As young black activists in America campaign, protest, and create dialogue centering black people harmed by excessive state violence, the conversation has also begun to shift to the global effects of anti-blackness and the legacy of colonialism. In Brazil, a new black power movement has developed among the youth in response to the overwhelming number of extrajudicial killings and military presence in their communities, as one Black Brazilian is killed every 23 minutes, as reported by Atlanta Black Star :
“According to teleSUR, a Senate committee released a comprehensive report Monday on the state of youth murders in Brazil, which found that over 23,000 Black juveniles are killed in the country each year and nearly half of Brazil’s 50,000 youth deaths are victims ages 16 and 17.”
White Brazilians have greater access to secure neighborhoods and homes, as well as public goods, whereas black Brazilians, who are scarred with economic inequality, are more likely to face impoverished conditions and therefore, exposure to a greater level of violence. More than half of the people in the favelas (slums) of Rio are black. While faced with dire conditions, youth in Brazil continue to organize, albeit in smaller numbers, to change policy:
“Young Afro-Brazilians inspired by the American Black Lives Matter movement have mobilized to condemn widespread acts of police brutality. One Federal University of São Carlos study estimated that of the 823 people killed by military police in São Paulo from 2009 to 2011, 61 percent were Black. Seventy-nine percent of the deaths were committed by white officers, according to the study. The committee also proposed the creation of programs to promote education and social outlets for disadvantaged youths, after finding that many of the country’s under-educated young people suffer disproportionately from exposure to violence and are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.”
As the country prepares for the Olympics, the new movement continues to press for equality and change amidst a country in racial turmoil.