tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/marielle-franco-52035/articlesMarielle Franco – The Conversation2020-11-24T13:09:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505212020-11-24T13:09:11Z2020-11-24T13:09:11Z‘My vote will be Black’ – A wave of Afro-Brazilian women ran for office in 2020 but found glass ceiling hard to break<p>Messages urging Afro-Brazilians to support Black candidates filled social media in the days before Brazil’s Nov. 15, 2020 elections. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.forummarielles.com/">Do not forget your masks, your identification, a pen and that you are BLACK!!!</a>”</p>
<p>“This Sunday my vote will be Black.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawing of a Black woman in a face mask doing a Rosy the Riveter-style show of strength" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370902/original/file-20201123-13-15b8sb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A Facebook post before Brazil’s election promising, ‘This Sunday my vote will be Black.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span></span>
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<p>People of African descent make up 56% of Brazil’s population and <a href="https://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/no-congresso-so-178-dos-parlamentares-sao-negros-24091102">just 17.8% of its Congress</a>. But Black political participation is surging in Brazil, especially in local government. </p>
<p>Some 250,840 Black Brazilians <a href="https://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/politica/2020/09/4878301-maioria-de-candidatos-a-vereadores-e-preta-e-parda-a-prefeitos-branca.html">ran for city council this year</a>, up from 235,105 in 2016. When the winners take office, Afro-Brazilians will make up 44% of city councils nationwide.</p>
<p>Afro-Brazilian women also saw significant firsts in the 2020 election, winning 14% of city council seats nationwide. In the 2016 election, Afro-Brazilian women won just <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-43424088.amp">3.9% of city council seats</a>.</p>
<p>Black women still hit a hard glass ceiling when aiming for higher office, though. Just <a href="http://www.generonumero.media/camara-dos-deputados-tera-mais-mulheres-brancas-negras-e-indigena-e-menos-homens-brancos-em-2019/">13 of the 513 representatives in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress are Afro-Brazilian women</a>, and the 81-member Senate has only one Black woman, <a href="https://www.metropoles.com/brasil/politica-brasil/parlamentares-pretas-ou-pardas-sao-apenas-236-do-congresso">Eliziane Gama</a>. The first Black woman to have served as governor in Brazil, Benedita da Silva, this year <a href="https://valor.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/11/14/eduardo-paes-tem-41percent-dos-votos-validos-crivella-tem-16percent-e-benedita-da-silva-13percent-diz-ibope.ghtml">lost her race to be mayor of Rio de Janeiro</a>.</p>
<p>But winning isn’t necessarily the only reason Afro-Brazilian women hit the campaign trail.</p>
<h2>The Marielle effect</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/sexism-racism-drive-more-black-women-to-run-for-office-in-both-brazil-and-us-104208">Black women’s political participation has soared in Brazil</a> since the 2018 <a href="https://theconversation.com/assassination-in-brazil-unmasks-the-deadly-racism-of-a-country-that-would-rather-ignore-it-94389">assassination of Marielle Franco</a> in Rio de Janeiro. Franco was a Black lesbian city councilwoman who advocated for the city’s poor Black slum communities, in what Brazilian media dubbed the “<a href="https://www.nexojornal.com.br/ensaio/2020/Qual-o-efeito-Marielle-para-a-pol%C3%ADtica-brasileira">the Marielle Effect</a>.”</p>
<p>“Marielle’s murder could have had a chilling effect upon Black candidates, [but] it instead inspired a wave of Black candidacies,” writes the Afro-Brazilian scholar Dalila Negreiros <a href="https://nacla.org/Black-women-Brazil-2020-elections">in the leftist publication NACLA Report on the Americas</a>.</p>
<p>Even before Franco’s killing, there were many Black women politicians – and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/9781316637043">my research shows how they opened</a> the door for groundbreaking candidacies like Franco’s. Trailblazers include Benedita da Silva as well as <a href="https://www.camara.leg.br/deputados/141455">Janete Pietá</a>, who represented São Paulo in Congress from 2007 to 2015.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Silva, a black woman, holds up a smiling young child as a crowd looks on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370889/original/file-20201123-17-1lxim7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Benedita da Silva of the Workers Party on the campaign trail in Rio in 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/benedita-da-silva-the-brazilian-labor-partys-candidate-for-news-photo/52029054?adppopup=true">Avanir Niko/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>I interviewed Pietá and many other Black female politicians in Brazil between 2004 and 2007. This was during Brazil’s <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brazil-the-worlds-next-economic-superpower-09-12-2010/">economic boom under the leftist president Inacio Lula da Silva</a>. Most of the women whose campaigns I studied were from Lula’s Workers Party, but one, Eronildes Carvalho, was a right-leaning evangelical. </p>
<p>I found that the women often used race and gender in their campaigns to mobilize voters, especially in predominantly Black cities. </p>
<p>When running for Congress, Pietá told me she wore bright colors and did her hair in interesting styles, with short braids in the front, like bangs, and longer braids in the back, to show pride in her African ancestry – “even though it looks like a joke” to some. </p>
<p>“A large part of the Brazilian population…have origins of African-descent. Nevertheless, some of them are not conscious of this,” Pietá told me.</p>
<p>Olivia Santana also put her race and gender up front when running for city council in the northeastern city of Salvador in 2004. She proudly announced herself as the “<a href="https://politicalivre.com.br/artigos/eu-tambem-quero-olivia/">Negona da cidade</a>,” the big Black woman of the city. </p>
<p>“It was a slogan that was more about the history of elections, of Black participation in elections,” Santana told me in 2006. “My campaign made the Black racial question visible.” </p>
<p>While city council members may see their race and gender as an asset, I found <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2009.00058.x">Afro-Brazilians running for federal office did not believe racial appeals would be helpful</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of Santana, wearing braids" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370891/original/file-20201123-21-t4jot3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Olivia Santana in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Ol%C3%ADvia_Santana.jpg">Mateus Pereira/AGECOM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>More than a campaign</h2>
<p>I could not find polling on national perceptions of Black women to verify whether the candidates’ perceptions were backed up by data. But Brazil’s relationship with race is fraught – and that fact is well documented.</p>
<p>Though long mythologized as a mixed-race “racial democracy,” the reality in Brazil is more black and white.</p>
<p>As in the United States, Black people in Brazil have generally worse health, employment and economic outcomes than white people. They are <a href="https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/saude/2020/06/05/negros-morrem-40-mais-que-brancos-por-coronavirus-no-brasil">40% more likely to die of COVID-19 than whites</a> and despite <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/542840797">some affirmative action policies</a> face higher unemployment. Black men are killed daily by the <a href="https://www.medicina.ufmg.br/jovens-negros-tem-27-mais-chances-de-serem-assassinados-que-os-brancos/">military police who patrol the streets of many poor – and heavily Black – neighborhoods in Brazil</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Inequality continues even for Afro-Brazilians who climb the social ladder. White college graduates <a href="https://economia.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,negros-tem-mais-dificuldade-de-encontrar-emprego-e-recebem-ate-31-menos-que-brancos,70003077938">earn 45% more than their Afro-Brazilian peers</a>.</p>
<p>When a Black man, João Freitas, was beaten and killed by two white security guards at a supermarket in Porto Alegre on Nov. 19, 2020, President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismissive comment was “<a href="https://istoe.com.br/apos-morte-no-carrefour-bolsonaro-diz-ser-daltonico-todos-tem-a-mesma-cor/">everyone has the same color</a>.” </p>
<p>“<a href="https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/11/20/mourao-lamenta-assassinato-de-homem-negro-em-mercado-mas-diz-que-no-brasil-nao-existe-racismo.ghtml">In Brazil, racism doesn’t exist</a>,” was the vice president’s response. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Line of Black Brazilians with their fists raised" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370894/original/file-20201123-23-e6wakz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protesters outside a Carrefour supermarket in the city of Niteroi on Nov. 22, 2020, after a Black man was killed by Carrefour security guards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-raise-their-fists-in-front-of-the-entrance-to-news-photo/1229740835?adppopup=true">Luis Alvarenga/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Black woman mayor</h2>
<p>As politicians and activists, Afro-Brazilian women have made racism a campaign issue. They discuss why budget cuts to the public health system would <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-is-deadlier-for-black-brazilians-a-legacy-of-structural-racism-that-dates-back-to-slavery-139430">disproportionately hurt Black Brazilians</a> and promote paid family leave, educating Afro-Brazilian citizens of how racism, sexism and classism – alone and in combination – affect their lives.</p>
<p>That’s why running for office is more than a political campaign for Afro-Brazilian women, my research finds. As they drive around blaring messages from cars, hold town halls and run social media ads, they raise the racial consciousness of their constituents and expand their party’s political agenda.</p>
<p>This year, 16 years after I first followed her campaign, Olivia Santana again asked voters to entrust their vote to Black women. On Facebook and <a href="https://twitter.com/oliviasantana65/status/1317798956475273217?lang=en">Twitter, she posted catchy political jingles</a> with lyrics like, “Preta prefeita, respeita a preta” – “The Black woman mayor, respect the Black woman” – done in a musical style popular in Brazil’s heavily Black northeast. In that campaign video, young Afro-Brazilians wearing face masks dance alongside Santana, who is also masked.</p>
<p>“It is not only the people of the United States that can elect a woman like Kamala Harris,” she tweeted on Nov. 13, 2020. “We also can make a difference for this city.”</p>
<p><a href="https://g1.globo.com/ba/bahia/eleicoes/2020/noticia/2020/11/14/pesquisa-ibope-em-salvador-votos-validos-bruno-reis-66percent-major-denice-17percent-pastor-sargento-isidorio-6percent-olivia-santana-4percent.ghtml">Olivia Santana lost her 2020 mayoral bid</a>, one of several veteran Black women politicians to come up short.</p>
<p>Progress is slow. But win or lose, Black Brazilian women are opening doors for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gladys Mitchell-Walthour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2018 murder of Rio city councilwoman Marielle Franco inspired record numbers of Black women to get involved in politics. Winning proved harder – but it isn’t the only point of their campaigns.Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, Associate Professor of Public Policy & Political Economy, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1150722019-05-02T14:28:01Z2019-05-02T14:28:01ZHow LGBTQ people are resisting Bolsonaro’s Brazil through art<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268040/original/file-20190408-2905-uukldi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2015%2C1512&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Graffiti commemorating Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco who was shot dead in an apparent assassination.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emanoelle Lima/photo by Catherine McNamara</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil in October 2018 and took office in January 2019. Since then, the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights has chosen to remove the legal protection status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) people. Some politicians are now pushing for a ban on talking about <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jair-bolsanaro-brazil-first-day-executive-orders-indigenous-lands-lgbt-privatisation-gun-control-a8709801.html">gender diversity and sexual orientation in schools</a>. </p>
<p>Bathroom laws pertaining to which toilet facilities trans people are allowed to use and bills defining what constitutes a family, same sex marriage and laws enabling trans people to change their legal name are also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/lgbt-rights-under-attack-in-brazil-under-new-far-right-president/2019/02/17/b24e1dcc-1b28-11e9-b8e6-567190c2fd08_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ec95f4d14b08">seen to be under threat</a>.</p>
<p>Brazil has a reputation as one of the most violent countries in the world and is known as the <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=37249">LGBT “murder capital”</a> – 167 trans people were <a href="https://transrespect.org/en/tmm-update-trans-day-of-remembrance-2018/">reported murdered</a> between October 1, 2017 and September 30, 2018 alone. In the lead up to and since Bolsonaro’s election, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-45829440">LGBT hate crime has increased</a>. </p>
<p>No wonder that many Brazilian LGBTQ people are <a href="https://medium.com/@henriquemota/brazil-no-heaven-for-lgbt-people-df6d85c15fd1">worried that they are becoming isolated</a> from the rest of the world. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/18/marielle-franco-brazil-favelas-mourn-death-champion">Marielle Franco</a> – a young politician who took a strong stance against police violence – was murdered in Rio de Janeiro in March 2018.</p>
<p>She was a bisexual black woman who grew up in the Maré favela and pushed for social justice for marginalised people in the city. She was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/18/marielle-franco-brazil-favelas-mourn-death-champion">reportedly targeted by professional killers</a>.</p>
<p>In Brazil, military police patrol the streets and are independent from the municipal police who carry out investigations. In March 2019, a year after her murder, it was reported that <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-47538871">two ex-military police had been arrested</a> for the killing.</p>
<p>Theusa Passareli – a 21-year-old art student who identified as genderqueer or non-binary – was <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Genderqueer-Student-Murdered-and-Burnt-in-Rio-Favela-20180507-0021.html">murdered in April 2018</a>, killed on their way home from a party.</p>
<p>Their work was incomplete in Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janiero’s design studio when I visited in November 2018 and will stay to commemorate their memory, as the university and the trans community mourn the murder of another young person.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268039/original/file-20190408-2909-1nfgube.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268039/original/file-20190408-2909-1nfgube.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268039/original/file-20190408-2909-1nfgube.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268039/original/file-20190408-2909-1nfgube.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268039/original/file-20190408-2909-1nfgube.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268039/original/file-20190408-2909-1nfgube.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268039/original/file-20190408-2909-1nfgube.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Resin on glass by Theusa Passareli.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Catherine McNamara</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>A safe place to protest</h2>
<p>I was in Rio for a short residency with the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/projetotransarte/">TransArte festival</a> – a three day art show that explores gender identity and sexuality. The festival brings together trans people and allies to exchange ideas, make and share work, and celebrate the strengths of the LGBT community in Brazil within a place of safety. </p>
<p>It’s not easy to protest when faced with violence, nor is it easy to <a href="http://escoladeteatromartinspenna.com.br/equipe/">enjoy culture</a> – particularly for people living in poverty where basic needs are difficult to meet. Trans artists have said that <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yvewy5/the-acting-course-preparing-trans-stars-for-their-close-up">being trans is a barrier to participating</a> in the arts, but “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569780701825195">safe spaces</a>” such as the TransArte festival allow <a href="https://www.newtactics.org/conversation/cultural-resistance-power-music-and-visual-art-protest">protest art</a> to flourish and create opportunities for LGBTQ people to express themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268038/original/file-20190408-2901-1bicgiy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268038/original/file-20190408-2901-1bicgiy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268038/original/file-20190408-2901-1bicgiy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268038/original/file-20190408-2901-1bicgiy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268038/original/file-20190408-2901-1bicgiy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268038/original/file-20190408-2901-1bicgiy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268038/original/file-20190408-2901-1bicgiy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trans and LGB artists, activists and educators from Rio de Janeiro and London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">TransArte Festival Team</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A theatre company led by trans people created <a href="https://www.kitredstone.com/come-as-you-are">Come As You Are</a> – a series of autobiographical stories with physical theatre and improvisation. The stories were about family – supportive and loving family as a source of strength, and familial rejection as a result of being trans. </p>
<p>They explored life as trans men and women in a culture of toxic masculinity, normativity and police brutality. A photography exhibition of several artists included <a href="http://jornalempoderado.com.br/meuprimeiroabusopolicial-o-relato-de-sobrevivencia-de-bernardo-de-castro-gomes/">Bernardo de Castro Gomes</a>, whose work also explored his identity as a black trans man facing intimidation, harassment and violence. </p>
<p>Queer drag artists such as Le Circo de la Drag spoke about their political performance – using their bodies to resist toxic masculinity and defy the threats of violence they often receive.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272202/original/file-20190502-103071-wz0nkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272202/original/file-20190502-103071-wz0nkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272202/original/file-20190502-103071-wz0nkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272202/original/file-20190502-103071-wz0nkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272202/original/file-20190502-103071-wz0nkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272202/original/file-20190502-103071-wz0nkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272202/original/file-20190502-103071-wz0nkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Le Circo de la drag pay tribute to Marielle Franco and Theusa Passareli.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marianna Cartaxo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The show <a href="https://medium.com/conta-preta/dandara-vital-eu-sou-feminina-demais-para-interpretar-uma-travesti-e-minha-voz-%C3%A9-grossa-demais-40ce97f1e189">Monster, Whore, Bitch – Waldirene’s Dreams</a>, directed by Dandara Vital, compiled the everyday experiences of Brazilian trans people interwoven with a re-telling of the story of Waldirene – the first trans woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Brazil in December 1971, at the height of the military dictatorship.</p>
<p>Resistance is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/nov/07/brazil-artists-death-threats-censorship-intimidation-jair-bolsonaro">clearly flourishing in Brazil</a> against the odds and not only within festivals like TransArte. A Portuguese translation of <a href="https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/jo-clifford/">Jo Clifford’s</a> play The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven was due to open in Londrina, a city in southern Brazil, but the venue cancelled at the very last moment.</p>
<p>The lead, a trans woman called Renata Carvalho, received death threats. The company moved to a semi-derelict space where they performed by torchlight instead, despite injunctions from both Pentecostal and Catholic groups to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46551824">stop the production</a>.</p>
<p>My own experiences working with the TransArte festival team in Rio have shown me the value of safe places free from judgement and hostility. The people we worked with told us that being there in solidarity with the trans communities of Rio felt like a powerful action in itself, resisting the culture of violence that thrives in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine McNamara co-founded and is a Trustee for Gendered Intelligence. She received funding from the British Council to support the residency in Brazil. </span></em></p>Violence against LGBTQ people in Brazil is at an all-time high, but artists refuse to be intimidated.Catherine McNamara, Head of School (Art, Design and Performance), Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1042082018-10-04T10:28:29Z2018-10-04T10:28:29ZSexism, racism drive more black women to run for office in both Brazil and US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239182/original/file-20181003-52695-1e9425n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black women in Brazil protest presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, who is known for his disparaging remarks about women, on Sept. 29, 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Brazil-Elections-Bolsonaro/18cc3ef9baf641f3997233276e2de384/25/0">AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Motivated in part by President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html">disparaging remarks about women</a> and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12">numerous claims that he committed sexual assault</a>, American women are <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/5/17823582/ayanna-pressley-massachusetts-black-women-voters-2018-midterm-elections">running for state and national office in historic numbers</a>. At least <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-midterms-women-results/">255 women</a> are on the ballot as major party congressional candidates in the November general election.</p>
<p>The surge includes a record number of women of color, many of whom say their candidacies reflect a personal concern about America’s <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-xenophobic-vision-of-america-is-inciting-racist-violence/">increasingly hostile, even violent, racial dynamics</a>. In addition to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-polarization-is-not-inevitable-just-look-at-europe-99356">59 black female congressional candidates</a>, Georgia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-stacey-abrams-black-girl-magic-turned-georgia-a-bit-more-blue-97117">Stacey Abrams</a> hopes to become her state’s first black governor.</p>
<p>The U.S. is not the only place where the advance of racism and misogyny in politics has has spurred black women to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-45289523">run for office at unprecedented levels</a>.</p>
<p>In Brazil, a record 1,237 black women will be <a href="https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/amp/eleicoes/rio-de-janeiro-e-o-estado-com-mais-mulheres-negras-concorrendo-em-2018/">on the ballot this Sunday in the country’s Oct. 7 general election</a>.</p>
<h2>Brazilian women rise up</h2>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://aaad.unc.edu/faculty-staff/kia-caldwell/">scholar of black feminism in the Americas</a>, so I have been closely watching Brazil’s 2018 campaign season – which has been marked by controversy around race and gender – for parallels with the United States.</p>
<p>Last weekend, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-brazil-women-protests-20180929-story.html">hundreds of thousands of Brazilian women marched nationwide</a> against the far-right presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, under the banner of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=elenao">#EleNao</a> – #NotHim. </p>
<p>Bolsonaro, a pro-gun, anti-abortion congressman with <a href="https://theconversation.com/brazilian-evangelicals-swinging-hard-to-the-right-could-put-a-trump-like-populist-in-the-presidency-96845">strong evangelical backing</a>, once <a href="https://www.cartacapital.com.br/politica/pela-terceira-vez-bolsonaro-e-condenado-a-indenizar-maria-do-rosario">told a fellow congressional representative</a> that she “didn’t deserve to be raped” because she was “terrible and ugly.” </p>
<p>Bolsonaro has seen a boost in the polls since he was <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/09/08/jair-bolsonaro-is-stabbed-at-a-rally">stabbed</a> at a campaign rally on Sept. 8 in a politically motivated attack.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239188/original/file-20181003-52691-14lk95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests in Rio de Janeiro against Jair Bolsonaro on Sept. 29, organized under the hashtag #EleNao (#NotHim).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Brazil-Elections-Bolsonaro/84258035385e4a3d8a075023f00e6a3f/2/0">AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brazil has shifted rightward since 2016, when the left-leaning female president Dilma Rousseff was ousted in a partisan impeachment process that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/americas/brazil-impeachment-coup.html">many progressives regard as a political coup</a>. </p>
<p>Her successor, then-Vice President Michel Temer, quickly passed an austerity budget that <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/brazil-government-rolling-women-rights-160704090348170.html">reversed many progressive policies</a> enacted under Rousseff and her predecessor, Workers Party founder Luís Inácio “Lula” da Silva. </p>
<p>The move decimated funding for agencies and laws that protect <a href="https://theconversation.com/brazils-proposed-policies-will-hurt-womens-equality-and-be-bad-for-men-too-68214">women</a>, people of color and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/20/brazil-rightwing-government-michel-temer">very poor</a>. </p>
<h2>Racism in Brazil</h2>
<p>In Brazil, these three categories – women, people of color and the very poor – tend to overlap.</p>
<p>Brazil, which has more people of African descent than most African nations, was the largest slaveholding society in the Americas. Over 4 million enslaved Africans <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/23/brazil-struggle-ethnic-racial-identity">were forcibly taken to the country</a> between 1530 and 1888. </p>
<p>Brazil’s political, social and economic dynamics still reflect this history. </p>
<p>Though Brazil has long <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/brazils-colour-bind/article25779474/">considered itself colorblind</a>, black and indigenous Brazilians are <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/even-it-brazil/brazil-extreme-inequality-numbers">poorer</a> than their white compatriots. Black women also experience <a href="https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2016/07/14/politica/1468512046_029192.html">sexual violence</a> at much higher rates than white women – a <a href="http://portaldepublicacoes.ufes.br/temporalis/article/viewFile/8214/6157">centuries-old abuse of power</a> that dates back to slavery.</p>
<p>Afro-Brazilians – who make up just over half of Brazil’s 200 million people, according to the 2010 census – are also <a href="http://blogueirasnegras.org/2018/09/26/representatividade-politica-no-brasil-um-abismo-entre-brancos-e-nao-brancos/">underrepresented in Brazilian politics</a>, though sources disagree on exactly how few black Brazilians hold public office.</p>
<p><a href="https://www12.senado.leg.br/noticias/materias/2018/04/05/representatividade-dos-negros-na-politica-precisa-aumentar-defendem-debatedores">Three Afro-Brazilians</a> serve in the Senate, including <a href="https://odia.ig.com.br/brasil/2018/07/5561691-mulheres-negras-excluidas-do-poder.html">one woman</a>. In the 513-member lower Chamber of Deputies, about 20 percent <a href="https://www.geledes.org.br/partidos-investem-tres-vezes-mais-em-candidaturas-de-deputados-brancos-do-que-de-negros/">identify as black or brown</a>. <a href="http://www.camara.gov.br/internet/agencia/infograficos-html5/BancadaFeminina/index.html">Women</a> of <a href="http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/politica/noticia/2018-07/mulheres-negras-se-mobilizam-para-ampliar-presenca-na-politica">color</a> hold around <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/30/brazil-sees-black-female-candidates-surge-after-of-rising-star?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true">1 percent of seats in the Chamber of Deputies</a>.</p>
<h2>Black women step into the fray</h2>
<p>That could change on Sunday.</p>
<p>This year, 9,204 of the 27,208 people running for office across Brazil are women, which reflects a law requiring political parties to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/10/02/brazil-votes-on-sunday-and-brazilian-women-have-a-better-chance-at-reshaping-its-politics-than-ever-before/?utm_term=.9063005fcc6b">nominate at least 30 percent women</a>. About 13 percent of female candidates in 2018 are <a href="https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/amp/eleicoes/rio-de-janeiro-e-o-estado-com-mais-mulheres-negras-concorrendo-em-2018/">Afro-Brazilian</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239185/original/file-20181003-52681-wq5q8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239185/original/file-20181003-52681-wq5q8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239185/original/file-20181003-52681-wq5q8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239185/original/file-20181003-52681-wq5q8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239185/original/file-20181003-52681-wq5q8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239185/original/file-20181003-52681-wq5q8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239185/original/file-20181003-52681-wq5q8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A campaign ad for Rio city council member Talíria Petrone, who is running for Congress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41839011_1521466661287831_5118544815654436864_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&oh=33d6018e83cf701104c81c2e572d17dc&oe=5C1A6DF4">Facebook</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In most Brazilian states, that’s a marked increase over Brazil’s <a href="http://www.inesc.org.br/noticias/biblioteca/textos/inesc-lanca-o-perfil-dos-candidatos-as-eleicoes-2014-em-seminario-na-proxima-sexta-19-9">last general election</a>, in 2014, according to the online publication <a href="https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/amp/eleicoes/rio-de-janeiro-e-o-estado-com-mais-mulheres-negras-concorrendo-em-2018/">Congresso em Foco</a>. </p>
<p>In São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state, 105 black women ran for office in 2014. This year, 166 are. In Bahia state, there are 106 black female candidates for political office, versus 59 in 2014. The number has likewise doubled in Minas Gerais, from 51 in 2014 to 105 this year.</p>
<p>As in the United States, Brazil’s black wave may be a direct response to alarming social trends, including sharp rises in <a href="https://theconversation.com/brazils-biggest-problem-isnt-corruption-its-murder-78014">gang violence and police brutality</a>, both of which disproportionately affect black communities.</p>
<p>But many female candidates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second largest city, say one specific event <a href="https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/amp/eleicoes/rio-de-janeiro-e-o-estado-com-mais-mulheres-negras-concorrendo-em-2018/">inspired them to run</a>.</p>
<p>In March, Marielle Franco, an Afro-Brazilian human rights activist and Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman, was <a href="https://theconversation.com/assassination-in-brazil-unmasks-the-deadly-racism-of-a-country-that-would-rather-ignore-it-94389">assassinated</a> – the <a href="http://www.brasilwire.com/not-only-marielle-10-human-rights-activists-assassinated-in-last-5-months/">11th Brazilian activist to be murdered</a> since November 2017. </p>
<p>Franco’s murder remains unsolved, but she was an outspoken critic of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/caught-between-police-and-gangs-rio-de-janeiro-residents-are-dying-in-the-line-of-fire-83016">military occupation</a> of Rio’s poor, mostly black favela neighborhoods. The ongoing police investigation <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Politicians-Involved-in-Murder-of-Brazilian-Activist-Marielle-Franco-Security-Minister-20180811-0001.html">has implicated government agents in the shooting</a>, which also killed her driver.</p>
<p>Her death unleashed an avalanche of <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=45677">activism among black women</a> in Rio de Janeiro, with new groups offering fundraising and political training for female candidates of color. </p>
<p>On Sunday, 231 black women from Rio de Janeiro state will stand for election in local, state and federal races – <a href="https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/amp/eleicoes/rio-de-janeiro-e-o-estado-com-mais-mulheres-negras-concorrendo-em-2018/">more than any other state in Brazil</a> and more than double the number who ran in 2014.</p>
<h2>Black representation from Rio to Atlanta</h2>
<p>Black women may have been historically excluded from Brazil’s formal political arena, but they have been <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6ACA0ZqWwbgC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=negras+in+brazil&ots=DYdpFPh_Si&sig=F2-wMwPUDIN_IfmwOxkrM371Cqw#v=onepage&q=negras%20in%20brazil&f=false">a driving force for social and political change</a> since the country’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/422295">transition from dictatorship to democracy</a> in 1985. </p>
<p>Decades before #MeToo, Brazilian women of color were <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-metoo-brazilian-women-rise-up-against-racism-and-sexism-89117">on the front lines of activism around issues</a> like gender-based violence, sexual harassment and abortion.</p>
<p>Brazil has hundreds of black women’s groups. Some, including <a href="https://www.geledes.org.br/">Geledes</a>, a center for public policy, <a href="https://www.revistas.ufg.br/fchf/article/viewFile/9102/6274">are mainstays</a> of the Brazilian human rights movement. The founder of the Rio de Janeiro anti-racism group <a href="http://criola.org.br">Criola</a>, Jurema Werneck, is now the director of Amnesty International in Brazil. </p>
<p>The fact that thousands of black women, both veteran activists and political newcomers, will appear on the ballot on Sunday is testament to their efforts. </p>
<p>As in the United States, black Brazilian women’s demand for political representation is deeply personal. They have watched as their mostly male and conservative-dominated congresses chipped away at hard-won protections for <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/equal-rights-amendment-illinois-constitution/">women</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/us/voting-rights-minorities.html">people of color</a> in recent years, exposing the fragility of previous decades’ progress on race and gender. </p>
<p>Black women in Brazil and the U.S. know that full democracy hinges on full participation. By entering into politics, they hope to foster more inclusive and equitable societies for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kia Lilly Caldwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Brazil, a record 1,237 black women will stand for office in Sunday’s general election. As in the US, their campaigns reflect deep personal concern about rising racism and sexism in politics.Kia Lilly Caldwell, Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/939932018-04-16T14:11:57Z2018-04-16T14:11:57ZEchoing Marielle Franco, Brazil’s black women speak out against violence<p>Brazil is still mourning the death of <a href="https://theconversation.com/assassination-in-brazil-unmasks-the-deadly-racism-of-a-country-that-would-rather-ignore-it-94389">Marielle Franco</a>, a black woman raised in a Rio favela and a sociologist whose academic work mirrored her radical politics. </p>
<p>Elected to a seat on Rio’s city council in 2017, she was a member of the left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party, and had the potential to achieve national visibility due to her strong oratorical style and radical politics. An advocate of human rights, she was dedicated to improving the lives of people living in Brazil’s impoverished and marginalised favelas. She was an outspoken critic of police violence, which disproportionately affects black people.</p>
<p>On March 14 2018, Marielle was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/13/marielle-franco-fiancee-rio-brazil-monica-benicio">brutally killed</a> along with her driver, Anderson Silva, in a shooting ambush in Rio de Janeiro. The day after her killing, thousands of people gathered in Rio’s city centre to mourn Marielle and Anderson’s deaths. Sadness, disbelief and outrage showed on the faces of people who had just lost a woman who represented them on the city council, and the crowd chanted that Marielle’s voice and what she stood for would not be silenced: “Marielle is here! Today and forever.”</p>
<p>Homicide is far from rare in Rio. According to the publication <em>Atlas da Violência 2017</em>, while Rio isn’t Brazil’s most violent state, there were more than <a href="http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/images/170602_atlas_da_violencia_2017.pdf">63,400 homicides</a> between 2005 and 2015. It is important to hightlight that data from the Institute for Public Safety of Rio de Janeiro shows that between 2014 and 2016, 53.41% were <a href="http://www.ispvisualizacao.rj.gov.br/grupos.html">black victims</a>. </p>
<p>This violence is often described as part of a so-called <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-army-deploys-in-rio-slum-as-drug-related-violence-worsens-2017-9?r=US&IR=T">war on drugs</a>. But in fact, the implementation of public security policies in Rio is associated with the historical marginalisation of impoverished communities and racist narratives about black bodies. Marielle Franco was a vocal opponent of this violence – and of attempts to militarise Brazil’s marginalised neighbourhoods.</p>
<h2>Living on the edge</h2>
<p>In February 2018, Brazil’s senate approved a decree allowing federal intervention in the State of Rio de Janeiro, leaving its public security in the hands of a military officer answerable to the president. The intervention was viewed <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2018/02/intervencao-e-paliativo-com-efeito-politico-publicitario-diz-sociologo.shtml">by intellectuals</a> as politically motivated, and driven by the fact that Rio’s governor and the president belong to the same political party.</p>
<p>After a short time, violence increased in the favelas, and people started to speak out against military searches of their houses and bodies. And just days before her murder, Marielle was appointed head of a city-level commission charged with monitoring the federal-military takeover of security in Rio. </p>
<p>On 13 March 2018, Marielle <a href="https://twitter.com/mariellefranco/status/973568966403731456">tweeted</a>: “Another killing of a young person possibly committed by the Military Police. Matheus was leaving church. How many more must die for this war to end?”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"973568966403731456"}"></div></p>
<p>In 2016, at an academic event on Studies of Policing and Crime, she addressed the structural problems that lead to violence in Rio, and made clear what needs to be done: to shift the dominant narratives about black bodies’ rights, address hate speech and its threats to human rights, ensure rights to education and leisure, and improve the representation of black women.</p>
<p>The black population’s lives are heavily shaped by violence, systemic racism, and the militarisation of public space, whether by the army or <a href="https://exame.abril.com.br/brasil/alves-da-ufrj-milicia-tem-poder-maior-que-o-trafico-no-rj/">militias</a>. They ruin and often claim the lives of poor young black men working at the retail end of the drug trade. Those men’s lives are dismissed as irrelevant, even as a blind eye is turned to white elites who profit from arms and drugs trafficking on a grand scale.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, two out of three women murdered in Rio are black – and several recent cases have drawn increased public attention to the exceptional danger they face. </p>
<h2>Violence laid bare</h2>
<p>In 2014, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26638995">Claudia Ferreira</a>, a 38-year-old black working mother, was shot during a police operation in Rio’s suburbs. She was put in the trunk of a police car and driven away; the trunk somehow came open and Claudia half fell out. She was dragged for several streets until the police realised what was happening and took her to hospital, where she died.</p>
<p>In another case in 2017, Marielle used social media to report on her work supporting the family of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/world/americas/rio-brazil-girl-shot.html?_r=0">Maria Eduarda da Conceição</a>, a 13-year-old black girl murdered in the schoolyard. A <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarielleFrancoPSOL/photos/a.219501235102143.1073741829.212989092420024/385718728480392/?type=3&theater">picture</a> shows Eduarda’s mother with the medals her daughter won playing volleyball, which held the hope of a brilliant future.</p>
<p>These deaths and the thousands of others like them are testament to the way black Brazilians’ lives are treated as physically and politically disposable. The structures of power that marginalise black Brazilians could not accommodate a vocal black woman like Marielle, one who so publicly tackled the problems affecting the communities she belongs to. </p>
<p>There is a creepingly fascistic atmosphere taking hold in Brazil, evident in increasing anti-black violence and incarceration, the propagation of dishonest news coverage justifying Marielle’s death, and a recent <a href="http://www.periodico26.cu/index.php/en/world-news/item/8924-lula-s-caravan-shot-at-again">shooting</a> directed at former president Lula’s motorcade. With these dark forces on the rise, Brazil more than ever needs thousands of live Marielles. Those who have picked up her work are determined not to let Brazil’s anti-black violence go unchallenged and to denounce the ongoing anti-black genocide. To quote Marielle’s words again: “How many more must die for this war to end?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luciane Rocha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black lives in Brazil are devalued and subject to violence on a horrific scale.Luciane Rocha, Research Associate, School of Social Sciences, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/943892018-04-12T10:56:26Z2018-04-12T10:56:26ZAssassination in Brazil unmasks the deadly racism of a country that would rather ignore it<p>When <a href="http://time.com/5202587/brazil-marielle-franco-killed-protest/">Marielle Franco</a>, a Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman, was shot to death in downtown Rio on March 14, her killing moved the world. </p>
<p>Protesters <a href="https://qz.com/1231910/brazils-marielle-franco-murder-has-made-her-a-global-human-rights-icon/">took to the streets</a> in New York, Paris, Buenos Aires and elsewhere, pledging to continue Franco’s fight against racism, poverty, inequality and violence.</p>
<p>Elected in 2016 after serving 10 years on Rio’s human rights commission, Franco was proud to be a black lesbian born in one of the city’s poor neighborhoods, or favelas. She used her power as an elected official – her “collective mandate,” she called it – to hold Rio’s conservative government accountable to its most marginalized residents. </p>
<p>Franco <a href="http://www.dw.com/pt-br/interven%C3%A7%C3%A3o-no-rio-%C3%A9-improvisada-e-viol%C3%AAncia-continua/a-43185943">was particularly critical</a> of the city’s ineffective response to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-toll-mounts-in-rio-de-janeiro-as-police-lose-control-of-the-city-and-of-themselves-80862">surge of murders and police shootings in Rio’s mostly black favelas</a>. Local activists have deemed these killings “<a href="http://www.oabrj.org.br/evento/20425-genocidio-da-juventude-negra---debate">black genocide</a>.” </p>
<p>As a black <a href="https://www.academia.edu/10077362/N%C3%9ACLEO_DE_PESQUISA_EM_PSICAN%C3%81LISE_E_DIREITO">Brazilian lawyer</a>, I can see that Franco’s assassination – a recognized <a href="https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2018/03/27/torquato-diz-que-morte-de-mariele-foi-crime-politico-e-desafio-a-intervencao.htm">political crime</a> that <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2018/03/marielle-franco-brazil-assassination-police">remains unsolved</a> – has ruptured the dangerous silence surrounding race in this country. </p>
<p>That seems to be making some powerful people unhappy. On April 9, a Rio city councilman’s aide was also <a href="https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2018/04/09/politica/1523306911_360385.html">murdered</a>. His boss had recently testified to police in Franco’s murder investigation. </p>
<p>Witnesses say the shooters told 37-year-old Carlos Alexandre Pereira Maria, who is black, that he should “shut his mouth.” </p>
<h2>Brazil’s racist history</h2>
<p>Brazil, where 54 percent of the population is black, has famously portrayed itself as a “<a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ebc4/a84bdb4bc72a2de3828ac51cdf02b5dc5979.pdf">racial democracy</a>” – a society so diverse that racism simply cannot exist. </p>
<p>That’s a myth. </p>
<p>Black Brazilians earn, on average, <a href="https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2017/11/13/brancos-e-negros-so-terao-renda-igual-no-brasil-em-2089-diz-ong-que-combate-desigualdade.htm">57 percent less than white Brazilians</a>. They make up <a href="https://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade/no-brasil-64-dos-presos-sao-negros">64 percent</a> of the prison population. Brazil’s Congress is <a href="https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/agencia-noticias/2012-agencia-de-noticias/noticias/18282-pnad-c-moradores.html">71 percent white</a>. </p>
<p>Racism here goes back centuries. Brazil was not just a <a href="http://www.revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br/eugenia-educacao-e-politicas-publicas-no-brasil/">colonial slave empire</a> – it was actually the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/11/12/244563532/photos-reveal-harsh-detail-of-brazils-history-with-slavery">last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery</a>, in 1888. Before that, Brazil’s penal code imposed harsh punishment on enslaved people, including <a href="https://docgo.net/philosophy-of-money.html?utm_source=o-negro-na-ordem-juridica-brasileira">execution</a>. </p>
<p>And when Afro-Brazilians finally gained legal rights in 1888, the government offered <a href="https://negrume.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/leis-de-mentira-ou-a-injustica-branca/">no reparations or financial support</a> after 450 years of bondage. </p>
<p>In the 1910s, eugenics societies cropped up in São Paulo and Rio. Inspired by <a href="https://theconversation.com/forced-sterilization-programs-in-california-once-harmed-thousands-particularly-latinas-92324">racist pseudoscience</a> from the United States and Great Britain, these groups spurred a national movement to “improve the human race” by cleansing Brazil of “undesirable” blood. </p>
<p>Black people were top among the Brazilians that eugenicists proposed <a href="https://www.geledes.org.br/o-que-foi-o-movimento-de-eugenia-no-brasil-tao-absurdo-que-e-dificil-acreditar/">segregating from society, barring from entering the country or deeming “mentally defective.”</a> </p>
<p>The racist underpinnings of the eugenicist movement <a href="http://books.scielo.org/id/7bzx4/pdf/hochman-9788575413111-11.pdf">would justify discriminatory practices in Brazil</a> for decades to come. Brazil <a href="https://capoeiraocec.webnode.com.br/a-arte-capoeira/lei%20de%20proibi%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20da%20capoeira/">outlawed capoeira</a>, an Afro-Brazilian martial art and dance, until the 1950s. It also made vagrancy illegal, which <a href="http://www.revistas.usp.br/rfdusp/article/viewFile/67119/69729">criminalized homeless and unemployed black people</a>. </p>
<h2>Efforts at equality</h2>
<p>Brazil passed its <a href="http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l1390.htm?TSPD_101_R0=5064c23a879fdebca43190cb58aa9632h68000000000000000085ea7845ffff00000000000000000000000000005accf88e008e61d76d">first anti-discrimination policy in 1951</a>, prohibiting businesses from refusing to serve customers based on race, a typical practice of that era. </p>
<p>Four decades later, in 1989, the black congressman Carlos Alberto de Oliveira pushed through <a href="https://www.nexojornal.com.br/expresso/2018/02/05/Quem-foi-Ca%C3%B3-autor-de-lei-que-definiu-o-crime-de-racismo-no-Brasil">stronger legislation</a> that actually punished discriminatory business practices. It also extended legal protections to people based on ethnicity, religion and national origin.</p>
<p>The Brazilian government has since made several more attempts to promote racial equality. </p>
<p>A 2010 law <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/29/brazil-race">aimed at redressing the wrongs of slavery</a> ushered in a mild suite of affirmative actions. Today, Brazilian universities give <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/04/affirmative-action-brazil">some priority to black applicants</a> and the government <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/09/29/495665329/for-affirmative-action-brazil-sets-up-controversial-boards-to-determine-race">actively recruits black candidates for public sector jobs</a>. </p>
<p>But racial bias remains potent. A 1988 survey in São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, found that <a href="http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5442">97 percent of respondents said they were not prejudiced</a>. But 98 percent of people said they knew someone who was. </p>
<p>That impossible finding inspired the historian Lilia Moritz Schwarcz to coin the celebrated saying that, “All Brazilians see themselves as an island of racial democracy surrounded on all sides by racism.” </p>
<p>In 1995, 89 percent of survey respondents <a href="http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5605">said they believed that racial bias existed</a> in Brazil. Only 10 percent admitted that they held racist views. <a href="http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5442">Results were similar in 2009</a>. </p>
<h2>Lethal racism</h2>
<p>This is “racismo à brasileira” – racism, Brazil style. Race is still a taboo subject. Nonetheless, as Marielle Franco <a href="http://www.dw.com/pt-br/interven%C3%A7%C3%A3o-no-rio-%C3%A9-improvisada-e-viol%C3%AAncia-continua/a-43185943">exposed in her work</a>, skin color dramatically impacts safety in Brazil. </p>
<p>Nationwide, 71 percent of the more than 60,000 people murdered in Brazil in 2017 <a href="http://www.ipea.gov.br/atlasviolencia/download/2/2017">were black</a>, according to the think tank the Brazilian Security Forum.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214166/original/file-20180410-540-11khc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214166/original/file-20180410-540-11khc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214166/original/file-20180410-540-11khc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214166/original/file-20180410-540-11khc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214166/original/file-20180410-540-11khc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214166/original/file-20180410-540-11khc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214166/original/file-20180410-540-11khc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marielle Franco in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Mk82AT">Mídia NINJA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young black men in Rio’s poor favelas are <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/05/brazil-spike-in-killings-by-rio-police-as-country-faces-un-review/">far more likely to be among the hundreds shot each year by law enforcement</a>. According to a report by Amnesty International, 79 percent of the 1,275 recorded killings by on-duty police officers in Rio between 2010 and 2013 were black.</p>
<p>Black women also live in a more dangerous world than white women. The number of black Brazilian women murdered <a href="https://www.mapadaviolencia.org.br/pdf2015/MapaViolencia_2015_mulheres.pdf">increased 54 percent between 2003 and 2013</a>. This happened despite a <a href="http://blogueirasfeministas.com/2017/08/11-anos-da-lei-maria-da-penha-11-dados-recentes-da-violencia-contra-a-mulher-no-brasil/">2006 anti-domestic violence law</a> credited with a 10 percent reduction in violence against white women. </p>
<p>So much for “racial democracy.” In purely legal terms, black Brazilians are equal to white Brazilians. But, in real economic, political and criminal justice terms, <a href="https://nacoesunidas.org/brasil-violencia-pobreza-e-criminalizacao-ainda-tem-cor-diz-relatora-da-onu-sobre-minorias/">evidence</a> confirms, they are not.</p>
<h2>Breaking the taboo</h2>
<p>Still, the myth of racial democracy has endured. </p>
<p>A main culprit, in my opinion, is the country’s myopic focus on class. Brazilian policymakers and scholars consistently point to <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/07/19/brazil-how-public-spending-benefits-rich-poor">poverty</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=90zuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA32&dq=pobreza+e+o+problema+mais+grande+do+brasil&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtrdLUyp_aAhWxtlkKHWBVACUQ6AEIOjAC#v=onepage&q=pobreza%20e%20o%20problema%20mais%20grande%20do%20brasil&f=false">economic inequality</a> as Brazil’s main social problems. </p>
<p>The predominant debate on class ignores race, gender and other salient factors that impact life in Brazil. It overlooks the fact that the majority of people facing poverty-related problems like gang violence, food insecurity, <a href="https://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/637-dos-desempregados-no-brasil-sao-pretos-ou-pardos-aponta-ibge.ghtml">unemployment</a>, limited access to education and homelessness are also black.</p>
<p>In my experience, Brazil’s strong emphasis on economic mobility also contributes to racism. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7846.html">As in the United States</a>, many Brazilians believe that they live in a meritocracy. When black people struggle, white people may well <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23261860">think they just aren’t working hard enough</a>.</p>
<p>Brazil’s conservative current president, Michel Temer, has done little to promote racial equality. Quite the contrary, in fact.</p>
<p>Temer assumed office in 2016 after the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/americas/brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeached-removed-president.html">controversial impeachment</a> of the left-wing female leader Dilma Rousseff. One of his first acts as president was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/brazil-government-rolling-women-rights-160704090348170.html">to shutter Brazil’s Ministry of Women, Racial Equality and Human Rights</a>. Then he appointed an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/05/brazil-cabinet-rousseff-temer/483372/">all-white, all-male cabinet</a>. </p>
<p>On April 6, Temer’s government repealed legislation from the 1990s and 2000s that <a href="https://esquerdaonline.com.br/2017/02/12/a-relacao-entre-a-reforma-do-ensino-medio-e-a-lei-10-63903/">had recognized and legally protected Afro-Brazilian and indigenous culture and history</a>.</p>
<p>This, in part, is how Brazilian structures of oppression remain invisible, largely unchallenged and – for white people, at least – easy to ignore.</p>
<p>Marielle Franco talked openly about <a href="https://negrume.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/leis-de-mentira-ou-a-injustica-branca/">race, violence and gender</a>. It may be <a href="https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2018/03/27/torquato-diz-que-morte-de-mariele-foi-crime-politico-e-desafio-a-intervencao.htm">what got her killed</a>.</p>
<p>But, in death, Franco’s message of equality has only grown louder.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Míria dos Santos Carvalho Carinhanha receives research funding from the Afro-Brazilian non-profit Criola. </span></em></p>Race has long been a taboo subject in Brazil. With the March 14 killing of the black Rio politician Marielle Franco, any myth of the country as a ‘racial democracy’ has been broken wide open.Ana Míria dos Santos Carvalho Carinhanha, Lawyer and doctoral student, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.