Andre Marques
PSC 387: Ethnic Conflicts
Professor Jolly
November 15th, 2018
Brazilian Ethnic Conflict Solution
Brazil since colonial times has been divided and segregated. The colonial influences in Brazil are still seen to date. There is a large divide between the “whites” and “blacks” (afro-descendentes). The whites in Brazil control the country politically and economically while afro-descendentes are kept in an endless cycle, where they not don't receive proper education or be able to get better jobs, so they can afford to move out of favelas, that keeps them on the bottom both politically and economically. Afro-descendants live in shanty town like areas where there is poor educational systems which keeps the people from extending their education to better themselves enough to either get an education so that they can try to get better jobs or even represent themselves politically. There is much that needs to be done within Brazil to stop the endless cycle of oppression to the black people of Brazil. The main solution to this problem would begin with fixing the economic distribution within Brazil. Better distribution of government funds would lead for money to better the education systems within favelas. I argue that Brazil should adopt a first past the post system for elections. There also would be a need to have constitutional reform to keep there from being job discrimination towards afro-descendentes. These three components to the solutions will lead to there being fairer political representation within the country.
To start Brazil is a South American country that was colonized by the Portuguese during the 1500th century. Like many other imperialistic countries in the 15th century, Portugal went in to Brazil and took advantage of all the available natural resources. To maximize the amount of resources slaves were brought in free labor to capitalize on. It wasn’t till 1888 when slavery was eliminated completely the Africans that were brought to Brazil and their descendants were forced to work in inhumane working conditions against their will (Paladino,1). From that point, the descendants of these African slaves were forced to live in the slums of Brazil better known as favelas. Things have not changed for the afro-descendentes since then. They are still living within these favelas because they can’t afford to live anywhere else because of the poor education systems in these areas. There is also a large discrimination against them having front office jobs within hotels and other areas where they represent companies. Nothing has been done to help them because black people in Brazil cannot represent themselves in the government to make a difference.
There have been many organizations that have gone in to Brazil to try help reduce the ethnic and racial issues within Brazil. The most notable of the organizations to try to reduce the conflict in Brazil is UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). UNESCO has been trying to educate Brazils about African Brazilian history to reduce the segregation amount of segregation that is happening in Brazil (“Ethnic and…”, 1). The problem though is that there has been no incentive or changes made within the Brazilian government to change anything. The fact that nothing has been done to change and move forward could be in part to the electoral system in place. For parliamentary elections brazil uses the Proportional Representational system (Cruz, 1). This system is great for certain countries because it allows for many different political parties to be represented. The problem though when it comes election time the citizens are voting for political parties who then put their people in parliament. With this system, the people who are elected will vote for what they feel is best to their political party which isn’t always what is best for their people.
To fix the lack of representation in Brazil they should adopt a First Past the post system for parliamentary elections. With first past the post, citizens with the specific district vote for a singular candidate that they can hold accountable to do things that are best for them. With the change in electoral systems there would be an improvement in accountability of politicians which will lead to policies that are aimed to help the people. The larger accountability of the politicians to the people would be due to the fact that politicians would be put in power by the people in their districts instead of their political party. With Brazil’s high turnout rate for elections the change in electoral systems might be beneficial to the people (“The Electoral System”, 1). In the long run, there will be a change in political parties towards more of a two-party system because there will be less of a chance for smaller parties to get into parliament. On the bright side though, the people will have candidates that will act on their behalf instead of doing what is best for the political party.
With having politicians becoming then it leads to another solution which is better distribution of government funding for education within favelas. Better education overall will only benefit Brazil. With better education, there will be a better educated workforce overall that can start to make more money. That will mean that the government will be making more money from income taxes to put back into the educational reform. A big secondary effect of the educational reform will be the better representation of afro-descendentes politically. With better political representation, there will be better policies made to assist the people who live in Favelas opposed to just the white people who are already better off comparatively. However, there is a chance that it backfires. A perfect example of this happened in Venezuela. Before Chavez, Venezuela was run by the white people who came from European descent. As soon as they no longer had control of the country the same people that were in control of the country took all their money out of Venezuela. When their billions dollars were taken out and the government didn’t do anything to put money back in there was an economic crash. The effects of the economic crash are still felt today (Chua, 144). Given that the white people in Brazil do hold all the well-paying jobs, there is a chance that something along that nature could happen. With UNESCO as a partner encouraging African-Brazilian history within schools it will reduce the chance of this that event happening within Brazil.
The most important part of the solution to the ethnic issue within Brazil would be an equal opportunity employment policy. A policy that certain larger countries like the United States have. Within the United States the policy is called Title VII. The policy makes it illegal for employers to discriminate candidates whether that be by race, gender, or anything else that can make someone different (“Title VII…”, 1). With a policy such as this within Brazil will allow afro-descendentes the same job opportunities as everyone else. This will allow them to make more money so that they can afford to move out of the favelas, where they have poor living conditions and almost no resources to help them better themselves. People will be able to afford to live in other areas while at the same time the favelas will have people with better incomes which will lead to better living conditions and resources over all. In the long run, this will also decrease the thought that one group is better than the other because they will have the same jobs and employment opportunities. There is no way to monitor such a policy though which will be a major backlash. Without proper enforcement of the policy then nothing will change and then this policy will just be a piece of paper. But if it is put in place and enforced then this will change things in Brazil.
The ethnic conflict can be dated back to when the Portuguese colonies Brazil. The effects can still be felt today within the country with the overall thought that the residents that come from African descent are looked at as second class citizens with poor education along with poor living conditions and lesser job opportunities. If nothing is done, then the effect will be felt for years to come. The solutions to the problem can be resolved with three things. First, better distribution of funds within the country. There should also be a change in political systems to allow for better representation of the citizens politically. Lastly, there needs to be a policy put in place so that there cannot be any discrimination when it comes to people in the workforce. With these solutions being adopted by Brazil the ethnic conflict within Brazil will surely diminish over time.