“We just want to recompose what the reality of a democratic society is,” said Lula in a ceremony held at the Planalto Palace, headquarters of the Executive Branch, on the national day of Black Consciousness.
The set of 13 actions presented by the Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, together with 10 other portfolios and organizations, includes national programs, qualifications for Quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) territories, exchange scholarships, and cooperation agreements.
In addition, inter-ministerial working groups and other initiatives that guarantee or expand the right to life, inclusion, memory, land, and reparation
“All these that we signed today are like planting a tree. That tree, for it to work, must be planted. You have to put the water in. There must be sun. Must have fertilizer. And you are the fertilizer for a public policy that works,” Lula emphasized.
He explained that the initial parts “keep them going; you can’t stop charging for the operation.”
He clarified that “we are not different because of our skin, hair, and clothes. We are brothers. We come from the same father; we live on the same planet and have the same blood color,” he said.
He reiterated that it is about rebuilding and “putting back in their place the things that were taken away,” concluded the founder of the Workers’ Party.
On November 20 of each year, the death in 1665 of Zumbi de los Palmares, a slave who became the leader of the Quilombo de los Palmares with his partner Dandara, is remembered in Brazil.
The day also calls for actions to highlight the struggle of black people against racial discrimination and social inequality that still prevail in the South American giant.
Official statistics reveal that blacks in the country (54 percent of the population of about 213 million inhabitants) are minorities in professions, higher education, salaries, and other areas of life.
However, they are the majority in prisons, in unemployment, in poverty, and in the percentage of homicide victims.
Of the 4,219 people killed by the police in eight states in 2022, 2,700 were black and of mixed race, representing 65.7 percent of the lives lost in Brazil, a study revealed.
According to data from the Network of Security Observatories of the Center for Security and Citizenship Studies, if only those with a declared color or race are considered, the proportion of dead blacks rises to 87.4 percent.
