It's the media that should resign.

The case of journalist William Waack is stirring strong emotions. Many are demanding his immediate dismissal; others believe he has become the victim of an exaggerated inquisitorial campaign. They defend the "educated journalist" and the "fighter" against Brazilian conservatism.

The main problem in this controversy, as often happens in Brazil today, is the "personalization" of a debate that should be much broader. The analysis of a relevant and complex topic is replaced by hatred or affection for specific individuals.

Brazil is a deeply racist and markedly unequal country. Our oligarchies and vast sectors of the white middle classes hate or despise blacks and the poor in general. At most, they are condescending and paternalistic towards the "underclass," and believe that charity, not politics, can resolve our atavistic inequality, as well as ease their consciences.

Data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) and many studies by IPEA (Institute for Applied Economic Research) and other institutions, as well as classic sociological works, show an abysmal socioeconomic difference between the white population and the Afro-descendant population, which can only be explained by the existence of powerful mechanisms that prevent the social and economic advancement of Black people in Brazil. Thus, racism and inequality, associated with the very long historical period of slavery in Brazil, the last nation to abolish racism in the West, are the most striking characteristics of our society. Our poverty has a color. Our inequality separates colors.

These characteristics are ingrained in our culture and daily life. joke The journalist's disgusting comment, and others like it, I've heard countless times in restaurants and gatherings of "respectable people." It's ubiquitous and tolerated cruelty. In this sense, the journalist's inadvertent recording only exposes a racism that is as widespread as it is hidden and denied.

A few years ago, I attended a meeting of consultants from the Chamber of Deputies, "very educated" people, like Waack, and a group of American military personnel who came to Congress to learn a little about our legislative process and Brazil in general. To my astonishment, one of the consultants, repeating the clichés of Gilberto Freire, stated that, due to our intense miscegenation, in Brazil, unlike in the USA, there was no racism. In short, he reproduced the worn-out myth of our supposed "racial democracy," confusing race with racism.

To my utter astonishment, I was the only one among the approximately 20 people present to challenge the "thesis." I cited, among others, Florestan Fernandes, whose work, "The Integration of the Black Person into Class Society," completely dismantles this and other Brazilian racial myths. It was no use; I remained isolated and stunned.

I mention this little story to illustrate that racism and the ideologies that justify or deny it are not merely remnants of a slave-owning past, but fundamental factors in the functioning of our savage capitalism and our society of rigid hierarchy and grotesque inequality.

Indeed, racism is systematically reproduced and reinforced in "modern" Brazil through a series of economic, social, and cultural mechanisms. And, like the devil, its main trick is to convince people that it doesn't exist.

In this sense, our oligopolized media, controlled by a small group of very wealthy white families, has played and continues to play a central role in its reproduction.

It is known that a well-known director-journalist from the same network where Waack works published a very successful book denying the existence of racism in Brazil. Similarly, the campaign promoted by our media against the affirmative action policies implemented by the PT governments to combat the disguised, but very effective, Brazilian racism became quite well-known. The quota system, for example, was demonized, and it was even stated, in no uncertain terms, that the government was "creating" racism in a non-racist country. Similar campaigns were launched against social policies that primarily benefit the Afro-descendant population, such as the Bolsa Família program. Furthermore, in the television dramas ubiquitously shown in Brazil, Afro-descendants almost always appeared in a position of social, cultural, and intellectual inferiority, which contributed, and still contributes, to reinforcing crude stereotypes. The same occurred and occurs in comedy programs.  

Given this, one must ask whether Waack's "joke" is merely an individual slip-up or whether it reflects a worldview that is hegemonic in the environment in which he works. I am more inclined to believe the latter.

We must also inquire into what causes the most harm to our people of African descent, whether it is... joke It's either Waack's bad taste or the systematic, "good taste," and supposedly sophisticated dissemination of the vision of a racially democratic Brazil that depends solely on "meritocracy" to remedy the historical inequality between blacks and whites. In this case too, I'm more inclined to believe the second hypothesis.

Should Waack be fired? I'm not sure, and I don't approve of the cathartic, yet ineffective, punitivism that only affects individuals with sterile hatred.

Of one thing, however, I am convinced. If they are not hypocritical and take this business of fighting racism and inequality seriously, all the old media should resign and leave our public life.

They've already caused too much damage. And that wasn't a joke.