Today, September 15, International Day of Democracy, we are sharing an invitation from Professor Helio Santos, a member of the Humanitas360 Institute’s advisory board, to join the Voto Antirracista (Anti-Racist Vote) campaign. With the first round of elections just weeks away, it is worth remembering that Black people make up about 56% of Brazil’s population, yet held only 26% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22% in the Federal Senate in 2022, not to mention the state legislative assemblies, which will also be renewed in this election. An initiative of UNEafro Brasil in partnership with the news outlets Alma Preta and Notícia Preta, the campaign reminds us that this gap can be narrowed now, through the vote.
Helio Santos is one of the most respected voices in Brazil’s Black movement. In 1984, he was the founding president of the first government body created in the country to address racial inequality after abolition. In 1986, he was the only Black member of the 50-person Commission of Notables that drafted the preliminary text of the 1988 Constitution. Years later, he coordinated the working group that put affirmative action on the national agenda. At 81, he has just published the book 14 de Maio: Lições de Resistência ao Racismo (May 14th: Lessons in Resisting Racism, Zahar), in which he revisits abolition to reflect on the effects of racism that persist to this day.
It is this track record that underpins the professor’s call to action for the Anti-Racist Vote campaign, themed “Democracy and Black Representation.” In his view, the platform comes at a strategic moment, given challenges that Black Brazilians have never before faced in this way at the ballot box. The Humanitas360 Institute supports this initiative because, like Helio Santos, it believes that fighting racism is a precondition for a full democracy.
Watch the video below and learn more about the campaign at votoantirracista.org.
