The identification of Black humanity is a process that involves the recognition of colonial practices as the root of racism in Brazil. This also involves political and social processes that have experienced advances and setbacks determined by political and social circumstances. Sueli Carneiro (2011) addresses human rights from a racialized analysis that reflects the fact that Black people still have not achieved recognition of their humanity.
The hierarchy of races, whose premise has no biological or scientific basis, is manifested in the widespread exercise of the myth of racial democracy that is revealed when we analyze the social indicators and geopolitical spaces in which the Black population is situated, characterized by vulnerable existences in every social aspect. As to racial violence, the racialized populations, whether they are Blacks, Indigenous people or Gypsy-Romas, live with the effects of racism in their intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional spheres.
Institutional racism is a social determinant that can cause psychological suffering and result in inequality for Black people. In addition, it may produce or maintain situations of vulnerability for individuals and collectives. This practice of racism may be analyzed from the perspective of power relationships and of care taken with positions and norms reproduced within institutions.
Genocide, however, is identified as the practice of institutional racism and may be observed both in its symbolic expression – including practices that result in psychological suffering – as well as in the data for mortality and homicides, seen through lenses that analyze the disparities between Blacks (and other people of color) and whites.
In Brazil, the chances that a Black person will be killed are 2.6 times greater than that of a non-Black. Until 2017, there had been a constant growth of homicides for Black women, with the lowest rate being 4.9 per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2009 and the highest point reaching 5.6. On the other hand, the rates for non-Black women improved over the same time span, with the variations running from 3.3 to 3.2 (ATLAS, 2021).
We firmly believe in the potential of the responses to social disparities from movements when they are developed strategically from the work of the collective. We also consider the historical processes that ensure that Black women, whether they are cis or trans, are the protagonists of social transformations that have an impact in the social, cultural, legislative and communitarian spheres.
In affirming that Black Lives Matter, we are also affirming that there are gaps that allow for this population to remain unprotected, principally in the area of Public Safety. The Black Alliance for an End to Violence is meant to be a co-constructive process that offers support opportunities for Black women, those who are mobilizing within the country and internationally to promote racial equity and combat violence in a historic and insurgent movement.