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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY EQUALITY FASCISM LAWFARE POLITICS RACIAL EQUALITY

‘Go back to the plantation’ – Curitiba moves to impeach 1st City Councilor

The first impeachment process against a city councilor in the 329-year history of Curitiba – the Brazilian city that most cherishes its “European heritage” – is underway, and it has nothing to do with any crime. On January 24, Mugenyi Kabagambe, a 24 year-old Congolese immigrant, was beaten to death behind the beach kiosk where […]

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ARTS CULTURE EQUALITY FEMINISM FOOTBALL MUSIC RACIAL EQUALITY

Brazil mourns the loss of Elza Soares

With a career that spanned nearly 70 years and 34 albums, Brazil’s beloved singer and activist passed away peacefully at the age of 91 by Brian Mier In 1953, a young woman appeared at an amateur singing competition in the auditorium of a Rio de Janeiro radio show. Her borrowed clothes, too big for her, […]

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CENSORSHIP CRIME LITERATURE RACIAL EQUALITY RIO DE JANEIRO

Who Killed Leuvis Manuel Olivero?

Leuvis Manuel Olivero was a US citizen, dad, and author critical of the Bolsonaro administration.  Why was he murdered? by Brian Mier In 2011, Leuvis Manuel Olivero, a Dominican immigrant to the US who had a degree in International Studies from Trinity College in Connecticut, took a trip to Rio de Janeiro. In his own […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM RACIAL EQUALITY

To Carrefour, black man’s life worth less than dog

Pressure mounts on French corporation after it deposits an unsolicited R$1.1 million in account of widow of Beto Freitas, the Afro-Brazilian man who was brutally murdered by Carrefour security guards in Porto Alegre in November, 2020 by Brian Mier In November, 2020, protests broke out across Brazil over the brutal assassination of Beto Freitas, a […]

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CITIES EQUALITY HOUSING POLITICS RACIAL EQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION

Curitiba: beyond the myth of the perfect city

Curitiba is known around the world for innovative urban planning and European heritage. During a speech at the World Social Forum, however, Carol Dartora accused the city government of hiding its black population and pushing the poor to neighboring dormitory cities. The following is an edited transcript of the speech, which was made in a […]

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DEMOCRACY POLITICS RACIAL EQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Benedita da Silva’s 50 year fight for racial justice

The veteran congresswoman and civil rights leader speaks about her role in the 2020 municipal elections and  the record number of newly elected Afro-Brazilian city councilors and mayors. By Brian Mier Brazil’s 2020 municipal elections were marked by huge loses for the far right, big gains for the center right and moderate gains for the […]

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DEMOCRACY INTERVIEW POLITICS RACIAL EQUALITY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Interview: Bruna Rodrigues and the fight against necropolitics

When we say that black lives matter we are saying that we can no longer accept the fact that 83 young black men die every day in Brazil Interview by Brian Mier On December 8, 2020, two members of Rio Grande do Sul’s military police entered the house of black rights movement activist Jane Beatriz […]

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PROTEST RACIAL EQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION

Justice for João Alberto! Protesters attack Carrefour store in São Paulo

The murder of João Alberto Silveira Freitas by security guards at a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre triggered mass protests on Black Consciousness Day, as Vice President General Hamilton Mourão told journalists that “racism does not exist” in Brazil. By Brasil de Fato. Protesters attacked a unit of French supermarket chain Carrefour, at about 5 pm on […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM NORTH EAST RACIAL EQUALITY SOVEREIGNTY UNITED STATES

Alcântara: Bolsonaro’s Illegal Plan to Expropriate Afro-Brazilian land for Trump deal

Amid a pandemic, quilombo communities around the Alcântara spaceport face an illegal and unnecessary land-grab for a space technology deal between the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations By Sean T. Mitchell These are perilous times in Brazil in too many ways to list. Even US media have now noted the possibility of a Fujimori-style auto-coup by […]

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64-85 DICTATORSHIP AMAZON Coronavirus RACIAL EQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION

Pandemic, Racism and Indigenous / Black Genocide in Brazil: Coronavirus and Extermination Policy

By Felipe Milanez and Samuel Vida Tragedies are always socially unequal and expose in a striking way historically constructed inequalities, for example in the degree of exposure to risks and the way vulnerabilities are shaped. The new Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus is a non-human agent from a zoonosis that infects people and causes respiratory infections; it was […]