Note from BW of Brazil: We touched upon this fact a few days ago: The sustained protests in the US over the police murders and lack of accountability in the Mike Brown and Eric Garner cases and the near opposite response in Brazil. Again, we must point out that people DO take to the streets in Brazil, but one doesn’t see the endurance of protests and on a nationwide basis as we have seen across the US. With the high profile situations in Ferguson and New York, more Brazilians are taking note of the differences of reaction.
Ferguson is nowhere in Brazil but I wish it was!
What is the general problem of Brazil?
By Negra Panther
In the United States, a young black man is killed by the police and it creates a violent crisis in American society, affecting the Obama government itself. Everything burns!
In Brazil young blacks are killed in bulk every day. According to the Mapa da Violência (Map of Violence) report, “every two hours, seven young black men are murdered in the country.” The data are part of the research conducted by sociologist Julio Jacobo Weiselfisz, based on official data from the System of the Ministry of Health Mortality Information.
According to the survey, 82 young people are killed per day, 30,000 per year, all aged 15-29 years. Among the young people killed, 77% are black, and 93.30% are male, residents of the suburbs and metropolitan areas of urban centers. – Mudamais.com
With this monstrous everyday context, practically nothing concrete happens on the level of the whole society to stop this dramatic scale of death of young blacks and mestiços (persons of mixed race) in the country.
It looks like a sleepwalker society, or even extremely misguided, that even the human rights movements and others experience difficulties and have not increased strength and power of meshing a powerful collective awareness machine of Brazilian society. But many people are involved to reverse this sinister civil extermination picture.
The most dramatic and radical reactions, and often times solitary in their ghettos, that we’ve seen happen until now regarding this true extermination of our young people comes from slum communities in riots. As an example, the response actions that have already happened in several communities in Rio de Janeiro and its confrontations with the lethal interference of law enforcement agencies, military forces and the state government.
It’s very strange how all this happens in Brazil. Meanwhile this racist programmed machine murders our black future. When one day, this giant wakes up in time, it may be too late and the devastating genocide of black youth in Brazil could be completed.
Our salvation is this black youth who are in the struggle at the moment! Because they know that their lives and future are hanging by a string in the country!
Source: PPA Berlin
Hopefully, the Brazilians who are watching the US protests will observe that the protests do not have a single leader. Those protesting are also utilizing social media to organize times and places to stage events. They are not relying on a single person to tell them how, when, and where to do something In many ways, Black Brazilians are -en masse – just now waking to the fact that they are more than just maids and doormen. Now there must be some conviction and sustained effort to push this issue forward. And they cannot wait for any white person to do it FOR them. They must be at least interested enough among themselves to take to the streets for more than 1 day. They must make people uncomfortable. I believe they could get a powerful response, if they were willing to band together nationwide and shine the light on Brazil’s (and the rest of the world’s) boogeyman – the hatred and slaughter of Brown and Black people by authority figures.
Hopefully, these same people who are writing articles that ask “why doesn’t anyone care about us?”, will be the same people who spearhead and organize a sustained effort to bring the issue to life in Brazil. Hopefully, they already know that white folks generally do not care about them and that the problem will not be solved if they stop at writing articles that ask burning questions.
To be fair, the outrage did not go mainstream in the US immediately. Black deaths happen all the time without news coverage, but with Ferguson, people got on Twitter and actively made sure people around the country knew what was happening. It took awhile before cable news even reported anything.
Also I think that racism and inequality between races are much less discussed in Brazil, which makes it harder for there to be a platform to talk about the deaths of black Brazilians. The only time racism is really discussed in the mainstream Brazilian media is when it’s a clear cut case of a black person being called a slur, etc. People tend to be more comfortable saying there’s a problem of classism rather than racism.
Black Brazil should use the same SLOGANS that are being used in America, to connect the outrage. Use the same written in English Slogans, so that it will show that the same fight is going on all over the African Diaspora.
Who is this question being posed to? Is this a question for black brasilians or is this a passively aggressive question being posed to african americans? And lets be clear… ferguson happens EVERYDAY in the united states… EVERYDAY… Social media has been the most powerful tool for black americans… without it.. no one in the world would know about Mike brown, trayvon, or any of the other murders… MANY of which have never made it to the light… There have ALWAYS been protests and marches… However, The media WILL NOT pick up the stories on the murders voluntarily… The media in the United states is EXTREMELY racist… I’m sure in similar ways as the media in brasil.. So just sitting and expecting a media that REGULARLY degrades you and demonizes you to haphazardly cover racial issues will not work… It doesn’t work in the U.S. and it won’t work in Brasil… Black people all over the world and including the U.S. have to wake up and make some real steps to create where there is lack for ourselves.. We are all we got.. and we have to advocate for ourselves… I’ve literally never heard anything about black brasil, outside of this website, in american media… they are racist and WILL not cover those stories because they know that black folks seeing other black folks on tv standing up to racist powers that be will fuel momentum… So social media is a powerful tool.. very powerful tool… As a matter of fact, there are already talks of the (u.S.)government trying to censor that power…