Jen Reid's sculpture: “God is a black woman”

What began exclusively based on police violence, gradually opened other discussions in the structural dimension of “civilization”, since this model of Western society was instituted from the perspective of whiteness. Thus, the scaling up of the Black Lives Matter movement, now fixed on the global agenda, has made countries necessarily revisit their past, including institutional symbols.

During the Black Lives Matter protests in the city of Bristol, England, the overthrow of the statue of British slaver Edward Colston by the protesters, which opened institutional discussion. Ironically, the removal of statues began in the country that was largely responsible for Western slavery.

In its place, the sculpture of black activist Jen Reid was placed, which was erected for just 24 hours and then removed by order of the mayor, who argued that there was no authorization for it to be installed. The sculpture was made by artist Miarc Quinn inspired by the activist when during the protests of June 7, 2020, wearing black, she stood with her fist clenched on top of empty concrete.

Even with the order to remove the sculpture, art was able to revive the discussions about racial issues, historical repair and social justice in the news and question who are the personalities that the collective chooses to be honored.

In the state of São Paulo, Brazil, we have in progress a law project n. 404 of State Deputy Erica Malunguinho, which provides, among other things, that those who were directly slavers or defenders of the slave order are not chosen as the name of public places, of state buildings, state highways, state public places, the construction and installation of busts, statues and monuments by any of the institutions within the State of São Paulo.

Besides, the project proposes that monuments removed from public roads go to museums containing information referring to the slavery period. When related to the denomination like street or roads the proposal is that rename the places.

In short, the proposal is based on looking at how this glorification of slavers caused the historical erasure and symbolic violence with an inversion of who were the "heroes of the nation" and, consequently, honors given to slavers and defenders of the regime that later spread theories racists. This led to the underrepresentation of blacks. This emphasizes the commitment to the Democratic Rule of Law, leveraging the institutional fight against racism, since brazil state has never had a historical reparation for the black population.

On the other hand, we observe that Brazilian whiteness is generally inert, especially those who occupy institutional chears, refuses to take a look at their privileges and/or publicly participate in demonstrations or events that concern the anti-racist agenda. Therefore, it is important to discuss the theme in the public sphere.

Looking at Jen Reid's sculpture, the lyrics “Deus é uma mulher preta” - God is a black woman - come to mind, sung in the voice of Jessica Gaspar, who in the lyrics denounces the effects of racism caused by the State against black lives when we talk about necropolitics, genocide and mass incarceration.

However, the sound also says about the soul, ancestral knowledge, dreams and claims the place of humanity to the African diaspora peoples that racism so denies. When we look at Jen, we catch the symbolism expressed in her image, we understand where we want to see ourselves.