Brazil , a country that is more than half Black and Brown ,the second largest Black population in the world (after Nígeria) seems still on the wrong track . It’s power structure is almost entirely white . The nation can’t boast of a single Black government minister with limited public attention to racial inequality
The imbalance is quite evident in the financial sector , no big bank in the Latin American largest economy , a nation of over 200 million , has a Black chief executive officer or board member . The percentage of Blacks in major banking is limited “ We are definitely a racist nation “ lamented Vanessa Lobato , a white Vice President for Human Resources at Banco Santander , São Bernardo , Brazil
The scene couldn’t have been different as Mr. Nascimento , who is a Black , arrived at a management conference in Saopaulo when a white man pulled up in a car and handed him the keys
Nascimento threw the keys back to him. “
Don’t you work here?” the white man asked
“No, do you ?” Nascimento replied , and walked away
The white executive had wrongly concluded that Mr. Nascimento , a black man , was just a car keeper at the meeting center . The white man did according to the system in Brazil , he had wrongly handed over his car keys to a Black executive whom he thought was a gateman keeping the cars for those arriving for executive meetings
Anyone who has spent even an hour in Brazil can attest , the mixing of races is unmatched virtually anywhere . It is tackled as if nothing of such “ I also have blacks in my family , my grand parents were blacks , so I can’t discriminate blacks ….” – Laila explained the tricks many white racist often use to defend their racist acts , she said they ‘ll always tell you they have affiliations to black race.
The nation’s rhythm, its culture, sport and cuisine, its very soul, is infused with Africa. This paradox , according to experts , that the nation’s cultural majority is a downtrodden economic minority has made grappling with race so challenging .
As in the U.S., racism has origins in slavery. Some 40% of all enslaved Africans shipped to the Americas were sent to Brazil. It was the last country to ban the practice, in 1888, and it then lured Europeans to “whiten” its society.
Unlike the U.S., Brazil has never had legal codes segregating schools or public transport. It has always claimed equal stands . That , however , has led many to insist that there is really no problem, that Brazil is a “racial democracy” with no comparison to the U.S. That also helps explaining why the recent global protests over racial discrimination yielded only smaller demonstrations in Brazil
Edilson Dias dos Reis, director of systems at Bradesco, one of the very few Black directors at a big bank. Reis says he faced no open racism on his rise and attributes his success to his mother’s sacrifices and his own hard work, which he urges upon Black trainees. “Discipline helps,” he said.
The data suggest a more systemic set of problems. Among the 10% of Brazil’s population with the lowest income per capita, 75% are Black, according to the national statistics bureau. A 2016 study by the nonprofit Instituto Ethos found that of the 500 biggest companies, Blacks hold 4.7% of upper management positions. Black women are 0.4%.
About 24% of the nation’s five biggest banks’ employees are Black, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the banking workers’ union based on regulatory filings.
“Companies’ recruiting processes usually discard Black people right at the beginning,” said Roberta Silva, head of Judiciary management services at Itau Unibanco Holding SA’s wealth-management unit, who is Black.
There are many reasons. The richest 18% of students , nearly all Whites go to private schools that emphasize English and career development, easing them into spots in the university system where banks recruit. Lower-class Brazilians, mostly Blacks, are often made to work by their families to help supply basic needs.
There are subtler factors, too. While buildings have never had separate entrances based on race (as some in the U.S. once had), most relegate service visitors to a back way. The vast majority of them are Black.
Nascimento, the Black banking executive, said all these issues create barriers to getting into finance and a glass ceiling once there. But he’s also part of recent efforts to improve things.
Nascimento made it to Bradesco through a program that recruits at a college for Black students and provides them extra education. More than 450 have joined the bank from it so far. Nascimento is a mentor at a Black diversity group at Bradesco called AfroBra.
The pay metrics , at Santander, increasing the number of Black employees is now part of executive pay metrics, Lobato said. The bank’s goal is to have a 30% Black workforce by 2021. Measures include training and changing recruiting procedures. She said the number of Black applicants for intern programs drops dramatically when they have to submit a video of themselves. They are convinced their race will disqualify them from consideration.
Itau has decided to avoid asking for English knowledge or a college degree when hiring for its technology area, providing the skills needed once inside the bank. “ Last year, it launched a 100-person, 12-month mentoring program for Blacks with directors and executive directors, “ said Valeria Marretto, human resources director.
“Both clients and employees need to see that Black people can thrive at banks,” said Bruno Scaldaferri, 38, who is Black and spent 17 years at Santander branches in the Northeast before becoming its head of diversity .
It is a fact that such programs are growing but remain limited. President Jair Bolsonaro campaigned against the few affirmative action programs in the civil service and higher education, although he hasn’t touched them.
According to statistics , because the problem is both economic and social, Blacks in finance face a range of difficulties. Itaú bank Silva Pereira 42, says her own father was a bank executive and she attended private schools. Classmates mocked her hair and called her “stinky little Black girl.” She adds that at work, “I feel I’m always having to break stereotypes.”
She recounted being approached recently by the head of another division at the bank who asked her to talk to his Black intern. The intern was talented but closing himself off. When she spoke to him, he told her he felt like a fish out of water because his peers spend as much on lunch as his mother does on groceries for a month.
Jaqueline Conceicao da Silva, executive director at Coletivo Di Jeje, which offers training in racial issues to teachers and companies, says beyond hiring, banks could do more by following a U.S. example and lending to minority-run businesses. “This is nonexistent in Brazil,” she said.
There’s clearly a long way to go. But the recent unrest in the U.S. may be jump-starting something. There have been small anti-racism demonstrations. And after social media erupted over the all-White TV panel last month, the network brought in an all-Black team the following night, saying it had “heard the message.” Two Black women are now part of the show’s permanent roster of commentators.
There are a number of exciting things happening within the Afro-Brazilian community in terms of education, finances and entrepreneurship. Although the overall black population is still struggling, since the turn of the 21st century, specifically in the past decade, a number of advances for a parcel of the population. It is an exaggeration to classify such as success , the numbers are clear , regardless of the success of a minority of pretos and pardos (blacks and browns), the vast majority has yet to taste this success.
According to statistics , the breakdown of the class status of Brazilians is contrary and discouraging . The country is broken down into five financial classes, A, B, C, D and E. Families earning more than 20,9000 Brazilian Reais (BRL) per month are at the top of pyramid, which is Class A. Class B consists of households bringing in between 10,450-20,900 BRL per month. Class C families earn between BRL 4,180 and 10,450 per month. At the bottom are Classes D and E, with earnings of between BRL 2,090-4,180 BRL and up to BRL 2,090 respectively.
In 2021 , things haven’t change much with 76% of all Brazilians who are part of classes D and E being pretos and pardos, with the average monthly income of these two groups being BRL 1,764. Even with the advances being made over the past decade, white Brazilians still make up about 2/3 of the highest economic classes, A and B, while ¾ of the poorest Brazilians are pretos and pardos.
Analytically , the media will often highlight the success of a small parcel of the black population while conveiniently not emphasizing that the situation for the masses still hasn’t changed much, which is the real way in which there can be accurate assessment of the community as a whole. It is important to keep such in mind at all times.
Many experts argue that the potential of the improvement of the lives of the poor and those living paycheck to paycheck will depend on those successful blacks and how they’re able to create initiatives, businesses and programs that can help the less fortunate of the population. This would probably take decades.
Banco Afro (Afro Bank) goes from one to thirty thousand clients after racist declaration of fintech company; Brazil now has five black-owned financial initiatives
