Schweigen über Differenz. Schwarze im kolonialen und postkolonialen Sicherheitsdiskurs Brasiliens

Abstract

In 1808, Portugal's royal court fled from Napoleon's forces and resettled in Rio de Janeiro. Within a very short time, the city's population grew rapidly while it also had to meet the demands of a European royal capital. This situation fostered two different security discourses. On the one hand, there was a discourse, also widespread throughout much of Europe, on the threat posed by mostly foreign revolutionaries. But, as this contribution shows, on the other hand, there was a telling silence about potentially insurgent black people. This silence was only broken once they became the target of repression by the public security apparatus and more and more frequently struggled to establish their rights (and thus their security). However, the abolition of slavery in 1888 intensified racism, which once again became covered by public silence -a silence that willfully ignored the difference constituted by this very racism and thus continued to obstruct security for the black population.