Black Feminist Activism in Brazil: Political Discourse in Three Times (original) (raw)

2021, Twenty-first-century feminismos : women's movements in Latin America and the Caribbean

Despite the exponential growth of distinct kinds of Black feminist activism in Brazil and its interconnections with similar phenomena in other parts of the world, systematized studies of its local, national, and international importance are rare. This chapter aims to fill the gap by presenting an empirical as well as theoretical discussion, on the one hand analyzing political and historical contexts that have enabled the emergence, consolidation, and pluralization of Black feminism in the country, and on the other hand showing the changes in its political discourse over the years and the rise of new co-operation and confrontation strategies with the state and other political agents. This chapter is divided into three sections. The first, “In between the Women’s Movement and the Black Movement, We Continue to Be Black Women,” presents the emergence of the Black Women’s Movement in the 1980s, analyzing its cooperation and confrontation strategies with the Black and feminist movements and in the discourses that appear in Nzinga Informativo, “perhaps the first periodical in the history of Brazil’s black feminism as an autonomous movement” (Rios and Freitas 2018, 29). The second, “Institutional Advocacy and Realignment of the Feminist and Antiracist Political-Discursive Camps,” analyzes changes in the political discourse within Black feminist activism in the 1990s and early 2000s, characterized by the attempt to establish formal channels of political engagement for Black women within state bureaucracy and inter- national organizations. The third section, “Intersectional Feminism: Shaking up Existing Structures to Promote Good Living,” discusses the resurgence of street demonstrations in the 2010s along with two emerging political movements led by young Black activists. The first can be interpreted as a movement to “occupy politics,” represented by the growing presence of Black women in legislative positions. The second is the emergence of a generation of young Black feminists who are reformulating and creating new political discourses as well as street protests, social networks, and political representation.