If we minimally reflect on the issue, we will have no difficulty perceiving what the educational system in Brazil is instilling in terms of racism: textbooks, teachers' attitude in the classroom and in moments of recreation, the system points to a brainwashing process of such order that the child no longer recognises herself as being black. And it is these ‘exceptions’ that, appropriately coopted, ultimately affirm the absence of racism and its practices. When, in the opposite case – i.e., for non-acceptance of cooptation and the denunciation of the process of super-exploitation – black is subjected to, immediately there is the accusation of 'reverse racism' (Lelia Gonzalez 1979).

The black intellectual, philosopher and activist Lelia Gonzalez, one of our Brazilian candaces, reminds us that in Brazil, historically, black men and women are in a position of disadvantage in formal education, as well as other spheres of social welfare. The last two presidents of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1994–2001) and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (2002–10) recognised the existence of a racism that plagues the social fabric, the individual and their interpersonal relations. However, due to the mobilisation around the International the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women,[1] what perspectives have been placed for black women and young girls, as well as black men and young boys in Brazil?

There has been a significant investment in maintaining the role of black women as being unintelligent, relegated only to housework chores and being commanded by white women. Would the image of the illiterate housemaid, caricatured, animalised, ‘big lipped’ and a ‘coal monkey’ be the only place that society reserves and allows as the place of visibility for the black woman? Despite the efforts of organisations working on human rights, black entities, educators and black researchers engaged in combating racism and prejudice, the book ‘Caçadas de Pedrinho’ (‘Pete’s Hunting’) by Monteiro Lobato has not gone through any rigorous evaluation regarding specifically the issue of race and it was approved by the evaluators of National Library Programme in School (PNBE).

Notably, in 2005 we were led to believe that progress had been made in the book policy of the programmes of the Ministry of Education (MEC) – the National Library Programme in School (PNBE), the National Textbook Programme (PNLD) and the National Book of High School Programme (PNLEM) – to contemplate the principle of respect to ethno-racial diversity. The announcements of these programmes categorically state that ‘it will be excluded from the collections books that do not obey the following rules’ (Edict PNBE/2010), ‘it will be summarily disposed of the works that do not comply with the following criteria’ (Edict PNLD 2010), and ‘All works must conform to legal principles’ (Edict PNLEM 2007).

All these programs mention, among other laws, the National Educational Bases and Guidelines and its amendments and CNE / CP No. 003/2004 of 10.3.2004 and Resolution CNE / CP No. 1, 17/06/2004, which are featured on the National Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations and the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African History. The PNBE’s edict cites the Children and Adolescents Statute and the latter two also cite Law No. 10639/2003, which made compulsory the teaching of History and Afro-Brazilian Culture in the official curriculum of education.

The rules of the National Library Programme in School report explicitly that works that ‘convey stereotypes and preconceptions about social, regional, ethnic, racial, gender condition, sexual orientation, age or language, as well as any other form of discrimination or violation of rights’ will be excluded. Given this political game it is clear that the edicts have been changed in their content, but were not able to change the criteria of the evaluator and therefore did not alter the process and forms for evaluation and selection of racist and prejudiced books.

Thus, in 2010, unfortunately we are faced with the failure of the exclusion criteria of the works submitted to the process of evaluation of these programmes, since both the rules of notice as well as the political position of the Brazilian Ministry of Education run counter to what was proposed and disclosed in their respective announcements. Therefore, there was the need for the National Education Council (CNE) to develop the report CNE/CEB No.: 15/2010, advising on the situation and considering historical, educational, cultural and identity implications for the selection of the book ‘Pete’s Hunting’, due to its explicitly discriminatory and racist content.

What's behind a political book management that makes changes to their edicts and publishes them, making it look like they are complying with the law, but actually produces quite the opposite effect? What's behind the Brazilian publishing cartels controlled by some foreign corporations submitting racist books for selection of the Brazilian Ministry of Education programmes? That is how the white supremacist social power evinces its social power, because in spite of being aware of the rules for book selection, books with racist content are submitted, selected and approved. In fact, these book programmes are used as ideological state apparatus, which demonstrate to efficiently serve the production, reproduction and reinforcement of discriminatory practices, especially towards black girls and young black women.

It should then be asked: Who are these reviewers? How many black experts who specialise in children's literature belong to the evaluation team? What effective changes occurred in the policy of the National Library Programme in School, after the approval of anti-racist legal federal requirements previously mentioned? Yet one must question and investigate: How is the ethno-racial theme being implemented in MEC internal and external instances? How is the budget policy planned to conduct training programmes and training courses and how has the Department of Basic Education prepared our education professionals to deal with education for racial equality?

We need our black specialists not only as part of teams that make up these programmes, but as their managers and coordinators in order to actualise a policy of ethno-racial inclusion and diversity. We also need specialists in teaching materials on this theme, integrating the publishing industry, especially when publishers submit their books to the book programmes.

How can we conceive as normal, natural and legal to buy books that convey openly racist terms as ‘coal monkey’ and ‘stinking black vulture’, as stated in ‘Pete’s Hunting’? If the fact that a character is identified as ‘coal monkey’ does not fit the definition of stereotype and stigma, we must change all the academic literature on the subject. For example, Goffman, Bendelow, Gillian and Williams, Ana Celia da Silva, Esmeralda Negrão, Fulvia Rosemberg, Regina Pahim Pinto, Edith Piza, among other prestigious authors have showed in their studies how prejudice and stereotypes are harmful to children and adolescents. Therefore, taking into consideration to MEC’s decision, the scholarly reference to the subject no longer serves to guide further research and analysis.

If the MEC failed to fulfil the goal of teacher training, if Brazilian universities have not established disciplines for the education of race relations, with some exceptions, where does the certainty that our teachers are prepared to – once a child gets in touch with a racially prejudiced text that has already negatively affected their self-concept and self-image – provide new elements for the non-crystallisation of these stereotypes and their overcoming? Why subject our black children to the painful exercise of reading ‘Aunt Nastasya, forgetful of her many rheumatisms, climbed the tree, just like a coal monkey’?

Why opt for distributing a book that is confirmedly an attack to the image of black women: ‘… nor even aunt Nastasya, who has black flesh’? Why invest in the destructive, shocking and terrorist image ‘… birds, from the stinking black vulture up to this jewel of wings’ and then bet that the teacher will properly elaborate such text in a classroom in a racist society like Brazil?

Undoubtedly, this context is only to show that the traditional tricks of the technologies of power applied by conservative groups who can only see and wish for policies that favour the ‘white’ intelligentsia. Thus, these groups maintain an economic supremacy at the expense of the selection of books paid for with public money, this way spreading a racist ideology, as expressed through stereotyped texts, which are vilifying and disrespectful to the black characters. Now what we can clearly perceive is that managers, technicians and others who are responsible for these book programmes do not take the Brazilian legislation seriously, and take even less seriously an anti-racist education for all. A similar racist situation has been denounced worldwide and lawsuits were filed against the state, for example, in the US (‘From Slave Ship to Freedom Road’[2] by Julius Lester) and in Belgium (‘Tintin in the Congo’[3] – comic strips created by the Belgian Georges Rémi, who used the pen name of Hergé).

Let us hunt, yes, this racism Brazilian-style, and any work that violates human rights and the principle of existence with dignity. Let us question the government officials who play with the Brazilian educational system and not implement an anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic education in their programmes. Let us hunt white supremacy, spread in positions of power in government bodies, which diverts the focus of discussions about inequalities and rights of Afro-Brazilians. Let us change the unfair economic policy, that does not hesitate when it comes to power, preparation, assessment and distribution of books to schools in the country.

The MEC and educational systems must review their policies of evaluation and selection of book programmes. Furthermore, the MEC must prescribe the participation of researchers, activists and educators who are able to work with the victims of discrimination and stereotyping in pedagogical materials during the whole process of book evaluation and selection. Otherwise, we will not be able to live in a democratic society in which the excluded groups can read books with complex, beautiful, diverse and dream-worthy stories about themselves. Lobato did not allow that Snow White, Cinderella and Uncle Scrooge were the only icons for the juvenile imagination of our children, youth and adults. However, it is true that in the 1930s, the author was not concerned with the valorisation of black children, nor the strengthening of their self-esteem.

Thus what is left for us is to criticise, to protest and to file lawsuits, demanding that the state takes appropriate action in relation to racist books, or we shall have to relinquish once and for all the discourse of valuing diversity and promoting racial equality in education in Brazil. We are entitled to children's literature that places the black character on a par with invention, imagination and the dreamy, smart, rich and diverse characteristics that historically have only favoured the image of white characters. We require that the books sent to public schools are conducive to an aesthetic, ethics and a playful self-image and self-esteem for black children and young black women as well as for white children and youngsters.

We hope for child and youth narratives which are truly configured to positively enrich the imaginary of the reader. We want rich stories and illustrations to read properly and leave us enthralled with the mysteries and secrets, preparing us to deal with life's challenges. We aim at honoured texts that provide ways of interaction and to establish healthy relations with multiple cohabitation as living and nonliving beings forming part of the world we share.

We demand that you, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the Minister of Education Fernando Haddad and the Secretary of Basic Education Maria do Pilar Lacerda Almeida e Silva, correct this error and make a commitment with the urgent need to recognise the existence of racism in these books and materials, actively fighting it aligned with what is stated in our constitution. Moreover, we demand that those authorities take proactive positions, forwarding all procedures that may be required by the publishing market, the commission evaluators and the organisation of training courses for teachers, among others.

It is a fact that the first woman elected president of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, knows the impact of trauma and stigma that violence, torture and dictatorial Brazil have imprinted in her life. After the death of three women during the dictatorship of the Dominican Republic in 1960, only in 1991 was a campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women established, beginning on 25 November and ending on 10 December. Definitely we do not aspire to have our black candace girls perverted and violently marked in the classrooms of this country as a ‘coal monkey’ or ‘stinky black vulture’, and not for any other racist terms that should have been already abolished. Rather, we wish that the narratives about our candaces be spread and their diversity through books for children throughout this country.

Let us fight against the violence towards women, youth and children and against the discriminatory content in this ‘Pete’s Hunting’ book. We should not allow that a narrative that appeals to the abominable use of stereotypes, as well as discriminatory texts and illustrations holding the image of black female characters, stain our history of struggle.

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* ‘Candace girls’ is a term that means the queen mother and has been used to describe the political-economic, religious, cultural, educational and military queens of the African kingdom of Meroe, well before the Christian era in ancient Egypt, where are located today’s Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt itself.
* Andréia Lisboa de Sousa is a specialist in children’s and youth literature. She is co-author of ‘An Eye on Culture: Views of Afro-Brazilian Studies’ (Ministry of Culture and Federal University of Bahia/CEAO, 2005), which won the National Competition Textbooks on Afro-Brazilian Culture.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] On 25 November 1960, three activist sisters (Patrícia, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal, known as Las Mariposas) were tortured and violently killed on orders of Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. On account of this atrocity, during the first Feminist Summit – held in 1981 in Bogotá, Colombia – the Latin America and the Caribbean Day was established to fight against violence against women. In 1999, eighteen years later, the United Nations officially designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
[2] Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/father-sues-detroit-district-over-slavery-reading_n_782174.html
[3] Source: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/95785-tintin-to-be-sued-for-being-racist-and-xenophobic.html?p=6&a=95785