by SOMER NOWAK
Approximately 10,000 activists marched from the Ginásio Nilson Nelson through the Esplanada, ending at the Congresso Nacional
Activists from the Black Women’s Movement in Brazil and a wide array of social organizations marched on Wednesday November 18th 2015 to commemorate the first National Black Women’s March Against Racism, Violence and for Well Being . Over 10,000 activists from all over Brazil marched through the country’s capital city, Brasilia, D.F. from Ginásio Nilson Nelson to the Congresso Nacional demanding visibility of the challenges faced by Afro-Brazilian women and that these issues be acknowledged by the government through policies that promote race and gender equality.
The march took place just two days before Brazilian’s National Black Consciousness Day, dedicated to Quilombo Resistance Leader, Zumbi Dos Palmares and during Black November, a month that celebrates Afro-Brazilian culture and history. Throughout the week of National Black Conscious Day celebrations are held throughout various cities with cultural shows, political debates and marches aimed toward creating black consciousness particularly among black youth.
The organizers emphasized that there is power and strength behind the mobilization of black women in Brazil. In a society that holds on to both a legacy of racial democracy and deems black women seemingly invisible, this mobilization is especially powerful because it displays a gathering of thousands of women reaffirming their blackness, awareness of the discrimination they face because of this identity and their ability to react and organize around these issues.
Despite composing 25% of Brazil’s population, Afro-Brazilian women are still most predisposed to different forms of discrimination, ranking the lowest among several different social indexes. The Map of Violence 2015 released by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLASCO) revealed large racial discrepancies in women’s exposure to violence in Brazil. It showed that the number of femicides of black women has grown 54% over the past 10 years, while femicides of white women has dropped about 10%.
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