Colonial Legacies in Times of 'Black Lives Matter'

CES Studies

Diversidade cultural nas políticas públicas: uma análise das Leis 10.639/03 e 11.645/08

Marcos Antonio Batista da Silva

Maria Sílvia Ribeiro

Exitus Journal

About

In the field of studies of ethnic-racial relations, within the POLITICS project (ERC 725402) we researched the Brazilian university context and learned that since 2003 the State has been implementing public educational policies, following the example of Laws 10.639/03 and 11.645/08 (Afro-Brazilian and indigenous history and culture), a conquest for the social movements, mainly the Brazilian Black Movement. However, the critical analyses concerning national identity point to academic discourses, with rare exceptions, focused on Eurocentric narratives, without due consideration to the issues of the Brazilian Black and indigenous population. We argue the importance of greater engagement of the academic community with anti-racist education, decolonising curricula, breaking up silences, proposing changes in epistemological references, incorporating and mobilising new subjects to combat racism.