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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000662
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
STATE PASS TO USAID LAC/AA
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SOCI SCUL EAID KPAO ELAB BR
SUBJECT: SAO PAULO ACTIVISTS DESCRIBE AFRO-BRAZILIAN CHALLENGES
REF: SAO PAULO 602;
SAO PAULO 601
1. (SBU) Summary: Key human rights and antidiscrimination contacts spoke with visiting Equal Employment and Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) Acting Chairman Stuart Ishimaru October 20 in the run-up to the Joint Action Plan Against Racism
(JAPER) meeting in Salvador October 21. While all saw improvements in education, labor and the legal arena for
Afro-Brazilians, the contacts stressed that the community still faced multi-level social marginalization. Ishimaru
pressed our interlocutors to develop more demographic data so that they could know exactly where, in hard numbers,
Afro-Brazilians stand in today's Brazil. End summary.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND ITS FRUITS
2. (U) Executive Director of the Research Center on Labor Relations and Inequality (CEERT) Maria Aparecida Silva Bento,
CEERT Legal Counsel Daniel Teixeira, CEERT Education & Public Policy Coordinator Billy Malachias, and CEERT Communications head Rosangela Malachias told Acting Chairman
Ishimaru the ongoing debate over affirmative action in Brazil could be more robust and inclusive. They noted that the
experts the media consults on this issue are often white persons. Teixeira lamented that, unlike the U.S., affirmative
action has barely had time to provide quantifiable data and already Brazilian critics are clamoring for its end. The
first crop of Brazilian university graduates who have benefited by affirmative action programs are now entering the
labor market. CEERT members want to see how they will fare. (NOTE: Private sector contacts often claim there are not
enough qualified Afro-Brazilian graduates to hire. END NOTE.) At the request of the banking sector, CEERT recently
conducted a massive study to increase diversity in the sector. They discovered most Afro-Brazilians worked among the
lower ranks and earned less than white colleagues.
LATE TO THE GAME: UNIONS AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION POLICIES
3. (SBU) Labor sector representatives stated that unions had only begun to focus on racial inequality in the last decade
as labor leaders realized that the issues unions champion (wages, health care, working conditions) overlap with race. To
better address racial issues, the three major labor unions in Brazil, Union Movement (FS) General Union of Workers (UGT)
and Sole Center of Workers (CUT) with the help of the AFL-CIO and the Interamerican Regional Organization of Workers
(ORIT) created the Interamerican Institute for Racial Equality (INSPIR) in 1995. INSPIR takes three-pronged approach to
labor/race issues. It promotes anti-discriminatory policies within unions, promotes anti-racism in collective bargaining
and tries to influence public policy. In response to Acting Chairman Ishimaru inquiry about the demography of unions,
INSPIR reps conceded that, although there are some black union leaders, none of the major labor federations (CUT, UGT,
FS) know the racial demographics of their own organizations.
THE LIMITS OF LEGAL RECOURSE
4. (SBU) Although Brazil has a stringent anti-racism law, known as Cao's Law (Lei Cao), contacts told Acting Chairman
Ishimaru that Brazilians do not know their rights, police are unaware of how to enforce anti-discrimination law, and
prosecutors are unsure of how to or unwilling to prosecute offenders. (NOTE: In Brazil it is illegal to call someone a
racial epithet or perform any racist act. END NOTE.) Brazilian Bar Association representative Alvarenga noted that
police, prosecutors and judges find the punishment for
SAO PAULO 00000662 002 OF 003
racism disproportionately high in relation to the crime. Thus, racist crimes are often registered as slander (injuria),
which carries significantly lighter sanctions. Further obscuring the effectiveness of the law is the fact that there are
no official numbers for cases prosecuted under Cao's Law.
TROUBLE RISING TO THE TOP
5. (SBU) Even well educated Afro-Brazilians like Brazilian Bar Association Black and Anti-Discriminatory Issues
Commission (CONAD) representative Marco Antonio Zito Alvarenga told Acting Chairman Ishimaru that he had trouble rising
to the highest ranks of mainstream professional organizations. A group of black lawyers, led by Zito, noted the lack of
Afro-Brazilian representation among the bar association's board of directors and the State and Federal Council and
expressed hope more Afro-Brazilians would be selected in the upcoming association elections.
FORWARD MOVEMENT
6. (U) Nevertheless, contacts highlighted some positive signs in Afro-Brazilians' struggle for equal opportunity under
the law. CEERT created the Education for Racial Equality Award in 2001 to recognize teachers who address race in the
classroom in innovative ways. The first contestants were mostly Afro-Brazilian but now many teachers of Caucasian and
other racial backgrounds submit projects and win the award, according to Billy Malachias. The unions' interest in
inserting language about racial equality into collective bargaining agreements represents another step forward. Similar
clauses on gender issues that started as part of public sector unions' collective bargaining agreements later became
national law. While the Cao's Law has implementation issues, people do file and win cases, as with the black
receptionist whose employer called her "monkey." Sao Paulo courts found him guilty of racism and awarded a $3,600
judgment in the receptionist's favor in 2007.
BANKING ON PRE-SAL
7. (SBU) The Afro-Brazilian community hopes to exploit the recently discovered oil reserves off Brazil. Rosana Aparecida
da Silva of CUT's Anti-discrimination Secretariat was adamant about keeping pre-salt monies in Brazil. According to her,
a nationalistic approach would keep natural resources and technical jobs in Brazil and generate jobs as well as monies
for public policies to help marginalized groups like Afro-Brazilians.
COMMENT: THE NEED FOR HARD NUMBERS
8. (SBU) Sao Paulo anti-discrimination organizations stressed the need for consistent and constant pressure in order to
bridge the huge gaps Afro-Brazilians face in labor, education, healthcare and equal access to the law. One constant
theme was the absence of demographic information relating to Afro-Brazilians. Ishimaru repeatedly asked about the
numbers of Afro-Brazilians in government, education, labor, the legal profession, etc. In response, the contacts had
rough guesses or, as in the case of INSPIR, could not provide numbers. In addition to legal, social, and political
hurdles, the inability to quantify where Afro-Brazilians stand in terms of inclusion, remains a fundamental impediment
to applying affirmative action policies to maximum effect.
SAO PAULO 00000662 003 OF 003
9. (U) EEOC Acting Chairman Ishimaru cleared on this cable.
White