Home Institution
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Publication Date
Spring 2015
Abstract
The systematic use of violence by the police a lead me to the city of Salvador, Bahia, a city where 80% of the population is Afro-Brazilian. Using a framework of structural violence I develop a critical understanding of how contemporary manifestations of colonialism impact black people in Salvador, Bahia. Through this research I problematize the idea of the “racial democracy” to understand how black people are experiencing the direct use of violence by the Brazilian state in the form of anti-black genocide. I ask how Black Brazilian activists in Salvador resist and challenge state violence, specifically in the context of genocide; what technologies are local activists using to confront and respond to state violence; how is this violence, executed by the state upon members of Black Brazilian community in Salvador, reflective of a history of colonial violence. I explore how the members of the local activist community understand, articulate, and challenge state violence within the context anti-black genocide historically rooted in the colonial institution of slavery. Using a framework of structural violence, I engage in a postcolonial critique to problematize the historicity of the official narrative, exposing a legacy of violent colonialism, and the erection of a structurally violent state apparatus. Furthermore, I connect criminalization of Black people in Brazil and the United States to a broader history of colonialism in the Americas, with a focus on Brazil. Through analysis I explore the colonial roots of the institutionalization of racism and violence that have resulted in the genocide of black people in Brazil.
Disciplines
Community-Based Research | Defense and Security Studies | Family, Life Course, and Society | Inequality and Stratification | Latin American Studies | Peace and Conflict Studies | Race and Ethnicity | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance
Recommended Citation
Sleet, Kelsi, "Genocide in Northeast Brazil: Dismantling Colonial Legacies of Contemporary State Violence in Salvador" (2015). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 2126.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/2126
Included in
Community-Based Research Commons, Defense and Security Studies Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons
Program Name
Brazil: Social Justice and Sustainable Development