Obsession with racial and ethnic issues invades elite schools in Brazil

Multiculturalism, racial and ethnic issues and feminism invaded the schools of the Brazilian elite. The phenomenon manifests itself in the lists of required books and in different types of activities in almost all years of elementary and secondary education in the most expensive schools in Brazil.

Practically all institutions with higher tuition fees in capitals such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro place great emphasis on textbooks or literary books with the clear aim of raising children’s awareness of racial issues or Brazil’s African roots. In many cases, the books are highly ideological.

Since 2003, teaching about Afro-Brazilian history and culture has become mandatory in all Brazilian schools, including private ones, by law no. 10,639, which requires the study of African history. The law does not, however, establish the amount of time or classes that must be dedicated to the topic – but, on this point, elite schools have been more generous than the legislator seemed to expect in the text of the rule.

In a private Jesuit school in Vila Mariana – a neighborhood in São Paulo –, for example, in 2024, 4th year students will use the book “O Brasil que came da África”, by writer Arlene Holanda, in history and geography; Those in the 5th year will be introduced to concepts such as “whiteness” and “structural racism” through the book “Colored Glasses: Seeing and Not Seeing”, by anthropologist Lilia Schwarcz, winner of the 2023 Jabuti Prize; and those in 6th grade will read “Africa and African Brazil”, by Marina de Mello e Souza.

In another neighborhood in São Paulo, Vila Madalena, a school created an “anti-racist” project called “Origens”, which has as its central objective, according to the institution, “to break with school practices that contribute to the maintenance of structural racism in Brazil, through of an education that values ​​and does justice to the contribution of black men and women and indigenous people to Brazilian culture and society”

The idea, states the school, is to train its employees in the so-called anti-racist culture, increase the “representation of black and indigenous professionals at the school”, review curricula “from an anti-racist vision” and create scholarships to “expand the representation of students black men, women and indigenous people”. In 2022, in one of the institution’s units, 60% of the books purchased for the library collection were by black or indigenous authors. At that same school, 8th grade students read the “Small Anti-Racist Manual”, by Djamila Ribeiro.

For Paulo Cruz, philosophy professor and columnist at People’s Gazettethis new phenomenon is a consequence of “a ethos contemporary who thinks it is necessary to make a historical correction.” “We only talked about Europe, so now we also have to talk about Africa and get out of the axis of Europe, the United States and so on. I think that’s the point,” he says.

Another reason, in his view, is the desire to follow fashion. “There is a certain more progressive, more modern elite, especially young parents, for whom these topics are fashionable, a trend. They read these types of books, talk about them at the gym. It’s fashionable, and people don’t want to be left out It’s a curse of contagion, really. ‘I don’t want to be the one against it in my class. Everyone is talking about this thing, so I’m going to talk about it too, right?’ This type of speech makes people feel guilty and want to talk about it.”

Although racial discussions are mainly focused on racism against black people and the celebration of African culture, indigenous culture is also a relevant topic in curricula. At a school in the Santo Amaro neighborhood, in São Paulo, 2nd year students study the book “Discovering Xingu”; in the 3rd year, they read the book “Coisas de Índio”, by indigenous writer Daniel Munduruku, who was a candidate for federal deputy for the PDT in 2022. The same school offers, in the 4th year, training against fake news, with the book “Esquadrão curious: fake news hunters”.

In addition to the racial issue, the diversity of cultures and ethnicities and feminism are themes that especially attract those responsible for the pedagogical line of elite schools. Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai is omnipresent in book lists, which feature different biographies of her. A much more radical figure also appears on some lists: the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), a symbol of the feminist struggle.

In a bilingual school with several units in Rio de Janeiro, feminism mixes with language learning: Frida appears as the protagonist of a material for studying Spanish entitled “Frida Kahlo: Viva la Vida”, which the 9th grade uses. 8th grade students learn English with the book “Women Who Changed The World”.

Enem and universities end up influencing the trend

For Paulo Cruz, another reason why private schools have joined the trend of identitarianism is that teachers are trained in university courses where this type of discourse is omnipresent.

“Generally, in private schools, especially in elite ones, the selection process looks for teachers who are trained in supposedly cutting-edge colleges. And the cutting-edge colleges in Brazil, for teaching, are generally public ones, such as USP and other universities schools. The schools look for these teachers because they are supposedly the best, they have degrees from these top Brazilian colleges. And there is much more conscious ideologization in public colleges than in private colleges. The professor leaves the college already militant, and ends up in these schools cutting-edge”, he comments.

Furthermore, recalls Cruz, “generally, those who produce teaching material are also people who graduated from public universities.” “This is the main point of the problem we call the ideologization of teaching. Not everything is conscious, but the system itself is already a bit addicted to it”, she says.

For educator Anamaria Camargo, master in Education and executive director of Instituto Livre pra Escolher, there is a reason beyond ideological issues for focusing on these issues. “This will not change as long as the gateway to public universities is exclusively Enem. If Enem is ideologized, private schools that want their students to be approved at the best public universities will ideologize the material. It’s a question of incentive of the market. There is no point in choosing material that is not ideologized and not preparing students to enter university”, he says.

Anamaria remembers, furthermore, that the academic world has favored a unique vision of reality, which ends up being reflected both in the literary production that reaches schools and in the training of teachers. “There is a kind of echo chamber of identity productions. Researchers form groups in which they cite each other. It’s like a mafia: they themselves publish articles that are referenced within the group itself, and that appear in magazines conducted today by people with the same homogeneous thinking. Then they receive several citations and it becomes a consensus”, he observes.

The result of this, according to the educator, is a growing lack of confidence in formal education. “We are already feeling the effect. The loss of confidence in the science produced at universities is already clear,” she says.

For her, parents concerned about the new trend should not go into conflict with the school management alone: ​​they need to join together with other parents. “What can be done is for parents to form groups. One alone won’t make it. He’ll be accused of being racist, homophobic. They’ll say he doesn’t want his son to learn about diversity. It’s necessary, before exposing himself, to form groups. a group of parents to put pressure on the school. Furthermore, with social networks, it is necessary to spread the word, spread it, show it. There is no point in saying: you have to show photos, data, to put pressure on the school management”, says Anamaria .