Lula’s ministers are barred from Planalto and report discrimination

1970-01-01 02:00:00

The Ministers of Management and Innovation in Public Services, Esther Dweck, of Women, Cida Gonçalves, and of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, told this week that they were barred from entering the Planalto Palace, because, according to them, they were not recognized as members of President Lula’s Esplanade of Ministries (PT). They claim discrimination for being women, black and even for the clothes they wear to work.

The report was given by the ministers at the opening ceremony of the interministerial group to combat harassment in the public service.

During the ceremony, Minister Cida declared that the situation has been recurrent.

“Discrimination goes through what Anielle (Minister of Racial Equality) said about the clothes we wear, the way you look. I always joke that there are days when I arrive at the Palace and the security guards won’t let me in. They say ‘no, you go through that door’. Then I say ‘I don’t look like a minister, I don’t have the size of a minister, nor do I dress like a minister, but I am a minister’. Then Tatiane or the girls in the hallway run out saying ‘she’s a minister’”

The minister also added about the Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco:

“I always joke because Anielle, black, imagines how difficult it must be to convince everyone that she is a minister. Or Silvio Almeida”.

At the same event, Minister Esther Dweck (Management) said that she was also barred from the Planalto Palace and that she does not see it as the fault of security, but of “the culture of Brazilian society of not imagining certain people in certain spaces”.

“When Cida said that she is barred from the Palace, I am barred from the Palace, Anielle is barred from the Palace, and many times it is a third party who is there in security and that is on his mind. This is what is sad, Brazilian society brings this inside. The person who is there has no responsibility for having that reaction, of course, because this is the result of a culture in Brazilian society of not imagining certain people in certain spaces”