As long as there is RACISM, there will be no DEMOCRACY
We, the organized black population, black women, people from low income communities, marginalized people, LGBTQIA +, quilombolas, practitioners of African religions and black people with different confessions of faith, rural, water and forest peoples, exploited, informal and unemployed workers, in Black Coalition for Rights, come in public to demand the eradication of racism as a genocidal practice against the black population.
Brazil is a country in debt to its black population – with both historical and current debts. Therefore, any project or articulation for democracy in the country requires a firm and real commitment to fight racism. We call on the democratic sectors of Brazilian society, we call on the institutions and people who today display concern with the ills of racism and claim to be anti-racists, to be consistent! Practice what you say! Join us in this manifesto, in our historical and permanent resistance initiatives, and in the proposals we defend as a way to build democracy, organized in our program:
This call is even more urgent in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when we learn that the black population is the one that falls ill and dies the most, fills the ranks of the unemployed, and feels the hardest the dismantling of public social policies. In other words, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot ignore the racial debate anymore.
At a time when different sectors come together in defense of democracy, against fascism, authoritarianism and for the end of the Bolsonaro administration, it is of the utmost importance to consider racism as a central issue.
“We are going public to denounce the poor living conditions of the black community.” This excerpt, taken from the founding manifesto of the Unified Black Movement Against Racial Discrimination, in July 1978, is proof that we have never been heard and that we have always been on our own.
This is a struggle that does not start here, but which has materialized in the thinking and actions of men and women who, in all historical moments when brutality was imposed on black people, raised their voices and said: NO!
There is no democracy, citizenship or social justice without public commitment to the recognition of the black movement as a political subject that brings together the defense of black citizenship in the country. There is no democracy without facing racism, police brutality, and the justice system that disproportionately incarcerates the black population. There is no citizenship without guaranteeing the redistribution of income, work, health, land, housing, education, culture, mobility, leisure, and participation of the black population in the decision-making spaces of power. There is no democracy without constitutional guarantees for the land ownership of quilombola territories and respect for the way of life of traditional communities, without contamination and degradation of the natural resources necessary for physical and cultural reproduction. There is no democracy without respect and freedom of religious practice. There is no social justice without fully addressing the needs and interests of 55.7% of the Brazilian population.
Everybody must reject racism. The brutal murder of George Floyd demonstrates this through the uprisings and manifestations on the streets, and the demand for racial justice. In Brazil, we stand with this struggle and these protests, and demand justice for all our young people and the black population. And among the many we cannot forget, João Pedro is present!
In our past, we formed quilombos, forged revolts, fought for freedom, built the culture and history of Brazil. Today we fight for a true democracy, the exercise of power by the majority, and we call on those who are outraged by the injustices in our country.
Because practice is the criterion of truth!
Traduzido por Sara Branco e Revisado por Krista Kateneva – Centro de Estudos das Relações de Trabalho e Desigualdades (CEERT)
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