The fundamental right to equality on the perspective of racial antidiscrimination: beyond the constitutional racism criminalization warrant.
RACISM - RIGHT TO EQUALITY AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION - CRIMINALIZATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION - REDISTRIBUTION AND RECOGNITION
Despite the scientific denial of human classification into biological races, racial discrimination is perceived as a social issue. Thanks to the belief of a racial democracy, racism was, for many years in Brazil, a widespread practice that resulted from the multicultural background of the Brazilian people (which is a mixture of native indians, the Portuguese European and African slaves). As a result, anti-discriminatory policies ended up being pushed out of the government’s agenda. Nonetheless, sociological studies have shown, inexorably the opposite; discrimination by “race”/skin color is a social virus that widely spread through Brazilian society and as such, the black population became subordinate and alienated from social achievements. For this reason, seeking to effectively safeguard the right to equality through banning racial discrimination, the 1988 Brazilian Federal Constitution broke new grounds, criminalizing racial discrimination, as an ultimate State responsibility enforced by the legislator. Criminal laws then emerged, proscribing discriminatory behavior. Nevertheless, despite the undeniable relevance of such legal mechanisms, criminal laws were not sufficient to prevent this multifaceted and complex social phenomenon (racism) and for this reason, the main goal became to analyze the evolution of the dogmatic process of constitutional realization of the right to equality, in the context of racial non-discrimination, to find theoretical paths able to provide improvement on this matter. It has been noted, through this research, the need for improvement of public policies that provide both economic redistribution of wealth, as well as the recognition to the status, values and culture of black people, to allow and promote the emancipation of this part of the population (now already majority) and to leave behind once and for all, the shadow of slavery.