Speaking to plus55, Unicamp professor of philosophy Roberto Romano said that prejudice related to social class is something allowed to ferment in schools. “I don’t want to question the intentions of the teachers,” said Romano over the phone. “But what happens is that the prejudice, the racism, the illusion of superiority which is there in our society, it certainly emerges in the consciousness of these students.” “One of the ways that you can tell who someone is here is their work clothes. These technical careers, which you don’t have a diploma for, these careers are despised,” Romano explained. “This is not the school, this is Brazilian society and the Brazilian state.”

Brazilian schools are reinforcing social class stigmas

Students were encouraged to dress as "failures"

Brazil Society

By plus55 on Jun 09, 2017

This week, a high school in southern Brazil ended up reinforcing social class stigmas. The Evangelical Institution of Novo Hamburgo ran an activity called “If nothing works” with students. The school had hoped that it would be a fun exercise to prepare students for college admission exams.
But the high school’s tactic earned widespread criticism on social media. The school invited students to attend in uniforms of professions that they considered “failures.” Among the outfits present, there were vendors, trash collectors, janitors, cooks and domestic maids.

Backlash

One of the first to complain about the exercise was Marcos Ruzon, a porter’s son. Ruzon took to Facebook to speak about his own experiences, and how the activity encouraged prejudice.
“My father retired as a porter,” said Ruzon via the social networking site. “The same that you have in the school entrance, which the parents ‘who things went right for’ don’t greet.”
For Ruzon, who has also worked as a porter, the exercise is not merely poorly planned. It also lacks empathy and nuance. “I saw what it is to eat standing up in the bathroom because there’s no-one to substitute you on the intervals,” he continued.
Ruzon is just one of many who have since spoken up regarding the controversy. Djamila Ribeiro, a political philosopher, also used Facebook to express her distaste for the activity.
“There is no problem in being domestic or attendant, the problem is that we have choices in a society that produces inequalities,” she wrote. “For all those which it didn’t go right for there are privileged mediocres people ‘sucking on the titties’ of racism and class oppression.”

Reflection of wider prejudices

Speaking to plus55, Unicamp professor of philosophy Roberto Romano said that prejudice related to social class is something allowed to ferment in schools.

“I don’t want to question the intentions of the teachers,” said Romano over the phone. “But what happens is that the prejudice, the racism, the illusion of superiority which is there in our society, it certainly emerges in the consciousness of these students.”

“One of the ways that you can tell who someone is here is their work clothes. These technical careers, which you don’t have a diploma for, these careers are despised,” Romano explained. “This is not the school, this is Brazilian society and the Brazilian state.”

A “first class black”

Also this week, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa became the subject of a racist blunder by a current Supreme Court Justice, Luís Roberto Barroso. Barbosa was receiving a Supreme Court honor. Barroso, who was delivering a congratulatory speech, called Barbosa “a first class black” in an attempt to praise the judge.

“The University had the honor to receive a black teacher. A first-rate black from a doctorate from Paris,” Barroso said in an excerpt from the speech about Barbosa’s career.
Barroso was quick to state that he believes all people are “equal in dignity and in law” regardless of race. He said that he regretted “involuntarily and unconsciously reinforcing racist stereotypes” that he has spent his career trying to quash.