Race and gender in social inequality

Abstract

The recent protagonism of black women on television, in academic environments and in political, artistic and cultural movements in the peripheries has been noted. Despite enormous obstacles, they are advancing. Quotas have greatly increased the access of black and indigenous people to higher education, gradually propitiating the emergence of intellectual and professional leaderships in historically marginalized populations. This study initially focuses on the social ascension of black women in the framework of the vigorous social progress that, roughly speaking, took place from 2004 to 2014. It then analyses the impacts of the recent crisis, highlighting the downturn from 2015 and the 2020 disaster. In Brazilian society, where exacerbated individualism predominates, social mobility is associated with consumption patterns. Despite the profound inequality, the State's social neglect and the widespread shortcomings of the majority of the population, the acquisition of goods and services indicates improvement in living conditions. If the expansion of consumption is significant and persistent, poor people can be convinced that they have risen in social class (they have ascended to the middle class), even though they largely remain in the same structural conditions. In recent years, racial and gender issues have received increasing space in the media. However, the true causes of the enormous social inequality in Brazil remain hidden.