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    TheHub.news
    Home»News & Views»Diaspora»Black Women Are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Brazilian Politics
    Diaspora

    Black Women Are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Brazilian Politics

    By SedAugust 8, 202204 Mins Read
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    When I talk with Black people in the United States about Brazil, the most poignant moment usually occurs when I point out that Salvador, the Blackest city, in the Blackest country- has never had a Black mayor in all of its history.  This irony is the case in most Brazilian cities, states and municipalities. 

    Brazil is the largest democracy in Latin America and the country with the highest percentage of people of African descent outside of Africa. Despite the fact that Afro-Brazilians make up the majority of the Brazilian population, they only hold fewer than 10% of the elected positions. 

    The historic campaign of Marielle Franco for city council in Rio De Janeiro in 2017, and her tragic assassination a year later, galvanized a generation of Black, women, queer and poor Brazilians to run and win various political positions since. 

    Today we celebrate the 43rd birthday of Marielle Franco, a queer Afro-Brazilian sociologist, politician, and activist. We honor her legacy by understanding policing for the global white supremacist project it is, and continuing the fight for our liberation! #MariellePresente pic.twitter.com/vZnXUBCbE2

    — Cite Black Women. (@citeblackwomen) July 27, 2022

    Among these political hopefuls is Vilma Reis, from Salvador, who is campaigning to be the Workers Party candidate for Federal Deputy. I had the pleasure of attending her campaign launch which occurred in the same community center where my studio is. 

    View this post on Instagram

    A post shared by Vilma Reis (@vilmareisoficial)

    Vilma, 53,  began her life of activism in the  Student Movement at the age of 15.  Following a brutal military dictatorship, it was an extremely difficult time in Brazil.  

    She observed the difficult work of her father and uncles, who were all trade unionists in the railway network. And her grandmother, a woman who emphasized that her work as a maid was a sacrifice so that her grandchildren would have a better life. 

    View this post on Instagram

    A post shared by Vilma Reis (@vilmareisoficial)

    Vilma channeled this motivation into her education and career. She went on to become a professor, with a Ph.D. in African Studies at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), a researcher at the Ceafro Institute of Education for Racial and Gender Equality, and author. 

    Se a gente gosta de falar de #memória ✨ Essa foto que chegou até mim hoje é pra lembrar que "nossos passos vêm de longe". Lá estava eu em Ilha de Maré (Salvador), no início dos anos 2000, compartilhando a viviência com tantas companheiras e companheiros de luta. #tbt pic.twitter.com/d1xFgmV0kI

    — Vilma Reis (@vilmareisfem) July 7, 2022

    She is one of the most important intellectuals in the construction of feminist and Black thoughts in contemporary Brazil and a major role model for young Afro Brazilians from many backgrounds and orientations. 

    Que dia, meu povo! 02 de Julho histórico, com a presença de tanta potência pelas ruas de nosso Centro Histórico da Bahia ✨ cada palavra, cada ᴏʟê, ᴏʟê, ᴏʟê ᴏʟá foi entoado como força e esperança para ecoar em todos os cantos deste país. #VilmaReis #LulaLáJerônimoCá pic.twitter.com/Hfl5wf6ZLz

    — Vilma Reis (@vilmareisfem) July 2, 2022

    The obstacles to Black achieving elected office are tedious. Every candidate in Brazilian elections must be nominated by a political party. Political parties are permitted to propose just one candidate for mayor.

    Many party leaders refuse to promote Afro-Brazilian candidates due to anti-Black prejudice or pandering to white voters with the same biases.  Many believe this was the reason Reis failed to secure the nomination for Mayor for her party two years ago. 

    Vilma Reis: “Las mujeres negras queremos ocupar lugares estratégicos en el gobierno de Lula” https://t.co/fZA8oRBWcQ via @ladiaria

    — negrasmahin (@negrasmahin) May 28, 2022

    Additionally, a tremendous amount of financial resources are necessary for candidates to execute a successful campaign. For a variety of reasons, Afro-Brazilian candidates are likely to find it more difficult to raise campaign cash than white candidates. Because they are typically poorer than White Brazilians, Afro-Brazilians lack the resources to underwrite their own campaigns.

    In an interview with a local paper, Reis explains,

    In Brazil we have a white left… which governs the parties with iron hands. White, older men, from the middle class and upper middle class, suffering class amnesia and even saying that the most powerful struggles we have (Black, feminist and trans) are nothing more than identity politics.

    To refute this, we relied on Anibal Quijano and Lélia Gonzalez to say that race is at the center of the Brazilian political agenda.  Class discourse alone does not answer the Brazilian question.

    The white man in Brazilian politics, when he tires of his first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth term, passes this political legacy to another white man, younger. 

    The  Vilma Reis campaign is underway with pre-elections occurring in September-October.

    In a recent Twitter post Vilma makes plain the need for the Left to earn the vote of the people of Brazil who are mostly Black women: 

    “That’s it my people, there is no being on the left and not walking with feminists, there is no being left and not being anti-racist!”

    If you would like to support Vilma Reis’ campaign, you can do so by clicking the links below or by contacting her through her social media channels: 

    https://com-vilma-reis.financie.de/

    https://linktr.ee/vilmareisoficial

    Afro Brazilians Atlantic Archives Thehub.news Vilma Reis
    Sed
    • Website
    • X (Twitter)
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    An expat now living in Northeast Brazil, Sed Miles works hand in hand with working-class, Afro-Brazilian artists, activists and intellectuals fighting against Brazil’s systematic racial and class barriers using a Pan-African, intersectional pedagogy. Each week they will present dispatches from the archives that will bridge communities and be a resource for the future. The mission of the Archives is to help unite the Black diaspora through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent the shared themes and experiences of working class Black people. The series will focus on Brazil and the United States, societies built and held together by generations of Africa’s unshakable children.

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