Anti-racism legislation in Brazil: the role of the Courts in the reproduction of the myth of racial democracy
| Autor | Marta Rodriguez de Assis Machado, Márcia Lima, Natália Neris |
| Cargo | Professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation School of Law (São Paulo-SP, Brasil)/Professor at University of Sao Paulo (São Paulo-SP, Brasil) and Researcher at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning (CEM - CEBRAP). PhD from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro/PhD Candidate at University of Sao ... |
| Páginas | 267-296 |
Licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons
Licensed under Creative Commons
Anti-racism legislation in Brazil: the role of the Courts in
the reproduction of the myth of racial democracy
Legislação antirracista no Brasil: o papel das Cortes
na reprodução do mito da democracia racial
MARTA RODRIGUEZ DE ASSIS MACHADO I, *
I Fundação Getúlio Vargas (Brasil)
martarodriguezmachado@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8924-089X
MÁRCIA LIMA II, **
II Universidade de São Paulo (Brasil)
mrlima@usp.br
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2923-8445
NATÁLIA NERIS DA SILVA SANTOS II, ***
II Universidade de São Paulo (Brasil)
nerisnatalia@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3449-813X
Recebido/Received: 06.11.2019 / November 6th, 2019
Aprovado/Approved: 29.11.2019 / November 29th, 2019
Rev. Investig. Const., Curitiba, vol. 6, n. 2, p. 267-296, maio/ago. 2019. 267
Revista de Investigações Constitucionais
ISSN 2359-5639
DOI: 10.5380/rinc.v6i2.70080.
Como citar esse artigo/How to cite this article: MACHADO, Marta Rodriguez de Assis; LIMA, Márcia; SANTOS, Natália Neris da
Silva. Anti-racism legislation in Brazil: the role of the Courts in the reproduction of the myth of racial democracy. Revista de
Investigações Constitucionais, Curitiba, vol. 6, n. 2, p. 267-296, maio/ago. 2019. DOI: 10.5380/rinc.v6i2.70080.
* Professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation School of Law (São Paulo-SP, Brasil) and Senior Researcher at the Brazilian Center
of Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). PhD, Master of Laws and Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of São Paulo. E-mail:
martarodriguezmachado@gmail.com.
** Professor at University of Sao Paulo (São Paulo-SP, Brasil) and Researcher at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Brazilian
Center of Analysis and Planning (CEM - CEBRAP). PhD from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. E-mail: mrlima@usp.br.
*** PhD Candidate at University of Sao Paulo (São Paulo-SP, Brasil) and researcher at the Law and Democracy Center at CEBRAP.
Master in Law and Development at the Getulio Vargas Foundation School of Law. E-mail: nerisnatalia@gmail.com.
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to analyze Brazilian anti-racism
law in practice, assessing judicial response to cases of ra-
cial stigma and insult. We analyzed over 200 cases from 9
Brazilian states involving racial insults and racial dispar-
agement in Brazilian courts of appeal. We nd that the
Resumo
O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a aplicação da legislação
antirracista brasileira, por meio de decisões judiciais em ca-
sos de estigmatização racial e insultos. Analisamos mais de
200 casos de insultos racistas e depreciação nos tribunais
de justiça brasileiros. Descobrimos que o judiciário tende
MARTA RODRIGUEZ DE ASSIS MACHADO | MÁRCIA LIMA | NATÁLIA NERIS DA SILVA SANTOS
Rev. Investig. Const., Curitiba, vol. 6, n. 2, p. 267-296, maio/ago. 2019.
268
CONTENTS
1. Introduction; 2. Stereotypes and racial insult; 3. The disputes for the creation of an anti-racism leg-
islation in Brazil; 4. The dilemmas of enforcement: what happens when racism reaches the Courts; 4.1.
Racial insult as the main issue arriving to the Judiciary; 4.2. The procedural way out; 4.3. When the
judge analyses the merits of the case; 5. Conclusion: how Courts fail to recognize Brazilian racism; 6.
References.
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this article is to analyze how the legal mechanisms to combat
racism are operating in Brazil and to highlight some of their main obstacles considering
the social dynamics of stigma and racial insults. It analyzes the application of the anti-
-racist criminal legislation by the Courts, based on data from an empirical research con-
ducted from 1998 to 2010 in Courts of Justice of 9 Brazilian states. Our argument is that
there is a diculty in reconciling the categories of the law and the way in which they
are being interpreted by the Courts with concrete dynamics of race relations in which
subtle acts of discrimination and the use of racial insults prevail in everyday situations.
For this reason, the Brazilian justice system fails to communicate the blameworthiness
of a large number of racist conducts that pass through it. This has a perverse eect in so
far as it denies these racist acts making them invisible and in turn reinforces the racial
democracy myth.
As is widely known, conceptions regarding race as well as its hierarchy’s date
back to the 19th century, the period in which a scientic doctrine was utilized to biolo-
gically explain social dierences related to racial categories. Although the scientic le-
gitimacy of this idea regarding race has fallen into disuse, the mechanism of legitimiza-
tion of hierarchical dierences between races persists relying on other ideologies, with
racial stereotypes being the main mechanisms in the maintenance of this ideology1.
1 BANTON, Michael; MILES, Robert. Racism. In: CASHMORE, Ellis. Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations. 3.
ed. London/New York: Routledge, 1994, p. 309.
judiciary tends to downplay the importance of insult and
stigma, often dismissing cases or lowering penalties. This
judicial treatment conicts with the evidence that racial
insults are prevalent in society and serve to maintain ra-
cial hierarchies. While the judiciary appears to be enforc-
ing anti-discrimination law, the actual decisions show
that the legal system fails to recognize and deal with the
real dynamics of Brazilian racism thereby reinforcing the
myth of Brazil racial democracy.
Keywords: anti-racism legislation; Brazil; courts; racial
democracy; racism.
a minimizar a importância de insultos e estigmas, com jul-
gamentos de não provimento de recursos ou diminuindo
sanções. Esse tratamento judicial conita com as evidên-
cias de que insultos raciais são prevalentes na sociedade e
servem à manutenção de hierarquias raciais. Enquanto o
judiciário parece estar promovendo a aplicação da legisla-
ção antirracista, as decisões de fato mostram que o sistema
jurídico falha no reconhecimento e no enfrentamento das
reais dinâmicas do racismo brasileiro, reforçando o mito da
democracia racial brasileira.
Palavras-chave: legislação antirracista; Brasil; cortes; de-
mocracia racial; racismo.
Para continuar a ler
PEÇA SUA AVALIAÇÃO