10 structural changes needed in 2026 to confront racism in Brazil

Racism in Brazil is neither a behavioral deviation nor a problem limited to interpersonal relations. It structures the State, the market, public policies, and the distribution of rights. Confronting it requires deep political, economic, and symbolic shifts.

In 2026, effectively confronting racism requires:

1. Recognizing racism as a structuring force of societyRacism determines who has access to rights, who is protected by the State, and who remains exposed to violence and precarity. Treating it as a moral exception prevents any real transformation.

2. Producing and using racial data as an instrument of justiceThe absence of disaggregated racial data is not neutral. It renders inequalities invisible and sustains public decisions that benefit historically privileged groups.

3. Treating institutional racism as a human rights violationHealth, education, public security, the justice system, and the labor market reproduce racial inequalities systemically. This is not individual failure; it is institutional functioning.

4. Recognizing the centrality of racial violence in public security policyPolice lethality and mass incarceration disproportionately affect Black youth. Brazil’s public security policy operates as a mechanism of racial control.

5. Implementing anti-racist education as a State policyThe persistent failure to implement Law 10.639/2003 reveals resistance to confronting Brazil’s colonial and slaveholding past. Without curricular reform and teacher training, racism remains the norm.

6. Confronting racism as a system of economic exploitationThe Black population occupies the most precarious jobs, earns the lowest wages, and faces greater food and housing insecurity. Racial justice requires economic redistribution.

7. Treating affirmative action as structural and permanent policyRacial quotas are not temporary concessions, but mechanisms to correct inequalities produced over centuries.

8. Incorporating intersectionality as an analytical and political keyRacism intersects with gender, class, territory, generation, and disability. Black women and peripheral populations experience multiple and overlapping forms of exclusion.

9. Establishing accountability mechanisms for the State and the private sectorConfronting racism cannot rely on individual goodwill alone. It requires rules, targets, monitoring, and institutional sanctions.

10. Assuming the fight against racism as a political priorityWithout public funding, institutional cross-cutting action, and the courage to confront privilege, anti-racist discourse remains symbolic.

Brazilian academic research shows that universal policies, when they fail to incorporate a racial lens, tend to deepen inequalities. Studies published on SciELO indicate that racism structures access to rights, income, health, education, and social protection in Brazil.

Confronting racism is not only about recognizing inequalities.It is about transforming power structures.And this must happen now.