Steve Biko

06.06.2012 20:29

Sometimes life is serendipitous, as it was for me today. I was supposed to work at Didá, but it was cancelled so I joined my colleagues at Steve Biko. I mentioned before that it’s a high school institute for black Brazilians. Today, our task was to mingle with the kids in their English class and help with grammar and vocabulary as needed. There was also a small group of college students with more English experience who wanted to practice conversation. My colleague Chelsea and I were paired with Elisman, a University student that helped us understand why an institute such as Steve Biko is so important in Brazilian society, beyond just fostering pride in black identity. Basically, it goes like this: Public schools in Brazil are free; however, the quality isn’t always that great. Those who have enough money pay for their kids to go to private school do so. Then, for college the system takes a twist. Private colleges cost money and are not as good; public university is 100% subsidized by the state and is of very high caliber. It’s extremely difficult to get in to the federal university as it is fiercely competitive and you have to pass an exceptionally difficult entrance exam (think GRE or LSAT straight out of high school  and make it even harder). So, who gets into public university? Those who have gone through paid private school, most of whom are white (meaning of European descent, which could be Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian—essentially anyone without African blood). The cycle of poverty and crime that exists within the black community already puts them at a disadvantage, and college is beyond feasibility for most, contributing to the unbalanced representation of Brazilians within the public university system and eventually in positions of power (business, political, academia, etc.) Kids at Steve Biko, however, are gaining skills for that chance and it was an honor for me today to get to be a small part of that!