Brazil's Black Coalition for Rights launches pandemic food donation campaign
And those of us who live abroad can easily donate through Paypal!
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Grassroots Movements Across Brazil Launch Campaign to Donate Food to 223,000 Families, by RioOnWatch on March 24:
On Tuesday, March 16, grassroots movements and NGOs launched the “People Are Hungry” campaign with the aim of providing basic food stuffs to almost 223,000 Brazilian families.
The initiative is led by the organizations that make up the Black Coalition for Rights, which brings together over 200 organizations linked to the nation’s black movement. The initiative is also supported by Oxfam Brazil, Amnesty International Brazil, ABCD (Brazilian Campaign Against Inequalities), Nossas, Redes da Maré and 342 Artes.
To reach the food basket target, the project seeks to raise R$133 million (US$24 million). The group created the Tem Gente Com Fome (People Are Hungry) website to receive donations through the Brazilian banking system and through Paypal.
A story of slavery — and space, by The Washington Post on March 29:
I’ve been following this story for the last four years and it appears to be finally receiving the attention that it deserves. Alcântara, Maranhão is a special place in Brazil because it sits directly on the equator, making it the best place to launch space rockets. The United States government wants expand Brazil’s existing space launch center for its own uses but one thing sits in its way: Alcântara is home to several quilombo communities of Black Brazilians. Quilombo communities are self-sustaining Afro-Brazilian communities that are usually found in rural areas.
The United States in 2019 signed a technology privacy agreement with Brazil that allows the United States to use the nearby Brazilian launch center for commercial and other missions. But the deal, which then-president Donald Trump promised would save “tremendous amounts of money,” could also mean the displacement of nearly 2,100 of Brazil’s poorest people. The Brazilian government last year announced a plan to expand the base by more than 30,000 acres to make room for the additional business. The quilombos would be cleared, officials said in a decree, and their people removed.
Last year I did a video interview with Davi Pereira, one of the leaders of the quilombo. Check it out here.
Rio de Janeiro State Swears in its First Black Dean of a Higher Education Institution, by Notícia Preta on March 25
Photo: Governo do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
Professor Luanda Moraes, 43, was sworn in on Thursday (25) as the new rectory of the Centro Universitário Estadual da Zona Oeste (Uezo). Luanda is the first black dean of a state higher education institution in Rio. She will remain in her position until 2025.
Ceará Sanctions State Law that Allocates 20% Government Jobs to Black Brazilians, by Negrê on March 26:
The racial quota law that allocates 20% of vacancies in civil service exams to black people in Ceará was sanctioned this Thursday, 25, by the governor of the State of Ceará Camilo Santana (PT). The legislation was signed on the day that Ceará celebrates Data Magna, the day on which Ceará became the first state in Brazil to free Black people.
Justice condemns, for racism, a former FGV student who called his colleague a 'slave', by O Globo on March 24:
Racism is against the law in Brazil. This case first dominated headlines in 2018. A white student called a black student a slave in a Whatsapp group. If you call a person a slave, that is an example of racism and it can be prosecuted.
The São Paulo court convicted Gustavo Metropolo, a former student at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), for the crimes of racism and racial injury, after he called a black colleague a “slave” in a WhatsApp group. The decision of the 14th Criminal Court of the Barra Funda Forum, in the capital of São Paulo, fixed the sentence at two years and four months in an open regime. The defendent must pay $R5,000 to the victim.
Fiocruz launches measures to confront Covid-19 in Rio's favelas, by Alma Preta:
With the objective of assisting in the response to face the pandemic and its effects in the favelas, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) launched the Public Call to Support Emergency Actions to Combat Covid-19 in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The plan will receive financial support from Alerj (Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro) from PL 8972/2020. State deputy Renata Souza (PSOL) authored the measure, which allowed the transfer of up to R $ 20 million from a special fund to Fiocruz, for the development and implementation of the plan to fight coronavirus in favelas and peripheries.
"Semente Preta": Nubank launches investment fund for startups founded by black people, by Mundo Negro on March 24:
The digital bank Nubank announced on Wednesday (24) that it will allocate a total of R $ 1 million to Brazilian startups founded by black and black entrepreneurs. Semente Preta focuses on companies that have already validated their minimum viable product (MVP) and that impact the market in which they operate through the use of technology.
CULTURE, HISTORY AND FUN STUFF
Black militant Luiza Bairros is the subject of a documentary, by Geledés on March 26:
Luiza Bairros served as the minister of racial equality under Dilma Rousseff. She is considered a pioneer in black feminism in Brazil and as the minister of racial equality she promoted affirmative action in the federal government. When I arrived in Brazil in 2015, I exchanged a few emails with Luiza Bairros before her untimely passing from lung cancer in 2016.
On the day of Luiza Bairros' birthday, on March 27, the Articulation of Brazilian Black Women Organizations (AMNB) launched a documentary about the black sociologist, thinker, manager and activist. The documentary was produced by Cultne, the largest digital collection of black culture in the country. Latin America.
Premiere of Lázaro Ramos as film director is marked by praise, by Negrê on March 26:
The drama Provisional Measure (2020), the first work of actor Lázaro Ramos, 42, as a feature film director, has been well received by critics of international film festivals where he has been going since his debut at the 42nd Moscow International Film Festival, where it was nominated "Best Film of the Year".
Black, Independent Artists Are Struggling during the Pandemic, by Alma Preta:
Independent artists, from movements such as Hip Hop and Slam, do not receive financial support, which forces them to unfold themselves in other functions, since the dissemination of their work depends on the public and the street. Avoiding agglomerations due to the pandemic and without emergency assistance, the composers try not to let art die even a year after the beginning of the health crisis.
Black Culture Giant GainS Homage on the Walls of Rio, by Uol on March 28:
As the pandemic wages on, the Lapa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro has desolate air in this time of deserted streets. But there is a new mural that graces the side of a building. An image of Pixinguinha, is considered one of the greatest Brazilian composers of popular music within the genre of music known as choro, now graces the wall of the Museum of Image and Sound, in Lapa. The work was finished last Thursday (25) andwas carried out by the Negro Muro project, responsible for another 14 mural tributes to figures such as João Cândido, Mussum, Marielle Franco, Cartola and Mãe Beata Iemanjá.
What Ludmila's case teaches about institutionalizing racism in the Judiciary, by Negrê on March 29:
The Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice accepted, last Friday, 26, the appeal of socialite Val Marchiori, 46, against the penalty for moral damages after racial injuries to singer Ludmilla, 25. The lawsuit was opened in 2016, when Ludmilla paraded as the drummer's queen of Salgueiro, and Val Marchiori made a racist comment about the singer, while presenting Carnaval on RedeTV. "This hair is looking like a bombril, folks," said the socialite.
OPINION
Torto Arado: the connections between Água Negra and my grandfather's backyard, by Agência Mural on March 29
Torto Arado is the best-selling book by Itamar Vieira Júnior that tells the story of two Black sisters in the hinterlands of post-Abolition Brazil. Hopefully, it will be translated into English soon. The author of this opinion piece explains how Torta Arado made her reflect on her ancestry.
Racism and the challenge of fighting it, by Correio Braziliense on March 27:
Despite the advancement of technology, which brings us a range of knowledge about right and wrong, and the Lei Caó (law 7.716 / 89), which combats racism in Brazil, turned 32 on the last 5th of January, we live a setback on the racial issue. Criminal attitudes come from the virtual environment (internet and social networks) to the personal, in which intolerants manifest themselves without caring about the values of the human being.
In Brazil, the causes of racism can be associated, mainly, with the long enslavement of peoples of African origin and the delay in the abolition of slavery, which, in my view, was limited, for not inserting freed slaves into the social environment, nor allowing them the rights to education and the labor market, making them marginalized.
The recognition of the Quilombola's Right to Life and Health in with Covid-19, by Alma Preta on March 26:
Photo: Prefeitura de Campo Grande (MS).
To recognize the value of quilombola life is to consider its individual and collective dimension. The latter exposes the diversity of a people that developed their own relations with the territory and established, among themselves, ways of living well, organizing and expressing themselves, representing a resistance that has spanned three centuries and keeps its identity alive.
Opinion: Who hasn't died, wants to die, by Negrê on March 29:
On Fridays, I have an appointment with my psychologist. I have been monitoring at least since the end of 2016, due to a depressive condition whose symptoms appeared in mid-2013.
Last Friday, the 26th, I brought to the session a list of complaints and symptoms of what appeared, once again, to be a depressive crisis. I told him that I haven't been in a mood for days. I can't handle my chores, I can't perform basic tasks, like washing the dishes or even getting out of bed. I just don't have the energy to cope with living.
At the end of my account, which, to some extent, went through the chaotic and desperate situation of the country, my therapist's intervention came in the form of a question: "Is it worth living in the present moment?".
Future? It doesn’t have. The scenario only gets worse and it is more and more difficult to imagine a better future. Without being able to dream in the midst of chaos, living is no longer worth it. The feeling I have is that whoever didn't die, is wanting to die. And the biggest targets of this morbid capital policy, we know who we are.