Diversity and Inclusion in the Brazilian Corporate Sector: The Interplay of Public and Private Discourses in a National Struggle for Human Rights

This senior thesis in Latin American Studies discusses the recent rise in Diversity and Inclusion trends in the Brazilian private sector as of 2021. It considers these corporate trends as cooptation mechanisms encroaching larger social demands for rights, while also promoting individual advancement inside the neoliberal late-capitalist logic. It also positions the Brazilian context inside a global network of geopolitical influences, which shapes the Brazilian way of making Diversity and Inclusion in very interesting and troublesome ways. The current government in the country is considered to be one that companies want to ideologically distance themselves from, while also avoiding the rupture of historical public-private ties, adding another layer of complexity to this market-mediated trend. Moving forward, a more critical approach to what diversity and inclusion really means inside this corporate context is necessary, so that "minoritized" populations can have fairer conditions for joining the labor force. This corporate movement is paving the way for new forms of conducting business transactions, in Brazil and in Latin America as a whole.