Afro-descendant Economic Empowerment: Overcoming Challenges And Opening Up New Pathways

Policy Brief 2024 Marcelo Paixao, Aparecida Sueli Carneiro

Economic empowerment for African descent was one of the first strategies the global Black Movement implemented at the beginning of the twentieth century. Amidst multiple conditions, Afro-descent workers usually face regular racial discrimination in job markets, and their relative participation in the business world is still distant from its full potential. It mainly concerns the relatively low educational level of Afrodescents. Parallel aspects of economic disempowerment of Afro descent comprehend precarious social security networks, lack of access to loans, and housing price devaluation. Economic empowerment should not be a synonym for an attitude that places individual achievement ahead of community development and well-being. In this sense, combining economic strategies with parallel and not less crucial initiatives in the political system and collective rights of participation, human rights guarantees, gender equality, and environmental protection is necessary.