Racism in Marketing Academia: A Necessary Discussion and Call for Action

Abstract

The management academy as a whole, and more specifically the marketing academy, have recently recognized the importance of discussions of race and racial issues, which were discussed in a panel at EnAnpad 2021, the most prominent Brazilian management conference and the world's second. The Panel's proposal emerged from reading Francis’ provocative work, which establishes new relationships between structural racism and academic socialization, in which the mechanisms of social exclusion are present. As a result of the Panel’s debate, this paper presents three perspectives on the racialized reality in which we live. The first indicates how much racism conveniently insists on naturalizing privileges mistakenly treated as individual merits for specific groups. The second perspective reminds us how the racialized gaze forces subjugated groups to react, fight, and establish political and legal means. Finally, the third perspective explores a racial landscape, forcing us to ask ourselves how long academics and practitioners in Brazil and abroad will take to recognize ourselves as part of the problem. As a result, we advocate that educational institutions are fundamental to the path of change. Additionally, we propose a non-exhaustive critical agenda for social transformation.