Legislação simbólica e estatuto da igualdade racial: os limites do Estado no combate ao racismo.

Abstract

Discussions on ethno-racial issues in Brazil are controversial, mainly because of the "malaise" due to speaking about races. If this category does not have more biological foundations, on the other hand, this does not mean that it has been discarded, being still used as a native category to guide social relations of individuals in their daily lives. In other words, it is not because it has no more biological support that people do not use the word and the meaning (of biological and cultural differences to prioritize individuals) in the day-to-day. In view of the historical specificities of how a race was conceived and how a racial whitening policy was developed in Brazil, the history of Brazil shifts from a pessimistic view of its future, since it was here a land full of blacks, until the positive affirmation of that we would be a racial democracy. However, the myth of racial democracy, far from being a finding, was a discursive-ideological mechanism used by political and economic elites to deal with the tensions arising from racial inequalities and the way to create a hegemonic discourse of national identity. This myth has its strength to this day, even in the face of countless black social movements to contest it. In that context, the present research aims to study the Estatuto da Igualdade Racial (Law 12.288, July 20, 2010), from its proposal in the form of a bill until its final vote. The question that moves us is: how the State (understood as a social space as well as a bureaucratic and administrative instance) understands the racial question in Brazil in terms of a social problem and operationalizes this understanding in its political actions, in particular, in the law which deals exactly with the promotion of racial equality? Our hypothesis is that it is seen as a symbolic legislation, that is, legislation whose ideological character of guaranteeing the legitimacy of the State as promoter of social equality while reaffirming the myth of racial democracy overlaps with the effective commitment with the end of racism and the promotion of racial equality. Through the French Discourse Analysis, in particular, with the concept of discursive memory, we will contextualize the Statute, observing its limitations and potential in the fight against racism.