March against Racism and Violence and in Favor of Living Well (bem viver), Brasilia 2015

Abstract

These three brief pieces formed part of a two-part special issue (vol. 4, nos. 1 and 2, 2016) on Afro-Descendant Feminisms in Latin America. The unprecedented nationwide mobilizational process that culminated in the first-ever Marcha das Mulheres Negras contra o Racismo e a Violência e pelo Bem Viver (Black Women’s March against Racism and Violence and for Living Well), which brought tens of thousands of Black women to Brasília on November 18, 2015, is described in an opening essay by Alvarez. It is followed by one of the several Manifestos produced by Marcha organizers, which captures the core political and theoretical issues discussed in hundreds of events across every sector of Afro-descendant women’s activism and women from the mixed-gender Brazilian Black movement as well. Finally, a photo essay by Brazilian photographers Claudia Ferreira and Adriana Medeiros offers a vivid glimpse into what many consider a watershed moment in the Afro-Brazilian feminist movement.

Anti‐Black racism, anthropology, and reparations: QUESTION: How can economic anthropology promote the construction of just and anti‐racist economic forms?

“…Marginalized Black Brazilian women articulate their own concerns for just and antiracist forms, including freedom from all forms of discrimination, including in health care, public safety/police, white beauty standards, respect for Black aesthetics and cultural diversity, racial violence, domestic violence, institutional racism, housing, public transportation, education, and employment (Ferreira & Medeiros, 2016). The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and illuminated these disparities that increased early mortality for the Black population and necessitated addressing racism in all its forms, all its ways and institutions.…”