Written by Michelle Amaral 16 October 2009 01:29 brazils new racialequality law is watered down but blacks are not complaining.
Although there are different evaluations of how much impact the newly House-approved Statute of Racial Equality will have on the reality of racism in Brazil, the majority of black movements in Brazil claim the statute as a victory, at least symbolic in nature.
The original proposal for the statute, authored by Paulo Paim (Workers' Party from Rio Grande do Sul state) and approved in the House of Representatives on September 9, underwent several revisions. Many of the historical demands of African descendants were removed.
The alterations of the bill were a result of an agreement made between the Special Secretary of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality, Edson Santos, and members of a special House commission which has filed lawsuits regarding the unconstitutionality of racial quotas as well as the recent presidential decree, which paved the way for land titles for quilombos, communities of descendents of runaway slaves.
According to Douglas Belchior, member of the General Council of the Blacks and Working Class Union Center, the changes in the statute's text "diminished the political potential of Paulo Paim's original bill." The current version of the bill only serves "the interests of the powerful."
One the other hand, Marcelo Paixão of the Black Movement of Rio and director of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's Institute of Economy, stated that the compromise with the House's conservative members was necessary in order to get the statute approved. In his way of thinking, "The mere fact that it was approved is in of itself a victory."
