DATA
Starting from absolute numbers:
- The poorest region of the country is the Northeast
- The Blackest region of the country is the Northeast
- The poorest State in the Country is in the Northeast.
The invisibility, the poverty, the lack of resources and public policies on the part of the federal government is something intentional. This is institutional racism.
CRIMES BY INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES
In 2019, the security guard who murdered/strangled Pedro Henrique at Extra paid 10 thousand reais and answered the charges in freedom. More than a year later, there’s no schedule for when he’ll stand trial.
Sarí Gaspar, the employer of Miguel’s mother — Miguel was the boy she left alone in the elevator — paid 20 thousand to answer the charges in freedom.
Want to strangle or kill a Black child in Brazil? It costs less than a brand-new VW Gol.
CORONA
The Espírito Santo State Department of Health released this week the result of the second phase of the survey on the behavior of Covid-19 in the State: more than 70% of those infected by the disease are Black. Among whites, 28.5%.
The total numbers are 58% Black and 39% white.
Rounding it up, of every 100 people surveyed, 60 were Black, 40 were white.
But of every 100 sick people, 70 were Black and only 30 were white!
HISTORY
Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery.
Some historical facts that built these inequalities:
the Empire’s own constitution of 1824 stated that only free citizens could study — read: whites
the land law of 1850, defining that from that moment on, to have land you had to buy land from the State — read: whites
For MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED YEARS, almost four centuries, Black people were treated as merchandise, and built the wealth of this country without having access to that wealth. From there, these inequalities continued to be built.
That’s why in a country where 48% are Black, the majority of leaders are white: Try counting in your head and comparing the number of Black and white Pastors you’ve heard most at the conferences you attended.
And what about Governors, or Presidents — how many are Black and how many are white? To be more precise, only 3% of the politicians elected in 2014 declared themselves Black.
At the company you work for, the presidents and vice presidents — how many are Black and how many are white?
These data are even more significant when crossed with economic data, since the population that declares itself Black or brown is also the one with lower income, in terms of number of minimum wages, when compared relatively.
It’s possible to see, from this data, that there is a greater favoring of whites in accessing the labor market, whether due to the education they received, family and social histories, as well as the job opportunities they had access to in life.
How many Black college professors or researchers do you know? The lack of Black researchers in the rosters of the main public universities and research centers in the country attests to the fact of racism. And in a simpler example, just look at most of the teachers you’ve had throughout your life and have today. How many were white and how many were Black?
The higher the level of education, the smaller the number of Black professors.
The big problem of the Brazilian is to naturalize the place of privilege as if it had been providentially fixed.
This privilege was built on the oppression of other groups.
People usually think it’s enough for the individual to want to — “he just has to put in the effort” — but that’s to ignore the fact that there is a whole structure, centuries old, that makes concrete conditions impossible for Black populations to have social mobility and reach a place of dignity and citizenship in Brazil.
The current PRESIDENT of the Fundação Palmares, appointed by President Bolsonaro, has the responsibility of acting in defense and promotion of Black culture and development in Brazil — he was recorded in interviews and conversations in his office saying the following:
- there is no real racism
- he positioned himself against Black Awareness Day
- Said that slavery was good because Black people would live in better conditions in Brazil than on the African continent
- Defended the extinction of the holiday by decree, because, according to him, it would cause “incalculable losses to the country’s economy” by honoring whom he called a “false hero of Black people,” Zumbi dos Palmares.
- expressed contempt for the “Black Awareness” agenda
- Called the candomblécista Adna dos Santos “a son-of-a-bitch macumba woman”
- Classified the Black movement as “cursed scum” that only shelters “bums”
- promised to fire directors of the agency who didn’t make as their “goal” the firing of a “leftist”
If this whole text wasn’t enough yet, here are some photos to illustrate what happened LESS THAN 100 YEARS AGO — meaning, your great-grandfather was probably alive while this was happening:
