Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.5, No.10 Publication Date: Oct. 25, 2018 DoI:10.14738/assrj.510.5483. Gomes, C. (2018). Racism and Gender Intersections Among Poor Urban Families The Role Of Inclusive Policies. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 5(10) 466-473. Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 466 Racism and Gender Intersections Among Poor Urban Families The Role Of Inclusive Policies Cristina Gomes Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO Mexico, Mexico. ABSTRACT This article analyses how social policies affect the relationships of female beneficiaries with their partners, relatives, friends and neighbours in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, Brazil. Relations between groups can involve gender discrimination, racism and social prejudices, which is understandable within the concept of intersectionality, in comparison to the framework of intergroup competition for scarce resources or according to the perspective of realistic intergroup conflicts. Methods: A qualitative methodology combined interviews with beneficiaries of Conditioned Cash Transfers programs (CCT) and other social programs, as well as with focus groups comprising of these beneficiaries, their relatives, friends and neighbours. Results: social programs have been able to reduce the impact of poverty and have improved gender empowerment and partners’ relationships within the families. However, prejudices and intergroup conflicts emerge between beneficiaries with small children and their friends or neighbours, (mainly childless women who applied but were not considered poor and do not receive social benefits). Discussion: Results confirm the hypothesis of realistic intergroup competition. Moreover, racism persists in poor communities, indicating that intersectionality should be included in the framework of affirmative policies and education to promote equality values should be reinforced in order to mitigate race discrimination and intergroup conflicts. Keywords: Poverty, Social Policies, Gender, Racism, Intersectionality, Intergroup Conflicts INTRODUCTION The feeling of deprivation lies in the context of competition for scarce resources and is related to frustration and aggression [1]. According to Maslow “ the phenomenon of threatening frustration is closely allied to other threat situations much more than it is to mere deprivation. The classic effects of frustration are also found in other types of threat-traumatization, conflict, rejection, severe illness, actual physical threat, imminence of death, humiliation, isolation, or loss of prestige”[2]. The role of perceptions about social injustice and its intergroup expression in the construction of discriminatory and racist positions starts from the concept of intergroup relative deprivation: the distorted feeling that an out-group – women, blacks, poor people or beneficiaries of a social policy – occupies a situation perceived as unjustifiably better than the in-group. Conflicts of interest would be at the origin of discrimination and racism. Tajfel's theory associates prejudice with symbolic competition, and with relations between categorizations, social asymmetries and discrimination[3]. All these theories articulate individual and ideological differences in intergroup relations. Poverty studies show that black people are clearly in worse socioeconomic conditions compared to whites in Brazil and the USA. Sherif et al suggests that there are real or imagined negative interdependence relations between groups, which would be the source of prejudice or