In 2014, Claudia Silva Ferreira, a mother of four and hospital service assistant, was inadvertently shot by Brazilian police during a conflict in the Rio neighborhood of Madureira. She was on her way to her local bakery. After picking up her body from the ground, police officers stuffed her into the back of their patrol car. If one could imagine anything more sinister, her body fell out of the car and was pulled 300 meters. “They dragged my mother like a sack and threw it into the muzzle like an animal,” said her daugher, Thais Silva.
In 2016, 13 year-old student Maria Eduarda was shot by police while drinking water in the gym inside her school. The school was in Acari, one of the poorest areas in Rio de Janeiro.
Both Claudia and Maria were black. Both died at the hands of the Brazilian police. Some of these police officers have even been investigated in subsequent crimes.
These are just two of the many instances of police violence against blacks in Brazil, a country where over 14 million of its population is of color. Being poor and black in Brazil means being at the mercy of either the police or the thugs that rule the poorest areas of the country’s largest cities.
Black lives and poor lives are not of worth to the State. The truth is, whenever a black person is killed in Brazil, media and the ideological right always attempt to minimize the victim’s life in an effort to validate the deaths. It’s easy to wonder: had Claudia been white, living in a favela and got shot by friendly fire, the police would have ensured she received medical attention. Racism is only emboldened in the Brazilian police force.
I know of this because I was born and raised in the poor neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro–Vigário Geral and Penha to be exact–and always existed on the edge of violence. I remember as a child, playing with my cousins and seeing thugs running away from police. With guns in their hands, the policemen would chase those thugs. So when I hear stories like Claudia and Maria Eduarda, I believe in the guiltiness of the police, because it’s something I’ve seen before. In situations like these, black lives really don’t matter.
***
In March 2018, Rio police killed another innocent Brazilian and this time, the world took notice. Councilwoman and activist Marielle Franco, aged thirty-eight, was gunned down by Brazilian police in Rio de Janeiro, killed mere days after denouncing Rio police for their treatment of poor black kids; earlier she joined a commission to investigate the military army occupation in the favelas.
An investigation into Franco’s killing found that the bullets used were part of an allotment that had been “lost” ten years earlier. The guns were a popular model used by Brazilian police. It was also determined that cameras around the area she was gunned down were inexplicably turned off just days before. Marielle’s death was an assassination and seven month later, her murder remains unsolved.
Marielle was queer, black, female and not affluent. She fought for the poor and against the police cruelty in Brazilian favelas in the last years of her life. She fought for women like Claudia and Maria Eduarda and many other poor black people who lost their their lives at the hands of police violence.
After her death, Marielle Franco’s name was defamed, with fake news reports doing their best to invalidate her work and destroy her legacy. Marielle’s fight for a distinctive feminism agenda (including legalizing abortion) was threatening to conservatives and religious groups alike. People considered her work ‘inappropriate,’ likening Marielle to the drug dealers that ruled Rio. To her detractors, extending fundamental human rights to every member of the population was unnecessary and not “proper agenda” for the “good people”. Needless to say, the good people were never black people.
Beyond that, this is just the tip of iceberg regarding racial problems in Brazil. Poor black people in Brazil will always have their rights taken and their lives lost; sometimes, it seems that nobody really cares. Marielle was silenced when she tried to speak on behalf of women like Claudia or Maria Eduarda. She was killed, yes, but her murder influenced other black women to fight against the system. Since Marielle’s death, activists have fought to approve five of her projects; the day of her death was declared as the day against black women genocide; and there have been four black women (and counting!) elected in the region.
***
MC Carol is a prominent funk singer in the Brazilian music scene; her art gives voice to the injustices–sexism in particular–that happen daily in favelas. She is an unapologetic feminist voice in the industry.
The singer/activist recalls one of the final conversations she had with the fallen activist. “[Marielle] wanted to see more black women in politics,” Carol said–and thought Carol would be the perfect person to lend her artistry and influence to advocate for marginalized Brazilian women, especially around issues like domestic violence and other abuses. Sensing her reluctance, Marielle pushed Carol, telling her that “[women activists] have to push the door with our bare feet. Things won’t be easy, but you have to try.“ She remembers Marielle saying. “I put my turban, my high heels and red lipstick, then I go.”
Not long after Marielle’s death, Carol had her own encounter with domestic violence: in April, her ex-boyfriend attempted to murder her, invading her house with a machete. The police deemed the crime as non-dangerous and later released him. Carol–even with her fame and recognition– is afraid for her own life. The lives of unknown black poor women in communities all over Brazilian face the same type of everyday violence but unlike MC Carol, are voiceless.
This year, MC Carol ran for deputy in the communist party. While she didn’t win, her election indicated a newfound interest by black women to seek leadership positions. Inspired by Marielle and by her own experience with domestic violence, Carol wants to eventually fight for laws to protect women from feminicide.
Carol reminisces about her friend Marielle Franco: “Her fight wasn’t in vain. Marielle didn’t die in vain. We will continue what she started.”
***
Who killed Marielle?
The investigation into who killed Marielle Franco is still open. It has now been seven months and there has been no justice. Marielle was assassinated because her job was making people angry. She was defying the white system. She was trying to bring justice and equality for poor black people. Through her death, Marielle Franco has opened the dialogue and inspired more women to not silent their voices, because they continue to believe what she did: that black lives matter.
