Black conscience day

Black conscience day

?On November 20th, Black Consciousness Day is celebrated in Brazil. The day was chosen because it is the date attributed to the death , in 1695, one of the greatest black leaders who fought for the liberation of the people against the slavery system. Today, more than 300 years later, the fight for social equality and the inclusion of black people in society still faces obstacles and challenges.

According to IBGE data, Brazil is the largest country in the world in terms of Afro-descendant population outside of Africa: 46.8% of Brazilians declared themselves as brown and 9.4% as black. The sum constitutes the majority of our population: 56.2%.

The explosion of anti-racist demonstrations triggered by the deaths of George Floyd, 27, a black-American man, murdered by a white police officer, and Jo?o Pedro, 14, who was shot inside his own home during a police operation in Rio de Janeiro , both in 2020, highlighted discussions about structural racism.

The two cases of violence committed by State agents against black people are examples of structural racism, denounced for decades by the black movement and black intellectuals, but made invisible by the commercial media.

There is some population health data involving the black population that is not considered as it should be and reveals a huge gap in access to public policies. Let's look at some data:

Around 56% of Brazilians declare themselves black, but being in greater numbers does not mean having more access to basic items such as health prevention, education and culture that guarantee more equal conditions in society.

As black people are part of the poorest population in Brazil, these pillars limit their options for leisure, culture and better living conditions. They manage to establish themselves in peripheral areas, which are difficult to access, where education is not enough, culture is not enough and health is not enough.

With this socioeconomic limitation, the population residing in these centers ends up consuming high-calorie but not very nutritious foods, such as sausages, processed foods, soft drinks, cookies, instant noodles and sugary yogurts, which end up being a path to the development of diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol. high.

According to the National Policy for Comprehensive Health for the Black Population, type 2 diabetes affects black men and black women more frequently. High blood pressure tends to be more common in black people of both sexes.

But it is in childhood that there is a greater risk of illness and death. When we talk about the health of black children, we automatically think of sickle cell anemia, but the risk of a black child dying before the age of 5 from infectious and parasitic causes (giardiasis, tuberculosis) is 60% higher than that of a white child.

All of this could be avoided if there were better basic sanitation conditions, for example.

The risk of malnutrition for a white child is almost non-existent, compared to 90% of black children.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t get better. If this child manages to overcome the difficulties and reach adolescence, there is a risk of violent deaths, since black children are far from schools, in addition to the risk of an unplanned pregnancy or septic abortions.

In healthcare we need to talk about structural racism or implicit bias.

But, after all, what is structural racism, which is often confused with institutional racism? Still exist? How does it work? How does it affect people's lives?

LET'S GO BACK IN HISTORY A LITTLE?

According to philosopher Djamila Ribeiro on the subject and law professor Silvio Almeida, to understand the roots of structural racism in Brazil and how this history began and continues to this day, it is necessary to go back to the beginning of the 16th century to century XIX, where slavery was established, marked mainly by the forced exploitation of the labor of black men and women brought from the African continent and transformed into slaves by European colonizers in Brazil.

The three centuries of slavery in Brazil, a situation that only ended due to the resistance of enslaved black people, combined with international economic interest, left deep marks of inequality in all power structures in Brazil. Disparity that left, guides and guides, to this day, the country's economic, social, cultural and institutional relations.

In the post-abolition period, in 1888, black people did not have access to land, compensation or reparation for so long of forced labor. Many remained on the farms where they worked heavy and informal work. It was from then on that the exclusion of black people began within institutions, in politics, and in all spaces of power.

That said, we arrive at the definition of what structural racism is:

Structural racism is a set of discriminatory, institutional, historical, cultural practices within a society that often privileges some races over others. The term is used to reinforce the fact that there are societies structured based on racism, which favor white people and disadvantage black and indigenous people.

• ?Examples of structural racism:

The absence of black men and women in leadership positions in the largest companies in the country shows that structural racism operates in different dimensions and layers. It structures society based on the devaluation and restriction of opportunities for black people to achieve social mobility.

Who doesn't remember one of the examples of a case of structural racism, in which Brazil is based, was the death of the boy Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva, left in the elevator by Sarí C?rte Real, Miguel's mother's boss, while the maid was walking with the family dog. The boss pressed the button for a high floor, released the door and, indifferently, returned home to continue doing her nails.

STRUCTURAL RACISM IN HEALTHCARE

According to data from a group at PUC-Rio, Study of the Health Operations and Intelligence Center, confirm that black and brown people died more from Covid-19 than white people in Brazil. The group analyzed the variation in the disease's fatality rate in the country according to the demographic and socioeconomic variables of the population.

?The AzMina portal collected more than one hundred reports from women from all over Brazil about their experiences receiving medical care. More than 80% of responses were from women of color. Of these, almost 68% said they had already experienced racism during medical care. According to the form, the specialties with the highest number of occurrences were gynecology (43 cases), clinic (40), dermatology (19) and obstetrics (10).

And, speaking of obstetrics, a Fiocruz survey indicated that black women are more likely to have inadequate prenatal care (67.9%), receive less guidance about birth complications (41.4%) and receive less anesthesia during the cut in the perineum (10.7%). The study entitled “The color of pain: racial inequities in prenatal care and childbirth in Brazil” followed more than 23 thousand women to identify the inequalities that occurred during pregnancy and childbirth according to the color of the mothers' skin.

• What is the role of companies in the anti-racist fight?

We know that despite advances in combating racial discrimination, there is still much to be done, and companies can play a key role in this process. One of the first steps to be taken, in addition to raising awareness, of course, concerns the appreciation of black professionals and the expansion of black people in selection processes. According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), less than 30% of leadership positions are held by black and brown people, even though they make up the majority of the workforce in the country.

Encouraging and valuing black lives must happen daily. The more attention, voice and care black employees have, the greater their chances of developing safely and responsibly.

Today, listen to " respect" from Aretha Franklin, and get some inspiration for you day / life acts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FOUqQt3Kg0

If you can′t do this for love, do it for respect.

Much love,

ISABELA CASTRO

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