Black Brazil: An Opressed Perspective

This new publication by André Albuquerque is, above all, a great audacity. I am writing at a time when Brazil is undergoing a political upheaval, with the rise of a far-right candidate to the country's top public office. Among the terms used by this character is the neologism "poor thing". It is how he refers to those who propose affirmative actions, such as, for example, quotas for blacks in public universities. It is precisely at this point that André's contribution comes in. He unveiled the slaveholding, racist and ethnocentric practices that have permeated the history of Brazil since the beginning. His book is a call to reflection and, at the same time, an eloquent speech in defense of "people of color". There are no victims, what there are are victims. The brutal social inequality in our country was the result of a system destined to produce inequalities. This is not a failed country in its construction. It is, on the contrary, the conscious implementation of an unjust, perverse, racist country and, above all, with a terrible class prejudice.