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During the 42nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, on 24 September, the World Council of Churches Commission of the Churches on International Affairs presented a statement on racism.
“People of African descent represent a quarter of the population of Central and South America, with 98% of these in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and Ecuador,” reads the statement. “World Bank statistics indicate that they are 2.5 times more likely to live in chronic poverty than whites or those of mixed race.”
The statement notes that discrimination, prejudiced representations in textbooks, inadequate classroom materials and teachers who do not know how to manage racial diversity all limit the school performance of children of African descendants. “The usual portrayal in TV programmes and films, of those of African descent being of lower economic standing, perpetuates the normalisation of inequality,” reads the text. “We welcome the affirmative action policies which some countries have introduced, but these do not go far enough to end the structural poverty of people of African descent.”
The statement calls on the countries in the region to take concrete, practical and time-bound measures to address the structural inequalities which perpetuate poverty and discrimination.
