Observatório do Racismo e Xenofobia
Organic Unit: NLS
Research Center: NLS
It was precisely to try to undertand the contours, scope, severity and true weight (seriousness) of the phenomenon in Portugal that the Racism and Xenophobia Observatory was created.
Understanding the dimensions and modalities of discriminatory practices in institutional, academic, professional or other contexts is an essential step to at least be able to construct suggestions for laws (for example: Administrative Offenses or Crimes regarding acts of racial discrimination?) or policies (Put in practice ‘affirmative actions‘?) Supervision taken seriously of compliance with existing rules? Or completely different perspectives?) – and, to begin with, understand what has already been done (research already carried out, which is excellent) and how to undo the Gordian knot of the risks of excessive identity equivalence that leaves out critical analysis of dangers involved (How to classify individuals in the face of obviously outdated and discredited scientific criteria? Is self-identification the decisive one? The only one? Will there be a parallel with gender identity, or no approximation or similarity? And in population censuses, how to do it, after all, after the efforts of the ‘Working Group‘? What results from the Constitution in this matter? Should it be changed? How can we measure discrimination against gypsies, Africans, Brazilians or Ukrainians if we don’t know who – if we don’t identify them – and how many there are?).
There is a lot of work to do and a lot of effort and persistence will be required. We count on the collaboration of anyone who wants to join us to advance research, on a serious academic basis, that allows us to evaluate and diagnose the real situation and, based on what has already been and is being done by researchers in this area or eventually related issues, build proposals and help reduce, hopefully eradicate, the racism and xenophobia that persist in Portuguese society.
This is, it is important to insist, a structural and institutional problem and not an individual moral issue of good or bad intentions – of course it is also the case, but I believe that this is not where an Observatory of this nature finds its reason and justification. to exist.
