The Network of Public Security Observatories (in Portuguese) threw light on an ludicrous fact when, in 2021, it noted that 100% of the people murdered by the military police in Bahia the previous year were black. One year later and the picture is no different. Published on 17 November, the network’s new report stated that, of the 616 people killed as a result of intervention by state agents in 2021, 603 were black.
Those kidnapped in the past are today’s greatest victims of inequality. However ludicrous, police violence and that perpetrated by the State of Bahia against black people is symptomatic of a country that hasn’t overcome its racist roots, since this is not the only statistic in which black people in Brazil appear in the most serious and revolting numbers.
Young black people are not untouched by rights violations due to the colour of their skin. Forty-five and a half thousand Brazilians were killed in 2019, or 21.65 per 100 thousand inhabitants. Thirty-four and a half thousand were black (mixed race and black), according to the 2021 Atlas of Violence, drafted by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada: IPEA) and the Brazilian Public Security Forum (Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública: FBSP). Nearly 18 thousand young people were shot dead over this period.
In the first half of 2022, reports of religious intolerance in Brazil’s states increased by 45.6%. From January to June, 383 complaints were made to the Ministry of Women, Families and Human Rights. Over the same period in 2021, 263 complaints were made. The Safernet National Centre for Reports (Central Nacional de Denúncias) recorded 2,813 reports of religious intolerance in the first half of 2022, a rise of 654.1% from one year to the next. During the 10th Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (Fórum Social Pan-Amazônico: FOSPA) Mãe Nalva de Oxum – Yalorixá of the Ilê Axé Yaba Omi Worship House (in Portuguese) denounced impunity for the killings of 16 leaders of African-origin religions in the state of Pará alone.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Coordination for the Coalition of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas: CONAQ) (in Portuguese) reported that the fatality rate from COVID-19 in quilombola communities was higher than the national average. Rights violations against the quilombola population have occurred in their territories in various forms, with marked institutionalized racism directly linked to the public authorities, which hinders access to legal means, aimed at the extinction of certain groups. One example of this can be observed in the legal regularization of quilombola territories, in which, over five years, the budget for the entitlements of these lands fell by 97% (Source: Terra de Direitos).
Numbers related to other kinds of data are similar: incarceration, access to health, food insecurity and hunger, poverty, deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, job precariousness, informal work, street dwellers, leadership positions, decent housing and so forth. In general, broad public policies do not guarantee access to the black population. And when there is a resurgence in rights violations, black people, who need basic rights and public services, are the most severely affected. This is no coincidence! It is the manifestation of the daily and institutionalized structural racism in our country, which should touch everybody and be strongly opposed.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística: IBGE), black women represent 27.8% of the Brazilian population but are more exposed to poverty and violence, and occupy only 2.36% of the seats in parliament. Prof Dr Denize Ribeiro, from the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia: UFRB) and the Marielles Forum (Fórum Marielles), notes that anti-racist polices do not feature in current political debates, nor in many government proposals “Historically we have experienced non-policy, the non-achievement of social inclusion policies. This is a hallmark of the experiences of the black population. But, on the other hand, we have many collective examples of survival and resistance. These are being reclaimed and reframed, in order to be replicated by black women’s collective initiatives,” she asserted.
Yes, there are victories. There are the many fruits of the struggles of the black movement – of black women, of male and female representatives of African-origin religions, of young people, and of the quilombola movements (in both the countryside and the city) – but almost invariably these are won through the spilling of their blood. The anti-racist struggle is also a generational commitment. Because of the lives that have gone and those yet to come, we cannot go backwards.
“CESE publically reasserts its commitment to the anti-racist struggle. And recognizes that it is imperative to denounce racism and, on the other hand, reassert identities, cultures, religions, the thinking of black people as historical subjects, and their contributions to the formation of Brazilian society. For this reason, we at CESE will always support projects, promote meetings, debates and reflections to support this cause,” asserted Sonia Gomes Mota, CESE’s Executive Director.
At CESE, we understand racism to be a generator of injustices against black people and have always supported movements, organizations and groups from this sector of society. Over the last 15 years, we have supported 721 projects in the field of anti-racism, benefiting 288 thousand people through the investment of BRL 6.5 million and the reassertion of our Institutional Racial Equity Policy (INSERIR LINK PARA A POLITICA EM INGLES), in which we define the strategies required to overcome racism in our management and institutional action.
Being anti-racist is more than denouncing a crime. It is being an agent of change!
Check out CESE’s social networks (in Portuguese) for its initiatives in this field
#BlackNovember
#stopkillingus