When they March for Black Lives

Let me explain you the context, darling. In 2020 we had a global pandemic. Yes, it was something unseen until that moment, as the globe completely had stopped in panic.

Brazilian State practices have been adopting the worst policies against coronavirus and our black people were once again the target of the absence of public policies, because our lives did not matter to them. The President at the time, an avowedly fascist guy who equipped the state with the military so that he could actually establish a totalitarian state, said when asked by the press that although he had the Messiah in his name "he cannot do a miracle" and that "So what many people would die I can't do anything”.

Of course my daughter, these "many people" he referred to included us, black folks and indiginus because although we are responsible for establishing all the architecture, culinary, culture and other workforce of the base of the country and who were in the line front in the pandemic in the “essential services”, they put is besides when it came to protecting our lives.

Daughter, but they didn't know, we were already screaming out of tune and demanding the atrocities of the Brazilian State for centuries, also because the State murders black children here my daughter. Mom really wanted it to be just a metaphor to illustrate the government's bad behavior, but it's all given history, daughter.

But in that same 2020, in a pandemic scenario, the US, which historically also encarcerates and annihilates black people, was responsible for the death of George Floyd. This, as well as in the case of Pedro Gonzaga, asphyxiated boy at Supermercado Extra; Marielle Franco, councilwoman murdered in Rio de Janeiro; Agatha Felix, murdered inside a school van and João Pedro, murdered inside the house, the young people couldn't stand it and took to the streets.

Daughter, notice that they all have names. They had families, they had dreams, but the State until this year of 2020 has a living project based on white supremacy. George Floyd set fire to the haystack and the effect of his murder “viralized” not only on the networks but on the streets. It's a paradoxical, daughter to take to the streets in a pandemic scenario. But we were!

We saw the Casa Grande surrounded, yes the Casa Grande in this case was the American White House. We also saw the statue of Edward Colston, an English slaver, being torn down by protesters in England. Daughter, there were many countries, even Japan shouted “Black Lives Matter”. Mom felt like crying when she saw the “George Floyd effect” occupying newspapers and narratives about racism around the world.

For us, black folks who were already larger numbers in the lethality caused by the virus and who suffered not only from police violence, but also from the whole structure of structural racism that purposely creates mechanisms for us not to prosper, there was no other option but the streets.

American whiteness and countries like France, Portugal, Canada, Germany and Italy, especially the millenniums, massively took to the streets shoulder by shoulder the blacks. But here, as always, the black movement continued to carry the agenda on its back, as whites preferred to put a black screen on instagram or hashtag on the social medias so as not to need to review their privileges.

Daughter, Brazilian whites – especially those who belong to the elite, are hypocritical and disgust. To illustrate, they are not present either in support of the black women's march or in the events on the November agenda. So you'd think they'd be hiding behind a hashtag, echoing a silence.

Look daughter, not to be unfair, on that Jun 07 I went to the streets and saw many white people finally shouting anti-racist war cry. Daughter, I hope that when I tell you this story, your hair, your skin, your grimaces, your expressions and your being don't worry me to the point that I'm afraid you won't come home. I hope that even at home, no one invades our space with a bullet. Hopefully from the future you look to 2020 as a year when the world woke up to what we've been talking about for centuries #black lives matter#blm #blacklivesmatter