An Autoethnographic Analysis of Childhood and Anti-Blackness Discourses in Brazilian Society and Schools

• In Event: Black Lives Matter, ¡Todas! Fugitive Formations in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Supported by Sylvia Wynter’s work (1995), this paper argues that anti-Blackness in Brazil provokes religious intolerance among other forms of violence against both Afro-Brazilians and Indigenous peoples. I explore the subject through an intersectional lens (Akotirene, 2019), because anti-Blackness is tightly intertwined with the social injustices forced upon Indigenous peoples, which connects as well with Black and Indigenous stories of resistance. An examination of anti-Blackness and its presence in public and private practices is necessary for visibilizing our individual biases and conscious and unconscious propagations of racism against Black and Indigenous peoples.
With that commitment, this paper does an autoethnographical reflection on my childhood memories as a data source that shows anti-Blackness discourses rooted in Brazilian culture. I connect those discourses with current statistics about violence and repression lived by Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous communities before and during the current Brazilian government. I reflect on the ways in which the Brazilian administration contributes to the invisibilization and undervaluation of the experiences of Afro and Indigenous religions and communities. Particularly I examine Brazil's myth of racial democracy, and miscegenation beliefs that add to anti-Blackness and anti-Indigenous discourses. Espoused by the Brazilian government and Christian churches these discourses exacerbate religious intolerance, violence, marginalization, and epistemological genocide of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous peoples.
Making all Brazilians’ intersectional stories, experiences, and epistemologies available and visible is urgent. These stories challenge the white Christian patriarchal narratives in Brazilian families and society used to justify the continuation of verbal and physical violent acts towards Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous communities.

References:
Akotirene, Carla. 2019. Interseccionalidade. Feminismos Plurais. São Paulo: Jandaíra
Wynter, Sylvia. 1995. “1492: A New World View” In Hyatt, Vera L., Nettleford, Rex. Race, Discourse, and the Origin of the Americas. A New World View. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Author

• Michelle Angelo-Rocha, University of South Florida