IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 2 ENGLISH | Page 44

expose and contract HIV-AIDS and other venereal diseases. There are also frequent pregnancies.
Education
Education in most Afro-descendant communities
that are located in inaccessible, isolated areas operates at a very low level when compared to the
national average. With any luck, one can attend a
primary school, which does not offer anyone the
ability to get dignified, well-paid work. Getting a
professional, secondary or university-level education is extremely expensive because one has to
move to other areas to complete one’s studies
with scholarships, and night classes or work. This
still generally means having to spend too much on
room and board, and most people just cannot afford it.
Racism and racial discrimination
Racial discrimination happens in diverse ways. It
often manifests itself subtly; other times it is
overt. The most frequent forms of it occur in hiring situations, or as verbal and social abuse by
means of language whose connotation is clearly
racist.
Afro-descendants, and black women in particular,
are discriminated against when they seek dignified employment or even just want a better quality
of life. In some countries, Afro-descendants’ access to public spaces is limited and disdained in
full view of the authorities. Intentionally racist
and exclusionary euphemisms about black people
persist in signs like “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Admission” in bars, restaurants and places
for public entertainment and VIP locations, and in
signs like “Private Residence” or “Private Condominium,” which create obstacles for them. Classified ads often include language such as
“Wanted: Someone Presentable” to let everyone

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know that this position, like many, is off limits for
black or indigenous people.
In some countries, a job application must include
a photo, which serves as a filter by which to limit
access for black people. These are subtle mechanisms that have been denounced by the U.N.
Committee on the Elimination of Racism because
they violate people’s dignity and rights.
All these expressions stem from the dominant
value system, which is based upon the racist prejudices and stereotypes that disdain almost everything that references or symbolizes the black race.
This is “structural racism”; it is legitimated, institutionalized and rooted in popular culture.
Racism has become one of the primary obstacles
that are keeping black men and women from having access to many opportunities and benefits
common for the rest of the population. For
women, it is noteworthy that their exclusion is obvious, despite the agreements created by the
Women’s Action Platform approved by the
United Nations, in Beijing, in 1995. Even if there
has been much progress in the improvement of
the lives of women in almost all countries, the
problem persists for black women.
We should not lose sight of the fact that racism is
an ideology imposed by a dominant group; it is
culturally and socially rooted in the consciousness of most of the population and is still being
reproduced and sustained via the idea of “white
supremacy” by various mechanisms. Racism is
even practiced by people who are not white, but
feel and act is if they were.
Domestic violence
Another no less important problem is the psychological, physical and sexual violence that is often
practiced against black women. It is one of the
primary manifestations of gender discrimination.