Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Brazil: Race, Racism, and the Coup Attempt Against Rousseff 
Note: This article was published on April 12 a month before the right-wing coup against President Rousseff. It predicts the impact of such an illegal transfer of power.

During one of the recent marches organized calling for the ouster of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, a scandalous photo made the rounds of social media.

The image showed a very white Brazilian family, together with their purebred dog, walking through the streets of Rio de Janeiro after an anti-Dilma march as their Black nanny, clad in white uniform, follows behind, pushing their two children in a stroller.

That image served to sum up the very real divide that presently exists in Brazilian society. Brazil continues to be divided on socio-economic lines, which often overlaps with race.

The Black Lives Matter movement has served to highlight the race-based oppression of Black people in the United States but few know that Brazil actually received ten times as many slaves as the U.S. and is home to the largest Black population in the world outside of Africa.

Despite claims that it is a country that has achieved racial harmony, race and racism continue to be a major issues in Brazil.

The ongoing divide between those who support the government and those who want to see it ousted, serves to exemplify the ongoing racial divide.

In fact, Rousseff's victory in the 2014 election, the one that coup-plotters are now trying to overturn, came thanks in large part to the support she received from the predominantly Black and poor northeastern portion of the country.

The base of the support of Rousseff's Workers Party is found in this region of the country and the working-class enclaves of Brazil's cities.

Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, is from Brazil's northeast and cut his teeth in politics as a trade union leader in the industrial suburbs of Sao Paulo.

It is the Black and low-income people of these regions who will suffer the most should the Workers Party be ousted.

The social programs and wealth redistribution efforts over the 14 years of Workers Party governments have been aimed at improving the situation of Brazil's poor and marginalized.

Many of those who oppose the leftist governments of Lula and Rousseff alleged that the reason they continue to be reelected is due to clientelism, that the poor vote for the Workers Party only because they stand to gain from wealth distribution programs.

Brazil's elites have expressed tremendous contempt toward the Workers Party precisely for their efforts to empower and uplift this segment of Brazilian society.

The elites have questioned the capacity of huge segments of the population to decide their political future. There have even calls from some conservative media outlets to eliminate the right to vote from those who are the beneficiaries of social programs

What Is the Solution to the Present Crisis?

Like many export-dependent economies, Brazil is in the midst of a serious economic crisis.

The Workers Party has largely tried to minimize the impact of the crisis on the poor, opting to try to preserve hugely popular social programs that have lifted many out of poverty.

Should the coup-plotters come to power, the weight of their reactionary policies will fall heaviest on the country's predominantly Black and low-income population.

One need not speculate on this question. If Rousseff is ousted, she would be replaced by Vice-President Michel Temer of the PMDB party.

The PMDB has already revealed what they intend to do with power.

In a report revealed by O estado de Sao Paulo, the PMDB indicated that they would implement sweeping austerity reforms, including cuts to the lauded “Bolsa Familia” program.

In a country like Brazil, where race and class are nearly indistinguishable, this would be a crippling blow to families who would be pushed back into poverty.

The neoliberal government of Mauricio Macri in Argentina has proved to the world how quickly social programs can be undone and how quickly that leads to greater poverty and social unrest. It is estimated that in Argentina there are a million more people living in poverty since Macri came to power. A similar scenario would most likely play out in Brazil with a PMDB government.

The Black and mestizo population of Brazil understands this, that is why pictures of the anti-government protests are overwhelmingly white.

These same protesters march with signs saying that they, “Want their country back,” using language that is reminiscent of the coded racist language utilized by the Donald Trump campaign. Pundits have asked what precisely do they mean by this phrase? In the last country in the Western hemisphere abolished slavery in 1888, is this a dog whistle for a return to institutionalized government backed racial hierarchy?

Dilma supporters have gone on the record to say that they have no illusions about the moral character of the predominantly white protests calling for the coup. A picture posted on social media showed some anti-Dilma protesters gleefully posing next to a man in blackface holding a noose.

These protests don't represent Brazil, the vast majority of demonstrators are white, wealthy, and conservative in a country that is majority “brown,” Black, low-income, and progressive.

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