Friar David Santos: ‘The STF is not in Switzerland, but in a mixed country’

Director of the NGO Educafro, focused on promoting racial equality, Friar David Santos intends to ask President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to appoint a black person to replace Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, who will retire in May, at the Supreme Court federal (STF). In an interview with Stadium, felt this would be a way for the PT to honor the diversity commitment it made in the campaign. The religious and activist is preparing to travel to Brasilia in the next few days, where he will try to meet Lula.

20 years ago, during its inaugural term in Planalto, the PT appointed then-prosecutor Joaquim Barbosa to the Supreme Court, who became the first person of color to preside over the Court. There, he gained notoriety for acting as the draftsman for the Monthly Indemnity, a bribery program through which the Executive Branch secured support for Congress.

The friar argued that any black minister in the STF would send a positive signal to young people. “If I turn on the TV and it’s just black people getting beaten up by the police, I grow up with this unresolved self-esteem. You also have to dream big things.” He also said he did not expect the defense to have a “priority agenda” in court. The important thing, he stressed, is to show society that a black person judges any issue with the same quality as other judges.

The NGO defends the name of André Nicolitt before the Court. The judge holds a doctorate in law from the Catholic University of Portugal and is a professor in the graduate program at the Faculdade dos Guararapes (UNIFG). According to the friar, blacks with “very high legal practice” are not chosen for the STF because they do not have relationships with influential people – or, as he terms it, because they are not “friends of the king”.

What indication does a black minister give society about the Supreme?

It shows that Brazil is evolving in its human capacity to value inclusion and respect for what is different. At the same time, Brazil is sympathetic to what they have signed. Brazil has signed the United Nations treaty to guarantee diversity in all spaces, against all forms of discrimination and exclusion (the country is part of the International Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination). Well, it’s easy to sign up, but what about fulfillment? We are 56.2% Afro-Brazilian and in the STF we are 0%. Where is the representativeness so promised by the left? Our STF is not in Switzerland, but in this amazing mixed country that is Brazil.

Does Educafro intend to formally deliver the nominations to President Lula?

As soon as this interview comes out, I want to deliver it to President Lula. It’s our plan. In the next few days I will go to Brasilia. If Lula is faithful to his human trajectory, he will look for judges who, in addition to the constitutional values ​​of spotless legal knowledge, have already suffered from hunger, have been persecuted by security guards and taken “hard” by the police. We cannot have a STF made up only of those who have never taken the bus to go to work or who have not experienced what Lula and the poor have gone through and are going through. In the STF, we need judges who carry people’s pain and colors.

Is there any document with indications?

Yes, there are already several Afro-Brazilian entities that produce documents indicating the names of Afro-Brazilian women and men. We want this to be a healthy dispute, in which we are a party.

Do you think the president is willing to do that?

This is the big question mark. In the campaign, the fight against structural racism was a commitment. When he chose the ministers he managed, between blacks and browns, to place seven. Now, when choosing STF ministers, we hope that the chosen one is not a “friend of the king”, but someone who serves Brazil, with a commitment to democracy. We understand that our candidate is a top-ranking Democrat. We did a quick survey and have over ten black men and women with postdoctoral degrees and very high legal experience. Why aren’t they chosen? Because they are not “friends of the king”.

Do you think a black judge entering the STF should have a priority agenda?

Our problem is not having a priority agenda, because the STF, of all the courts in Brazil, is already the most honest in terms of respect for indigenous, Afro, quilombola, women’s and LGBT diversity. It is the most sensitive. So, we’re absolutely sure that the discussion isn’t about having a guy who is our advocate; no, he is someone who will show society that a black judge judges as good or better than any other judge, in any matter.

An argument, then, is to inspire Black children?

We are aware that the visual example is decisive in the modern world. If I turn on the television and there are only black people being beaten by the police, and only white people are in charge, I grow up with this unresolved self-esteem. If I bring in a black person as STF minister, I will refer to young people. They too need to dream big things. Children and adolescents cannot imagine themselves forever on the edge of their father and mother.

The information comes from the newspaper The State of São Paulo.

Source: Terra

Rose

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