{"id":42644,"date":"2018-04-11T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T10:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=42644"},"modified":"2018-04-12T10:13:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T13:13:25","slug":"brazils-anti-racism-movement-looks-to-martin-luther-king-jr-and-marielle-franco-for-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=42644","title":{"rendered":"Brazil’s Anti-Racism Movement Looks to Martin Luther King Jr. and Marielle Franco for Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Por<\/strong>tugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cInjustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.\u201d\u00a0\u2015\u00a0Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a>,\u00a0Letter from the Birmingham Jail<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fifty years separate the assassinations of the great United States civil rights defender Martin Luther King Jr. and Rio city councillor\u00a0Marielle Franco<\/a>. Yet the discussion of racism<\/a> has never been more paramount for the people of Rio de Janeiro. Last Thursday, April 5, an event<\/a> organized by the youth movement\u00a0RUA<\/a>\u00a0(STREET) in partnership with\u00a0the Theater of the Oppressed<\/a> led an inspiring discussion at the Theater’s center in Rio’s city center<\/a>. The panel included Ronilso Pacheco, member of the Coletivo Nuvem Negra<\/a>\u00a0black student group at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio (PUC); Daniella Monteiro, member of RUA and the Unified Black Movement (MNU)<\/a>; and Wesley Teixeira, also from RUA and the popular college exam prep program +N\u00d3S<\/a>. The evening also included a range of musical talent in honor of Marielle Franco, including Grupo Maracatu Baques do Pina<\/a>, Banda XIX<\/a>, and Supremacia Records<\/a> among many others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ronilso Pacheco, member of PUC’s Coletivo Nuvem Negra, opened the debate by presenting numerous reasons why racism is so persistent<\/a>\u00a0in Brazil. One of his points was the uniqueness of racism there as compared to the United States and how it is necessary to develop a comparative discussion<\/a>. Historically, racism hasn\u2019t been confronted in the same way as in the US, where explicit discrimination through the\u00a0Jim Crows laws<\/a> and racial segregation led to an intense and organized civil rights struggle, in which Martin Luther King Jr. played an integral role. The lack of this confrontation, Pacheco reasoned, has allowed the issue of racism to be discarded from the modern day debate in Brazil surrounding topics to which it is highly related, such as public security<\/a>, health<\/a>, and education<\/a>. In the words of Pacheco, these conditions have created an \u201cefficiency of racism\u201d throughout his country’s history. The \u201cstrategic\u201d avoidance of racism consequently attributes inequality<\/a> to solely social reasons, when in fact, he argued, class and race are intimately intertwined in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s \u201cpeculiarity of racism,\u201d as Pacheco described it, is exacerbated through the role that race plays in police violence<\/a>. He highlighted that the US features cases of oppression by predominantly white local police forces against black communities. However, in Brazil, a large proportion of the police are black, which conveniently obscures the racial aspect from the argument as the perpetrators and victims of police violence often come from the same racial group. Pacheco also emphasized the institutionalized nature of Brazil\u2019s racism and how the efficiency of racism is furthered by “the professors at our universities\u201d who are \u201ccontinuously white<\/a>.” He referred to how the \u201cwork and creative capacity\u201d of black people is habitually \u201cgentrified.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of inequality that stems from institutionalized racism was also addressed by Wesley Teixeira: \u201cOur country has a lot of wealth but we never benefit from this wealth.\u201d According to Oxfam, currently, Brazil\u2019s six richest men hold<\/a> the equivalent wealth of the bottom 50%. Racism \u201crobs\u201d the black people of Brazil, the RUA activist argued. He also highlighted the lack of recent change in Brazilian society as \u201cthe elite has always made slow and gradual changes.\u201d He contrasted this with Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201csense of urgency\u201d for change through peaceful resistance and pointed to the need to replicate this in Brazilian society. Teixeira stressed that just like both Franco and King \u201cwe cannot choose another path,\u201d as their actions \u201cgive us meaning for our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

RUA activist Daniella Monteiro offered a powerful image of black women being at the \u201cbottom of the social pyramid” and \u201cnot recognized\u201d in society. She attributed this social inequality to the lack of black, female government representation<\/a>, reminding the audience that Rio\u2019s previous black female City Councillor<\/a> before Franco was in office more than a decade ago. Marielle Franco, holder of a Masters degree in Public Administration, city councillor, and coordinator of the state government\u2019s human rights commission, was a clear example of an individual personally overcoming and then working to break down such structural racial barriers. Monteiro called on people to use Marielle Franco\u2019s legacy<\/a> and emulate her persistent defiance of social expectations throughout her career<\/a>\u00a0to fight systemic racism.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the evening drew to a close the discussion shifted towards possible future responses to racial inequality by the younger generation. Reflecting on the duration that Franco spent fighting specific issues such as gender violence<\/a> and the\u00a0federal military intervention<\/a>, members of the group in attendance suggested a need for \u201cmass movements\u201d and persistent resistance to the State. Wesley Teixeira presented the example of Rosa Parks’ role in organizing and sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott<\/a>\u00a0in the 1950s, describing boycotting as a form of \u201cart\u201d from which we can gain \u201cpractical learning.\u201d Ronilso Pacheco drew on a positive institutional example from the United States where there are historically black universities<\/a>\u00a0that have produced \u201cintellectuals and revolutionaries.\u201d The replication of such ideas and strategies would allow for the construction of \u201calternative pathways\u201d for young black Brazilians, he said.<\/p>\n

Just as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had different strategies in the US civil rights movement, some audience members questioned whether the kind of peaceful tactics employed by Martin Luther King Jr. are enough to dismantle racism. In response to diverging opinions among the group in attendance, panelists stressed the importance of ongoing debate and openness to variation in strategy. As Brazil\u2019s black youth increasingly look to the legacies of figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and now Marielle Franco, the proverb, \u201cThey tried to bury us but didn’t know we are seeds<\/a>,” resonates even more powerfully. Tying struggles against racism around the world together, Pacheco concluded, \u201cwe are confronting one racism and… fighting for one dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas \u201cInjustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.\u201d\u00a0\u2015\u00a0Martin […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":42646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2689,1288,1290,1333,329,1329],"tags":[2467,2693,842,2622,506,2211,203,878,2692,2449,2691,124,1189,2631,1474],"writer":[2669],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mariellelegacy","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-event-reports","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-black-lives-matter","14":"tag-civil-rights-movement","15":"tag-debate","16":"tag-event","17":"tag-exclusion","18":"tag-favela-representation-in-politics","19":"tag-inequality","20":"tag-international-comparison","21":"tag-malcolm-x","22":"tag-marielle-franco","23":"tag-mlk","24":"tag-race","25":"tag-racism","26":"tag-systematic-maintenance-of-oppression","27":"tag-theatre-of-the-oppressed","28":"writer-hari-pannum"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42644"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=42644"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=42644"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=42644"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=42644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}