistake and danger to interpret in racial terms “the tensions derived from

 

m Guerreiro Ramos. “Guerreiro Ramos e a Descida aos Infemos” In Introduc5o Critica a Sociologia

lBrasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Editora URFJ, 1995: 263-267.

Ibid. p. 265.

61

the relationships between metropolis vs. colony and capital vs. labor.” “5Even with a

growing national and international recognition, when the military sized the power

structures in 1964, Guerreiro Ramos was sent into exile. Thanes de Azevedo and Carl

Degler, important social scientists, endorsed the idea of racial democracy while at the

same time pointed to the existence of discriminatory practices.

Renewing Structural Inequality Analysis: Intersecting Structure and Culture

Carlos A. Hasenbal g and Suellen Huntington have argued that racist practices

entrenched in social institutions have precluded generations of Afro-Brazilians from

achieving equality and opportunity in education, housing and income. Refuting "the

legacy of the past" theory as the primary cause of the actual conditions of racial

inequality, these scholars have suggested that the social construction of race is

fundamentally related to the system of domination and subordination in which

individual's social status is assigned. In the case of such racially-structured social

formation as the Brazilian society:

...Racism, through discriminatory practices and cultural stereotyping of

roles appropriate for blacks, perpetuates an unequal structure of social

opportunities for whites and non-whites.

116

In the 19703 and 19803 a new stream of Brazilian and Brazilianist scholars took

on the task of re-interpreting racial inequalities under new microscopic lenses. In 1971

Anani Dzidzienyo wrote a masterpiece on the position of Blacks in Brazilian society. The

point of departure for his questioning was to understand under what conditions and

circumstances Brazilians were able to maintain a highly stratified society by color,

 

“5 Guerreiro Ramos. “ Politica de Relacées de Raca no Brasil” In Introducao Critica a Sociologia Brasileira.

Rio de Janeiro: Editora URFJ, 1995:250.

62

without the support of legislative measures as in the United States and South Africa.

Dzidzienyo, a political scientist by training, was one of the first scholars of the new

generation who skillfully juxtaposed structural analysis — measured by educational

achievements, social mobility and political representation - and the political culture —— as

manifested by the communicative sphere of local “etiquette of racial relations.”

In the years to come his initial inquiries would become a classic in the

contemporary studies of racial politics in Brazil.117 Dzidzienyo recognized in 1971 what

North Americans would realize at the dawn of the twenty-first century: widespread

discrimination can thrive in a social context independent of a state—sponsored system of

discrimination. Dzidzienyo in his puzzlement with the Brazilian social “etiquette of

racial relations” noted:

The black Brazilian’s position in white-dominated Brazil

differs from that of blacks in similar societies elsewhere

only to the extent that the official Brazilian ideology of

non-discrimination — by not reflecting the reality and,

indeed, by carnouflaging it — achieves withcgut tension the

same results as do overtly racist societies.

11

Dzidzienyo’s study gained wide currency among research specialists on the

contemporary racial politics and dynamics in Brazil, even though the italicized expression

— without tension - can be disputed in light of recent scholarship on state and civil society

,

1 19

Violence.

 

”6 Carlos Hasenbalg and Suellen Huntington. “ Brazilian Racial Democracy: Reality or Myth?” Humboldt

Journal of Social Relations, Vol. 10, N01, (Fall/Winter 1982/83): 135-136.

117

m Anani Dzidzienyo. The Position of Black in the Brazilian Sociegy London: Minority Rights Group, 1971.

Ibid. p. 7

119

.

.

.

.

-

.

r

.

See for instance, the recently released National Report on Violence by Fire Arms in Brazr] (Relatono

Nacional Violéncia por Arrnas de fogo no Brasil) organized by Maria Fernanda Tourinho Peres. Nucleo de

Estudos da Violéncia. Universidade de 850 Paulo, 2004.

 

63

By the end of the 19703 an Argentinean naturalized Brazilian, Carlos Alfredo

Hasenbalg}20 systematized statistical data analysis demonstrating the limits of the

opportunity structures available for Afro-Brazilians. Such limits were characterized by

narrow patterns of social mobility, whereby negligible financial returns, regardless of

educational achievements, condemned Afro-Brazilians into a “structure of cumulative

disadvantage” vis-a-vis European Brazilians.

Contrary to his predecessors from the structuralist school of thought, Hasenbalg

did not believe that capitalist industrial development would ultimately absorb the most

unfavorable sectors of the population into mainstream society. The opposite could be

true, since the Brazilian model of capitalist development coexisted pacifically with

racism. Additionally, this author set out to demonstrate that the contemporary conditions

of structural inequalities plaguing Afro-Brazilians were not residues from past slavery.

As society entered a new phase of industrial development, racist and

discriminatory practices were re-articulated in order to rationalize the evolving

stratification system. In his opinion, racist ideologies based on the principle of white

supremacy, along with a political culture of ‘pigrnentocracy’, that is based on the color

continuum, which emphasizes the lighter the better, cemented the ongoing pattern of

racial inequalities. Though this system may have slightly favored some light skin

Brazilians, by and large, mixed ancestry people were/are more likely to be accommodated

within the social rungs occupied by the majority of Blacks rather than constituting an

intermediary category closer to Whites.

 

m Carlos A. Hasenbalg. Discriminacao e Desigaaldades Raciais no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Edicées Graal

Ltda., 1979.

64

Interesting enough, Hasenbalg reached some conclusions similar to those

advanced years earlier by Dzidzienyo. For instance: a) Dzidzienyo, noted that the power

elite was able to maintain a system of racial domination without tension, and Hasenbal g

inferred that the same system coexisted pacifically with racism; b) Dzidzienyo

emphasized the fact the Afro-Brazilians, during the early 19703 did not benefit,

ideologically, from the civil rights movement and other movements of liberations that

were taking place in the continents of Afiica and Asia. 121 Hasenbalg, argued that Afro-

Brazilians were not able to develop mass protest social movements in order to challenge

the prevailing status quo.122 When those movements emerged in the 19303, Hasenbal g

considered them of low impact, short duration and incapable of inaugurating a tradition of

a strong protest movement.123 He notes that the only anti-discriminatory law issued in

1950 was implemented in response to an incident of racial discrimination involving an

US. citizen. Still, the power elite was able to “smoothly maintain” that system of

domination because of three interrelated factors: 1) cooptation of the upper mobile

members of the Afro-Brazilian population, mainly people of mixed ancestry; 2)

ideological manipulation that maintained an unequal system while allowing the

displacement of symbolic integration on occasions of national festivities; 3) using or

threatening to use repression, if necessary, in the same way the state apparatus controlled

the larger population. Hasenbalg’s ‘smooth’ maintenance of a system of domination

resembles Dzidzienyo’s expression of racial relations ‘without tension.’

 

l:Anani Dzidzienyo, p. 3.

1

Carlos A. Hasenbalg. Op cited. Pp. 223-225, and 256-260.

"’ Ibid. p. 224

65

Unquestionably, Hasenbalg and Dzidzienyo inaugurated the most critical

perspectives on the state of race relation’s studies in Brazil. However, their reflections did

not contemplate the possibility of human agency by the subordinate groups, since it

seems they indirectly bestow upon the shoulders of Afro-Brazilians the burden of

challenging and changing the forces of domination and super exploitation. Though

Hasenbalg mentioned forms of repression that kept the “pacific” Brazilian system of race

relations intact, he did not elaborate further on that, even when he explicitly noted that

repression was extensive to the larger subordinate population.

If one takes into consideration that from 1889, when the republic was inaugurated

as a system of governance, up to today, 116 years went by, out of which 76 were under

the auspices of non -democratic regimes. Therefore, without a system of political

democracy, how is it that the institutions that shape society and support those regimes

could possibly be democratic, and by extension, how a regime of ‘racial democracy’

could ever exist under such Circumstances? As recent historical records have shown,

.

.

.

.

'24

without major revolutionary impulses, Afro-Brazilians as integral part of the civil society

have been able to articulate their grievances according to the political and institutional

mechanisms available to them, as well as to the larger society. That was the case in the

19203 and 19303 and by the end of the 19703 onward. Though structural and revisionist

studies of race relations greatly enhanced our understanding of the Brazilian situation,

they did not leave an open door that one could use to predict the changing meanings of

race and racial politics articulated by segments of the Afro-Brazilian population and

 

m George Reid Andrews. Blacks and Whites in sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1988. Madison: University of

Wisconsin Press, 1991.

66

sympathizers. The lack of a dialectic approach compromised in part the early analysis by

structural and critical-revisionist scholars of race relations.

Remnants of the old generation of critical perspective analysts, and a new

generation of students of racial politic and dynamics have captured the gaps in theoretical

formulations. Among the new generation of Brazilianist sociologists, Howard Winant

formulates the theory of racial formation as a too] to explore the transnational character of

“race” as a local and global phenomenon. Howard Winant, departing from the Gramscian

approach to the study of hegemony studies, “race” in a context of dialectical processes

whose social meanings are constantly articulated and re-articulated over periods of time

by both dominant and subordinate groups, whereby “institution and interpretation,

structure and culture, socrety and self are concretely linked,”

Hence, articulation

.

.

125

.

.

implies a level of political contestation and competing projects of social signification.

Briefly, racial formation is understood as:

...A process precisely because the inherently capricious and erratic

nature of racial categories forces their constant rearticulation and

reformulation — their social construction — in respect to the changing

historical contexts in which they are invoked.

Winant’s theoretical framework enhances the previous perspectives because it

allows the understanding of the changing meaning of race in Brazil, and the ongoing

political articulation of its significance by both the power elite as well as by politically

active segments of the Afro-Brazilian population, who over the past decade and a half

have defended the implementation of race-based public policies as mechanisms to

decrease the actual conditions of racial inequalities in Brazil.

 

”5 Howard Winant. “Racial Formation and Hegemony: Global and Local Developments” in Racial

Conditions: Politics. Theory. Comparisons. London & Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994:

 

111.

67

Thus, the literature on racism and discrimination have been divided into subfields

of specialization where the macro-structural analyses are juxtaposed to the social

psychological approaches informing individual/collective impulses to discriminate, as

well as the individual/collective responses to the phenomenon. Unlike the US. and

European scholars, Brazilian sociologists specialized on “racial politics and dynamics”

have not benefited from the latest theoretical developments beyond their fields of

specialization. U.S. economists have advanced conceptual models such as discrimination

based on taste and urban economics theory in order to account for the evolving perception

of discrimination.127 Seemingly, analytical interpretations based on “group dominance”

theories, and attendant subfields such as group conflict theory, group position theory and

social dominance theory have offered new insights that could greatly contribute to the

understanding of the realities of racism in the Brazilian society. Suffice to say that the

point of convergence of these theories relates to the role of ideology in explaining group

subordination. Though the Gramscian approach to ideology is highly diffused in the

Brazilian academy it is understudied in the field of race relations.

In summary, this chapter explored the limited opportunity structures available to

large segments of the Afro-Brazilian population in the areas of education, the labor

market and life expectancy based on socio-demographic data and brief ethnographic

accounts. The complexities involved in the structuration of inequalities for generations

included historical factors circumscribed in time and space. Since the UNESCO research

program in 1954 several studies have attempted to give theoretical coherence to the

phenomenon. Explanations ranging from the assimilation, macro-structural to critical-

 

"‘ Ibid.

68

revisionist approaches have partially explained social-racial inequalities in Brazil. The

same assessment could be extended to statistical analysis, which tells us only one part of

the story. The rigidity of numbers does not explain the qualitative variations between and

among the same social-racial groupings, nor are they safe predictors of processes of

social change. The socio-demographic data presented in this chapter give us only a

glimpse of an emergent Afro-Brazilian middle class. And yet there is a paucity of studies

that capture such variations in Brazil even though the global market economies have

already paid attention to the potential purchasing power of 8 plus million people of

African ancestry. I28The limits and opportunities that analyzes based on consumer power

have yet to be fully accessed. However, considering the pervasive interpretation that

Afro-Brazilians are by and large poor, the next question is how have these group of

people succeeded despite the limited opportunity structure available to them? Obviously,

in Brazil, the field of studies on racial politics and dynamics is underdeveloped. In this

sense, I relied on Philomena Essed’s theorization of “everyday racism” in order to

provide a partial, but more balanced perspective of the macro and micro domains of

social reality, whereby one enforces the perpetuating ‘cumulative structures of

disadvantage.’ The next chapter focuses on the role of state and the formulation of social

policies.

 

”7 Marco Fugazza. “Racial Discrimination: Theory, Facts and Policy.” International Labour Review, Vol,

 

142, N0. 4, (2003): 507-542.

”8 Miriam Jordan. “Marketers Discover Black Brazil -— Despite Their Huge Numbers, Blacks Are Just

Emerging As Distinct Consumer Group.” New York: Wall Street Journ_a_l,_November 24, 2000; See also

Daniela Pinheiro, “A Classe Média Negra,” VajaAno 32, No.3, 18 de Agosto, 1999; Rodrigo Cardoso e

Laura Capriglione, “A Cor do Sucesso,” y_eja, 24 de Junho, 1998..

69

CHAPTER 2

“Race”, the State and Social Policies in Brazil

Introduction

This chapter seeks to explain how “race” has been one of the most important

factors in the structure of nation building and citizenship. Immigration, education and

census policies, among others, constitute three concrete examples in which racial

ideologies have been systematically articulated and implemented in public policies.

Hence, a state-centered approach is pursued in order to render visibility to the challenges,

and subsequent re-articulations of state policies by civil society sectors. The ensuing

discussions are organized as follows: First, I discuss the alleged neutrality of the Brazilian

state on matters of “race” by pointing out the formulation of social policies embedded in

racialist frameworks. Second, I expose the contradictions of the ideology of racial

democracy, which emerged within such a context; Third, I shift attention to the census

policies and its attendant racial classifications at which point the intermediary census

category — Pardo — has become the articulating principle of discourses on inclusion and

exclusion. I conclude this chapter by addressing the latest developments in the

implementation of race-based social and public policies, despite the extant conflicting

racial/color categorizations and the lack of consensus as to what constitute affirmative

action policies.

70

The “Sleight of Hand” of the State and the Racial Question

The real challenge for the student of racial ideology in Brazil, however,

is to recognize that the apparent absence of an elaborate racial

terminology does not mean the absence of racial meanings.

Sidney Chalhoub129

...their failure to act, their failure to make decisions, is itself an act that

is often of greater consequence than the decisions they do make.

C.Wright Mills

130

It would be misleading to assert that the Brazilian State, throughout its modern

history, had a neutral position in the racial question. Research on early urban renewal and

health care efforts,l3l immigrationI32 and education policiesI33 have been historically

pregnant with racial overtones, creating significant exclusions based upon the

conditionality of citizenship. The opening quote by Sidney Chalhoub exemplifies the

extent to which racism, since the nineteenth century, has been an important component of

public policies even though the written text of such policies have rendered this factor

invisibility. In this sense, the sub-text of racist expressions is manifested through neglect

or absence of explicit actions to correct perceived social problems, which is so well

characterized by C. Wright Mills reflections on the power elite and its ability to promote

social inclusion or exclusion, as the second quote reveals.

Analyses of racial inequalities in Brazil produced over the past fifty years have

rarely addressed the role of the state in structuring inequalities. For the most part, studies

dedicated to these subjects fall either into the structural-Marxist approach or into the

 

'29 Sidney Chalhoub, “The Politics of Disease Control: Yellow Fever and Race in Nineteenth Century

Rio de Janeiro” Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 25, 1993:460.

130

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite. London, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1956: 3-4.

m Teresa Meade, “Civilizing Rio de Janeiro”: The Public Health Campaign and Riot of 1904,” Journal of

Social Histog, Vol. 20, N. 2, (winter 1986): 301-22;

132

Jeffrey Lesser, “Legislac5o e Dissimulac5o Racistas no Brasil (1920-1934)” Arche', Vol. 3, N. 8,

 

1994:79-98;

71

cultural interpretations, whereby social-racial inequalities are couched within a culturalist

standpoint, such as the “culture of poverty” fi'amework. As a consequence the economic

realm seems to be divorced from the socio-political realm, and when the cultural is

incorporated in the economic analysis, the former is interpreted as an appendage to the

latter.

Because of such circumstances, social critics, scholars, journalists and mainstream

public opinion makers accommodated themselves within the parameters of the

"racial/ethnic democracy thesis," reinforcing the state's absence of restrictive racial

legislation. It would not be unrealistic to infer that the state and civil society came to be

perceived as two separate entities. In the context of civil society “race” has been a major

issue indeed.

This is by no means an exclusive feature of the field of sociology of race relations in

Brazil. In the United States much of the same problems have been acknowledged by

social scientists. Jack Niemonen, for instance, in his critical appraisal of William Julius

Wilson’s works, advances a similar argument, noting that the sociological literature on

“race” has not produced an adequate epistemological account of the state in structuring in

the African Americans life-chances and opportunities. According to him, there is a

theoretical incongruence in the sociological analyses produced in the United States,

which separates the economic from the sociopolitical realms rendering the role of state

.

.
1nvrsrble.

.

I34

.

.

.

.

.

.

Consrdering the state as comprised of conflicting and contradictory class

interests, ruled by formal structures and embedded in a particular set of values,

 

m Jerry D’Avila, Diploma of Whiteness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945. Durham & London:

Duke University Press, 2003.

72

determining the selectivity of how and when policies ought to be implemented, including

those related to the repressive state apparatuses, Niemonen summed up:

The state is not a neutral arbiter; it is simultaneously an object, product,

and determinant of race-class interactions understood within the context

of ( l) the contradictory imperatives of capital accumulation and

legitimation, and (2) the degree to which the apparatuses of the state are

at any point in time in the hands of various factions of the capitalist

class. Contradictory imperatives structure opportrmities available to the

capitalist class. By virtue of its historically specific influence in the

state, the capitalist class structures opportunities available to racial and

ethnic minorities, as well as the majority. Although these statements

incorporate contradictory views (structuralist and instrumentalist), they

might be interpretpsd to represent different tendencies within the state as

a set of relations. .

The above explanation on the functions of the state - to which I also subscribe - is

illustrated by one astute observation made by Michael Mitchell, a Brazilianist, who

suggested that since the inception of the republican constitution in 1891, to the last one

adopted in 1988 and reformed in 1998, the racial problematic has always been either

implicit or clearly stated. 136 For example, the absence of segregationist legislation did not

preclude state partiality and racial preference policies toward European groups. Such was

the case with the immigration policies from 1890 to 1937 as studied by Vainer and

Skidmore.137 Under decree No.528 of June 28, 1890, any group of people could enter the

country, except criminals; applicants from Asia or Afiica required authorization of the

National Congress.I38 In 1921, project No. 29] went further regarding immigration from

 

m Jack Niemonen. ”The Role of State in Structuring Race Relations” in

Race. Class. and The State In

Contemporary Sociology: The William Julius Wilson Debates. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner

Publishers, 2002.217.

"" Ibid. pp. 226- 227.

:: Michael Mitchell “Race, Legitimacy and the State in Brazil” AfroDiaspora, Vol. 2, N. 4, 1984:111-116.

Carlos B. Vainer. "Estado e Raca no Brasil. Notas Exploratérias." Estudos Afio-Asfilticos, Vol.18 (Maio

1990):]03-118; Thomas E. Skidmore. Preto no Branco: Raga e Nacionalidade no Pensamento Brasileiro.

Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1976:70-94.

"’ Carlos B. Vainer, op. Cit. p. 106

73

Africa to explicitly prohibit the entrance of any black people into Brazil, which targeted

P01311931 black immigrants from the United States and the Caribbean.139

This episode provoked heated debates in Congress and in the press between those

who condemned racialist policies on moral and religious ground and those in favor of

restrictive legislation,I40 a proposition that was halted in the Senate. New attempts to

restrict Asian immigration were tried in 1923 with the submission of project No. 391 of

October 22,1923, which refined even more the project of 1921. It regulated Asian

immigration to Brazil stressing that only 5 percent of the people in this category could

enter the country annually. 141 Again, the attempt failed due in part to landowners’

pressure in securing a steady flow of surplus labor from Asia.

With the advent of a new political regime, also known as the Estado Novo (New

State Regime) in 1930, under the leadership of Geti'ilio Vargas, immigration policies

continued to prevent selected immigrants from entering Brazil, particularly those under

the category of undesirable people. In addition to Africans and African descendants,

Jews, prostitutes and disabled people, were listed in this category. The diplomatic offices

through the issuance or denial of passports would have implemented these “de facto”

.

.

.

.

147-

restrrctrve polrcres.

In addition to immigration policies, the Constitution of 1934 endorsed the values

of eugenic education in forming the “new Brazilian man.” Article 138, item (b), in

practical terms implied that, in certain areas of public administration, such as public

 

"’ Ibid. p. 107.

“0 Tiago de Melo Gomes. “Problemas no Paraiso: A Democracia Racial Brasileira Frente a Imigrac5o Afro-

Americana (1921): Estudos Afro-Asiéticos. Ano 25, N. 2, 2003:179-373.

Ibid.

74

school systems, European descendants would receive preferential treatment in the

.

.

.

I43

.

allocation of jobs and socra] rewards.

Thus, from elementary education to secondary

schools, spatial segregation conferred the “diploma of whiteness” to upwardly mobile

Brazilians.144 This policy was set in motion through spatial segregation based on social

class and the physical separation of blacks from white students. Albeit explicit, a written

segregationist legislation would betray the country’s nationalist propaganda of a racial

democracy to paraphrase Leslie Rout, “the sleight of hand” of the state had obscured the

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

145

reality of race relations in Brazr] to the pornt of denying its exrstence.

The Estado Novo regime was populist in its rhetoric, protectionist in its first labor

legislation, but repressive towards political rights. Yet, in 1931, Afro-Brazilians

successfully established The Frente Negra Brasileira (Brazilian Black Front), the first

civil rights organization in S50 Paulo aimed at promoting social justice and fighting

against discrimination faced by black Brazilians. In 1937 the Brazilian government,

which abolished all political opposition groups in the country, nonetheless banned it.146

A few years later, in 1946, Abdias do Nascimento, an Afro-Brazilian scholar and

activist, proposed to the National Constituent Assembly several measures to end

discrimination against Afro-Brazilians, including proposals of federal scholarships for

high school and college students. These proposals were the result of the National

 

142 Jeffrey Lesser. ‘Migrac5o e Mutacées Conceituais da Identidade Nacional no Brasil durante a

Era

Vargas’ Revista Brasileira de Histéria. N0. 28, 1994:121-150; Jeffrey Lesser. ‘ Legislac5o Imigratoria e

Dissimulac5o Racistas no Brasil (1920-1934)’ Arché Vol. 3, No.8, 1994:79-98.

"" Jerry D’Avila., 2003.

"‘ Ibid.

"5 Leslie B. Rout Jr. “Sleight of Hand: Brazilian and American Authors Manipulate the Brazilian Racial

Situation, 1910-1951.” The Americas Vol. 24 (April 1973): 4 71-88. See also Leslie B. Rout Jr. “Brazil:

Study in Black, Brown and Beige” in African-American Reflectioas on Brazil’s Racial Paradise, edited by

David J. Hellwing. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992: 182-197.

75

  

Convention of Black Brazilians, which was held in Sao Paulo, in 1945.

The majority of

147

,

,

Congressmen who emphasized the non-existence of discrimination in Brazil bluntly

dismissed his proposals. ”8

In spite of it, five years later, the Afonso Arinos Law N.1390 of 1951 was decreed

to prevent racial discrimination in hotels, restaurants, and department stores. Some have

argued that the law was issued in response to the discriminatory practices perpetrated

against the famous African American dancer, Kathryn Durhan, who was denied

accommodations at Hotel Esplanada on her trip to S50 Paulo city in the same year.

Highly publicized by the local media, the incident provoked the attention of the

international media that criticized the contradictions between official rhetoric in selling

the country as a racial democracy and the crude reality of racial discrimination faced by

dark skinned people. After the implementation of the Afonso Arinos Law in 1951, until

its demise in 1988, when it was substituted by more severe anti-discriminatory

legislation, not a single person was jailed or sentenced for acts of racral discrimination.

.

.

.

.

.

I49

In the drafting of the new Constitution in 1989, Afro-Brazilians were more

successful in introducing the law N 7.716 of January 05, 1989, which criminalized

discriminatory practices on the basis of race and color. Law N. 7.716, also known as Cao

 

“6 Thomas E. Skidmore, “Race and Class in Brazil: Historical Perspectives” in Race. Class and Power in

Brazil, edited by Pierre-Michel Fontaine. Center for Afro-American Studies: Los Angeles: University of

 

California, 1985:19-20.

"7 George Reid Andrews. Blacks in S50 Pauloa 1888-1988 op. cit. p. 159.

 

m Abdias do Nascimento. Brazil: Mixture or Massacre?

Dover, Massachusetts: The Majority Press,

1989:X.

149

Thomas E. Skidmore. Black In_to Whitefice and Nationality in Brazilian Thought New York: Oxford

University Press, 19742212.

76

Law, was named after an Afro-Brazilian journalist Carlos Alberto de Oliveira.]50 The

number of regulations of law 7.716 reveals the extent to which racial discrimination

constitutes a crime against human rights. Notwithstanding, racial discrimination exists

and permeates all levels of society. For instance, there is no legislation that prohibits

Afro-Brazilians from entering the Naval Academy or the Rio Branco School of foreign

relations. However, it has been reported that, until recently, the internal red tape within

the institutional apparatus of the state precludes the admission of Afro-Brazilians into

these ranks. Commentators of socio-racial Brazilian reality may interpret events such as

these as consequence of the social practices deriving from the cultural ethos and

competition among groups of people independent of the state.

Finally, within months before the World Conference against Xenophobia, Racism

and Intolerance, which was held in Durban, South Afiica in 2001, selected state agencies

began to announce gradual implementation of a quota system in order to guarantee a

fixed percentage of federal jobs to Afro-Brazilians.151 Quota systems have been equated

with affirmative action programs. Thus, in September of 2001 , representatives of the

Ministry of Agrarian Development announced in Durban, South Afiica its first

affumative action program. In December of the same year the Ministry of Justice took

.

.

.

.

.

.

152

Similar initiatives.

In 2002, the Ministry of Culture along with the Ministry of Foreign Relations took

similar steps when it announced its version of an affirmative action program. Instead of

 

mAbdias do Nascimento and Elisa Larkin Nascimento. “Reflections on the Afro-Brazilian Movement,

1938-97.”Beyond Racism: Embracing an Interdependent Future. Atlanta, GA: The Southern Education

Foundation, 20002112.

”I Mércio Senne de Moraes. “ Brasil deve propor A950 Afirmativa na ONU.” Folha de S50 Paulo. Marco

 

14, 2001.

77

reserving 20 percent ofjobs in the diplomatic body to Afro-Brazilians, the Ministry opted

instead to provide substantial scholarships to twenty Afro-Brazilians selected from a pool

of more than 400 potential candidates. The selected candidates would then compete for a

.

.

.

153

slot With other candidates in the final entrance exam.

From 2002 to 2004, thirteen federal and state universities have adopted a quota

system, whereby 20 to 40 percent of slots have been allocated to Afro-Brazilians, as

designated by the census to be Preto and Pardos. In Chapters 5 and 6 the discussions on

affirmative action and diversity policies and programs will be firrther developed.

“Racial Democracy” and Racial Cleansing: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

During much of Brazilian historical development “racial democracy” is closely

associated with the notion of "racial cleansing," elaborated since the middle of the

nineteenth century and the abolition of slavery, when specific situations of social/racial

conflicts and political crisis were prevalent]54 Silvio Romero, a renowned literary critic,

and one of the most prominent social thinkers of the period (18903 to the 19203) predicted

that within 50 to 100 years the Brazilian population would resemble white Europeans in

its physical make-up. Similar opinion was held by Dr. Jean Baptiste de Lacerda, director

of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, who attended the First Universal Race

Congress at the University of London in 1911 as the representative of the Brazilian

government. In the speech he delivered he stated:

”The influence of sexual selection, however, tends to neutralize that of

atavism, and removes from the descendants of the métis all the

 

152 Luciana Jaccoud and Nathalie BeghinDesigualdades Raciais no Bra_sil: Urn Balanco dLmtewencéa

govemamental. Brasilia: IPEA (lastitutos de Pesquisas Economica Aplicada), 2002:145-147.

m Ibid. p.58.

Ibid.

78

characteristics features of the black race. In virtue of this process of

ethnic reduction, it is logical to expect that in the course of another

century the métis will have disappeared from Brazil. This will coincide

with the parallel extinction of the black race, left to himself, began to

abandon the centers of civilization. Exposed to all kinds of destructive

agencies, and without sufficient resources to maintain themselves, the

Negroes are scattered over the thinly populated districts, and tend to

disappear from our territory. The mixed population of Brazil will,

therefore, present a very different aspect in another century from that

which has today. The current of European immigration is increasing

every day, the white element of the population will after a time displace

the elements which might retain any of the characters of the Negro.

Brazil will then become one of the chief centres of civilization in the

world.”1

Could such a statement imply a gradual and conscious genocide of the Afro-

Brazilian population? Thus, Silvio Romero and Jean Baptiste dc Lacerda shared similar

perspectives, which were elevated to scientific status 20 years later with the “racial

democracy thesis.” The sub-text of the mesticagem ideal implied the progressive

biological and cultural amalgamation of the non-white segments into the white European

population. The biological amalgamation was also called the process of branqueamento

(whitening). The advocates of such a process foresaw the disappearance of the Afiican

and Indigenous components within the European population. One could argue that the

whitening idea] was the Brazilian way of applying eugenic principles to its last

consequence. Melissa Nobles comments regarding the 1920 census suggest a case in

point. In the long preface, which was published later on as a separate book, Oliveira

Vianna explained that the “aryanization of the country was under way,” and that “within

mestico groups the “quanta of barbaric bloods” were decreasing, while the quantum of

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

156

“white blood” was increasrng, each time redefimng the Brazrlian race.”

 

”5 Dr. Jean Baptiste de Lacerda. "The Métis, Or Half-Breeds, of Brazil" in Papers on Inter-Racial Problema,

presented at the First Universal Race Congress, at the University of London, July 26-29, 1911, published by

PS. King & Son, London, Orchard House, Westminster - England, and by World's Peace Foundation,

Boston, USA, p. 382.

”6 Melissa Nobles. “History Counts: A Comparative Analysis of Race/Color Categorization in US. and

Brazilian Censuses. American Jouanal of Public Health. 90, N. 11, 2000:1743.

79

Studying the complexities of Brazilian socio-racial formation and the racial

thought of this early period, Ortiz advanced the circumstances whereby the process of

blending of "races" takes place. Analyzing the cultural dimensions of such a process he

posited that cultural amalgamation implied the expropriation of some cultural symbols of

the underlying populations (African and Indigenous) through the appropriation of

religious norms, music, food, medicine and organizational forms into the mainstream

society, but without the racial component attached to it. Renato Ortiz expresses this view

on this particular subject in the following terms:

The social conditions were now different. The Brazilian society was

no longer in the transitional period. The course of the development was

clear and even the state tried to orient such a change. The myth of the

three races became, then, tangible and manifested itself as a ritual. The

ideology of mesticagem that was locked up into the ambiguities of the

racial theories became re-elaborated and became socially diffuse to the

point of becoming common sense. And it became ritually celebrated in

the daily experiences or in the major events as the garnival and the

football. What once was mestico became national.

Ortiz’s reflection on the cultural amalgamation through the ideology of

mesticagem laid the groundwork for understanding how ideological and cultural

mechanisms contribute to the process of whitening. Ortiz's reflections suggest that the

Mestico, Pardo or Mulatto became one important means through which the articulation of

a new national racial/ethnic identity became possible. In fact, this process was firrther

articulated with the emergence of national and racial ideologies, the main formula that

included the blend of myth and social history. The racial democracy thesis is the best

example of the new national racial ideology, which emerged. Coupled with a national

ideology, another sleight of hand from the state, the Brazilian Census Bureau became the

most important institutional apparatus through which whitening ascended as a possibility.

80

Census Policy a Contested ‘Field of Action’: Academia and Advocacy Groups

Efforts in debunking the “Racial Democracy Thesis”

In Brazilian history, eleven censuses were taken: 1872, 1890, 1900, 1920, 1940,

1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1991 and 2001. The color item was not included in the censuses

of 1900, 1920 and 1970. According to a study published in 1981 by the Fundac5o

Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE) - Brazilian Institute of Geography

and Statistics - in the census of 1872 it was up to the free population to define their color,

including that of their slaves. The category of free population included Afiican

descendants. After the demise of slavery in 1888 the same procedure was adopted in the

census of 1890. '58

The national census of 1872 reported that Brazilians of Afiican ancestry

comprised almost 60 percent of the total population of 9,930,478. However, 68 years

later, in the census of 1940, only 37.5 percent of the population were comprised of people

of African descent. Many reasons may have contributed to this phenomenon, such as

incidence of epidemics - yellow fever, cholera, and tuberculosis - all of them conducive

to high mortality rates among African peoples, given the poor quality of life and the

state’s neglect in terms of health care availability.

.

.

.

.

159

 

”7 Renato Ortiz. Cultura Bras_ileira e Identidade Nacional. $50 Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1985241.

'58 Jorge Enrique Mendoza Posada. "Cor Segundo os Censos Demograficos", n/d/ O Lugg do Neggo na

Forca de Trabalho. edited by Lucia Elena Garcia de Oliveira, Rosa Maria Porcaro and Tereza Cristina N.

Araujo. Fundac5o Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica. IBGE, Rio de Janeiro, 1981:9; and see also

Tereza Cristina N. Araujo Costa. " O Principio Classificatorio "Cor", Sua Complexidade e Implicacées Para

Um Estudo Censitério". Revista Brasileira de Geografia, Rio de Janeiro, 36, N.3,(Julho/Setembro 1974):9 [-

103.

139 José Jorge Siqueira. "Reflexfies Sobre a Transic5o do Escravismo para o Capitalismo Urbano-Industrial e

a Quest50 Racial no Rio de Janeiro". Estudos Afro-Asiaticos. N. 12. 1986284; See also the excellent

dissertation on the subject of health care in Rio de Janeiro from 1890 to 1940. Sam C. Adamo. The Broken

81

Another significant factor, previously mentioned, can be attributed to the

immigration legislation Law 528 of June 28, 1890 that prohibited the immigration of

Africans and Asians to the country. Although this legislation was short-lived, lasting only

two years, the practical results meant the halting of African immigration for many

decades. Meanwhile, Asian immigration was officially regulated in 1907. What is

demonstrated, however, is how large scale European migration changed the demographic

distribution of Brazil's population.

This demographic shift was particularly accentuated from 1889 until 1934 when

nearly three million European workers came to Brazil. A total of 2,578,992 immigrants

went directly to the state of S50 Paulo, out of which 1,151,354 had their boat tickets

subsidized by the local state.I60 This demographic shift would be reflected in the national

census data of 1940, which for the first time presented Europeans as the majority group in

the Brazilian society.

Does the ‘Pardo’ Census Category Stand the Test of Time?

Since 1940, official censuses mirror both the evaluation of census takers as well

as people's self-definition of racial classification. From the first Brazilian census of 1872

four major groups emerged depending on their status - free or enslaved. The free

population was defined as Brancos (whites), Pardos (Mesticos or European and African

mixed), Pretos (blacks) and Caboclos (meaning offspring of European and Indigenous

Populations). The enslaved and freed populations were classified as Pardos and Pretos.

Pardo referred to both mixed ancestry and having status as a fi'eed person. The abolition

 

Promise: Race, Health and Justice in Rio de Janeiro 1890-1940, PHD Dissertation in History, New Mexico

University, 1983.

'60 Vera Lucia Benedito. West Indian Migration to Brazil. MA Thesis. Michigan State University, 1991 :80.

82

of slavery was decreed in 1888, and two years later, the census of 1890 would repeat the

same categorization: Brancos, Pretos, Caboclos, and Pardos.

.

.

161

The Republic was inaugurated in November of 1890 and the new regime

reinforced the status ambiguity of people of mixed ancestry. In addition to indicating

mixed ancestry the census category indicated social mobility.162 Consequently, a dark

complexioned person, and socially mobile person could be referred as Pardo, a

euphemism for the color Preto. Pardo was also the intrinsic metaphor of the racial

democracy thesis since those categorized as such were expected to blend with the white

population, contributing to the constitution of a new people, and they were expected to be

better off in comparison to Pretos. How long could this prevailing assumption stand the

test of time?

In 1940 census officials included a new “racial” group to account for the new flow

of immigrants to Brazil from Asia. Amarelos (Yellow) was added to refer primarily to

Japanese people, along with others coming from Asia. From this census onward the

Brazilian population has been classified into four major groups: Pretos (Blacks), Brancos

(Whites), Amarelos (Yellow) and Pardos (now including Caboclos, mulattoes and native

populations). The terminology used by the census of 1980 to describe the major groups

comprising the Brazilian population was the same employed in 1940 and subsequent

163

years.

Shifting definitions and categories of color or racial affiliation by the state census

reflects more than anything else, the politics, uneasiness, and ambiguities with which race

 

m Jorge Enrique Mendoza Posada. p. 224

I62

.

Ibid.

"’ Ibid.

83

is perceived in Brazil. As an example, in 1980, the census takers did screen the

population by color according to the census bureau guidelines. A study conducted by

Brazilian sociologist Clovis Moura revealed that when people self-defined themselves by

color or race more than a hundred labels were identified other than the elusive term

Pardo.164 Such findings supported early research conducted by Marvin Harris in 1964.

165

Harris’ subsequent studies on racial classification in Brazil have indicated that Moreno

(brunette) is the terminology widely used by the population to designate skin color other

than white. Harris and associates have criticized the Brazilian census bureau for its use of

the Pardo category in the census schedules, as well as the politically organized

movements and research institutes, for allowing Pardo and Preto to be synonymous with

Negro (Black).

Their assessments have been received With much controversy regardin g

166

,

.

.

.

the interpretation of color categories in Brazil. Harris and associates argue further that the

current tendency of certain sectors of Brazilian society to impose a rigid dichotomous

racial category, (White and non-white), as in the United States, or the trichotomous

category, (White/Black/mixed), constitutes a scientific error not resembling the reality.

.

.

.

.

167

Proposing the term Pardo should be substituted by Moreno, Harris and associates contend:

Racial discrimination is widely perceived as a matter of civil rights. But

it is also a matter of civil rights that individuals be permitted to

categorize themselves and their children according to their own sense of

identity (Davis 1991). Brazil may be no closer to racial democracy than

other countries, but its system for establishing racial identity has many

features from which the world has much to learn. 168

 

164

.

.

Clévrs Moura, op. Cited.

Z: Marvin Harris. “Racial Identity in Brazil.” Luso-Brazilian Review. Vol. 1, 1964:21-28.

Marvin Harris. “Referential Ambiguity in the Calculus of Brazilian Racial Identity.” Southwestern

Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 26, 1970:1-14; Marvin Harris and Konrad Kottak. “The Structural

Significance of Brazilian Racial Categories.” Sociologia Vol. 5, 1963:203-208; Marvin Harris, Josildeth

Gomes Consorte, Joseph Land and Bryan Byrne. “Who Are the Whites? Imposed Census Categories and

the Racial Demography of Brazil. Social Forces, Vol. 72, N. 2, (December 1993): 451-462.

:: Marvin Harris, Consorte, Joseph Land and Byrne, ibid.

Ibid.

84

Though Harris and associates’ arguments are valid they do not explain why

people resort to using other terms to identify themselves other than the ones offered by

the census takers. It could be argued that because Negro and Pardo terms are heavily

charged with historically negative connotations, such as subordination and

dehiunanization, people try to build a positive image of self regardless of imposed

categories. This does not necessarily mean that Brazilians do not know who are Black or

White, the opposite may be true, as recent ethnographic research conducted in the morros

(hills) of Rio de J aneiro by Robin E. Sheriff shows.I69 Contesting Harris and others who

interpret the multiplicity of racial category as static, Sheriff explains:

The close correlation between color and class structure — another

incontestable fact — is taken as sufficient evidence that the apparent

multiplicity of racial categories serves as a mystifying ideology that not

only conceals the racialized nature of oppression but also prevents the

development/00f social movements that attempt to expose such

oppression.

Sheriff seems correct in her assessment because until a few years ago government

officials, journalists, scholars, Brazilians and foreigners, contended that in a country with

such highly mixed population, the implementation of compensatory policies would not be

feasible. Detractors firrther argued that those who wanted to emulate the US. socio-racial

relations imperialistically motivated those policies.

The historical development of census categories, and their attendant racial

politics, seems to indicate a “dance of deceit” where the state, the power elite, and the

subordinate ones, those located at the bottom of the social scale, act according to their

conveniences. One could argue that, to the state, an elusive racial category, such as Pardo,

 

‘69 Robin E. Sheriff. Dreaming Equality: Color. Race, and Igcism in Urban Brazil. New Brunswick, New

Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2001

170

,

Ibid. p. 30.

85

has implied negation of racial conflict while at the same time promoting a nationalistic

image of racial democracy. For those at the bottom of the social hierarchy, the use of a

“public transcript” of race/color self-identifications other than the official one has implied

the articulation of a coping mechanism in order to refirte a status of subordination, as

elaborated by James C. Scott:

(1) I shall use the term public transcript as a shorthand way of

describing the open interaction between subordinates and those

who dominate. The public transcript, while it is not positively

misleadingi is unlikely to tell the whole story about power

relations.

(2) In ideological terms, the public transcript will typically, by its

accommodationist tone, provide convincing evidence for the

hegemony of dominant values, for the hegemony of dominant

discourse. It is in precisely this public domain where the effects of

power relations are most manifest, and any analysis based

exclusively on the public transcript is likely to conclude that

subordinate groups endorse the terms of their subordination and are

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

‘72

wrlling, even enthusrastic, partners in that subordination.

Scott’s point is well taken in both quotes because the “public transcript” expressed

by subordinate groups does not necessarily stereotype them as deceitful and conniving

against the powerful, but, it is through discourse that one reinvents him/herself in a

meaningful way. The studies that place too much emphasis on the superficial level of

racial categorization in Brazil may neglect the important ways in which these same

categories are contested and deconstructed.

Deconstructing the Intermediate Category: Pardo = Negro

Contemporary social scientists, using the most recent socio-economic indicators,

have emphasized that the omission of color from the censuses of 1900, 1920 and 1970,

 

m James C. Scott. “Domination, Acting, and Fantasy” in Domination and the Acts of Resistance: Hidden

Transcripts. New Haven. CT: Yale: Yale University Press, 1990256.

Ibid. 58.

86

had the political purpose of masking the reality of racial politics in the country. Posada

suggests:

The demographic phenomena integrate a broad explanation for the

study of the ethnic question, especially in terms of the black Brazilian

population. The lack of knowledge about the natural growth of ethnic

groups leads, for sure, to the denial of the ethnic reality of the country.

The official documentation propagates myths such as "Brazil-mulatto",

"racial democracy" etc. 13 it not explicit that this attitude negates the

study of the black population and the racial problem in Brazil? There

are many doubts. Are there, in Brazil, difference among ethnic groups

in relationship to age structure, levels of masculinity, mortality and

fertility rate as well as occupational structure and income? Specifically,

where are black people located in the geographic space as well as in the

demographic and socio-economic structure in this country? Which

73l

ethnic groups are included under "pardos" category?

The above argument has oriented the black politically active segments in Brazil

for almost three decades. Two examples illustrate the context in which the census became

one of the underlying battlegrounds of political mobilization in Brazil along racial lines.

Backed up by an economic development model known as the "Brazilian miracle", the

power elite justified that the modernizing process taking place in Brazil in the 19703

superceded racial questions. Arguing against such an assessment, politically active

segments of the Afro-Brazilian population, and selected members of the scientific

community in Brazil and abroad, stressed that the power elite’s strategy aimed to conceal

the widening gap between racial groups and the rich and poor segments of the society.

Moreover, the majority of the black population represented this latter segment. Several

black organizations nationwide such as MNU (Unified Black Movement), IPCN

(Research Institute of Black Culture) and other advocacy organizations pressured the

government in 1980 to include race/color back into the official census data, and they

succeeded.

 

'7’ Ibid. p. 229.

87

The second example took place in 1990 when the Brazilian census was the focus

of a major campaign, receiving considerable attention by the media, social activists and

the public at large. Politically active segments of the Afro-Brazilian population mobilized

themselves around the census classification of Pardo (Mestico) and Preto (Black) groups.

The studies conducted earlier by Brazilian and foreign social scientists had attested to the

rampant socioeconomic and educational inequalities affecting the Preto (black) and Pardo

(mestico) groups. These studies discredited the racial democracy thesis that, for decades

stressed that the equal opportunities were available for all groups of people in the

,

,

,

174

Brazrlran socrety.

Thus, moving a step ahead from the pressure groups of the 19803, the counter

hegemonic forces represented by Afro-Brazilian advocacy organizations from several

states promoted a national campaign entitled: "N50 deixe sua cor passar em branco.

Responda com born s/censo" (Don't let your color pass off as white. Respond with good

sense) aimed at raising the consciousness of those of Afiican descent. The campaign had

the sponsorship of the North American Ford Foundation and Terra Nuova, an Italian

agency for international cooperation. Black Brazilian activists understood that the census

apparatus had the purpose of disguising the real profile of the Brazilian population. The

campaign’s main objective was to de-construct the Pardo category, an ideological

construct that made “invisible” the majority of a population of Afro-Brazilians. As one

analyst emphasized:

 

m Carlos Hasenbalg, Discriminag5o e Desigualdades Raciais no Braail Rio de Janeiro: Graal, 1979.

88

One outcome of the campaign has been to encourage people of color to

becomegnore self-aware and learn to identify with the concept

Negro.

The official result of this 1990 campaign, as reflected in actual census

enumeration has not yet been released. However, non-official estimates have

acknowledged that the Preto group that previously accounted for 5.9 percent of the total

population is estimated to be around 11 percent of the total population. In reality, the

Preto category totaled 6.2 percent according to the last census of 2001.

In summary, throughout the nineteenth, and most of the twentieth century, in

Brazil “race” has been central to the discussions of national identity and nation

.

I76

,

.

.

99

formation.

The ambivalence about the exrstence or non-exrstence of a “race problem

since then has permeated the political impulses of policy makers, intellectuals, power

elite and the public in general. As da Costa aptly asserts, these racial theories have been

extensively debated by one generation, only to be discarded by the next.I77 Social

policies derived from such a framework have followed the political prerogatives of

historical circumstances, national, sub-national and local interests. Contrary to the view

that the Brazilian state has exempted itself from implementing race-based social policies

because of the non-existence of a race problem, historical evidence seems to suggest

otherwise. Immigration and census policies coupled with national ideologies have

 

175

Regina Domingues. "The Color of a Majority without Citizenship" Conexées, Vol.4, N.2, (November

1992): 7. See also Melissa Nobles. “Responding with good sense”: The Politics of Race and Censuses in

[Coontemporary Brazil. Ph.D. dissertation. Yale University, 1995.

Eliana de Freitas Dutra. “The Fusion of Races as Locus of Memory”, Diogenes, N. 191, Vol. 48/3:

2000:25-3; T. Skidmore. “Racial Ideas and Social Policy in Brazil, 1870-1940.” The Idea of Race in Latin

America. Edited by Richard Graham. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990; Antony W. Marx. Making

Race and Nation: A Comparison of the United States. South Africa. and Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1998; Nancy Leys Stepan. “The Hour of Eugenics” Race. Gender. and Nation in Latin

America Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1991.

89

suggested a racial problem in the country, informing “de facto” and “de jure”

circumstances of visibility and invisibility of Afro-Brazilians. Moreover, as stated by

Nobles, shifting race and color categorizations have served political and social

purposesmwhether from imposed categories by the state or re-articulated categories by

those subjected to it. More importantly, as also suggested by Noble, the discourse of

“racial democracy” was/is deeply articulated with census policies because: 1) For decades

it supported power elites’ argument that in a country displaying such a highly mixed

population, discrimination did not exist; and 2) Such an argument proved to be fruitful in

aborting any state race-based policy aimed at correcting inequalities. As shown in this

chapter, both arguments did not stand the test of time. Based on the above background,

the next chapter explores the dimensions in which “race” and attendant racial politics and

dynamics have impacted the state, corporate sector and civil society.

 

”7 Emilia Viotti da Costa. The Brazilian Empire: Myth_s and Histories. Chicago and London: The University

of Chicago Press, 1985: 236.

'7’ Melissa Nobles, 2000: 1738 and 1744.

90

CHAPTER 3

The Changing Role of the Corporate sector, the State and Civil Society

Introduction

In this chapter I will demonstrate how the corporate sector, civil society and the

state have been changing over the past three decades with respect to discussions and

actions related to racial inequalities. These transnational social actors, although espousing

different ideas of racial projects, converge in pursuit of their objectives. First, I explain

the circumstances in which market considerations drive the corporate sector’s actions and

corporate policies on a global scale: Second, 1 point out the changing role of the state as it

seeks legitimacy in mediating private and public interests in light of internal and external

pressures exerted by the global political economy. Third, I look into the ways non-

governmental organizations and advocacy organizations “from below” find expression

for their demands from both the state and corporate sectors through global arenas of

representation such as the UN conferences. This representation sometimes results in

small or large-scale processes of social change, at the level of local states. Key to this

later discussion is the concept of advocacy organizations as inferred by international

relations, sociology and political science specialists.

91

Changing Political Culture of the Corporate Sector

To give more opportunities to women, blacks, Asians or Hispanics is

not a question merely social, says Westin “It is a world business

strategy. We believe that diversity will make us more competitive to

the extent that we will have inside of our company a more reliable

picture of that market where we operate.”

C léudia Vassalol

As early as 1975, Pierre Michel Fontaine conducted research on multinational

corporations and race and color dynamics in S50 Paulo City, Brazil. At that time,

corporate human resources management, particularly foreign based companies, exempted

themselves from devising compensatory policies aimed at attracting, training and

retaining historically disadvantaged social groupings because of race, color or gender

ascriptions. Fontaines’ concern was to find out whether European or Japanese companies

tended to hire Brazilians of corresponding ethnic origins for top management positions.

His study revealed that Afro-Brazilians, when hired by US. corporations, were more

likely to occupy low-skilled positions even though there were a few success stories of

Afro-Brazilians who penetrated the glass ceiling of the corporate world. In the study's

general assessment multinational corporations tended to adjust to local social norms of

racial politics, resorting to the myth of racial democracy whenever questioned, "while

pursuing employment and other practices that favored white over light brown, light

brown over dark brown, and dark brown over black."2 The following statement is

revealing:

As for the really central question of the number and percentage of

blacks at each level in the various types of firms and sectors, much

more work needs to be done on that. Not surprisingly, blacks are to be

found at lower levels across the board. They are a rarity at middle level,

and almost absent at the upper levels except in a few private and public

 

l

2

Cléudia Vassalo.op. Cited. P. 74. (My translation).

Pierre-Michel Fontaine, "Multinational Corporations and Relations of Race and Color in Brazil: The Case

of S50 Paulo." International Studies Notes 2. Vol. 2, Issue 4, (Winter 1975): 2.

92

Brazilian corporations. While this remains to be proved conclusively,

the US. multinationals seem to have settled quite comfortably in the

Brazilian myth. It gives them comfort of having to do nothing about

the racial situation: nobody does.

In the 19703, multinational corporations could easily claim to be politically

neutral or color blind and excused themselves from assuming any responsibility on

questions related to human rights, such as racial discrimination. There was no external

pressure on multinational companies to comply with equal opportunity employment

policies, such as shareholders, student movements or major international interfaith

groups, notably, the National Council of Churches, in relation to the then prevailing

system of racial domination in South Africa.4

As demonstrated in the previous chapter, Afro-Brazilians face limited

employment mobility. Black women, in particular, face more constraints when

performing low, middle or high level positions whether in public or private companies.

Afro-Brazilian women very seldom were hired to attend clients and suffered from

continuous cases of psychological and emotional injuries as the result of constant

devaluations, rejection and discrimination, as reported by Bento in her study.5

Notwithstanding, black women’s response to everyday discrimination varies from

racial assertion and self-devaluation to devising alternative survival strategies. It is within

this context that corporate executives labeled the 19903 the diversity decade, and the first

decade of the twenty-first century can be defined as the corporate social responsibility

decade. At the heart of both diversity and corporate social responsibility policies lies

 

3 Ibid. p. 9.

4

Ibid. p. 2. See also IRRC. Social Issues Service, 1998 Background Report F, "Global Labor and

Environmental Standard" 5.

93

questions about how to deal with those considered different on the basis of race, color,

sex, gender, religion, or political affiliation. Vassalo, for instance, in the opening quote

refers to her article in which a top executive of a US. subsidiary in Brazil emphatically

announced the need for modern corporations to diversify their workforce in order to

maintain a market edge vis 5 vis world market competitions.

This disposition to attract historically underrepresented groups into their ranks is

referred to as global diversity, a voluntary corporate policy, as opposed to affirmative

action policies, monitored by the state or federal government as is practiced in the United

States. While such a subtle distinction is well understood by the US. corporate world, in

Brazil corporate executives perceive both as synonymous - mandatory quotas. This faulty

line of interpretation may be attributed to the lack of Brazilian tradition with both

policies, or to the scant materials published in Brazil on the subject. Concurrently while

in the US. diversity and affirmative action policies incorporate members of the dominant

white population, in Brazil popular discourses as well as academic debates refer mostly to

policies aimed at increasing the representation of Blacks in the areas of education and

labor market.

The direct association of diversity and affirmative action policies with black

Brazilians results from the ongoing tensions and debates about the need to increase Afro-

Brazilian representation in both social areas, with race-based social policies being the

viable mechanisms to achieve this goal.

A recent investigation on the state of racial representation in the Brazilian

corporate world revealed that out of 687 executives of major companies in Brazil only 6

 

S Maria Aparecida Bento. “Silent Conflict: Discriminatory Practices and Black Responses in the

Workplace” in From Indifference to Inequality: flee in Contemporary Brazil, edited by Rebecca

94

percent were represented by women, and another 6 percent were represented either by

Pretos, Pardos, Amarelos or Indigenous groups as per the census categories. The findings

of the research were a matter of concern because women account for approximately 50

percent of the total population.6 There seems to be an indication that social as well as

racial considerations lay behind the unequal representation of social groups. Though the

question of racial discrimination has been extensively debated by race based non-

governmental organizations, advocacy groups and organizations, and some sectors of the

academic world, the subject is not addressed with the same intensity by the corporate

world, according to the study. The next section summarize the most expressive changes

occurring at market level, particularly in Brazil and in the United States.

Racing for the Marketplace: The Rise of Ethno-Consumerism?

Brazil, a leading regional economy in South America has long been an attractive

economic site for major multinational corporations because of its untapped natural

resources, raw materials, an available pool of skilled and unskilled workers, and a

significant consumer base. Over the decades these comparative advantages have been the

source of strength through which the power elite has sought to make the country a

leading partner in the world political economy.

During the 19703, multinational manufacturing companies along with public

enterprises comprised the major employers in Brazil until 1997 when Volkswagen was

the leading private sector employer with a workforce approaching 30,000 people. As of

1998, McDonald's, the US based fast food chain, surpassed the manufacturing sector in

 

Reichmann. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999:109-137
6

Instituto Ethos de Responsibilidade Social. “ Perfil Social, Racial e de Género das Diretorias das Grandes

Empresas Brasileiras." S50 Paulo, 2003.

95

number ofjobs with more than 31,000 employees. By the year 2000, the McDonald's

workforce in Brazil was expected to employ more than 51,000 people.7

In 1998 the Harvard Business Review published a study showing the market

pyramid purchasing power of people from China, India and Brazil. The pyramid was

divided into four tiers representing: Tier 1, income greater than $20,000; Tier 2, $10,000,

to $20,000; Tier 3, $5,000 to $10,000; and Tier 4 represented those whose income

averaged less than $5,000. For Tier 1, Brazil topped the list with 9 million potential

customers against 2 million in China and 7 million in India. Nevertheless, in Tiers 3 and

4, China topped the list with 330 and 800 million customers respectively, followed by

India with 125 and 700 million customers respectively. Brazil came in third place with 27

and 105 million potential customers.8

Brazil, China, Indonesia and India are becoming the big emerging markets and

examples of creative adaptation by multinational corporations in those places abound.

One example refers to the practice of selling single bags for products such as detergents,

oil and shampoos, which is a widespread practice in India. Realizing the potential of such

a consumer base, the Hindustan Lever, a subsidiary of the Dutch-British Unilever in

India, customized some of its products and today controls about $2 billion in business.

The experience has been tried in China as well as in other places with similar cultural

,

9

practices.

In the same year, an example of aggressive corporate-market relationships taking

place in Brazil was demonstrated in Rocinha, in Rio de J aneiro, the most famous ex-slum

 

7

8Veja, Setembro 6, 1998.

C.K. Prahalad and Kenneth Lierberthal, "The End of Corporate Imperialism," Harvard Business Review,

(July-August 1998): 69-79.

96

in the country. In 1992 the slum was elevated to an official neighborhood and it became

another administrative region of the city. With a total population of approximately

150,000 people it is still considered a risky neighborhood because of the remnants of

illegal business and a high crime rate. Prompted by a successful federal government plan

of economic stabilization new legalized businesses mushroomed. Out of the total 2,000

commercial establishments developed from 1993 to 1998, new entrepreneurs who hired

mostly local people represented 78 percent. 10

Because of these developments, an Italian multinational insurance company

strategically entered the Brazilian market - via Rocinha - with a customized life insurance

policy available only to local residents. Other national and multinational companies are

following suit, from TV cable networks to major state and federal banks. With an average

annual income from $5,000 to $8,000, the residents of Rocinha, mirroring the larger

society, have benefited from a stable economy that reduced the inflation rate from three

to single digits. The residents are eagerly purchasing goods, particularly sophisticated

durable and non-durable consumer goods, from 29 inch color TVs, VCRs, freezers, and

microwaves to computers. The ex-slum produces its own weekly news, and through the

local cable TV network, subscribers have access to 20 NET channels. Rocinha became

globalized. In the words of Dante Quinterno, director of communications for an

Argentine-Brazilian joint venture at that time Rocinha "is a gold mine." Rocinha also has

been exporting high fashions for major European designers. The quilts produced by local

women have been shown in France and Germany.

.

11

 

9

HIbid. p. 74.

I Liana Melo, "Rocinha S.A," Isto 13, section Economy and Business, May 06, 1998.

Ibid.

97

In 2004 low-income neighborhoods still continue to fascinate potential investors.

Ricardo Neves, a former United Nations and World Bank employee and now a full-time

consultant, asserts that the slum dwellers are the emergent middle class in Brazil.'2 His

opinion is based on research that discovered that slums are increasingly becoming

established neighborhoods, and with this change of status, from 1969 to 2001 sales in

housing construction materials boomed - going from 37 percent, in 1969, to 97 percent,

in 2001. Concurrently, home appliances have registered similar record sales from 25

percent to 79 percent for the same period. Neves reported that since 1985, after the

military regime, community organizations have mushroomed, increasing demands from

the state and local governments for basic infi'astructure, which has improved living

conditions. Where once unpaved roads made living in those areas difficult paved streets

now facilitate private and public transportation. Sales of durable goods such as CD3, TVs,

freezers and microwaves are now booming in these lower middle-class neighborhoods.

Such a phenomenon has been registered by the Wall Street Journal in its November 24,

2000 edition where the headlines read, “Marketers Discover Black Brazil: Despite their

Huge Numbers, Blacks are Just Emerging as a Distinct Consumer Group.”

13

Neves called attention to another phenomenon not yet observed in 1998. Middle-

income countries are not only potential emergent markets but are attracting big business

in its latest thirst for profit outsourcing. Neves recalls that not long ago he got stuck at a

public garage in Toronto, Canada, and was helped by the security system personnel who

happened to be located in Nigeria. The incident was a reminder that potential markets

 

Ricardo Neves. “F avela Emergente”. Epoca, edic5o 302, de 01/03/04.

.

12

13

Miriam Jordan. “Marketers Discover Black Brazil ~Despite their Huge Numbers, Blacks are Just

Emerging as Distinct Consumer Group”. The Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2000, pg. A1 1.

98

such as Brazil could somehow benefit in the near future with the latest trend in the global

market economy.

One should critically consider that increasing access to global products by low-

and middle-income populations of emerging markets do not necessarily imply the

upgrading of living standards, better health care systems, housing or education. The

majority of residents of Rocinha still live in poor dwellings lacking basic infrastructure,

such as adequate sewage and drainage systems, safe and clean environments and potable

running water. Part of the dialectical aspect of the phenomenon of integration of world

markets relies on the fact that the formal economy is discovering the "enchantrnents" and

the economic potential of the so-called "informal-economy" as wisely observed by a

commentator.

14

Significantly, in the study referring to Rocinha,l5 there was no indication of

market segmentation as related to the ethnic or racial composition of the local population,

even though in the popular perception, most Brazilians identify places such as Rocinha as

comprised mainly of Blacks, Northeastemers and people of mixed ancestry. Until

recently Brazilian corporations exempted themselves from associating their products with

a Black or Pardo consumer base population alleging, in the first place, that these

segments had no attractive purchasing power, and secondly, that the association of their

products with non-white populations would negatively impact potential white consumers.

Considering that both examples related to the ex-slums one could argue that from the

19903 onward multinational corporations reversed their previously established image

 

l4

Liana Melo, op. cited. p. 2.

" Ricardo Neves, op. cit.

99

 

pal

pel

C0

BC

CC

bi

patterns of "ethno-consumerism" in Brazil. How then are “ethno-consumerism” patterns

perceived in the US?

Diversity as Global Organizational Strategy

Academic researchers, management practitioners, and consultants for

corporations trying to move away from the controversies surrounding the affirmative

action debate have devised less controversial equal opportunity policies. They have

provided corporations with conceptual tools for recruiting, hiring and training people

from a large pool of candidates of mixed racial and ethnic background including

individuals of both genders and varied sexual orientations. These policies have been

termed Diversity or Managerial Diversity' programs. '6 Since early 1980 diversity

programs have been gradually embraced by corporations and have opened up a new field

of investigation in the areas of human resource management, international business and

international political economy.

Managerial diversity corporate policies seek to integrate a diverse work force that

will be complementary with business principles. By and large for the business

community, diversity is not a question of moral, social or political right, but of market

opportunities. Even though researchers and human resource management practitioners

have declared the 19903 as the "diversity decade", this concept is not new to

corporations.

Early efforts to integrate a diverse workforce were developed in the aftermath of

initial affirmative action programs, emphasizing educational awareness training programs

based on individual differences. The current design of diversity programs emphasize

100

systematic organizational changes including "changing norms, structures, and belief

systems, policies, and procedures and developing new ways of thinking about

.

.

l7

.

.

.

.

.

.

orgamzations."

Behind tlus rationale is the assumption that a diverse workforce

provides creativity, innovation and increasing competitive advantages. Diversity

programs are contextualized within corporate cultures that by definition implies, "how

people in an organization behave, what assumptions govern their behavior, and what

bonds or glue hold the corporation together. "'8 Relatedly, the:

organization's culture reflects assumptions about clients, employees,

mission, products, activities and assumptions that have worked well in

the past and which get translated into norms of behavior, expectations

about whatis legitimate, desirable ways of thinking and acting. These

are the locus ofits capacity for evolution and change.l9

R. Roosevelt Thomas, an academic practitioner and a pioneer in "Managing

Diversity" consulting, defines "diversity" as the "comprehensive managerial process for

.

.

20

.

.

developing an enVironment that works for all employees."

In addition, he stresses that:

diversity includes everyone; it is not something that is defined by race

or gender. It extends to age, personal and corporate background,

education, function, and personality. It includes life-style, sexual

preference, geographic origin, tenure with the organization, exempt or

nonexempt status, and management or non management. It also shows

up clearly with companies involved in acquisitions and mergers. In this

expanded context, white males are as diverse as their colleagues.

0

o

I

2

 

16

R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., Beyond Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Workforce

by Managing Diversity, New York: Amacom (American Management Association), 1991.

Clare C. Swanger, "Perspectives on the History of Ameliorating Oppression and Supporting Diversityin

United States Organizations," In The Promise of Diveraity: Over 40 Voices Discu§_s Stratagies for

Eliminating Discrimination in Organizations, edited by Elsie Y Cross, Judith H. Katz, Frederick A. Miller,

and Edith Whitfield Seashore. New York: Irwin, 1994: 3- 20.

8Charles Hampden-Tumer, Corporate Culture. From Vicious to Virtuous Circles. Hampton, London: The

Economist Books, 1990:12.

:ZIbid. This second definitionis based on Andre Laurant, and it is used by Charles H. Turner, p. 20.

:,Thomas 10.

21Ibid.

101

Despite Thomas' attempts to broaden the concept of diversity the majority of

authors conceive of diversity as racially/ethnically oriented.

Taylor Cox Jr., for

22

instance, defines cultural diversity as "... the representation, in one social system, of

people with distinctly different group affiliation of cultural significance."

This

23

,

definition encompasses the notion of majority and minority groups. The first includes

members of a social system who "have historically held advantages in power and

economic resources compared to minority group members."

Occasronally, the group

24

,

with greater economic and political advantage may reflect the achievements of the larger

group of a society, such as Whites in the United States. For example, in the banking and

insurance industries, despite the fact that women account for 60 to 70 percent of the

work-force, they are underrepresented in the high ranks of management.

Therefore,

25

according to Cox, gender imbalance correlates with race and ethnicity as well.

26

Frederick Miller has pointed out that diversity is a conceptual tool for dealing

with oppression within organizations. Organizational oppression encapsulates the notion

that racism, sexism, and xenophobia hinder individual potential from full development.

27

 

22Susan E. Jackson & Marian N. Ruderman, (Eds.) Diversity in Work Teams: Research Paradigms for a

 

Changing Workplace. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1996. Martirn M. Chemes,

Stuart Oskamp and Mark A. Constanzo, (Eds) Diversity in Organizations: New Perspectives for a

Changing Workplace. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, 1995. Barbara Mandel] and Susan Kohler-Gray,

"Management Development That Values Diversity", Personnel, Vol. 67, (March 1990): 41-47. Lennie

Copeland, "Valuing Diversity, Part 1: Making the Most of Cultural Differences at the Workplace",

Personnel, Vol. 65, (June 1988): 52-60. Lennie Copeland "Valuing Diversity, Part 2: Pioneers and

ghampions of Change". Personnel, Vol. 65, (July 1988) 44-49.

Taylor Cox, Jr., Cultural Diversity in Organizations: Theory. Research & Practice. San Francisco: Berret-

ISoehler Publishers, l993:6.

Ibid.

25

.

Ibid.

26

,

Ibid.

27

Frederick A. Miller, "Why We Chose to Address Oppression," in The Promise of Diversity: Over 40

Voices Discuss Strategies for Eliminating Discrimination in Organizations, edited by Elsie Y Cross, Judith

H. Katz, Frederick A. Miller, and Edith Whitfield Seashore. New York: Irwin, 1994: XXV-XXIX.

102

Diversity, then, should be understood from the standpoint of either those who

acknowledge strategies that emphasize individual differences, or those who embrace the

.
idea of socral justice. To the extent that all multrracral socreties are structured in

28

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

systems of inequalities such as racism, sexism and xenophobia, organizational cultures

also reflect the values, assumptions and behavior of the larger socral fabric.

.

.

29

Whether diversity is defined in the context of social psychology, human

management resources, or international political economy, culture is the basis from

which diversity derives its meaning and significance. Consequently, cultural variation is

the key for understanding cultural diversity. As defined by Hofstede, culture represents:

the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the

members of one category of people from another. The category of

people can be a nation, region, or ethnic group (national. etc., culture),

women versus men (gender culture), old versus young (age group and

generation culture), a social class, a profession or occupation

(occupational culture), a type of business, a work organization or party

of it (organizational culture) or even a family.30

One European author amusingly observed, "In organizations, culture is used to

explain why nothing seems to work, or why competitors are so much more successful.

Culture is thought to bestow unique competitive advantages and/or dire limitations.

 

:lbid.

Stella N. Nkomo, "The Emperor Has No Clothes: Rewriting 'Race in Organization' Academy of

Mgement Review, Vol. 17, N03, 1992:487-513. See also Floya Anthias, Nira Yuval-Davis and Harriet

Cain, "Resisting racism: multiculturalism, equal opportunities and the politics of the 'community'," in

fireialized Boundaries: Raae, Nation. Gender. Colour and Clasgnd the Anti-Racist Struggle. London:

Routledge, 1996: 157-198. Philomena Essed, Evegyday Racism. Newbury Park, California: Sage, 1991.

Stuart Hall, "Race, articulation and societies structured in dominance" in Sociological Theories: Race and

Colonialism, UNESCO, Paris, 1980.

30Geert Hofestede, "The Business of International Business is Culture" International Business Review Vol.

3, N0. 1, pp. 1-14, 1994, and Geert Hofstede, "Cultural Constraints in Management Theories," in National

Culture and International Management in East Asia, edited by Herbert J. Davis and William D. Schulte, Jr.

Boston: International Thomson Business Press, 1997:88-106.

103

 

Could Westerners be like the Japanese even if they wished to be? Would it mean losing

forever the distinctive aspects of Western culture?"3|

Today, the emergent vanguard style of management requires corporations to rely

more on local expertise, talents and creativity. Integrating these sources of innovation

into the management styles, followed by the general guidelines, principles, mission and

philosophies established by the organizations' leadership, may contribute to the global

success of corporations.

,

32

The Human Resources Management (HRM) unit of either private or public enterprise

is the center from which equity policies implementation emanates. The tasks attributed to

HRM are broad, complex and include, "acquiring, training, developing, motivating,

.

.

.

.

.

33

,

organizing, and maintaining the human employees of the firm."

Another important

function of human resource management is developing relationships outside of the firm

.

.

.

.

34

.

.

wrth governments or other institutions. On that account, HRM polrcres follow the

organizational strategy established by the firm's leadership. As a concept, organizational

strategy refers to "the formulation of organizational missions, goals, and objectives, as

well as action plans for achievement, which explicitly recognize the competition and the

.
impact of outsrde envrronmental forces."

.

.

35

On an international level, organizational strategy "seems to be conditioned

primarily by local organizational strategy (a fiinction of both local contextual conditions

 

31

32

Hampden-Tuner, 1 1.

Monir H. Tayeb, The Global Business Environmen_t: An Inflduction, London: Sage Publication, 1992.

See also William C. Taylor and Alan M. Webber, Going Global: Four En_trepreneurs Map the New World

Markegplace. New York: Virgin, 1996: 1-33.
33

Willian P.Anthony, Pamela L. Perrewé, and K. Michele Kacmar, Strategic Resource Management.

Orlando, Florida: The Dryden Press, 199629
34

Ibid.1 l

104

and global organization strategy) and global human resource strategy. That is, local

operations managers and corporate international human resource management may both

have input into the determination of personnel strategies and techniques within the

subsidiary."36

The difference between domestic HRM and international HRM is the scope.

While the domestic aspect of HRM policies is directed towards home country nationals,

the international HRM is directed at a broad international workforce scattered in one or

several countries. The key aspect between the two is the level of coordination and control

to the extent that parent HRM policies are systematized and rationalized and transferred

to a subsrdlary.

Taking into consrderation the role of the national culture in host

.

.

37

.

.

.

.

.

.

countries, Monir Tayeb, in work based on the Pelmutter model, contends that

multinational firms have three strategic options to choose from regarding management

styles: ethnocentric, polycentric, and global. The ethnocentrlc strategy refers to those

38

.

companies, which prefer to rely on their home base policies and apply them in their

subsidiaries. For example, an international firm may choose to import HRM policies

where the local workforce lacks a strong union, the pool of available labor force is mainly

unskilled and uneducated, and there is a lack of job opportunities.39

 

35

Ibid.8.

36 Chapter 7, John Lawler, Vinita Atrniyanandana and Mahmod A. Zaidi, "A Cross-National Comparison of

Human Resource Management in Indigenous and Multinational Firms in Thailand," in International

Egspectives and Challenges in Human Resource mflrgemena. Monograph 58, edited by Daniel J.B.

Mitchell and David Lewin. Los Angeles: University of California: Institute of Industrial Relations,

19942197.
37

33 Ibid. pp.195-l98.

”Monir H. Tayeb, 1996: 132.

. Ibid.

105

The polycentric strategy consists of a multinational finn's adoption of the host

country’s policies. In this case, the labor force is sufficiently skilled, educated, organized,

and aware of their rights. In the global strategy, the company seeks to implement

universal policies already embedded in the organization's culture and philosophy.

McDonald's HRM global strategy is a good example. Training, career planning, anti-

discrimination policies, motivational philosophies, and promotions are similar in any part

of the world. Despite the similarities of products McDonald's sells worldwide, local

variances such as flavor or additional items favored by local habits are incorporated. In

Thailand, customers are more likely to have rice instead of French fiies, a cultural

practice followed by the McDonald's chains operating in that country.40 Strategies vary

according to circumstances of time, place and space. An international firm may adopt an

ethnocentric policy and practice in one country, a polycentric in another, and a global in

other countries. For example, an assembly-line car manufacturer follows similar

management styles in many parts of the world. Other industries, such as electronics,

require a different management style that may be adopted according to circumstances of

,

41

time, place and space.

Tayeb has argued that in the United States, Europe or Asian countries, the

transferability of managerial policies to other countries may be related to internal and

external factors contributing to the organizational strategy of a firm. Internally, it may

correspond to a firrn's strategies to universalize career planning, supervision, recruitment

and selection policies, training programs, promotion and motivation. Externally, it may

be linked by the cultural environment of the home country, political climate, government

 

40

Ibid.

106

and industrial policies, the availability or lack of skilled labor, country membership in

regional and global agreements and institutions, pressure groups, etc.42 The fact that

diversity policies and programs emerged in a particular socio-racial and political context,

impacting local socioeconomic structures, is relevant. Multinational corporations may not

be implementing these policies everywhere but only in places where socio historical and

political contexts bear some similarities'to the US. experience.

Diversity in the Marketplace: "It Simply Makes Good Business Sense"

The issue of diversity underlies much of the international human resources

development in the United States, as well as in European and Asian companies, because

of international businesses across the globe. There is wide recognition among top

executives that the overall financial success of global companies is determined by their

ability to cope, understand and value cultural diversity and differences.43 There is a

perception among executives, practitioners and students of human resource management,

that diversity, as an organizational strategy, is compounded by at least two main

interrelated forces: 1) the shifting demographic patterns inside the United States and

European countries, and 2) its implication for international business practices.

In 2000 the US. Census Bureau reported that only 15 percent of new entrants into

the workforce were white males. The overall workforce presented the following

distribution: 39 percent of white males, 35 percent white women, 12 percent Blacks, 10

percent Hispanics and 4 percent Asians. Even though Whites still made up 74 percent of

the majority of the population in the year 2000, the group as a whole, according to

 

:Ibid. 195

Ibid. 193-215.

107

specialists, was expected to decrease to 52.5 percent by the year 2050.

This pr0jected

44

.

.

demographic shift will be caused by three main factors: 1) different fertility rates among

the groups, 2) net immigration, and 3) the aging baby boomer generation.

,

45

James R. Houghton, Chief Executive Officer of Coming Corporation, to whom

the above sub-heading is attributed, contends that beyond the question of social or moral

issues, diversity constitutes sound business policies because it stresses "efficiency and

competitiveness" rather than counting numbers.46 Corning was one of the first US.

corporations to abide by federal regulations regarding affirmative action policies.

However, according to one scholar, in assessing these policies, recruitment, training, and

hiring did not prevent people of color from getting fi'ustrated and disappointed once on

the job. The existence of an internal "corporate culture" such as a glass ceiling code

precluded these employees from being totally accepted into the company. Moreover, in

the assessor's view, the result was a high turnover of people of color and a waste of

resources and productivity.47

Houghton, who assumed the role of Corning's Chief Executive Officer in 1983,

redesigned fundamental aspects of the company's management and instituted additional

programs such as “Total Quality” and “Higher Return on Equity,” general career

planning, summer scholarships targeting women and people of color, and a mandatory

awareness training program for all employees to identify unconscious values which

 

43

44

45

Kevan Hall. “Worldwide Vision in the Workplace” People Mapagement, Vol. 1, May 18, 1995: 20-25

 

The Hudson Institute, Workforce 2000, 1987

Marlene G. Fine, Building Successful Multicultural Organizations: Challenges and Opportunities.

Westport, Connecticut and London: Quorum Books, 1995:7-17

R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., "From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity," Harvard Basiness Review,

(March-April 1990): 110.

Ibid.

108

worked against women and people of color. Diversity was perceived as a step forward by

Houghton and a successful approach to retention and promotion of women and people of

color within the Coming industry. 8 Similarly, other CEOs and high management

4

executives have embraced diversity philosophies. Marcia Worting, Avon's vice president

for human resources, stressed: "We felt it was more important to have five minority

people tied into the decision-making process than ten who were just heads to count."

49

For years, Avon has implemented diversity-training programs for all its high-level

management in conjunction with the American Institute for Managing Diversity in

Atlanta, Georgia.50

The idea of diversity programs has taken root in major US. corporations: Xerox

Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's

Corporation, Eastman Kodak Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, and Hallmark Cards

represent just a few companies that have actively have developed these programs.5| The

range of program names varies depending on the companies' priorities. Examples include,

there is "Valuing Diversity", "Work Force Diversity Management", "Understanding the

Dynamics of Difference", etc. A survey conducted in 1994 among American CEOs

demonstrated that "... 5 percent of the respondents gave "social responsibility as the

reason for offering diversity programs; almost half said it was a business need, and

 

48

49Ibid.

soR. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. op. cited. p. 108

“Ibid.

Charlene Manner Solomon, "The Corporate Response to Workforce Diversity," Personnel Journal, Vol.

48, (August 1989): 43-53

109

another 36 percent saw it as a competitive issue."

Within this intematlonal context how

.

.

.

.

52

.

.

.

.

.

diversity policies fit in the Brazilian reality?

Diversity Policies in Brazil: Is it good for the Business or for the Government?

Diversity policies and programs showcased in Brazil by a selected U.S. based

multinational corporation have been introduced as the voluntary corporate solution for

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

53

.

.

solvrng the question of discrimination and racral representation.

In this sense, according

to a government official, diversity policies may indicate the means by which the

government can learn and formulate universal mechanisms for promoting equal

opportunity policies without the necessity of imposing coercive measures against

employers or educational institutions.54

As in the United States, the representatives of U.S. companies in Brazil stress

these policies follow an organizational strategy based on business principles. FMC do

Brasil (chemicals and agricultural machines) a U.S. affiliate, is adapting diversity policies

based on business strategies and the country's characteristics according to Alejandro

Huidobro, FMC's superintendent in Brazil.55 In his assessment the company's goal is to

become a global corporation, and this objective can only be achieved if the world ethnic

make up is reflected within the corporation. Other U.S. companies’ representatives in

Brazil share Huidobro’s opinion. Benedito Pagani, a former Human Resource Manager

for Levi-Strauss (apparel industry), observes that competence is the key for success, but

 

:Monir Tayeb, The Managament of a Multicultural Workforce. John Wiley & Sons,1996: 179.

54Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, "Os Negros, Segundo o Presidente, " Veja, Maio 6, 1998.

ssEncontro Tripartide, ibid.

Claudia Vassalo, op. cited p.76.

110

in hiring procedures, preference should be given to women and Blacks following the

company's commitment to diver31ty polrcres.

.

.

.

.

.

56

Motorola's human resource manager, Dante Iacavone, agrees that women

represent an incredible business potential for the company. As one of the world's giant

communications conglomerate, Iacavone recognized the absence of women in higher

level management and developed an aggressive recruiting program targeting women. As

the headquarters is preparing the new executives for the next century through a program

called CADRE 2000, Iacavone was able to send four women to the US as a result of his

recruiting program in Brazil.57

One can argue that the diversity policies of selected U.S. multinational

corporations in Brazil are fulfilling the "good citizens" image because of media exposure

and government deferential treatment towards them. U.S. companies, in line with

diversity policies in Brazil, have also faced negative reactions. Xerox, for example, a

pioneering company in abiding by government affirmative action policies and in

developing diversity policies in the United States, encountered difficulties in

implementing these polices in its Rio de J aneiro subsidiary. In 1994, following the home

country orientations, Xerox began discussing the introduction of quotas for hiring

women. The company's goal was to fill 50 percent of all management posts with women.

According to Carlos Sales, the local company president, shortly after discussing the

subject he received a protest letter by a group of female employees who feared that those

policies, once implemented, would have the sole purpose of fulfilling a quota system,

 

56

”Ibid.,75.

Ibid. 75.

ll]

irrespective of women's competence. Since then the U.S. affiliate of Xerox has

withdrawn diversity policies fi'om its Rio de J anelro subSidiary.

.

.

.

58

One could also argue that global corporations are sensitive to socio-political

climate changes in the places they operate because of past and present experiences in

dealing with race and gender in their home country. Thus, diversity policies by a few

U.S. subsidiaries may be employed as organizational strategy for responding to similar

challenges elsewhere. It seems that corporate rationale in pursuing diversity policies in

Brazil, like in the US, is quite different from local advocacy organizations and state

actions seeking to promote equal opportunity. Though apparently unrelated to state

actions and civil society advocacy claims, these few U.S. based companies seem to

respond positively to both state and advocacy organizations.

The Bottom Line: Markets Beyond Demographics

From a variety of disciplines, scholars have argued that corporate decisions to

extend the global reach of their businesses are strategically geared toward many

purposes: profit maximization; availability of raw materials and natural resources;

renewable pools of cheapened semi-skilled and skilled labor; lack of strong unions and

labor legislation; and unlimited access to markets supported by large-scale market

ideology, financing and technology.59 Additionally, three aspects mentioned by Tayeb

 

58

Ibid. 76.

”Richard J. Bamet & Ronald E. Miiller, Global Reach: The Power of the Multinational Corporations. New

York: Simon and Schuster, 1974:123-184. See also: Gary Gereffi, "Global Production Systems and Third

World Development," in Global Change, Regional Response: The New International Context of

Development, edited by Barbara Stallings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 100-142. See

also Erica Schoenberger, "Multinational Corporations and the New International Division of Labor: A

critical appraisal," in The Tranaforraation of Work? Skill. Flexibility and the Laflur ProcessLedited by

Stephen Wood, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989:91-101. Corporationa Are Gonna Get ym Mama:

112

deserve close scrutiny: markets, production, and personnel factors. Market saturation,

high wages, shortage of technical and managerial skilled personnel, along with domestic

competition due to foreign direct investment at home may force a corporation to go

abroad. In addition, competitive, already established markets in host countries may

provide another incentive to corporations to expand their busrness internationally.

.

.

,

60

Production constitutes another contributing factor since it implies availability of

raw materials and cheaper access to land and capital. As’ for the personnel, areas of high

unemployment rates, lack of strong unions, and the availability of a large pool of skilled

and unskilled workers may prove fundamental in a corporation decision to go abroad.

61

Some of the above factors underlie the processes of the global market economy,

suggesting, as observed by some scholars, that homogenization or sameness will

characterize processes of economic, political and cultural incorporation into a single

pattern of exchange among, between and across nations and regions of the world.62

Previously, the pattern of exchange among and between nations of the world was

considered to be rather simple. Fifty years ago, individual countries, through individual

companies, produced and manufactured goods to be sold to outside markets. The current

pattern is characterized by scattering of production, engineering, marketing, financing,

and research throughout several parts of the world, giving rise to what came to be known

 

Globalization and the Downsizing of American Dream edited by Kevin Danaher. Monroe, Maine:

Common Courage Press, 1996.
60

6|Monir Tayeb, 1992: 9.

Ibid. 10.

62

A Global World? Re-Ordering Political Spiae, edited by James Anderson, Chris Brook, and Allan

Cochrane. Oxford: The Open University, 199522

113

as "the new world marketplace."63 However, there are no common sense agreements

among scholars on this issue.

Analysts have emphasized that this process implies interconnectedness as well as

fragmentation by the constituent parts. In their assessment, processes of integration into

world markets are characterized by complex, asymmetrical and ambiguous relationships,

which are "essentially dialectical in nature and unevenly experienced across time and

space."64

The logic of this debate suggests that societies are incorporated hierarchically

depending on their competitive advantages, economic stability, military and political

capabilities. For instance, parts of Haiti’s and E1 Salvador’s workforces are connected

deeply to the world's most famous sporting goods multinational corporations.

Nonetheless, Haiti and El Salvador, as countries, do not enjoy the same degree of

economic and political affluence, as do South Korea and Taiwan in the chess game of

world political economy. The same reasoning could be extended to Brazil and Indonesia.

Some studies, on the other hand, have emphasized that despite the above considerations,

multinational corporations are agents of development, particularly for low and middle-

.

,

65

IIICOITIC COUIIII’ICS.

Almost two decades ago, Lee A. Tavis considered, among many factors, that host

country domestic markets were no longer so attractive to international firms, since host

 

63

William C. Taylor and Alan M. Webber, Going Global: Four Entrepreneurs Map the New World

Marketplace. New York: Virgin, 1996236.

64

Anthony McGrew, "Introduction. A Global Society?" in Modernity: An Introduction to Modern

Societies, edited by Stuart Hall, David Held, Don Hubert, and Kenneth Thompson. Cambridge, MA:

Blackwell Publishers, 19962478.

65

Ice A. Tavis, "The Role of Multinational Corporations in the Third World" in Multinational Managers

and Host Government Interactions. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 198821-2.

 

114

governments were pushing local production to exports, with import-substitution

policies.66 Early in the 19903 the restructuring of the world political economy implied

gradual deregulation of many national economics, the increasing fall of trade barriers and

protectionism, etc. In 1998 part of multinational global strategy consisted of competing

aggressively within local domestic markets. In China for instance, local producers have

developed high quality detergents with low cost efficient technology using less than half

of the resources employed by foreign MN Cs. Such local knowledge is very attractive for

MNCs since local expertise based on local cost production and high efficiency have been

extended to other sectors, from textiles, machinery, cement, and chemicals to the

production of television sets. Consequently, what has been attempted in China may have

some implications for the way MNCs respond to technological innovations elsewhere.

Similarly, in India engineers and software specialists have been avidly recruited by

foreign MNCs to work inside and outside the Indian market.67 C.K.Prahalad and Kenneth

Lieberthal contend that, "By the year 2010, diversity will be a fact of life for top

management teams of multinational corporations."

.

.

.

68

In summary, diversity policies and programs are circumscribed not only at the

national but also at the international level of business practices, due to demographic shifts

and world market competition, among other factors. Consequently, the ethno/racial

variations in the composition of the global workforce are becoming part of today's reality

of corporations operating inside and outside national boundaries. Although a few scholars

have stressed that diversity or managerial diversity policies should be race/color blind,

 

:lbid.

680K. Prahalad and Kenneth Lierberthal, op. cited. p. 78.

Ibid. 77

115

selected international human resource management and international political economy

literature suggest that increasingly international firms have to develop cultural as well as

ethno-racial sensibilities, in places where they conduct their business. These factors could

determine the success or failure of a multinational corporation's initiatives. Moreover, as

the above review has indicated, the ongoing global market economy has provided

corporations with opportunities to expand their businesses abroad. Multinational

corporations worldwide are relying more and more on low-and middle- income countries,

not only for the potential immediate increase in the consumer-base, but also as a source

of talent and innovation, outsourcing, and management skills in strategic areas such as

computer technologies. The ongoing global market economy provides the conditions

under which multinational corporations may have a competitive advantage, whether

based on market, land, capital, or labor availability in host countries. In addition,

demographics, along with cultural ethno-racial variances, may play a significant role in

the corporation’s ability to sustain long-term profit margins, whether at home or abroad.

Concurrently, these factors may have some impact on how corporations change in

relationship to state and civil society.

116

Advocacy Organizations in the Global Political Economy

Globalization processes of cultural and economic integration

and the rise of global political institutions affect how people

organize, how they interpret the sources of their problems, and

how they frame prospects for change

Smith and J ohnston.69

The above epigraph encapsulates the dilemma confronting civil society and

attending advocacy organizations in today’s global political economy: to find a balance

between local and the global institutions of governance while securing democratic and

sustainable processes of social change.

It has been argued elsewhere that the language and grammar of civil society have

received a variety of interpretations according to the circumstances of time, place and

space, conceptual and ideological orientations. From the most recent political and

economic developments in Europe, Asia, Afiica, Central, South America and the

Caribbean, the main question pivots around the extent to which civil society has been

able to counteract state apparatuses in the exercise of democratic freedom. The answer(s)

cannot be restricted to either/or explanations, such as the standpoint that reduces the civil

society debate into a broad assumption "weak states produce strong civil society or vice

7o

,

,

versa."

This is only part of the story.

Historical sociological narratives demonstrate that in secular or non-secular societies the

emergence of civil societies has been more complex. In Central, South America and

Caribbean countries, for example, the emergence of civil society took firm roots during

 

69

Jackie Smith and Hank Johnston, ed. Globalization and Resistance: Transnational Dimensions of Social

Movements. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 200228.

7" Omar G. Encamacion. The Myth of Civil Society: Social Capital and Democratic Con_solidation in Spain

and Brazil. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003.

117

the military dictatorship where churches, voluntary associations, business circles and

trade unions, advocated against the loss of civil liberties.

Similarly, in countries of Eastern Europe, the Solidarity movement sprung out of

an alliance between the working, middle, and intellectual classes, forging a new civic

pact counteracting the oppressive state. In Southeast Asia, South Korea presented a new

conceptual and theoretical challenge. Against the success of state capitalism, a growing

discontent with the South Korean state has been noted among several sectors of civil

society. Likewise in North Korea despite the existence of an authoritarian state that for

decades has successfully prevented civil society’s mobilization, and as result

"counterpublic" is beginning to exert their "civic capacity" against the state.

Notwithstanding, in many countries around the world, civil society political

mobilizations against the state have existed while at the time exhibiting new features: the

synergetic but complex relationship between civil societies, state, multilateral

organizations and the market. It is within such a framework, that the concept of advocacy

organization gains weight.

Defining Advocacy Organizations

The concepts "advocacy groups" or "advocacy organizations" as used in this study

find expression within the social movements and international politics literature. The use

of the term parallels Keck and Sikkink’s conceptualization of adVOCacy networks, which

by definition imply:

international resources available to new actors in domestic,

political and social Advocacy networks are significant transnationally

and domestically. By building new links among actors in civil societies,

states, and international organizations, they multiply the channels of access

to the international system. In such issue areas as the environment and

human rights, they also make struggles. By thus blurring the boundaries

118

between a state’s relations with its own nationals and the recourse both

citizens and states have to the international system, advocacy networks are

helping to transform the practice of national sovereignty.

7]

In this sense, advocvacy groups or organizations emerge within such a

framework, moreover, Keck and Sikkink remind us that even before the enactment of the

United Nations Human Rights Chart in 1948 several transnational movements took place,

such as the 1833-1865 anti-slavery movement, the 1888-1928 international suffrage

movement in favor of women’s rights to vote, and the 1874-1911 movement by Western

missionaries and Chinese reformers to end foot binding.72 In the United States advocacy

groups and organizations have been instrumental in pursuing social policies that have

benefited a significant number of people nationally and cross-nationally.

In the United States, during the 19803 and 19903, influential advocacy

organizations such as the National Committee on Labor, International Labor Office

(ILO), TransAfiica, and labor activists have played a firndamental role in pressuring

multinational corporations on a number of different cases under the banner of human

rights around the globe. The United Nations charter on "Universal Declaration of Human

Rights" elaborated immediately following World War II, has become the principal frame

of reference that social activists have used to pressure multinational corporations to adopt

a moral code of conduct on such issues as child and forced labor, work safety, racial,

gender and religious discrimination and prosecution, and the establishment of minimum

wage standards in low and middle-level income countries.

.

.

.

.

73

 

71

Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in Interrational

Politics. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998:].

’ Ibid.
73

IRRC, Background Report J, Social Issues Service, 1996 "Human Rights and Labor Rights Issues," 1996.

119

Over the past decade and a half, advocacy organizations, mainly in the U.S., were

partly responsible for denouncing U.S. corporations that were not abiding by those

principles, particularly the ones related to child labor exploitation. The widely publicized

cases of Nike and the Kathie Lee Gifford garment factories are good examples. In 1996,

The Washington Post, The New York Times and Christian Science Monitor denounced

Nike's almost slave-like labor conditions not only in the United States but also in Asian

countries. For instance, The New York Times called upon superstar endorsees such as

Michael Jordan to take a moral stand on these matters.74 The same working conditions

later were found in garment industries related to Kathie Lee Gifford in Honduras, Gap in

El Salvador, and Levi Strauss in China.

Human rights monitoring also linked labor exploitation practices to Disney

manufacturing production in Haiti.75 The public outcry and willingness to boycott

products made by these companies prompted several U.S. corporations to regulate and

monitor their labor practices. The Clinton administration's "Model Business Principles,"

announced in May 1995, exemplifies the impact of advocacy groups and organizations on

government as well and the business community. The federal administration issued a

statement of principles for corporations to comply with on a voluntary basis. It stressed,

among others principles: a) a healthy and safe workplace; b) fair employment practices,

including prohibition of child labor exploitation and, discrimination based on race,

 

74

7SIra Berkow, "Jordan's Bunker View on Nikes's Slave Labor," New York Times, (July 12, 1996).

Ibid.

120

gender, religion or ethnicity; c) environmental protection; and d) workers' rights to

.

.

.

.

.

76

politically orgamze themselves in trade unions.

Another example of an advocacy organization is The Interfaith Center on

Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), which represents shareholder interests. This center

monitors how companies adopt moral and corporate responsibility abroad based on the

reports provided by several research centers, among them, the Investor Responsibility

Research Center (IRRC). The Interfaith Center has been able to influence shareholders

decisions on whether to invest in companies whose profile and norms of conduct do not

conform to the advocacy organizations postulates of non-violation of basic human

rights.77

One success story during the 19603 was the ICCR association with the American

Committee on Afiica (ACOA) and the African National Congress (ANC), which

unleashed a fierce campaign targeting North American corporations operating in South

 

76

Pamela Varley, Ed, The Sweatshop Qaandary: Corporate Responsibility on the Global Frontien

Washington, DC.: Investor Responsibility Research Center, 199829.

77Principle_s for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Bu_s_i_nass Perth—finance. New

York, ICCR, Sept 15, 1995.0n Sept 15, 1995 in New York three religious groups held a press conference;

there were the Ecumenical Committee for Corporate Responsibility of the United Kingdom (ECCR); The

Task force on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility of Canada (TCCR), and Interfaith Center on

Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). A coalition of 275 Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish institutional

investors issued a document containing principles, which corporations should follow in their business

around the world. Briefly, the theological context stated:

" Faith communities measure the global economy not only by what it produces but also by its impact on the

environment, how it touches human life and whether it protects the dignity of the human person. The

protection of human rights - civil, political, social and economic - is minimum standards for social

institutions that respect human dignity and social justice. An increasingly global (ized) economy requires a

redefinition of the concept of stakeholder. The principles make the community, rather than the corporation,

the starting point in this new definition of stakeholder. In order for communities to be sustainable, all

members of the community need to be recognized as stakeholders in the community as a whole.

Corporations are stakeholders in the community along with consumers, employees, stockholders, and the

community at large.

*MacBride principles are named after Sean MacBride, a winner of Nobel and Icnin Peace Prizes and

founder of the Amnesty International. Based on the Sullivan model, which guided a code of conduct for

North American corporations operating in South Africa, MacBride Principles sought the same in

relationship to North Ireland.

121

Africa during the apartheid era. This campaign, known in the business communities as

the "hassle factor," called for immediate disinvestment* of U.S. corporations from South

Afiica.78

Many corporations, weary of endless campaigns in the United States, coupled

with bad publicity, international boycotts of their products, and time and money spent

explaining to the American public why they still maintained commercial links with South

Afiica, began the process of disinvestment.79 Pressures exerted by these and other anti-

apartheid groups and organizations on the Congress yielded a new U.S. diplomatic policy

towards South Afiica. It emphasized disinvestrnent from that country, and the Congress

approved the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of October 1986.

Some corporations preferred to promote internal codes of conduct based on the Sullivan

Principles, aimed at eliminating racial discrimination in hiring and promotion of black

South Afiicans working for those companies. By the end of 1977 fifty U.S. companies

operating in South Afiica adopted the Sullivan Principles.

For example, in conjunction

80

.

.

.

 

78Les de Villiers, In Sight Of Surrender: The U.S. Sanctions Campaign Against South Africa, 1946-

QfiWestport, Connecticut: Praeger: XVI. pp. 55 * The author calls attention to the use of the terms

divestment and disinvestrnent. The first refers to "selling of shares in a corporation with South Afiican

links". As for the second, disinvestrnent relates to the "withdrawal by a U.S. or other overseas corporation -

sgelling or liquidating its assets in South Africa under pressure".

Ibid.

80The Sullivan Principles were named after Rev. Leon Sullivan, minister of the Zion Baptist Church in

Philadelphia, and a member of the board of Directors of General Motors Co. In 1971, the Rev. Sullivan

urged GM to disinvest from South Afiica because of the apartheid. A year later, Sullivan changed his view

and proposed instead six principles from which U.S. corporations in South Afiica should follow. Those

principles were:

"1. Non segregation of the races in all eating, comfort, and work facilities;

2. Equal and F air employment practices for all employees;

3. Equal pay for all employees doing equal or comparable work for the same period of time;

4. Initiation and development of training programs that will prepare, in substantial numbers, blacks and

other nonwhites for supervisory, administrative, clerical, and technical jobs;

5. An increase in the number of black and other nonwhites in management and supervisory positions;

6. Improvement in the quality of employees' lives outside the work environment in such areas as housing,

transportation, schooling, recreation, and health facilities."

122

with the implementation of those equal opportunity policies, Mobil established a

multimillion-dollar foundation promoting black education and development. As noted

81

by Villiers, "As long as corporations stood to make good profits in a relatively sound and

stable South Afiican market, they were willing to endure a large degree of inconvenience

and criticism. "82 Nevertheless, the political implications of the escalating "hassle factor"

also reached other countries. But the 19803, in response to the large scale "sanctions of

the markets" an increasing number of U.S. and European corporations had no other

solution but to opt for disengagement from South Africa.

Other corporations preferred selling their assets to South African holders while

continuing to sell their products through a third party. In this way they were free from

political attacks in their U.S. home base. This maneuver constituted one of the seven

alternatives corporations used in order to disinvest. The other six alternatives were: sell to

local management, close down South African operations, sell to another multinational

company, and move operations to a neighboring country, sell shares to the public, or

transfer assets to a trust.

83

According to a report issued in April 1988 by IRRC, out of 114 U.S. companies

which withdrew from South Afiica, "46 percent sold their operations to South African

 

Alexandra Bemasek and Richard C. Porter, Private Pressure for Social Change in South Africa: The Impact

of the Sullivan Principles. Ann Arbor: Michigan: Center for Research on Economic Development.

Discussion Paper No.125, August 199023.

:Les de Villiers,]35.

Ibid. 130.

83Ibid. 135-137. See also Charles M. Becker, ed., The Impact of Sanction_s on South Africa: The Economy.

Part I, by IRRC (Investor Responsibility Research Center), edited by Charles M. Becker and et a].

Washington, DC, 1990. _T_r_ade Union Action to Stop Oil to South Afiica. a paper presented to the

International Conference Of Trade Unions on Sanctions and Other Actions Against The Apartheid Regime

in South Africa, Geneva, 10-11, June 1983 by the Worker's Group of the Governing Body of the ILO. 113

State of California and Southern African Racis_m: California's Economic Involvement with Firms Operating

in Southern Afiica. Assembly Office of Research: Sacramento: California Legislature, 1972.

123

companies or investors; 27 percent sold to local management or employees; 15 percent

closed their operations; 13 percent sold to foreign multinationals; 6 percent sold to other

U.S. companies; one donated its assets to a church; another moved to a neighboring

country, another sold its shares to the public, and 7 percent did not publicize what they

have done with their assets".84 By 1989, out of 277 North American firms operating in

South Afiica, more than a half had departed. This is a conservative estimate. IRRC

estimated that at least 550 foreign companies from North America, Britain, Canada and

Germany had departed.“

The South African example demonstrates that advocacy groups and organizations

were key actors in pressuring multinational corporations to alter their economic ties to

South Afiica; that these same groups and organizations also impacted U.S. government

policies; and that a combination of external pressures from activist groups, U.S.

government policies, and changing economic realities in South Afiica, altered the playing

field of major multinational corporations based in the United States. While the examples

presented above refer to some of the most recent events concerning violation of human

rights, it should be noted that transnational advocacy networks against violence, abuse

and discrimination have a long history.

The Changing Role of State: Racing to Adjust to Markets and Advocacy

Organizations Pressure

From the 19503 to 1980, state-led development in low-and middle-income

countries was a relatively successful formula prompting the emergence of the "new

 

84

85

Ibid.

Ibid.

124

industrializing countries." The disintegration of that formula had a negative impact,

particularly on countries in Latin America and Africa, due to the debt crisis. The state

was no longer perceived as the driving force of economic development but a failure for

not meeting market requirements for sustained economic growth.86 As a result, changes

in trade regulation/deregulation and privatization of public enterprises dictated by

international global institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary

Fund (IMF) took place. Consistent with these processes, some scholars have declared the

role of the state meaningless because of the power and fluidity of other transnational

.

.

.

.

.

87

.

.

.

actlvrtles such as the economic practice. Masao Miyoshi, a scholar and follower of this

line of thought, maintains that the transnational corporations, the apex of global economic

activity, are a modern form of disguised colonialism. While "the old colonialism operated

.
in name of nations, ethnrcrties, and races

.

.

.

.

88,,

.

.

transnational corporatlsm tends toward the

nation (less)." 89

While acknowledging the shifting qualitative role of state, the assertion of its

declining power in the face of global economic forces is disputed on a variety of grounds.

Contrary to Masao Miyoshi, James Anderson asserts that the dichotomy of "territorial

politics" (nation-state) versus "non-territorial" economics (multinational firms) is

anchored on false premises. The current pace of the global political economy confirms

90

 

86

Dutt, Kim, and Singh. 3- 21. See also, Global Change Regional Response: The New International Context

of Development. edited by Barbara Stallings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995: l -.32

Masao Miyoshi, "A Borderless World? From Colonialism to Transnationalism and the Decline

33f the Nation-State, " Critical Inquiry. Vol. 19, Number 4, (summer 1993): 726- 75].

Ibid.

89

golbid.

James Anderson, "The exaggerated death of the nation-state," in A Global World? edited by James

Anderson, Chris Brook, and Allan Cochrane. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press,

1995279.

125

the increasing interdependence between states and firms. Furthermore, economic

activities continue to take place in particular geographical spaces, so "fixed capital has

'fixed' locations". The headquarters of most MNCs are rooted still in particular

,

91

.

.

.

territorial spaces. Additionally, in analyzing the cyclical crises of international capitalism,

Anderson reminds us that either in the Japanese yen crisis, or the U.S. crisis in the

aftermath of the near stock market crash of 1987, it was the state funding of the banking

system that ultimately guaranteed the normalcy of the world economy. One could argue

92

that the August-October 1998 U.S. stock market crises followed similar patterns.

Another line of inquiry recognizes the changing role of government while at the same

time calling attention to the diffusion of power and authority between state and non-state

actors, and ultimately, what gives content and substance to the world political economy.

.

.

93

These relationships are asymmetrical and determine "who gets what and when." The

important dimension in the rise of multinational corporations is their impact on world

market shares, the state and civil society. Therefore, their prominence in the world

economy has heightened state competition across space for allocating units of

productions in their own territorial boundaries.94 As established by Vivien Schmidt, and

quoted by Strange:

The unwritten story behind the internationalization of trade lies not so much

in how international and regional trade associations are diminishing the

autonomy of the nation-state, or in how multinationals are escaping the

control of the nation-state, but in how nation-states have been altering their

 

91

92Ibid.

93Ibid. 80- 82.

9:Susan Strange, "The Limits of Politics," Governmen_t and Opposition, Vol. 30, No.3, (summer 1995): 296.

Philip G. Cemy, "Paradoxes of the Competition State. The Dynamics of Political Globalization,"

Govemment& Qpposition, Vol. 32, Number2, 1997: 251 -2.74

126

own policies to functionin the new international arena, andin how thesein

turn have affected their policy making processes.

In the case of Brazil, the macroeconomic approach based on import substatitution

followed a formula established since the 19303, which was anchored on

desenvolvimentalism and suppresion of civil society political organizations.96 It was a

give and take socio-economic and political agreement whereby state paternalism

provided an advancement in the social welfare policies extended to all segments of the

working class in exchange for political loyalty to the regime. Ideologically oriented

towards a nationalist flag, the sectors previously excluded from the socio-economic

developments since the inception of the republic in 1890, blessed the patemalist hands of

the state. It was under the dictatorial Vargas regime, from 1930-1945, that trade unions

were first established. The most representative elements of the bourgeois intelligentsia

were incorporated within the state apparatus through cultural agencies. That formula

worked until the mid 19803 when the military regime entered into a deep crisis of

legitimacy.

Escalating mass demonstrations against the regime, spurred by high cost of living,

unbearable inflation rate, re-organization of civil society with the bourgening of social

movements, the proliferation of political parties, and the final detachament of the trade

unions and their federations from the hands of the state, combined to give birth to the

 

95Vivien Schmidt, “The New World Order, Incorporated: The Rise of Business and the Decline of the

Nation-State” in What Future for the State? Edited by S. Graybeard, Deedless, Vol. 124, No.2, 1995285 and

 

cited in Strange, 297.

96 Brasilio Sallum Jr. “The Changing Role of the State: New Patterns of State-Society Relations in Brazil at

the End of the Twentieth Century” in Brazil since 1985: Politics. Economy and Society, edited by Maria

D’Alva Kinzo and James Dunkerley. London: Institute Of Latin American Studies, 2003:

127

New Republic in 1985. The new regime was anchored on political democratization and

economic liberalisation: its stability was reached only in the middle of the 19903.

97

Declining Role of State?

Some resource management scholars are very cautious in asserting the declining

role of the state because of the restructuring of the global economy. In Malaysia, HRM

practices and policies by domestic, as well as MNCs are scrutinized closely by the state.

In 1975, the Malaysian government instituted a strict affirmative action policy aimed at

upgrading the socio-economic, cultural and political representation of Bumiputras, who

comprise 50 percent of the native population, in comparison to 35 percent represented by

Chinese Malaysians. This latter group is considerably better off in all sectors of society.

98

The government has instituted short-and long-term goals for recruitment of Malaysians

and employers are required to report periodically to the govemment agencies their efforts

at recruiting Malaysians for all levels of employment, particularly middle and high levels

of management. If multinational corporations have employees from their home country

working at a higher level of management in Malaysia the local officials issue temporary

work permits. These work permits allow companies to train Native Malaysians for future

replacement of expatriates. If companies fail in their affirmative action commitments the

government is entitled to Withdraw company licenses to operate in the country.

.

.

.

.

,

99

 

97 Brasilio Sallun Jr. ibid.
98

Doug Wolfe and Brad Arnold, "Human Resource Management in Malaysia: A Comparison between

American and Japanese Approaches," in Naticm Culture and International Maratgement in East Asia.

 

edited by Herbert J. Davis and William D. Schulte, Jr. Boston: International Thomson Business Press,

19972518.
99

Ibid. 519

128

In the case of race and racial discrimination US based corporations have long

debated the extension of existing international human rights laws to their subsidiaries

abroad. In the late 19603 and early 19703 because of the apartheid regime in the former

Rhodesia and South Afiica, multinationals and their operations abroad came under U.S.

jurisdiction. As such, companies could extend equal opportunity policies abroad without

running the risk of interfering in other countries' national sovereignty. 100 Companies were

to be backed up by international human rights laws. However, some American managers

preferred to abide by the "when in Rome act like the Romans", policy within host

countries to avoid political and economic friction with the local communities.

In South Afiica such a vision eroded when U.S. corporations could no longer find

skilled white South African workers. Consequently, they resorted to hiring black South

Afiicans for skilled positions even though it was against the local legislation. U.S.

businesses could do so because they were operating under the framework of international

law.lol To abide by international laws, U.S. businesses in South Afiica hired black South

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

l02

Afircans as a rational managerial decrsron to continue their busrness operations.

Transnational laws may impact significantly the way domestic and foreign

companies operate regarding their managerial styles and policy implementation. Country

members of transnational organizations such as the International Labor Organization

(ILO), World Trade Organization (WTO), and the Organization of American States

(OAS) may abide by the resolutions approved by periodic conventions. The ILO, for

 

100

W. Joseph Dehner, Jr., "Multinational Enterprise and Racial Non-Discrimination: United States

Enforcement of an International Human Right," Harvard lntemational Law Vol. 15, (winter of 1974): 86-

9].
101

02

l

Ibid.

Ibid.

129

 

instance, is responsible for universalizing some labor practices through its conventions

which "articulate legal principles that should be present in the indigenous laws of

member-nations, and must be separately ratified by each affiliated sovereignty."

103

Nonetheless, not all member-nations must comply with ILO resolutions. Law student

Tadashi Hanani recognizes that the ILO has positively influenced Japan to alter domestic

laws regarding minimum age, forced labor, employment policies and discrimination in

the post war period. However, out of 67 conventions, in the pre-war period, Japan

ratified 14. From 1951 to 1981, out of the 153 conventions adopted by the ILO, only 22

had been ratified.

In countries where conventions are not enforced, "It may be that the

_

104

,

.

economic boom associated with foreign investment prompts developing nations to be

more tolerant of MNC employment transgressions." Conversely, "developed nations may

enforce their laws more vigorously against MNCs from other developed countries with

objectionable trade barriers based elsewhere. "'05

Therefore, the global political economy has brought on the interdependence

between states and international firms. This factor has led some advocates of the free-

market economy to decry the end of the nation-state. Against this positioning a growing

consensus among scholars has stressed that, in reality, the state has altered qualitatively

its role balancing the economic and political climate, while at the same time competing

with other states for world market shares. Consequently, irrespective of their economic

power and leverage, multinational corporations have to comply with local, state, national

and transnational legislation, which controls not only their ability to operate in other

 

'03 Florkoski and Nath, pp.3l 1-312.
104

Tadashi Hanami, "The Influence of ILO Standards on Law and Practice in Japan," lntemational Labour

Review, Vol. 120, No.6, and (November-December 1981): 765-779.

130

countries but also their willingness to transfer management practices across boundaries.

Even though the increasing integration of markets has altered the corporate-state

relationship, the state continues to have a prominent role in conciliating the public and

private sectors.

In summary, this chapter explored at a conceptual level the extent to which the

cultural and political dimensions have historically intersected with other spheres of social

relationships, such as the economy, providing for the transformations of the global

political economy. While some students have targeted the state as a key player in

promoting socio-economic development, others have considered transnational economic

forces as the leading institutions capable of promoting social change and development.

One could argue that the partnerships between the private sector, state and civil society

may serve interrelated purposes: 1) to debunk local racial politics and practices by

bottom-up advocacy groups and organizations; 2) to selectively upgrade labor skills and

future leaderships in areas where multinational corporations are competing aggressively

with other transnational and local market forces for competitive business interests; 3) to

prevent "hassle factors" by local advocacy groups and organizations in host countries, as

well as in the corporation's home country, given the increasing internationalization of

social movements and 4) to protect corporate " good citizens" images safeguarding

shareholders interests at home and abroad, and as a way to further their market

advantage. Over the past two decades, critics have called for change in multinational

organizations’ political cultures arguing these microsystems have been structured by race,

 

losFlorkoski & Nath, 312.

131

color, religion, sex or gender differences reflecting the larger society. 106 Not addressing

these factors may have some implications for the efficiency and competitiveness of

organizations. As observed by one scholar, in the face of pressure, corporations always

resort to their guiding principles in coordinating their vision, mission and commission,

such as the sensibility to perceive change, the flexibility to implement change and ability

to profit from both v1310n and m13310n.

.

.

.

.

107

The literature often refers to transnational economic forces as stateless or

"footloose" entities, whereby they are accountable only to themselves. However, the

interplay of market forces, state and advocacy groups and organizations may also indicate

that local-to-local articulation of global processes may acquire new meaning as catalysts

of small-and large-scale processes of social change. The next chapter details the historical

background, which prodded the implementation of affirmative action policies in the

United States.

 

I06Stella N. Nkomo, "The Emperor Has No Clothes: Rewriting 'Race in Organization' Academy of

Management Review, Vol. 17, N0. 3,19922487- 513. See also Floya Anthias, Nira Yuval- Davis and Harriet

Cain, "Resisting Racism: Multiculturalism, Equal Opportunities and the Politics of the 'Community’,"inin

Racialized Boundaries: Race Nation, Gender Colou_r and Claas and the Anti- Rapist Struggl_e. London:

Routledge, 1996:157-198.
107

Hassen Rahmanian, "TNCs and Globalization. Competing Constructions of a Reality" paper presented at

Conference on "Globalization and its (Dis) contents. Multiple Perspectives," Kellogg Center, East Lansing:

Michigan State University, April 3-4, 1998.

132

Equal Opportunity Policies in the U.S. and Abroad: Looking Back, Looking

CHAPTER 4

Forward and Beyond

Introduction

The discussions on equal opportunity policies, namely affirmative action and

diversity, are divided between Chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 summarizes the most

important historical events that led to the implementation of these policies in the United

States and briefly explores the context of these policies in selected countries. The

arguments advanced serve as a counterpoint to the ongoing debates and implementation

of affirmative action policies and programs in Brazil, which is the subject of the next

chapter. An interrelated conceptual reference guides these discussions, namely, “political

consciousness”, “mobilizing opportunities”, “structures of governance” in addition to

John David Skrentny’s approach, in which several affirmative action policies emerged as

the state’s strategies based on administrative pragmatism and response to a crisis

management, domestically, but with international implications.l First, I discuss the above

conceptual references. Second, I briefly discuss the trajectory of race and social policies

in the U.S. Third, I look at the historical background, which prodded the enactment of

affirmative action policies by the US government. Fourth, I focus on the implication of

these policies in the 21St century. I close this chapter by briefly introducing the scope of

equal opportunity policies beyond the United States.

 

I John David Skrentny (1) The Ironies of AffLmative Action: Politics. Culture. and Jgtice in America.

Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996: 67-110; John David Skrentny (2) “The effect

of the Cold War on African-American Civil Rights: America and the World Audience, 1945-1968” Theog

and Socieg, Vol.27, N. 2, 1998: 237-285; John David Skrentny, editor (3) Color Lines: Affirmat_iya

Action, Immigration, and Civil Rights thions for America. Chicago and London: The University of

Chicago Press, 2001, and John David Skrentny (4) The Minorigy Rights Revolution. Cambridge,

Massachusetts, and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.

133

Conceptual Considerations on “Political Consciousness”, “Mobilizing

Opportunities” and “Structures of Governance”

The literature on collective action is vast, notably, the ones related to the emergence

of the Civil Rights Movement. One study in particular provides a relevant contribution in

exploring the complexities of analytical frameworks, in which the concept of class-

consciousness is analyzed in opposition to other types of political consciousness. Aldon

Morris, for instance, defines political consciousness as

comprising those cultural beliefs and ideological

expressions that are utilized for the realization and

maintenance of group interests. Political consciousness is

continually shaped and influenced by concrete social and

political struggles engaged in by two or more groups. This

definition takes into consideration the fact that both

dominant and subordinate groups develop political

consciousness for the purpose of achieving their respective

political and social ends. Social scientists have tended to

underemphasize the political consciousness of dominant

groups while focusing on the oppositional consciousness of

subordinate groups such as workers, blacks, and women.2

In the above context the concept of political consciousness is twofold: it serves to

identify dominant groups’ hegemonic consciousness as well as subordinate groups’

oppositional consciousness. The way in which hegemonic consciousness is materialized

is through public institutions that purport to attend the interests of the larger population,

such as government, schools and the media. In contrast, the oppositional consciousness is

based upon a set of ideas and belief systems that represent the interests of a specific

,

3

constituency.

 

2Aldon D. Morris. “Political Consciousness and Collective Action” in Frontiers in Social Movement

Theog, edited by Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller. New Haven and London: Yale University

Press, 1992: 362-363.

’ Ibid.

134

According to Morris, analysis of the American working class consciousness, for

the most part, have been couched within analytical frameworks where survey research

attempt to convey workers opinions and perceptions of class dynamics and class structure

independently of their actual struggles and class conflicts. Yet according to Morris such

studies tend to emphasize that black workers tend to demonstrate higher racial

consciousness rather than class-consciousness in contrast to their white counterparts.

These frames of analysis presuppose a dichotomous approach where workers have either

class-consciousness or racial consciousness. From this standpoint class-consciousness is

perceived as objectively anchored on a transformative power. On the other hand, racial

consciousness is perceived as subjective and consequently it lacks a transformative

component for social change. As inferred by Morris, the historical contexts are lost

among the interactional domains, which produce class conflicts and propel workers to act

collectively in pursuit of their interests. More importantly, other types of political

consciousness such as gender, race, and ethnic consciousness are rendered invisible.4

Workers have always been aware of the conditions and circumstances of their

exploitation. Then, what are the conditions and under which circumstances are people

propelled to act in pursuit of their collective interests? Again, Morris provides an

important reference beyond the dichotomous capital versus labor framework.

Human action cannot be reduced to social structures and impersonal

social forces. From birth to death, human beings are embedded within

cultural contexts that provide them with belief systems that help guide

their actions and infiise them with meaning and comprehensibility. But

neither are they simply detached cultural actors, given that they are also

embedded within structural contexts that shape their actions and limit

their options. To understand human action therefosre, attention has to

center on the intersection of culture and structure.

 

‘ Ibid. p. 359.

' Ibid. p. 351.

135

Throughout history African American communities in the United States and

others racialized groups have fought against systems of domination and subordination

with relative success and countless failures. Since the Reconstruction Era, and for almost

one hundred years, racial domination constituted the hallmark of American society.

Curiously, it was in the context of the Cold War where the U.S. avidly sought to secure

world leadership and legitimacy that some advances in civil rights took place. It was the

fact that only then, and not before the Civil Rights Movement prevailed, that forced me to

look further into the social movements and in the international relations literature in order

to obtain additional conceptual understandings. Thus, Jackie Smith’s “mobilizing

opportunities” and Thomas Risse Kappen’s “structures of governance”

conceptualizations provided me with some insightful answers.

In his study of social movements Sidney Tarrow6 defines “political opportunity

structure” as the “consistent — but not necessarily formal, permanent, or national — signals

to social or political actors which either encourage or discourage them to use their

internal resources to form social movements.” Departing fi'om Sidney Tarrow, Jackie

Smith, in her studies of transnational politics, expanded the meaning of opportunity

structures to incorporate transnational opportunity structures, reminding us that the

political realm constitutes only one aspect compelling people to collective action.

Cultural and social contexts should play an equally important role in mobilizing political

action. In this sense, Jackie Smith refers instead to “mobilizing opportunities” as “the

activists’ attempt to mobilize individual and organizational adherents, active supporters,

 

6 D. McAdam J .D. McCarty, and M. Zald, ed. “States and Opportunities: The Political Structuring of Social

Movements” in Comparative Pers ectives on Social Movements: 2 Political

 

ortunities Mobilizin

 

Structures and Cultural Framing: Social Movement Dynamics in Cross-Natiogl Perspectives. Cambridge.

MA: Cambridge Press, 1996: 41-61.

136

sympathetic media coverage, and material resources for its political struggle.”7 In the

context of the Civil Rights Movement a broad coalition of supporters and media coverage

were fundamental to impacting the national conscience unleashing one of the most

important processes of social change in the United States.

Because the end of racial segregation ended officially in 1954 and the Civil

Rights Movement took place in an era of heightened international tension between the

United States and the Soviet bloc, a look into the international relations literature where

Thomas Risse-Kappen, in his comprehensive study of the impact of the international

institutions on domestic structure politics provided me with some additional insights.

Risse-Kapen elaborated the concept of “structures of governance” to refer to both the

domestic structure and international institutions “as the normative and organizational

arrangements which form the “state, structure society, and link the two in the polity.”8 As

defended by Risse-Kappen “Domestic structures are likely to determine both the

availability of channels for transnational actors into the political systems and the

requirements for ‘wining coalitions’ to change policies”. lntemational institutions are

conceptualized by “the extent to which the specific issue-area is regulated by bilateral

agreements, multilateral regimes, and/or international organizations’ . Though

considering the importance of this concept there are points of contention between

 

7 Jackie Smith, “Transnational Political Processes and the Human Rights Movement” Research in Social

Movements. Conflicts and Change, Vol. 18, 19952192. In this conceptual effort, Smith based her argument

on Rucht studies of political action where he refers to “context structure” in substitution of Tarrow’s

political opportunity structures, and cited in “The Impact of National Contexts on Social Movement

Structures: A Cross-Movement and Cross-national Comparison.” Comparative Perspectives on Social

Movements: Political

 

ortunities Mobilizin Structures and Cultural F ramin 2 Social Movement
 

 

Dynamics in Cross-Naticml Peraratctives, edited by D. McAdam J .D. McCarty, and M. Zald. Cambridge.

MA: Cambridge Press, 1996:185-204.

8 Thomas Risse-Kappen, pp.

9 Thomas Risse-Kappen, op. cit

137

Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink,10 and Risse-Kappen. The former place more

emphasis on issues and networks, because, according to them, ‘domestic structures’

explain only partially why and under what conditions some transnational advocacy

networks succeed while others do not. “Institutional openness to leverage varies

significantly across issue areas within a single institution or state structures”. Despite the

important observations made by Keck and Sikkink, Jackie Smith, another student of

transnational political movements, convincingly argues along the same lines as Risse-

Kappen, that:

Social movements are more likely to emerge under political and

economic conditions that support (or at least which do not completely

suppress) mobilization and where their capacity for political influence

vis-a-vis established political actors is favorable.

1]

These arguments, though related to social movements, can be extended to the

analysis of advocacy organizations, for example, the U.S. civil rights advocacy

organizations in the 19503 and 19603, and the contemporary examples of Afro-Brazilian

advocacy organizations, which over the last twenty-five years have been engaged in civil

rights mobilizations in Brazil. Thus, in the sections to follow, I will summarize some of

the most important historical events that contributed to the implementation of affirmative

action policies in the United States. Key to these narratives is John Skrentny’s

administrative pragmatism and crisis of state management concepts in relation to

domestic contexts with international implications.

 

:2, Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, 1998. Op. cited.

Jackie Smith, op. cit.

138

Looking Back: “Race” and Social Policies in the United States

In the history of the United States, affirmative action policies and programs

constitute one of the most contested institutional arrangements to date. Students of

American institutions have long debated the extent to which the changing patterns of

racial categorizations have profoundly impacted policy-making and politics, or how

specific social policies and attendant institutions, abiding by local and state political

.
interests, have effectively included or excluded racralrzed socra] groups.

.

.

.

.

.

12

Theda Skocpol, for instance, defends the last argument in her analysis of the

African Americans’ trajectory in the welfare policies. She argues that over periods of

time, and according to regional and local contexts, African Americans and their

descendants were able to accrue uncontested social benefits based upon. cross-class

alliances, such as the war veteran pensions, from the Civil War to the World War II, and

the New Deal emergency relief and work programs in the early 19303. 13 Furthermore,,

the New Deal labor policies, which favored the unionization of wageworkers and wage

and hour regulations, excluded rural workers, particularly southern rural black workers

and sharecroppers. By the same token, the social insurance program under the Socra]

14

,

Security Act of 1935, that almost reached universal social provision, excluded retired and

unemployed workers under the categories domestic service and agricultural work where

 

'2 Robert C. Lieberman, “Race and the Organization of Welfare Policy” in Classi__fv1_'ng by Race, edited by

Paul E. Peterson. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995: 156-187. See also George R. La

Noue and John C. Sullivan “Deconstructing Affirmative Action Categories” in Color Lines: Affirmative

Action, Immigaation, and Civil Rights thions for America, edited by John David Skrentny. Chicago and

London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001: 71-86; Richard M. Valelly “National Parties and Racial

Disenfranchisement” in Classifying bv Riga, edited by Paul E. Peterson. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton

University Press, 1995:188-216.

'3 Theda Skocpol “African Americans in U.S. Social Policy" in Classifying by Rag, edited by Paul E.

Peterson. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995: 129-155.

Ibid. 142.

139

two thirds of Afiican American workers were so categorized. These categories were later

incorporated into the Social Security Act.” From the 19603 onward, elderly people,

irrespective of race, color, religion or national origin, have become entitled to the old-age

insurance programs.

In the 19903, however, other social provisions, that previously enjoyed national

support, such as mothers and their children, i.e. welfare mothers, suffered a political

backlash that had an unmistakably racial and class bias against the poor. At the turn of

the twentieth century, for example, women workers, mostly white women in the

industrialized centers of the North, enjoyed cross-class alliances that guaranteed them

welfare benefits. Motherhood was conceptualized as an honorable function in society,

since in addition to participating in the workforce; mothers were taking care of future

citizens. Furthermore, honorable motherhood was based upon significant exclusions.

African American mothers, except in a few cities of the North, were excluded from state

and federal maternal regulations and benefits. ‘6 Gradually, from the 19603 to the 19903,

poor mothers, in general, began receiving state support to raise their children through the

Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) policies. In the middle of the 19803 these policies

became steadfastly associated with poor, nonwhite and unwilling to work mothers,

resulting in a drastic reduction of these policies in the 19903.

If exclusion and inclusion of African Americans characterized the trajectory of

American social institutions, the same can be said for political rights. In the aftermath of

the Civil War, for a brief period African Americans enjoyed the right to vote. Soon after

southern retrenchment cast them out of the political process until 1965 when Congress

 

" Ibid.

" Ibid. pp 138-141.

140

approved the Voting Rights amendment to the Constitution. In the same year the

Immigration Act was also approved, banning national origin quotas and extending

citizenship rights to Asians, Southern and Eastern Europeans, and Latin Americans

willing to live in the United States. While for Afiican Americans social and political

rights were fought over for decades with varying degrees of success and failure, Asians,

Southern and Eastern Europeans, and later Latin American immigrants conquered social

and political rights, not so much because of their political organization and militancy, but

because of perceived changing demographics and related voting power, as well as

geopolitical circumstances of the time. Affirmative action policies implemented after the

Civil Right Act of 1964 represent a combination of all these factors, in addition to

exemplifying the convergence of domestic and international interests.

Antecedents of Affirmative Action Policies

Among specialists in public policies, the 19603 Civil Rights movement is also

known as the “Second Reconstruction”, in reference to the government attempts to

redress historical injustices committed against the African American communities

.

.

I7

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

,,

nationWlde.

The injustices consrsted of a “tripartite system of domination where

systematic institutional and everyday racism controlled Afiican American communities

“economically, politically and personally”.

Economically, Afi‘lcan Americans were

.

.

.

l8

.

.

.

excluded from mainstream jobs, were systematically denied financial opportunities, and

had limited access or no access to certain institutions of higher education. Politically,

they were deprived of their voting rights, and personally had their freedom of movement

 

'7 Carl M. Brauer. John F. Kennedy and the Second Recon_struction. New York: Columbia University Press,

197 7 .

n Aldon D Morris. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movements: Black Communities Organizing for

Change. New York: The Free Press, 1984: 1-4.

14]

.

l9

.

.

.

.

.

.

restricted.

That period was also characterized by economic expansron, where political

agreements between policy makers and civil rights activists provided the framework for

state action in mediating the socio-economic interests of powerful groups, while at the

same time apparently addressing the needs of the most vulnerable sectors through social

programs and compensatory polrcres.

,

,

20

The historical vulnerability of the Afiican-American communities had been

spelled out on numerous occasions, such as the report supervised by the sociologist

Franklin Frazier, in the aftermath of the Harlem uprisings in 1935. The report was titled

The Negro in Harlem: A Report on Social and Economic Conditions Responsible for the

Outbreala of March 19, 1935. In it, Frazier pointed out the potentially dangerous racial

division of the labor force and its negative impact on the Black community. Frazier’s

report clearly indicated that the principle of equality before the law was not enough to

guarantee inclusion of larger numbers of black employees in the overall workforce.

The report’s final proposal to remedy racial inequality sparked controversy and

fell into obscurity, having been silenced first by policy makers, and second by the

academic community that ignored the study’s findings. The mayor of New York City at

that time, Fiorello La Guardia, considered it too explosive, and managed to prevent its

publication. However, a year later in 193 6, The Amsterdam News published the entire

report exposing the conditions of racial exclusion experienced by the black community in

21

Harlem.

Even though the liberal Constitutional principle stated that anyone enjoyed

 

19

Ibid.

20 Stephen Steinberg. Turning Back: The Retreat From Racial Justice in America Thought and Polig.

Boston: Beacon, 19952 109.

2' Paul D. Moreno From Direct Action to Affirmative Action: Fair Employment Law and Policy in America

1933-1972. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997

142

equality before the law, it did not find expression in the social reality experienced by

African-Americans in the 19303. In this context, grass-roots campaigns such as “Don’t

Buy Where You Can’t Work” emerged, that were related to several incidents throughout

urban American, known as the “race riots of the 19303.”22

It was only after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that a color-blind anti-

discrimination legislation was enacted based on the principles of the disparate-treatment

theory, despite the fact that since the 19303, segments of the black community had been

pleading for race-specific public policies, also known among policy-makers as disparate-

.
impact theory, but to no avail.

, 23

Disparate-treatment theory refers to individual rights whereby the principle of

equal opportunity favors merit and not race in decision-making processes: for example,

who should or should not be hired.24 Those in favor of this universal criterion are not

necessarily against compensatory policies to certain individuals but are vehemently

opposed to what they perceive as preferential treatment in a context where everybody

should be equal before the law.

Disparate-impact theory, on the other hand, refers to group rights, where racism is

perceived to permeate all social institutions, influencing human behavior either subtly or

unconsciously and rendering the principle of merit useless. Proponents of disparate-

impact theory are color-conscious and strategically make use of statistical data in order to

scientifically prove the lack of proportional representation of discriminated groups within

 

2‘ Ibid.

"Ibid. 15.

“ Ibid. p.2

143

the labor force. According to specialists, group representation is “the safest guarantee of

.

.
lndlvrdual rights.”

.

.

25

Historical records have shown that since the 19203 labor leader A. Randolph

Phillip, of the Sleeping Car Porters Union, fought for equal opportunities in the labor

market with scant results. However, it was not until 1941, under the threat of a March to

Washington organized by A. Philip Randolph, that President Roosevelt issued Executive

Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination in the defense industry, but not in the armed

2

forces. 6 It was in the 19403 that civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph

successfully linked the issue of civil rights to a question of national security. Roosevelt,

on the occasion of signing Executive Order 8802, declared:

that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in

defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or

national origin,” and that “it is the duty of employers and of labor

organizations... to provide for27the full and equitable participation of all

workers in defense industries.

 

25 Paul D. Moreno, p.2

26 Ibid. p.28. Steinberg in the op. cited eloquently describes the incident where Eleanor Roosevelt and

Mayor La Guardia were summoned to convince A. Philip Randolph to abort the march, but to no avail.

Randolph stood firm behind his resolution. For more details about this episode see Jervis Anderson. A

Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait. New York: A Harvest Book, 1974: 241-261. The March on

Washington was scheduled to take off on June 25, but six days prior to its launching it was cancelled most

likely because of the presidents’ executive order 8802 which proscribed discrimination in the defense

industries. The decision to cancel the march was severely contested within the ranks of the movement

whose young militants accused Randolph to selling out to President Roosevelt. In response to his

detractors, Randolph issued the following statement: “because its main objective, namely the issuance of an

Executive Order banning discrimination in national defense, was secured... The Executive Order was

issued upon the condition that the march be called off. . .The purpose of the march... was not to serve as an

agency to create a continuous state of sullen unrest and blind resentment among Negroes... There is

sufficient evidence of this. Its purpose was to achieve a specific and definite thing.

It would have

constituted a definite betrayal of the interests of the Negro if the march Committee after receiving ...The

main objective of its struggle

had defiantly waved it aside and March on to Washington. Such a strategy

would have promptly and rightly been branded as a lamentable specie of infantile leftism and an appeal to

sheer prima donna dramatics and heroics.” pp. 259-260. See also Nicolaus Mills, (ed) Debating

Affirmative Action: Race. Gender. Ethnicity. and the Politics of Incluiop, New York: Dell Publishing,

 

1994:5-7

n Jervis Anderson, pp. 259.

144

Although racial discrimination was banned in the defense industries, racial

segregation constituted the hallmark of social life, plaguing all social institutions without

exception. At the time Executive Order 8802 was issued it also marked the beginning of

the Cold War, yet nationwide compensatory policies for African Americans were out of

the question. One of the ironies of affirmative action policies, as noted by Skrentny, was

the fact that no major march on Washington was rallied for or against this policy. No

major civil rights organizations lobbied for its implementation, and although advocating

for racial preferences policies was considered political suicide in the 19603, white males

in positions of power in the government and in the business community crafted the policy

and later courted CIVII r1 ghts organizations to support it.

.

.

.

.

.

, 28

Affirmative Action at the Dawn of an Era

Skrentny, in his historical analysis of the implementation of affirmative action

polices and programs in the United States, highlighted three major factors, among

others, that ultimately contributed to the adoption of those policies by the state: a) the

international environment, where at the height of the Cold War the Soviets alarmed

the world to the dangers of capitalism spearheaded by the United States, where racial

.

.

.

.

.

29

.

.

oppressron represented the most v131ble srgrral of that regime;

b) a crlsrs of state

management prompted by wide scale urban unrest led, primarily but not exclusively,

by segments of the Afiican American urban communities; and 0) national disruption

of socio-political life.

 

John David Skrentny, 199625-6.

‘ John David Skrentny, 1996.

145

The final adoption by the state of equal opportunity policies was couched within

an administrative pragmatism expeditiously undertaken by federal agency

administrators, the White House and State Department officials with the approval of

the business communities, mainstream civil rights leaders and advocacy organizations

such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People and other advocacy organizations. These main

protagonists of the affirmative action policies, at that particular period of time,

supported the colorblind approach to equal opportunity policies.30

Political calculation and administrative pragmatism by both Democrats and

Republicans gradually shifted the color-blind equal opportunity ideal expressed in the

Civil Rights Act of 1964, to race-consciousness imperatives implied in the equality of

results of subsequent efforts aimed at enforcing the law.3| For instance, the Civil

Rights Act of 1964 proscribed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and

national origin. The eleven sections of the law laid out the conditions and

circumstances under which discrimination ought to be barred from the private and

public spheres, assuring the rights of all individuals as prescribed as the following:

“Title 1. Voting Rights; Title II. Injunctive Relief against Discrimination in Public

Accommodations; Title III. Desegregation of Public Facilities; Title IV.

Desegregation of Public Education; Title V. Commission on Civil Rights; Title VI.

Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs; Title VII. Equal Employment

Opportunity; Title VII]. Registration and Voting Statistics; Title IX. Intervention and

Procedure after Removal of Civil Rights Cases; Title X. Establishment of Community

 

’" John Skrentny, 19962 3.

" Ibid. 1-15

146

Relations and Title XI.”32 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was

created to monitor Title VII violations. 33 Title VI and VII became the battleground of

political and pragmatic miscalculations. In the law of 1964 there was nothing

suggesting preferential treatment or imposition of quotas in employment. After all,

the language of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964-safeguarded the “cultural logic of the

American moral values” based on color-blindness, individualism and meritocracy. It

expresses what authors termed a soft affirmative action social policy whose

normative character coalesced with the American moral and social values, even

though, as Skrentny well observed, exceptions to the rule were also part of the

tradition. Examples abound such as lower fare mass-transit for senior citizens or

.

.

.

.

.

34

family farms subSidles against natural disasters.

The World Audience is Watching America

Internationally, during the Cold War period, liberation struggles in several

countries in Afiica, Asia and Latin America signaled the international political alignment

either toward the free-market capitalism as championed by the West, mainly the United

States, or state socialism, as spearheaded by the Soviet Union. The end of World War 11

traumatized the world audience because of the atrocities committed by the Nazi-German

regime against designated groups on the grounds of racism, anti-Semitism and attendant

racial oppression. In 1945 the United Nations was created. In 1948, the United States,

 

32 Carol M. Swain. “Affirmative Action Revisited” in Race Versus Class: The New Affirmative Action
 

Debate. Lanham, New York & London: University Press of America, Inc. 1996: 6-7.

‘ Ibid.

" Ibid. pp. 2-3.

147

along with other nations, drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the

United Nations Magna Chart. Between the 19503 and the 19603 new nations emerged out

of colonialism. The lntemational Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination, the lntemational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and

the lntemational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were issued in 1965 and 1966.35

While at the foreign relations level and in the name of democracy Americans and

the West championed such honorable causes at home, those honorable practices were

contradicted by persistent racism, discriminatory practices, and violation of human rights,

focused primarily but not exclusively against, African Americans. The question of human

rights became the Achilles tendon to the Euro Americans. In the Cold War propaganda

machinery, racial oppression and violation of human rights identified the brand of

capitalism practiced in the U.S. On the other hand, while socialism represented an

alternative system for the newly formed states, after the demise of colonialism voices of

dissents within the Soviet republics were also brutally repressed.

36

The Hope from the East: African Americans in Search for the ‘Imagined

Community’

Since the early 20th century the retrenchment of racial politics and dynamics, lack

ofjobs, and prospects for the future in the United States prompted the flight of many

African Americans to different countries in Europe, Afiica, Asia and South America.

Even Theodore Roosevelt, who visited Brazil in 1913 and was shocked to witness the

“cordiality” between Whites and non-whites Brazilians where many “colored” men

 

:5 John David Skrentny, 200223.

John David Skrentny, 1996: 67-110; John David Skrentny, 1998.

148

occupied positions of power, had known the latter among North Americans as a “racial

paradise” by foreign visitors. Much to the dismay of Brazilian officials, Roosevelt,

oblivious of the internal racial dynamics, considered many among the power elite as

.

.

37

.

.

.

.

being Afircan descendants.

However, the ticket to the Brazrlian paradise was out of

reach, considering the maneuvering of the Brazilian diplomatic corps in collusion with

their North American counterparts to prevent a black immigration to the country. Denial

of passports was the means through which “de facto” segregationist immigration policies

took effect.38

Time was running out and skilled Afiican Americans went to any place that could

provide them a livelihood and the dignity accorded to civilized men. By 1917 the Russian

revolution became a reality bringing with it the ideological motto of a new civilization,

classless, and where human beings could at least dream of realizing their full potential.

African Americans and Afiicans responded to the call, and many formed small

communities around Moscow in the Black Sea region and other places.39

The word got out, making inroads among trade union members and reaching

intellectuals from a variety of political persuasion — Whites and Blacks. Many daughters

and sons of the Harlem Renaissance cultural movement were also attracted to the winds

of change of the communist era: From W.E.B. Du Bois, Claude McKay, Langston

Hughes to Richard Wright, in addition to lesser-known names, they all embraced the

ideological alternative to capitalism. Moreover, supported by the Soviet Intelligentsia and

 

n David Hellwig. African-American Reflections on Brazil’s Racial Paradise, edited by David J. Hellwing.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.

" Ibid.

39 Allison Blakely. Rusaia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian Histog and Thought. Washington, DC;

Howard University Press, 1986: XIV and 76.

149

power structures, several intellectuals traveled to the Soviet Union as lecturers, along

with nurses and skilled auto industry workers who went to help in the building of this

new Promised Land. After all, in addition to obtaining high paying jobs, they were

treated with dignity and respect during a time where lynching constituted the staple of the

day in the southern belt U.S.A. Claude McKay, a well known intellectual, took an active

part at the Third lntemational conference in Moscow in1922. Langston Hughes was

another towering figure of the Harlem Renaissance who traveled extensively throughout

,

40

Asra.

Labor leaders were particularly welcomed in Soviet circles. The American

Communist Party recruited hundreds of Americans, among them Afiican Americans, and

the prospects for interracial alliances that could eventually turn the political table in the

country represented a real possibility. For example, James Ford was the first African

American labor leader to run in a national campaign for Vice-President by the

Communist Party. In the 19303, the concrete realization of such a bold move, though

symbolic, won the hearts and minds of many constituents.4lStill, during the 19203

Marcus Garvey was also making quite an impression among African Americans with his

“Back to Africa’ movement.”42 Meanwhile, racial oppression was beginning to show its

explosive potential when race riots began to erupt in early 19303, spurred by local

campaigns such as the 1935 Harlem “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” movement

organized by labor leaders.43

 

40Kate A. Baldwin. Beyond the Color Line and the Iron Curtain: Reading Encounter between Black and

Red, 1922-1963. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002: 1-24.

‘l Allison Blakely, 110.

42 Ibid. Chapter seven

" Paul Moreno, 199722

150

In the early 19403 Afiican-American intellectuals continued to visit the USSR,

even though by then many had already distanced themselves from the communist regime.

This is attributed in part to the Stalin’s “purges” of those not committed enough to the

ideology of class struggles. However, influential figures such as Paul Robeson and W.

E.B. Du Bois continued to demonstrate their sympathies to the Soviet regime. Both once

welcomed in the high circles in the United States began to be persecuted as enemies of

the state. While political repression of Communists in the United States was heightened,

liberation struggle movements in Afiica and Asia increasingly divided the world into

competing political regimes: capitalism championed by the West, that is, the United

States, and centrally planned economies, spearheaded by the Soviet Union. Italy invaded

Ethiopia in 193 5-193 6. The nonviolent resistance movement started in South Africa from

1948 to 1953. The Mau Mau violent revolution took place in Kenya from 1952 tol956;

Ghana became independent in 1957. By the end of World War II the two opposing camps

were well into the Cold War era.44

Afiican Americans veterans who fought for democracy abroad were disillusioned

to find themselves excluded from opportunities for advancement at home due to racism

and discrimination in the aftermath of World War I]. Support for Communism had

dramatically dropped among Afiican Americans since the middle of the 19303 because of

the wars of independence in several African countries. Nonetheless, labor advocates were

sympathetic to the Communist ideals and promises of solidarity and equality. Civil rights

leaders understood the importance of that historic period and skillfully linked racism and

racial discrimination to violations of human rights, and therefore, a matter of national

 

“ James H. Meriwhether. Proudly We Can Be Africans: Black Americana and Afiica, 1935-1961. Chapel

 

Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

151

security. Mahatma Gandhi was said to have called the attention of the United States and

Britain officials to the contradictions inherent in the international campaign for human

rights, while colonialism and racism subjugated peoples of color in Asia, Afiica and in

the America.45

The human rights issue played an important role in international politics, and civil

rights leaders wisely used the international human rights principles to foster social change

at home. In 1945 the U.S., along with other nations, succeeded in establishing the United

Nations as an international system of governance to flag the illegitimacy of racial

discrimination on a world scale. The Nazi Germans, the Japanese and the Soviets were

the obvious target in light of the highly publicized news articles detailing the atrocities of

racism and lynching committed in the United States. In Russia meanwhile, the main

newspapers periodically published incidents of racial discrimination in the U.S. Cartoons

ridiculed the brand of capitalism and democracy as its main ideology.

Moreover, political leaders from Europe, Asia and Afiica expressed their doubts

about the U.S. style of democracy in various newspapers, as well as letters sent to the

State Department, protesting racial discrimination against Afiican Americans. The United

States Information Agency (USIA) periodically reported the concerns of Afiican and

Asian elites about discriminatory practices against Afiican Americans and other groups

perceived as second-class citizens.

In these wars of positions, major domestic efforts had to be undertaken in order to

assure U.S. moral legitimacy and world leadership. The task was carried out by a variety

of state and non-state actors, that including: White House and State Department officials,

 

"’ John David Skrentny, 2002: 27

152

civil right leaders, appointed black leadership working in several administrative posts,

and segments of the business community, characterizing “an activist government.”

According to Skrentny:

The images of minority rights revolution are mostly of mainstream

Euro-American males and minority advocates, wearing suits, sitting at

desks, firing off memos, and meeting in government buildings to

discuss new policy directions.46While these are not romantic images,

they are the images of power.

Hence, the struggle for racial equality indeed became a subject of national

.

47

.

.

.

.

.

security. American officrals, many of whom were segregationists, and above all anti-

Communists, understood the race for world leadership. The State Department sponsored

international tours and seminars led by Afiican American artists and civil rights leaders

of the magnitude of Walter White of the National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People. They were sent to act as emissarles of Democracy.

.

.

48

By the early 19603 the question of civil rights was on the agenda. The

assassination of President John F. Kennedy sent a chilling message to the rest of world.

Several leaders perceived J F K’s death as directly related to the situation of racial strife in

49

the U.S.

Foreign leaders urged the U.S. government, now under Lyndon Johnson, to

implement civil rights legislation. Messages varied from skepticism to cautious optimism.

Nigerian President Azikiwe sent to a message to President Johnson that revealed the

extent to which the world had a divided opinion about American democracy:

The slaughter of this typical American reformer shows clearly that

among some Americans there is a deep-seated hatred of the black man

 

“ John David Skrentny, 2002:5.

‘7 John David Skrentny, 1996: 7-15. Thomas Borstelmann “Jim Crow’s Coming Out: Race Relation and

American Foreign Policy in the Truman Years” Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 29 n03 (Sept. 1999):

549-69

‘8 Mary L. Dudziak. Cold War, Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton and

Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000: 3-45; 79-114.

" Ibid. 205-207.

153

as a human being. As one who was educated in American universities I

am disappointed that over a quarter of a century I had preached to my

people to regard the United States of America as “God’s country.” He

now prayed that all who believe me will forgive me for being a

simpleton. What would the future portend, he wondered. Who knows

whether it would not be in the best interest of Africa if the newly

50

emergent Afiican states were not to be obliged to look elsewhere?

President Azikiew’s concerns echoed in many countries in Africa and Asia. The

U.S. government promptly responded to that kind of pressure, implementing in record

time, the Civil Rights Legislation of 1964. The Brown vs. Board of Education suit ten

years earlier had not accomplished the goal of school integration because of entrenched

resistance, particularly in the Southern states. The new Civil Rights Legislation was

featured as a legacy to JFK, even though as Dudziak implied, the issue was not on the top

of the list of the Kennedy administration. Johnson’s pragmatism proved effective in a

moment of emotionaly fragility since Americans were still mourning the loss of

Kennedy.5|

However, the implementation of the Civil Rights legislation did not counter the

escalating of racial wars. Furthermore, the crisis in relation to the Vietnam War divided

American and world attention. Following J FK’s death, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy and

Martin Luther King were also assassinated in the same decade. Social unrest and large-

scale urban riots became the hallmark of the summers of 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970. To

make matters worse, the radicalization of black militants sympathetic to communist

ideology posed another real threat. It was against such a background that affirmative

action polices and programs came into existence. These policies emerged in a period

where the state was undergoing a deep crisis of management, derived from large-scale

urban unrest and loss of control by the civil rights, of part of its constituencies.

 

Ibid. 206.

5' Mary L. Dudziak, Chapter 3 “Fighting the Cold War with Civil Rights Reform” 2000279-114.

154

Dudziak raised a trick question derived from the above developments. Why would

a Republican president implement a race-based public policy? The Johnson

administration era had passed and the new President, Richard Nixon, took a calculated

political risk, not so much in terms of supporting race—base legislation because of past

wrongs committed against a group of people, but because it would serve three interrelated

purposes: a) divide the political loyalties of African-Americans in relation to the

Democrats by providing them the tools to build black capitalism; b) though marginally, it

would increase the Republican constituency; c) it would appease the national leadership

such as the business community, civil rights leaders, and other social groups that were

beginning to follow the Afiican American footsteps in engaging in nonviolent direct

action strategies to further their standing in society.

As noted by Skrentny, this seldom-analyzed aspect of the history of the Civil

Rights movement cannot be overemphasized to the detriment of events that were taking

place in the domestic realm. The national and international dimensions of the episodes

described above may suggest that a convergence of conflicting interests ended up

contributing to a large-scale process of public policies. The gradual transformation of the

U.S. system of racial politics and dynamics could not be refashioned without the astute

perception of civil rights leaders who strategically linked the domestic framework of

racial domination to the issue of national security.

Defining Affirmative Action Policies

According to Skrentny, the term “affirmative action” first emerged in the 1935

National Labor Relations Act where the government required employers to stop

155

discrimination against union members, whereby taking affirmative action to the “victims

of discrimination placing them where they would have been without discrimination.”52

In the 19603 the term is re-introduced in the realm of politics appearing in Executives

Orders 19825 and 11246 that protected individuals against discrimination while retaining

the idea of meritocracy and individual rights. Skrentny, in his search for historic

specificity, considers the terminology “affirmative action” as a policy paradigm or model

.

.

.

.

.

53

desrgned to achieve particular goals according to perceived needs.

Thus,

Affirmative action will be recognized as a mode] or less advocated in

public or official statements or institutionalized in particular practices

or laws, on the basis of the extent to which the following unit ideas are

present: (1) a requirement that employers see in their everyday hiring

and promoting practices group difference and specifically race as real

(rather than unreal or irrelevant), (2) an emphasis on counting

anonymous minorities in the workforce (rather than treating each

individual as an individual, (3) a de-emphasis rather than emphasis on

discriminatory or racist intent and on finding individual victims of

discrinrination, (4) de-emphasis or re-evaluation rather than emphasis

or acceptance of previously accepted standards of merit (usually with a

critique of the traditional concept of merit employment as “white” or

“middle-class”), and (5) an overriding concern with representation,

utilization, or employment of migorities, rather than stopping harmful,

“bigoted” acts of discrimination.

The Employment Opportunity Commission defines affirmative action as "actions

appropriate to overcome the effects of past or present practices, policies, or other barriers

to equal employment opportunity".55 Sociologist Barbara Reskin expands the EEOC

definition, particularly as related to employment as:

...policies and procedures designed to combat on-going job

discrimination in the workplace. Like anti-discrimination laws, the goal

of affirmative action is to make equal opportunity a reality for members

of groups that have commonly been the object of discrimination.

Unlike anti-discrimination laws, which provide remedies to which

 

” John David Skrentny, 1996:6-7.

$3

,

Ibid.

'5: Ibid. 7-8.

Roy L. Brooks, "The New Law of Affirmative Action," Labor Law Journal, October 19892612.

 

See also Christopher Edley, Jr. Not All Back and White: Affirmative Action. Race. and American Values.

New York: Hill and Wang, 1996:16-17

156

workers can appeal after they have suffered discrimination, affirmative

action can prevent discrimination by replacing employment practices

that are discriminatory - either by intent or defaplt — with employment

practices that safeguard against discrimination.

Reskin divides affirmative action programs into four broad categories: “(1)

presidential and gubernatorial executive orders requiring action by government

contractors and subcontractors, (2) regulations requiring affirmative action by public

employers, (3) court orders based on anti-discrimination law, and (4) employers’

voluntary human resources policies”.5

The first, intended for the business community, does not require government or

court intervention. Employers may set up flexible goals through benchmarks or

timetables in their efforts to hire more women and people of color. The second refers to

federal, state and local agencies. The third requires government or court intervention:

employers not abiding by the general guidelines established by the Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may be obliged to set up quotas as an "absolute and

fast command" which guarantees the hiring of women or people of color. In this case,

equality of result is expected.58

Because of the countless definitions being offered by specialists regarding the

meaning of the term “affirmative,” it is almost impossible to discern the variety of

programs housed under the umbrella ‘affirmative action.’ There is not a single program

that defines the entire scope of this at federal level. Each state adjusts affirmative action

policies according to its local constituencies. Over the past forty years each state has

designed its own brand of affirmative action policies. By and large, one of the common

 

56 Barbara F. Reskin. The Realitiasaof Affirmative Action in Employment Washington, DC: American

Sociological Association, 199825.

’ Ibid. 7

”Roy L. Brooks, 1989: 618.

157

features of the social policy between states is the use of outreach and training programs,

after school programs and mentoring, among other characteristics. It is equally important

to emphasize that whether in the guidance policies issued by the Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission or in the text of prominent scholars, affirmative action

programs and policies should not be equated with quotas, which are illegal.

According

59

to Christopher Edley, Jr. misconceptions and abuses have been committed in the name of

affirmative action policies and programs and are exemplified in the following analysis:

*In practice, flexible numerical goals can become rigid numerical

straitjackets, or quotas, if the people implementing the affirmative

action measure are badly trained, indifferent to the law, or poorly

supervised. There is little evidence that this is a widespread problem,

but plenty of anecdotes and assertions claim that it is. Of course, there

is no bright line separating flexible from rigid, this kind of abuse is not

just a problem for law enforcement. Like other issues of legal or social

obligation-antitrust rules, labor relations, consumer protection,

customer service- affirmative action requires good judgment and sound

management.

*In practice, flexible consideration of race can become an inflexible

emphasis if it sacrifices other objectives inappropriately, the classic

complaint being that traditional measures of merit may suffer. This

potential abuse deserves careful analysis and attention;

*It is also an abuse of affirmative action to design a program in a

manner that, in the words of judicial doctrine, “unnecessarily

trammels” the interests of non-beneficiaries; i.e., bystanders. The

important point here is that the very flexibility of affirmative action,

done right, should allow for the interests of all those potentially

affected to be addressed. That doesn’t mean everyone has to be happy.

But, to at least some undefined extent, everyone’s interest matter.

*It’s an abuse when the design of targeted programs invites fiaud. For

example, if the premise of a program is that the beneficiaries be

minority entrepreneurs who are also economically disadvantaged, it is

wrong to operate the program in a way that lets “front” firms

participate or that lets6participants hide financial assets that in fact

make them ineligible.

The Labor Department, Civil Rights Commission and the EEOC thereafter have

monitored the applicability of affirmative action policies. It should be noted that

Executive Order 10925 targeted Federal, state and local agencies, and since 1978 it has

 

’9 Christopher Edley, Jr., 1996:18-19.

‘" Ibid.

158

been monitored by the EEOC. Besides maintaining periodic statistics on the composition

of the labor force by race and gender, these federal institutions have implemented further

guidelines for orienting contractors doing business with the government. Those who have

followed equal opportunity standards have received quicker approval for their

government contracts as compared to those who have not.61 Although affirmative action

policies and programs are located in corporations, universities and other arenas, in the

United States they are largely state-sponsored policies protecting the right to equal

opportunity in education and employment. Occasionally, head-count data must be filed

with the appropriate federal agencies demonstrating success in achieving government

goals. Legal, moral, political and social responsibilities constitute the principles

underlying government affirmative action initiatives. The following table summarizes the

scope of affirmative actions policies in the United States.

 

“Nicolaus Mills, (ed) Debating Affirmative Action: Race. Gender, Ethnicity, and the Politics of Inclusion.

New York: Dell Publishing, 1994: .9

159

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160

The Turning Point: Gradual Shifts

In the Johnson administration, subsequent amendments and Executive Orders

such as 11246 in 1965, and 11375 in 1967, aimed at enforcing affirmative action policies,

sparked a series of controversies that go beyond the scope and purpose of thlS study.

,

62

But, one of the controversies referred to President Johnson’s statement, delivered at

Howard University in June of 1965 during a commencement. On that occasion, President

Johnson declared:

You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains

and liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race and then say,

you are free to compete with all others and still justly believe you have

been completely fair."3

In saying that, the President was conjuring up the disparate-impact theory whose

principles, in addition to proclaim the validity of group rights over individual rights,

aimed at guaranteeing equality of results. By the end of the Johnson administration, the

Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCCP) stipulated that firms doing business

with the government above $50,000 were required to present affirmative action hiring

plans, which resulted in more blacks added to the workforce. The Labor Department

would then “green light” those contractors who were abiding by these new regulations

and “red light” those contractors who were not. Both executive orders primarily targeted

the business community. Twelve years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the disparate-

impact or color-conscious theory became the predominant theoretical framework and

spearheaded subsequent anti-discriminatory legislation and policies.

During the Nixon administration, on June 2, 1970, the OFCCP included sex

discrimination guidelines, even though goals and timetables were not required as in the

 

“Ibid.

"Ibid. p.7.

161

case of other ‘minority’ groups. The leadership of women’s organizations, such as the

National Organization for Women (NOW), and the Women’s Equity Action League

(WEAL), protested for not being taking seriously as blacks, since their appeals fell upon

deaf ears.64

Nevertheless, it was during the Nixon administration that affirmative action

policies and programs became inextricably linked to disparate-impact theory, moving

away from the disparate-treatment ideal as conjured up by the Civil Rights Laws of 1964.

Hugh Graham poses the big question on how a re-elected Republican president staunchly

opposed to racial quotas and racial busing could have allowed the implementation of

social policies based on the principle of disparate-impact theory. 65 Graham suggests that

the bureaucratic, theoretical, and judicial domains could be held responsible for the turn

of such events.

In the bureaucratic domain, the traditional style of public administration of

“clientele capture” relied on enforcement and compliance to the law through regulated

individual industries, whereby “capturing effective control of the commission or board

designed to regulate economic behavior in the public interest”.66 The new regulatory

system implied the control of commission or boards by representatives of the “organized

minority constituencies”. In addition to the civil rights enforcement agencies that were set

in place in the late 19505 and early 19603, such as the Civil Rights Division in the Justice

Department, and the EEOC respectively, twenty-seven new regulatory enforcement

agencies were created in order to comply with the 1965 executive order signed by

 

“ John David Skrentny, 2002135442

65 Hugh Davis Graham. “Race, History, and Policy: African Americans and Civil Rights Since 1964”

Journal of Policy History, Vol. 6, N01, 1994: 19-22.

“ Ibid. 19

162

President Lyndon Johnson. In addition, Nixon created two enforcement agencies as the

Office of Minority Business Enterprise (OMBE) in the Department of Commerce, and

the Voting Rights Commission in the Justice Department. These newly created agencies

covered not only particular industry but also the entire economic sector.

.

.

67

In the theoretical domain, universities, namely law schools, foundations (Ford and

Rockefeller), think tanks, private-law firms, and single interest lobbying groups provided

the intellectual rationale. This critical mass reinforced the idea of compensatory justice

for past discrimination embedded in the principles of disparate-impact theory supported

by statistical analysis as a measure to prove “proportionally unequal results.” Such an

approach was largely used to assess job promotions, awards, and access to selected

higher education schools. This theoretical framework privileged group rights, which

diametrically opposed the liberal tradition of protection of individual rights. The model

afier which these new enforcement agencies mirror their actions followed the

.

Philadelphia model of contract-compliance, whereby inclusion of minority groups into

the labor force should be proportional to their number in the overall local population.

68

In the judicial domain, compliance to the federal courts constituted the main

principle around which local states should make an extra effort to undo generations of

past discrimination, in particular in the school system. Consequently, as Graham notes:

To redress the damage inflicted on an entire race down through the

generations, the Supreme Court approved increasingly detailed school

policies that stipulated the

racial assignment of pupils,

teachers, administrative staff, and the color-conscious

construction of school budgets — judicial interventions that

were 639imilar to the minority hiring requirement of the Philadelphia

Plan.

 

6" Ibid. 19-23

” Ibid. 21.

” Ibid. p. 21.

163

Several unsuccessful lawsuits were filed against these new enforcement policies

against a background of political alliances between the White House and civil rights

liberals versus organized labor and southern Democrats. By the early 19703 the

Philadelphia style of contract-compliance had become the paramount of all federal

enforcement agencies. Curiously, Graham notes that Nixon’s strategy in supporting race-

based specific legislation aimed primarily at: a) punishing organized labor through its

AFL-CIO members who defeated a Nixon’s southern Supreme Court nominee, Clement

F. Haynsworth; b) to further the division between the New Deal coalition of the 19603,

most notably Blacks and organized labor; c) to attract the black middle class in order to

“cement” their loyalty to capitalism while at the same time increasing Republican

support, therefore undermining even further the New Deal coalition. The long-term direct

beneficiaries of this risky strategy would be southern whites and urban ethnics who

would eventually strength the Republican control of the political process.70

The Johnson and Nixon administrations perfected the meaning, scope and content

of affirmative action policies and programs in order to accommodate diverse interest

groups such as women (mainly the white advocacy organizations), Mexican and Puerto

Rican political lobbies,71 and later the concerns of a growing population from Central and

South America lumped together as Hispanics. What once was considered to be a ‘sofi’

social policy became a “hard” policy strictly monitored by the central government

through the requirement of goals and timetables.

 

:" Ibid. 22-24.

I

John David Skrentny, 2002: 120-122; 124-128.

164

Thus, within the scope of affirmative action policies and programs, in 1977 the

Congress passed the Public Works Employment Acts instituting set-aside programs

granting billions of dollars for minority business enterprises, mainly African Americans

and Hispanics. Other groups were later incorporated into these programs, such as Asians,

American Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts, thereby increasing the political power of these

communities. The most evident result of this policy was the conquest of several mayoral

elections in several cities across the United States, despite mounting opposition to

affirmative action policies and programs, and the widening gap between the richest and

the poorest segments dictated by the restructuring of the U.S. economy.

72

The Gains from Affirmative Action Programs and Policies in the United States

In spite of being controversial affirmative action programs and policies have

thrived for 40 years in the United States. Their purpose has been to reduce discrimination

against specific groups of people who were previously excluded from jobs and

educational opportunities. African Americans, women, Native Americans, and the

Spanish speaking populations lumped together as Hispanics, are the target groups for

these programs and policies. Although quantitative and qualitative analyses have

indicated that groups have benefited from these programs and policies, researchers are

cautious about giving these compensatory programs too much credit. In times of

economic expansion these groups are more likely to receive some benefit from these

policies as opposed to times of economic recession.

 

7’ Ibid. 28-31

165

It is important to consider that affirmative action programs and policies are widely

implemented in federal, state and local governments, and in companies doing business

with governments, which according to a 1995 study, were estimated to be only three

percent of private companies. Even though there are an increasing number of companies

that have voluntarily taken affirmative steps to prevent discrimination in the workplace,

the majority of firms have not developed or implemented any affirmative action

,

,

73

polrcres.

Discrimination is still part of everyday formal and informal social practices. The

way social networks benefit certain groups of people in hiring, promotion, and even word

of mouth opportunities for career advancements constitute some of the examples of

structural discrimination. While these practices are race and gender neutral, they

reinforce discriminatory practices in light of the outcomes they produce.74

Substantial wage gaps between social groupings continue to indicate that some

enforced measures ought to be in place to correct these distortions. In 1995, for instance,

compared to white men’s salaries, African American men and white women, earned on

average 73 percent; African American women earned on average 63 percent; Hispanic

men earned 62 percent, and Hispanic women earned on average 54 percent. As Reskin

and other scholars have documented, the wage gap between Afiican Americans and

Whites has increased, particularly among college graduates.

In 1979 African American college graduates earned on average 94 percent of a

white man’s salary. Ten years later that percentage had decreased to 86 percent, and by

 

7" Barbara Reskin, 1998: 5-10

‘ Ibid. pp. 35-37.

166

1990 had decreased again to 79 percent for the same occupation.75 It should be

recognized that the “glass ceiling” continues to prevent white women and other

“racialized” groups from moving up the corporate ladder. In 1995 Reskin noticed that in

Fortune 1000 companies women, held 46 percent of the jobs whereas non-white women

accounted for 21 percent. However, white men occupied 97 percent of senior

management positions, and Hispanics, Asians and African American were very far from

.

.

.

.

7s

becomlng the top executives of major corporations.

Recent studies on educational achievement, median family income, employment

and unemployment rates and wealth index continue to point to significant gaps between

White and non-white social groupings in the United States. For instance, non-Hispanic

Blacks and Hispanic males and females lag behind all indicators of educational

achievements in comparison with white non-Hispanic groups, as shown in the following

tables:

Table 7 - Educational Attainment of the U.S. Population 25 Years of

 

Age and Older, by Race/Ethnicity and Sex, 2000 (Percentage)

Race/Ethnicity

Sex

 

Highest Education

White

Asian

Black Non-

Hispanic

Male

Female

Level Reached

Non—

Hispanic

Hispanic

 

No High School

Diploma

11.5

14.4

21.1

43.0

15.8

16.0

 

__H_igh School Diploma

34.1

22.1

35.3

27.9

31.9

34.3

 

Some College

26.3

19.6

27.0

18.4

24.5

26.1

 

 

 

Total

Bachelor’s degree

18.6

28.7

11.5

Advanced de ree

9.5

15.2

5.1

 

 

 

7.3

3.3

 

 

17.8

10.0

16.3

7.3

 

 

 

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

 

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (2002); U.S. Census Bureau (2001a).) and cited

in Fred L. Pincus. Reverse Discrimination: Dismantling the Myth. Boulder & London:

Lynne Rienner - Publishers, 2003:10.

 

7’ Ibid. pp. 4043.

7‘ Ibid. 41

167

Table 7 demonstrates that Black Non-Hispanic, Hispanics and females presented

the highest percentage among those who had not completed high school. In the 2000

census, among those who had a high school diploma, Black Non—Hispanics and females

were slightly well off in comparison to White, Asian and Hispanic groups. Among those

who had some college, Whites and Blacks, males and females, were well represented in

comparison to Hispanics. As the level of education increased Asians represented the most

well educated group in the population compared to Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, since

they were most likely to have obtained a bachelor as well as advanced degrees.

Table 8 — Percentage of 25- to 29 Year-Olds Who Had Completed 4 Years

        
  

and Sex

of

in 1978 and 2

Race/E

White

Black

H'

'

White/Black a

White/H'

'

a

Sex

Male

Female

Male/F

1978

24.5

1 1.8

9.6

2.1

2.6

26.0

20.6

1.3

2000

29.6

17.5

9.7

1.7

3.1

27.9

30.1

0.9

Source: Harvey (2002).

Notes (a). The white graduation rate is divided by that of the black or Hispanic

population. A ratio greater Than 1.0 indicates a white advantage, while a ratio of less than

1.0 indicates a black or Hispanic advantage. (b). the male graduation rate is divided by

that of the female population. A ratio of greater than 1.0 Indicates male advantage, while

a ratio of less than 1.0 indicates a female advantage.

E.g., 29.6% of whites graduate from college in 2000.

Cited in Fred L. Pincus. Reverse Discrimination: Dismantling the Mflh. Boulder

& London: Lynne

Rienner Publishers, 2003:] 1.

Table 8 shows that since 1978, Blacks and Women were among those who

advanced the most in educational attainment. While Whites had an overall increase of 5.1

percent in educational progress, Blacks and Women had an overall success rate in

168

educational achievement of 5.7 percent and 9.5 percent respectively in comparison to

Hispanics.

However, in terms of employment and unemployment rates, as well as median

family income, Blacks and Hispanics, regardless of the level of educational attainment,

show these two groups were most likely to accrue less rewards in terms of income and

wealth accumulation in comparison to Whites and other population groups. One can

argue that some level of discrimination may take place in terms ofjob allocation and

occupation as the following table shows:

Table 9 — Unemployment Rates in 2001 for Persons 25 Years of Age and

 

Education Level

Race

&

Ethnicity

Sex

Older,

by Education, Race/Ethnicity, and Sex.

 

White

Black

Hispanic B/Wa

H/Wb

Male

Female

F/Mc

 

Did not complete High

6.5

11.9

7.5

1.83

1.15

6.5

8.5

1.31

School

 

_I‘l_igh School Graduate

3.6

7.5

4.4

2.08

1.22

4.3

4.0

0.93

 

Some College

3.0

1.67

1.27

1.00

College Graduate

 

  
 

 

All Education levels

2.1

3.3

1.90

 

 

 

1.29

1.05

1.71

1.61

1.03

 

 

 

3.3

2.2

3.6

3.3

2.3

3.7

5.0

2.7

6.3

 

3.8

3.6

5.3

 

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov/cg.
 

Notes: a. The black rate (b) is divided by the white rate (W).

b. The Hispanic rate (H) is divided by the white rate (W).

c. The female rate (f) is divided by the male rate (M).

E. g., for all education levels, the Hispanic unemployment rate is 1.61 times higher than

the white rate.

Cited in Fred L. Pincus. Reverse Discrimignartion: Dismantling the Myth. Boulder &

London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003:12.

Table 9 shows that Blacks without a high school diploma or those who had some

college were more likely than Whites and Hispanics to be unemployed. Those graduated

from college still had slightly higher rates of unemployment in comparison to Whites.

169

However, Hispanics in this category had higher rates of unemployment than both Whites

and Blacks. When rates of educational levels were calculated Blacks and Hispanics still

presented higher levels of unemployment that their White counterparts. For those

employed Blacks and Hispanics continued to be underrepresented in most categories,

with the exception of a few categories, including areas of service areas and semi-skilled

and unskilled occupations as presented in the next table.

Table 10 — Employed Persons in 2000, 16 Years of Age and Older, by

 

Occupation, Sex, and Race/Ethnicity (percentage)

 

Occupation

Women

Black

Hispanic

 

Percentage

Total

Population

of

5.4

4.6

3.7

3.9

5.2

2.8

6.9

8.5

9.7

15.7

10.1

5.0

31.7

23.4

13.9

17.5

11.9

20.7

23.0

10.7

 

 

Executives, administrators,

managers

Professionals

Physicians

Lawyers

Teachers (non college)

Nurses

Technicians

Sales

Administrative support

Service

Police

Firefighters

Private household

Cleaning, building services

Precision production, craft, repair

Operators, fabricators, laborers

Transportation, material moving

Handlers, equipment cleaners

Farming, forestry, fishing

Total labor force

 

 

45.3

53.9

27.9

29.6

75.4

92.8

51 .7

49.6

79.0

60.4

12.1

3.0

95.5

45.0

9.1

23.6

10.0

19.8

20.6

46.5

7.6

8.7

6.3

5.4

10.4

9.5

1 1.2

8.8

13.7

18.1

13.0

9.0

14.9

22.2

8.0

15.4

16.5

15.3

4.9

11.3

 

 

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, www.bls.gov/Qs.

Note: E.g., women account for 46.5 percent of the labor force but only 27 .9

percent of physicians. Cited in Fred L. Pincus. Reverse Discrimination:

Dismantlingm Myth. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers,

2003:13.

170

Table 10 demonstrates that when considering the total population, women have an

unequal representation in the labor force in certain categories, while being over

represented in others. For instance, women physicians and lawyers were

underrepresented, while in the areas of teaching, non-college level, nursing and

administrative support they were over represented in comparison to Blacks and

Hispanics. Blacks, on the one hand, who represent 11.3 percent of the labor force, were

considerably underrepresented as executive administrators and professionals, such as

physicians and lawyers. Yet they were more likely to be represented under the categories

of administrative support, service industries, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations.

Hispanics, on the other hand, though comprising 10.7 percent of the work force, were

over represented in the semi-skilled and unskilled occupations. The next table

contextualizes the income gaps between all groups, and similarly as the previous tables

showed Backs and Hispanics are notably disadvantaged in comparison with the White

majority.

Table 11 - Median Family Income in 2001, by Race/Ethnicity and Type of Family

 

Race/Ethnicity

Marrie

Couple

d

s

 

All

All

Wife in

Wife

Male

Female

Familie

Couple

Labor

Not in

Head

s

3

Force

Labor

Force

 

White, non-Hispanic (WNH)

$57,328

$63,862

$74,071

$43,423

$39,979

$30,062

 

Black

$33,598

$51,514

$60,693

$29,309

$31,512

$20,894

 

Hispanic

$34,490

$40,614

$50,437

$28,682

$31,635

$20,547

All races

 

 

  
  
 

$36,590

$25,745

Hispanic/WNHb

Black/WNHa

$51,407

$60,335

$70,834

$40,782

79.1%

68.3%

78.8%

69.5%

60.1%

63.6%

68.1%

66.1%

 

58.6%

80.1%

81.9%

67.5%

 

 

 

 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2001),

http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/incomeOl/inctab4.htm1

Notes: a. The black income is divided by the white (non-Hispanic) income.

b. The Hispanic income is divided by the white (non-Hispanic) income.

Cited in Fred L. Pincus. Reverse Discrimination: DismLantlinLthe Myth.

Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003:14.

171

Table 12 confirms the extent to which Blacks, Hispanics and women lag far

behind White non-Hispanic families. As Pincus notes, while family income may partially

explain income differentials among social groupings, other explanations may contribute

to clarify the nature of such disparities; for example full-time and part time working

arrangements. Though table 12 did not include part and full time income earnings the

same study confirms the trend in income gaps for Blacks and Hispanics in comparison

_

,

77

wrth Whites.

Table 12 - Race/Ethnicity Distribution of All Firms and Average Receipts of All

Firms 1997

 

Race/Ethnicity of

Percentage of

Percentage of All

Average Receipts (S)

Business Owner

Population

Firms

 

White

Black

Hispanic

70.7

12.3

12.5

84.9

4.0

5.8

92,706

2,055

5,276

Asian

 
 
  

Native American

28,842

3.6

0.9

13,871

 

4.4

0.9

 

Source: Office of Advocacy (2001a).

Cited in Fred L. Pincus. Reverse Discrimination: Dismantlingthe Mm.

Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003217.

Table 12 presents a staggering income differential for all firms according to the

Small Business Administration (SBA). Once again, Blacks are more likely to accrue less

income for their business in comparison to all other groups. All the tables presented in

this section seem to indicate that inequalities based on race/ethnicity is a marked

phenomenon disadvantaging some groups while privileging others. After forty years of

mandatory equal opportunity policies discrepancies continue to occur, indicating that the

 

" Fred L. Pincus. Reverse Discrimination: Dismantling the Mm. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner

Publishers, 2003:15.

172

official and non-official utterances demanding the end of those policies may be

premature. Thus, the debates continue as illustrated in the next section illustrates.

Mend it, not End it? The Debates Continue

When President Clinton assumed the presidency in 1992 he took a particular

stance on affirmative action, expressing the need for change in the scope of the policies

but not ending them. In the United States during the 19808 conservative groups criticized

affirmative action programs as "reverse discrimination programs." In 1997 opponents to

affirmative action programs succeeded in banning these policies in California with the

passing of Proposition 209, which prevents state and local governments, but not the

private sector, from hiring candidates solely on the basis of race, color, and ethnicity or

gender preferences.78 A year later the University of Texas took similar steps after the

Supreme Court ruling on the Hopwood case, which prohibited race as a criteria for

university admissions. The University of Texas instituted a system whereby the top 10

percent of students from public high schools are automatically selected to enter a public

university. The measure drew criticism on both sides of the political spectrum. Educators

have contended the measure will inevitably prevent the number of potential non-white

students from entermg selective colleges and unrvers1t1es.

.

.

.

.

.

79

 

mCalifornia Against Discrimination and Preferences doc. Nos. 97-15030,97-15031, United States Court of

Appeals For the Ninth Circuit, 1997, U.S. App. Lexis 651223-17.

79William G. Bowen and Derek Bok. The Shape of the River: Long-Term Con_sequences of Considering

Race in College and University Admissions. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998:287-

288.

173

As noted by Christopher Edley Jr., 47 out of 50 states still believe that diversity

“may in some circumstances provide an appropriate legal justification for race conscious

affirmatrve actron.”

However, the Supreme Court rulings 1n Texas and Calrfornra may

.

.

80

.

.

.

.

indicate a move towards eliminating race-based affirmative action policies.

Sowell, one of the fiercest critics of affirmative action policies, has contended that

it is not possible to legislate against cultural inheritance - meaning values, social

groupings, and tradition and class dynamics. 81 He qualifies some of his arguments

stressing: a) Afiican Americans made significant socio-economic gains between 1940

and 1960, and not after 1971 , when timetables and goals were set to measure the extent of

race and gender inclusion; b) in addition to these measures being untenable, since they

incorporate 70 percent of the working population, Sowell contends that discrimination

should be interpreted as derived from economic causation, rather that political

circumstances. This line of reasoning favors analysis that looks into variances within

groups, rather than averages between and among groups;

c) affirmat1ve action, like

82

.

.

.

quotas, has creamed off those at the top of the social scale, while leaving behind those at

the bottom, the ‘truly disadvantaged’;83 d) though racism and discrimination may have

impacted certain groups, race-based social policies have increased racial tension, such as

the controversy over busing and meritocracy. In a nutshell, Sowell summarizes his

standpoint by noting the Civil Rights vision has been comprised to the detriment of

politics, according to Sowell:

 

m Christopher Edley Jr, Beyond Rac_is_m: In Their Own Voices. Atlanta, Georgia: The Southern Education

Foundation 2000:48.

:; Thomas Sowell. Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Realm/7 New York: Quill William Morrow, 1984:40-53.

Ibid., 53-60.

" Ibid., pp. 48-51, 134-137.

174

the mindset and agenda of the past are no longer working. Like the

blind men who each felt only one part of the elephant, many minority

leaders mistake that for the whole elephant. Those who point out that

other parts are quite different, and that the whole elephant is quite

different, are seen as contradicting a tangible reality which has been

seized upon and held fast for years. For many, “discrimination” and

“racism” are not partial truths but whole truths not just things to oppose

but explanations to cling to, like a security blanket. Evidence that

undermines the status of these old enemies also undermines the

comforting vision that has grown up around them.84

Sowell’s cultural inheritance vision, which seems to lean toward cultural

determinism, provides a static perspective on social reality and evades almost completely

the multi-layered processes that comprise social existence, including social practices

grounded on racism and sexism. Although some of the statistical analysis he presents

indicates the complexities of American society, he adamantly downplays the significance

of politics in promoting social change. More importantly, in extending his vision to other

social and political contexts, he lends an ethnocentric perception to how the world should

function. It should be noted that Sowell’s criticisms find resonance among conservative

scholars, such as Shelby Steelegs, Walter Williams“, Nicolas Capaldi87, and Dinesh

88

D’Souza.

Arguments such as these have profoundly impacted the debate on affirmative

action in the United States. They have influenced the extent to which Supreme Court

rulings have judged the merit of those policies. In 2003 and 2004 the Supreme Court

rulings on the University of Michigan, outlawing race as one of possible criteria for

 

84

Tomas Sowell, p. 139-140.

85 Shelby Steele. “A Negative Vote on Affirmative Action”, in Debating AffirmaLtive Action: LaceLGender.

finicky. and the Politics of Inclu_si_og, edited by Nicolaus Mills. New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks,

1994:37-47.

: Walter Williams. The State Against Blacks. New York: New Press-McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1982.

Nicolas Capaldi. “Affirmative Action ” in Affirmative Action: M

Ju_stice or Unfair Preference?, by Albert G. Mosley and Nicholas Capaldi. London,_New York: Rowman &

Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 1996:65-109.

88 Dinesh D’Souza. “Sins of Admission”in Debating Affirmative Action: Race. Gender. Ethnicity. and the

Politics of Inclusion. edited by Nicolaus Mills. New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks, 1994:230-236.

175

enrollment at institutions of higher education, may weaken other affirmative actions in

the U.S. It may also contribute to the misperceptions associated with these policies in

other countries that have little experiences with anti-discriminatory policies and

programs.

Reskin and associates raised important points related to the misconceptions of

affirmative action programs in the U.S. by the media and interest groups. The

misconceptions about affirmative actions include: First, race and sex discrimination no

longer exists; second, affirmative action goals and timetables required by the federal

government, however weakly enforced or monitored, can be equated with quotas or racial

preferences; third, the principles of affirmative action violate meritocracy. Although

politically motivated groups have spread these misperceptions in the media, the majority

of academic studies do not support them.89 One way to understand such a manipulation of

affirmative action policies by the powers that be is to observe the extent to which the

business communities have embraced these policies voluntarily. Reskin and associates

contend that when properly implemented these policies prevent cronyism and increase

efficiency by demanding that companies design more objective criteria for hiring,

promotion and retention of qualified people. This would enhance the pool of talent as

well as serve as a survival mechanism for companies competing for comparative

advantages on a global scale.

9o

The case for affirmative action policies and programs will continue well into the

21S" century. As long as disparities of any sort continue to disadvantage some groups in

relation to others, compensatory policies may be here to stay. Within this context,

 

“9 Reskin, pp. 92-93.

"’ Ibid.

176

President Clinton in 1992 asked his Task Force on Affirmative Action to “Mend it! Not

End it!” Thirteen years later the challenge continues.

New Factors for the 21” Century

In the history of the United States, affirmative action policies and programs

constitute one of the most contested institutional arrangements to date. Students of

American institutions have long debated the extent to which the changing patterns of

racial categorizations have profoundly impacted policy-making and politics, or how

specific social policies and attendant institutions, abiding by local and state political

.
mterests, have effectrvely included or excluded rac1alrzed socral groups.

.

.

.

.

.

91

While for African American, social and political rights were fought over for

decades with varying degrees of success and failure, according to Hugh Graham, Asians,

Southern and Eastern Europeans, and later Latin American immigrants conquered social

and political rights not so much because of their political organization and militancy but

because of perceived changing demographics, and related voting power, as well as

.

.

.

.

92

.

.

.

.

.

geopolrt1cal Circumstances of the time.

Affirmative actron polrc1es implemented after

the Civil Right Act of 1964 represent a combination of all these factors, in addition to

exemplifying the convergence of domestic and international interests.

 

9‘ Robert C. Lieberman. “Race and the Organization of Welfare Policy” in Classiflg'ng by Race, edited by

Paul E. Peterson. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995:156-187. See also George R. La

Noue and John C. Sullivan “Deconstructing Affirmative Action Categories” in Color Lines: Affirm_at_i\fi

Action Immigration, and Civil Rights thions for America, edited by John David Skrentny. Chicago and

London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001: 71—86; Richard M. Valelly “National Parties and Racial

Disenfranchisement” in Classifying by Rag, edited by Paul E. Peterson. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton

 

University Press, 1995: 188-216.

92 Hugh Davis Graham “Affirmative Action for Immigrants? The Unintended Consequences of Reform” in

Color Lines: Affirmative Action, Immigration, and Civil Rights thions for America. Chicago and

 

London: The University of Chicago Press, 2000:53-70.

 

177

The complexities involved in the historical implementation of affirmative action

policies and programs in the United States are far from being sketched out by social

scientists, even though a revisionist tendency in on the rise. For the countless debates

surrounding these public policies one would expect that afier 40 years of policy

implementation, policy makers, politicians, the academic community, and the public at

large would have reached a minimum of consensus as to the meaning, scope and latitude

of these policies. Nothing could be further from the truth, as recent scholarship on the

subject has indicated. For instance, in a focus group conducted by Swain, Greene and

Wotipka, affirmative action acquired different meaning to different ethnic and racial

groups.93 Except for the shared perception that affirmative action means quotas each

group espoused different interpretations. Although African Americans perceived that the

policies somewhat addressed the harmful effects of discrimination they, nevertheless,

also believed that such polices implied institutional discrimination against them. This

implies that only a small number of African Americans can benefit from the programs

sponsored by the policies. 'Ihough restrictive, it was considered better than having

,

94

nothing.

Asian Americans disregarded the extent to which these policies were

advantageous to them, even though they indicated they suffered low levels of

discrimination. Contrary to previous studies based on surveys, which indicated that Asian

American shared the same rejection for these policies as Euro-Americans, Asian

Americans in this focus group view affirmative action favorably for certain groups, most

 

93 Carol M. Swain, Kyra R. Greene, and Christine Min Wotipka “Understanding Racial Polarization on

Affirmative Action: The View from Focus Group” in Color Lines: Affirmative Action, Immigration, and

Civil Rights Options for America, edited by John David Skrentny. Chicago and London: The University of

Chicago Press, 2001 :214-237

" Ibid. 221.

178

notably Afiican-Americans. Interestingly, they confirm patterns of discrimination

between As1an Amencan 1n relation to other groups.

.

.

.

.

95

Euro Americans showed fewer dispositions to favor affirmative action. For some

of the participants in the focus group these policies represented reverse discrimination,

repeating the same mantra engendered by the conservative forces over the past two

decades. Moreover, Euro Americans believed that discrimination as practiced in the past

was part of history, in total opposition to the perception of discrimination by Afi'ican

Americans.

Surprisingly, Latinos disapproved of these policies contending they d1d

96

.

more harm than benefit to them. According to them, their ability to achieve success on

their own merit was downplayed for being beneficiaries of these policies. As the

researchers noted:

They believed that the lowered standards for minorities endorsed by

affirmative action programs9r7esulted in the labeling of nonwhites as

less competent than whites.

Such perceptions are coherent with the wide spectrum of disagreements about

these policies. However, there are other elements equally disruptive to the affirmative

action debates. Hugh Graham brings up the delicate issue of immigration and affirmative

action policies.98 According to him, one of the unintended consequences of the reform of

the Civil Right laws is the inclusion of groups that never experienced racism or racial

discrimination in the U.S. Orlando Patterson and other scholars have pointed out the

incongruity of racial categorization in the U.S. where immigrant groups, who in their

country of origins are the oppressors, in the U.S. become the beneficiaries of policies not

 

” Ibid. 230-231.

9’ Ibid. 221-223.

’7 Ibid.

98 Hugh Davis Graham , op. cited

179

intended for them. For example, the broad category label of Hispanic incorporates both

black and white people from Spanish speaking countries. The unreflective way with

which these categories have been applied has prompted students and policy makers to

conclude that the declining numbers of the white population provokes unnecessary white

anxiety.99 The controversy is far from being solved, and it constitutes one potent

ingredient to reform or debunk these policies.

In summary, institutional and everyday racism has constituted the hallmark in the

history of U.S. social policies, characterized by significant variations in the processes of

inclusion and exclusion of African-Americans depending on their position in

socioeconomic activity. In southern states social policies regarding retirement or old age

relied on the discretion of landowners who, for the most part, excluded them from

benefits, which could threaten their economic interests. Consequently, agricultural

workers, sharecroppers, or domestic servants were not entitled to welfare policies until

the middle of the 19403. An exception to this rule referred to the honorable position of

the “soldiers of the nation,” as war veterans, whose pensions guaranteed the survival of

widows and their children for the rest of their lives. However, African American mother

workers and their dependent children were often excluded from social provisions by local

states and federal government policies, due mostly to a regime of racial segregation.

The inception of affirmative action policies in the 19603 and 19708 aimed to

curtail the long-term effects of racial discrimination that prevented generations of

African-Americans from obtaining jobs, housing, public services, qualified education,

etc. As a result of the Civil Rights movement these policies were controversial from the

 

99 Orlando Patterson, “Race by Numbers.” The New York Times, May 8, 2001. 

180

start. However, the race for world leadership between the United States and the Soviet

bloc provided civil rights activists, White House and State Department officials, federal

agencies administrators, and sectors of the business community with convincing

arguments that linked civil rights to national security issues. As increasing racial hostility

and urban conflicts made headlines in several newspapers around the world and

compromised the moral leadership of the U.S. as champions of democracy and human

rights, affirmative action policies became the pragmatic administrative tool with which

the state counterbalanced its crisis of management. The policies that represented the

appropriate state response during a delicate period in world history proved to be a

successful formula, gradually incorporating other segments of the U.S. population that

had historically suffered the effects of gender, ethnic and sex discrimination. Changing

demographic patterns occasioned by a large infusion of immigrant populations from Asia,

Eastern and Southern Europe, Central and South American, significantly impacted these

policies, since for decades people from these regions have equally benefited from

affirmative action policies without having been subjected to past discriminatory practices

in this country. And yet, different groups perceive the effect of these policies differently,

where groups categorized as minorities do not perceive them as such which substantially

erodes the possibilities of a cross-ethnic alliances in favor of affirmative action. The

increasing controversies have caused social scientists to call for a deconstruction of

ongoing minority categories as a condition to preserve the original intent of these policies

in addressing racism and discrimination of historically identified groups in the U.S.

Retrenchment of affirmative action policies in states where these policies have been

proscribed, i.e. California, may propel other states to follow suit.

18]

The next section briefly introduces the scope and content of affirmative action policies

and programs in other countries.

The lntemational Context of Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Policies

In other countries, equal employment, equal opportunity policies, and workforce

diversity, represent variations of the concept known as affirmative action, though they

exhibit subtle differences in their approach to discrimination. The Equal Employment

policy defined by the Canadian government intends to be a comprehensive policy aimed

at providing, beyond increased numerical representation, a “supportive organizational

culture for the retention, promotion, and tralmng of the desrgnated groups.

Workforce

.

.

.

”100

Diversity, as mentioned in Chapter 4, represents a proactive and corporate voluntary

response to work-related discrimination along race, color, religious or sexual lines.

Workforce Diversity should be interpreted as an “extension, not substitution, of proactive

.

.

.

101

policies to ensure fa1r treatment of all employees.”

Equal opportunity policies represent different strategies designed for restraining

discrimination in various domains of human existence, of which equal employment

constitutes one aspect. Symbolic spheres such as race, gender, age, physical disabilities,

religious and political affiliations, represent powerful realms where discriminatory

practices have had negative material consequences for particular social groups. Equal

opportunity policies seek to address these issues. The conceptual scope of equal

opportunity policies is broad and encompasses minimalist to far-reaching definitions of

 

'00 Harish C. Jain, Peter J. Sloane, and Frank M. Horwitz. Employment Equity and Affirm_ative Action: An

lntemational Comparison. London, New York: ME. Sharpe, 2003:2.

"’ Ibid.,

182

equal opportunity, as well as the concepts of positive action, choice and freedom.102

Equal opportunity policies are mostly identified with the social and political context of

the European Union. The legislative bodies and mandates that regulate the

implementation of anti-discrimination laws have emphasized gender to the detriment of

race, age, and physical disabilities. With respect to the latter aspects, Great Britain has

provided a more advanced framework in dealing with race discrimination and serves as a

reference to the European Union.103 In conclusion, affirmative action, equal opportunity

and equal employment are government sponsored and monitored policies, as opposed to

Workforce Diversity, which are corporate voluntary policies.

Following the United States example other countries have instituted state-

sponsored affirmative action programs: Canada, Australia, Northern Ireland, South

Afiica, Nigeria, Sudan, Malaysia, Fuji and Namibia. In the last four countries listed,

.

.

.

.

104

affirmat1ve actron statements and programs have been governed by state constrtutrons.

The European Union Dilemma: Gender and Equal Opportunity Policies

Women benefit from labour market integration. However, they lose

from the neoliberal focus on ‘pure’ individualizatign.

Brigitte Young

l

 

102

Ken Blakemore and Robert F. Drake. Understanding Equal Opportunity Policies. London, New York:

Prentice Hall, Harvester Wheatsheafi, 1996: 44-75.

1113

.

Ibrd., 41.

104

.

.

.

.

-

W]. F aundez, Affirmauve Act1on: International Perspectives. Geneva: lntemat1onal Labour Office, 1994.

' Brigitte Young. “Disciplinary Neoliberalism in the European Union and Gender Politics.” New Political

Economy Vol. 5, Issue 1, 2000: 92.

183

 

Stephen Gill, in an important article,106 hinted at the limits and possibilities of the

implementation of the social agenda of the European Union in light of budgetary

constraints faced by sub-national governments. He suggests tracing the historical

developments, which preceded the adoption of equal opportunity policies by the

European Union in the 19808 and 19908. Feminist scholars have emphasized that the

Treaty of Rome, when elaborated in the 19508, did not include any clause regarding

women’s r1 ghts, namely equal pay, sexual harassments or drscrimrnatron.

.

.

.

.

107

During the Keynesian Welfare State period women’s work was perceived as

appendages to the husband’s work, the so-called breadwinner model. In the following

decades changes in the productive system altered the breadwinner model substantially,

due primarily to a high number of women entering the work force, and the incorporation

of feminist politics in the labor markets. Subsequent treaties, particularly the Maastricht

Treaty adopted the claims of the women’s movement but in a new economic and political

configuration, in which the welfare state system no longer anchored the social fabric and

mediated the capital and labor relationships.

Without the social safety net of the previous era, the adoption of the neo-liberal

agenda has privatized health-care systems and made the work force more flexible through

the large-scale introduction of part-time labor schemes. What appeared to be an era of

equal opportunity supported by the European Union legislation, in reality became a

 

m6 Stephen Gill. “European Governance and New Constitutionalism: Economic and Monetary Union and

Alternatives to Disciplinary Neoliberalism in Europe.” New Political Economy. Vol. 3, 1, 1998: 1-19.See

also Paulo Williams and Ian Taylor “Neoliberalism and the Political Economy of the ‘New’ South Afiica”.

New Political Economy, Vol. 5, Issue 1, 2000:21-40.

W Brigitte Young, p. 83. See also Rachel A. Chichowski. “No Discrimination Whatsoeverz” Women’s

Transnational Activism and the Evolution of EU Sex Equality Policy” in Women’s Activism and

Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. Edited by Nancy A. Naples & Manisha

Desai. New York and London: Routledge, 2002:220-238.

184

“catch 22”, according to Young. For example, for a considerable number of women

single heads of household, the only available opportunities have consisted of part-time

jobs offered primarily by the service sector, which do not offer fill] social security

coverage.

Additionally, the European Union equal opportunity legislation posed another set

of problems. Scandinavian countries have always had a highly developed welfare system

in contrast to countries nearer the Mediterranean. With the overall goals of the EU to

equalize social policies for all members’ states, those with high levels of state provisions

had to curtail their interferences in areas of health, education and care systems. States

with non-comparable social provisions had to upgrade their systems in order to continue

 

as members to the EU. The latter somewhat benefited from the process of neo-

liberalization of their economies. But, for those states that had to downgrade their

systems, it proved disastrous.

Another important issue is the very understanding of equal opportunity policies

by sub-national governments of the European Union. According to Young, not all the

members’ states understand the meaning and extension of these policies or demonstrate

the political will to adopt the directives of the EU on the subject.108 There are no

regulatory or monitoring agencies in charge of overseeing the compliance of member

states to the European Union policies. It is up to women’s movements and a transnational

coalition of feminists to supervise, politically mobilize, and force their governments to

adopt certain measures. The pressures are particularly efficient in representative global

arenas, such as the UN meetings and conferences. Young says, “Nation-states have been

 

‘08 Brigitte Young, p.14

185

forced to pay at least lip service and even provide evidence that they are in compliance

with EU commitments on gender equality.”1

09

India: Quota Policies in a Caste System

In the 19308 India, a country structured by a caste system, was one of the first in

the world to adopt affirmative action policies. Since then, constitutional laws have

established special provisions to incorporate the Dalits, or the Scheduled Caste (the lower

social strata, also known in the past as the untouchables), and the Scheduled Tribes into

the labor market and educational system. In the 19908 other caste groups were brought

 

into the quota system, the so-called Other Backward Castes (OBC).“O Before

independence in 1947, because of local social codes, these groups were prevented from

competing on an equal basis with other castes for employment and educational

opportunities. While the Dalits represent approximately 160 million people, only 22.5

percent of them benefit from quota policies to access higher education. Poverty and

illiteracy rates are exceedingly high within this group, only 37 percent are literate, and

only 7 percent of girls are literate. Today, 15 percent of government jobs and seats in

public colleges and universities are reserved for the Dalits. Taken atogether these three

groups account for more than 400 million people, less than a half of the total population,

which is estimated at 1 billion people. Discontent also takes place among those

considered well off: Hindus and Brahmins have complained they have been discriminated

against because most of the quota system is geared toward lower castes leaving them out

 

"” Ibid.

”0 Harish C. Jain, Peter J. Sloane, and Frank M. Horwitz. Emploment Equity and Affnmfle

Action: An lntemational Corn arison. London, England, Armonk, New York: ME. Sharpe, 200326 & 12.

See also Monir H. Tayeb, The Management of a Multicultural Workforce. New York: John Wiley & Sons,

1996: 181;

186

of the loop. One student at New Delhi University expressed the thought that the quota

system reinforces class divisions. Despite these complaints, however, the majority of the

population embraces the quota system. Because of the poverty level and attendant lack of

resources they would have no other way to move out of poverty.

111

Malaysia: Ending Quota Policies?

In Malaysia human resources management practices and policies by domestic, as

well as multinational corporations, are scrutinized closely by the state. In 1975 the

Malaysian government instituted a strict affirmative action policy based on a quota

system, aimed at upgrading the socio-economic, cultural and political representation of

Bumiputras (the sons of the soil), who comprise 50 percent of the native population, in

comparison to 35 percent represented by Chinese Malaysians. This latter group is

considerably better off in all sectors of society. I 12 The government has instituted short

and long-term goals for recruitment of Malaysians and employers are required to report

periodically to the government agencies their efforts at recruiting Malaysians for all

levels of employment, particularly middle and high levels of management. If

multinational corporations have employees from their home country working at a higher

level of management in Malaysia, the local officials issue temporary work permits.

Theses work permits allow companies to train native Malaysians for future replacement

 

I” Martha Ann Overland. “In India, Almost Everyone Wants to be Special: The world’s most sweeping

quota system remains popular even though its effectiveness is being questioned”. The Chronicle ofHigher

Education, February 12, 2004: A40-A42.

mDoug Wolfe and Brad Arnold, "Human Resource Management in Malaysia: A Comparison between

American and Japanese Approaches," in Nationgl Culture and lntemational Manggment in East Asia.
 

edited by Herbert J. Davis and William D. Schulte, Jr. Boston: lntemational Thomson Business Press,

1997:518

187

 

of expatriates. If companies fail in their affirmative action commitments the government

is entitled to withdraw company licenses to operate in the country.

,

,

113

When the quota system was implemented in the early 19708 law prohibited public

dissent against the policy. Over the years increasing dissension among the three main

groups, Malays, Chinese and Indians, have forced the government to look closely into the

issue. These groups comprise 60, 25 and 8 percent respectively of the population. In

2003 the Malay government relaxed its quota system because 30 thousand Malays,

mainly of Chinese origin, leave the country each year to study abroad, causing 1 billion

dollars in lost revenues annually. Some critics blame this turn of events on the quota-

system, which requires public universities to allocate at least 50 percent of their slots to

Malays. Critics have also argued that because of the quota-system key areas such as

science and technology have been negatively impacted. Others suggest that the 1970 goal

of increasing the Malay middle-classes has been achieved, and consequently, the system

is no longer required. Only time will attest to the last government measure in retaining or

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

114

br1ng1ng more Chlnese Malays 1nto the unrversrty system 1n Malays1a.

In order to give a brief perspective on affirmative action/EEAA policies in some

selected countries, tables 13-15 summarizes the types of policies, target populations, and

methods being applied in each country.

 

"’Ibid. 519

m David Cohen. “In Malaysia, The End of Quotas: The country has abandoned a 31 year old system that

benefited its population but also drove top students abroad”. The Chronicle of Higher Education. February

12, 2004: A42-A43.

188

  

Table 13 - Female and Total Distribution of Population in Selected

 

I °/o Pop.

I USA

Canada

India

Malaysia

S. Africa

7 G. Britain

N. Ireland

 

51

50.5

48

49.7

52

51

50.9

Countries, 2001 (Millions)

I Total Pop.

  

1 billion

281.4

22.3

40.5

31.6

58

1.7

 

I Source: Harish C. Jain, Peter J. Sloane, and Frank M. Horwitz. Employment Equity and

AffirmativeAction: An lntemational Comparison. London, England, Armonk, New York:

ME. Sharpe, 2003:7.

189

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have been implemented, the intellectual debates surrounding them have incorporated

philosophical, economic, and political orientations as well as legal frameworks. Faundez

has emphasized that philosophical, economic and legal traditions underlie the debate on

affirmative action and equal opportunity policies.

The philosophical debates encompass the notions of justice and equality, reverse

discrimination, compensation for past wrongs, group and collective rights, and

distributive justice — principle of utility. The economic standpoints include neo-classical

and statistical approaches, group preferences and entrepreneurial competition. On the

other hand, the legal frameworks follow the constitutional principles of each country. At

l

the heart of the discussions, the concept of equality of opportunity, the guiding principle

of these programs, does not provide a consensual interpretation, whether it is related to

individuals or groups.2 The pendulum moves between the meaning of equality of results

and equality of opportunities, or equal chances and equal means, depending upon local

context and individual or group interpretation

 

' Ibid. 3-26.

2 Ibid. p.1

192

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