The Construction of Municipal Level Racial Equality Policies

Policies that focus on racial issues span multiple areas, requiring the recognition of intersecting inequalities, an intersectoral approach to the study of inequality. Institutional, political, and bureaucratic barriers have been erected to prevent the establishment of racial equality policies. In this chapter, the author analyzes the creation processes of government agencies and the institutionalization of racial equality policies in three Brazilian state capitals. These data suggest that the variation in results is positively associated with the Black Movement’s power of agency at the local level. The success of racial equality policies requires a tremendous amount of change in key to the actors’ beliefs and values.