The Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, said this Thursday (16) that the government will announce new measures to combat racial inequality on March 21, when the creation of the Secretariat for Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Seppir ) will be 20 years old. The secretariat was created in the first term of President Luiz Inácio Lula Silva, in 2003, following a historic demand from the black movement.
Anielle Franco gave the inaugural class of the semester at the Sérgio Arouca National School of Public Health (ENSP/Fiocruz), this Thursday afternoon, on the campus of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), in Manguinhos, in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro.
According to the minister, on the 21st there will be a celebration at the Planalto Palace in which measures will be announced to increase the presence of black women in the federal public service; a black population health coordination will be set up with the Ministry of Health and six lands of quilombola peoples who have been waiting for regularization for over 20 years will also be titled.
“The titling of quilombola lands is a very long process. It is a process that goes back and forth, and families are being lost. The ancestry is there, but the lands are disappearing. The memory of these black women and people is disappearing , because it doesn’t title”, said the minister.
In addition to titles and indemnities, the minister promised education and culture actions with quilombola communities in the first 100 days of the government, and recalled that this is a request from President Lula.
The ministry will also announce, in partnership with the Sports and Justice departments, the creation of a Working Group to Combat Racism in Sports. “What Vini Jr. is going through in Spain is unacceptable, but what everyone goes through here too, and we know how it is”.
Marielle
In a speech to students, teachers and employees of ENSP/Fiocruz, minister Anielle Franco recalled the first moments after the murder of her sister, councilwoman Marielle Franco, who turned 5 on Tuesday (14).
“We cannot forget that Mari was the victim of a political femicide”, said the minister. “I will never forgive. I will never forgive that they looked at that woman speaking and never thought of having her safe. Never in my life will I accept that”.
Anielle Franco stated that it was only after a cruel crime like this that there was the notion that black women in politics should also have security. She reinforced that these women have been victims of political violence for years, and that studies conducted by the Marielle Franco Institute in 2020 and 2021 showed that these cases are recurrent.
“Marielle had to die, be murdered the way she was, cruelly, so that other people would gain private security, an armored car and have the notion that black women politicians need security too, in addition to white men”.
The minister also recalled the moment when she was invited by President Lula to be at the head of the Racial Equality portfolio and said that she spoke with other black women who are a reference in her life, such as congresswoman Benedita da Silva and activists Lúcia Xavier and Jurema Werneck, as soon as he received the proposal.
“I don’t want to deliver only symbology. I’m proud to be her sister. But I have to deliver work”, he said.
On a daily basis in Brasilia, the minister said that she is still attacked, especially in the National Congress, where other black politicians also suffer offenses.
“No Chamber, neither in Brasilia nor anywhere else, is historically designed for women. Talíria [Petroni, deputada federal] went there with a child on her lap and there was no place to change the boy’s diaper. It is not designed for us. Erika Hilton [travesti, deputada federal] she was there, beautiful, but the whole time she spends it and people affront calling her horrible things. If I enter, because the Executive has to build with the Legislative and vice versa, I am attacked. It won’t be easy for us to rebuild,” she said.
