Companies need to guarantee gender and racial diversity, and it is necessary that this inclusion occurs within companies and that these people have the mobility to reach the top of their careers, said the president of the organization Geledés and a postdoctoral student in Ethnic-Racial Diversity at the University. of São Paulo (USP), Antonia Quintão.
“Sometimes companies present themselves as organizations committed to diversity, but the decision-making positions, the most strategic positions, those positions that could effectively guarantee representation to make a difference, are not occupied by blacks, almost never by black women.”
The postdoctoral student highlighted that blacks represent 30% of the Brazilian population and, as the largest group, including black women is essential. “You cannot say that there is diversity when we are not properly represented, it is not possible to say that there is diversity then when there are only two or three black women [na empresa]”.
Antonia was one of the participants in the Seminar on Diversity and Equity in the IT Sector in Brazil: Perspectives on Work and Digital Inclusion, held online today (11) by the Internet Management Committee in Brazil (CGI.br). The event discussed the history of inequalities in this field, focusing on the issue of gender, the challenges of inclusion and digital participation in society and in the labor market, in addition to discussing initiatives to increase this inclusion.
For her, it is necessary that, in the organizational environment, there is a paradigm shift and that all employees, especially those who decide, interview, select and make the hiring, reflect on social relations in Brazil and on their own prejudices.
“Speaking in favor of diversity is important, but implementing diversity is what will make the difference, so it is necessary to learn, or rather, deconstruct the prejudices we have in this structural racism that crosses all of us, deconstruct and at the same time invest in the capacity , in the talent, in the competence of the black youth, of the black youth”, he said.
Antonia highlighted that inequality of opportunity is one of the manifestations of racism in the country. “Our society is markedly racist, we are talking about structural racism, which is the one that crosses all areas, all sectors, all segments of society, and does not recognize the black population in the field of equality”.
digital divide
Racism is pointed out by the PhD student in Computer Science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), with a focus on Diversity Management, Biamichelle Miranda, as one of the main challenges faced by Afro-descendant women and other socially excluded from technology.
“In the case of ethno-racial diversity, I dare say that even at the cellular level [familiar], even at the institutional level, whether in academia or in public and private organizations, our main challenge is still racism. Because racism will dictate the issue of our education, the delay in our education, and that’s why we talk about quotas, racism will dictate why we are so few within the IT area [tecnologia da informação]because it is not from now”, he said.
Biamichele said that he teaches programming to young people in socially vulnerable situations on the outskirts of Porto Alegre. “I already had young people in my class who were in shelters, who had much bigger problems, who were about to turn 18, would need to have a home and still didn’t have one. And how does that young man concentrate, how does he concentrate to learn Java Script, when he doesn’t know where he’s going to sleep in a week when he turns 18?”.
According to her, the main changes must be made at the structural level and this can only be done collectively. “And then it is important to understand that all the measures that we are going to take at the individual level to face these challenges may still be insufficient because we need to, just as racism sculpts [marcas] in us, we also need to sculpt in this society how we are going to face this, and these are profound changes, which cannot be done at the individual level”.
