Not crime, nor punishment: racism from the perspectives of the judiciary and the victims of acts of discrimination

• In Event: El espacio del racismo. Ciudad y discriminación

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated how racism was perceived by judiciary and by victims of racism in Brazil, and discussed whether this experience positively influenced the feeling of self-respect experienced by the latter. We evaluated 119 cases that were considered by us as explicit racist contents. And also interviewed victims of these crimes. Was observed that: 1- most of the insults that resulted in judiciary processes overlapped double discrimination: race and gender. 2- few cases have been punished by anti-racism law. 3- on the side of judiciary, they defended that would have errors on procedures or lack of evidences that would allow them to punish offenders, ignoring the way racism usually occurs in Brazilian society. 4- on the side of the victims, they have shown the desire to resolve this conflict without resorting to punitive measures, despite of the fact that they recurred to the judiciary system. We concluded that: 1- Both (judiciary and victims) disqualify anti-racism law. Judiciary is unable to punish racial crime, and victims prefer education measures to deal with racism. 2- black women in the judicial processes also suffer double or triple discrimination on the grounds of race and gender. 3- victims do not believe in judiciary system. 4- judiciary does not understand the complexity of race relations. Despite of that, they believe to be neutral while acting in trials of racial crimes.
Our findings confirm the existence of race regulations in Brazil.
This research was supported by FAPESP – São Paulo Research Foundation

Author

• Gislene A dos Santos, Universidade de São Paulo