Abstract:
This paper examines how police violence targets and violates the bodies of black queer women in Brazil during the 20th and 21st centuries, focusing on the theory developed by Marielle Franco –a Brazilian politician, sociologist, feminist, and human rights activist– and the public outburst following her death. I argue that the repeated and brutal murders of black queer women in Brazil reveals systemic corruption and discrimination against such individuals who face intersectional oppression for being black, queer, and a woman. I also explain how Marielle Franco inspired communities that often lacked representation; Franco was a black queer woman and a single woman raised in the Favella’s of Brazil who spread awareness, fought for liberation, and uplifted Brazilians.
Introduction
“The production of any national identity involves the creation of the other and that in the modern and colonial world such racial differences were not repressed but rather stimulated to produce an Otherness to be disciplined.”[1] Such othering is fundamental in the delineations of identities along axes of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability, and privilege. Emerging from the intersections of blackness, womanhood, and queerness, out of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Marielle Franco embraced a life-long commitment to resisting, revolutionizing, and deconstructing systems of oppression that, by othering underprivileged Brazilian populations, perpetuate violence to maintain an unjust hierarchy of power and privilege. Like many countries, Brazil is rife with corruption and has adopted necropolitics, in which lethal violence is utilized by the state as a last-resort attempt to enforce systematic oppression. Brazilian necropolitics goes unacknowledged officially, as individuals in power perpetuate a myth of a raceless Brazil in which racial oppression is no longer a concern. In line with such deliberate ignorance, Vera Benedito introduced the rhetorical question: “How is it that Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery in 1888, but it is still known as a racial paradise where everyone is partying and having sex with each other?[2] (Perry, p. 158, 2020)” In this essay, I will argue that, as a black queer single mother from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Marielle Franco revolutionized Brazilian politics as an activist, congresswoman, and community leader by recognizing the interlocking nature of oppression and the necessity of a movement that must uplift all oppressed people. Franco became a figurehead for resisting corrupt systems in Brazil not only because she embodied an intersectional identity, but because of her dedication to deconstructing the very system that murdered her.
Who was Marielle Franco?
Marielle Franco was born into a family of migrants from Northeastern Brazil and raised in Maré: a group of 16 favelas in Rio de Janeiro. (Loureiro, 2020) Franco’s political education began in her local Catholic church which was influenced by left-wing “liberation theology” present in Latin America at that time. The church offered a safe and neutral space for debate and nurtured the activism that began when Franco’s friend was killed by a stray bullet from one of the frequent shootouts between drug dealers and the police in Maré (Phillip, 2018). Shortly after, at the age of 19, Franco gave birth to her daughter Luyara Santo; whom she raised with the support of her mother and sister after Luyara’s father left. Despite delays, Franco attended Ponti cal Catholic University of Rio (PUC) on a scholarship for poor students from Maré and graduated in 2007 with a degree in sociology. At the time of her graduation, Franco had already built a reputation as a human rights activist who was involved in building the foundations of such advocacy circles. (Cavalcanti, 2020)
A year after the establishment of the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), Marielle joined Marcelo Freixo’s cabinet and participated in the Human Rights Commission wherein she monitored cases of massacres and police execution, counseled families, and pressured authorities to expedite investigations. (Rocha, 2019) In 2016, Franco was elected a councilwoman with the motto “Eu sou porque nós somos” (“I am because we are”)(Santos de Araújo, 2018), a principle taken from the Ubuntu philosophy which symbolized how Franco embodied and dedicated herself to ideas of comradeship, representation, and reform. (Rocha, 2019) Franco was an inspiration not just because she visibly represented minority populations, she also strove to create radical community-based movements both within the office and through non-governmentally affiliated organizations and coalitions.
Representation
Marielle Franco was an inspiration, and her actions uplifted innumerable individuals whether directly– by welcoming individuals into her team on the city council to make the space, as Franco desired: “favelizada, Black, with more women and more amplified gender identities”, or indirectly– through legislative and social justice action that addresses direct concerns of oppressed communities (Loureiro, 2020). In reference to inviting Lana, a trans woman, onto her team, Franco explains that “this is what we mean when we say that one lifts the other, this is especially a Black women’s motto, with Black women occupying many spaces, with their turbans, with their sexual orientation, occupying this space that unfortunately still denies them access. (Loureiro, 2020)” Radical movements require reforming and revolutionizing from the center of interlocking sites of oppression without othering marginalized individuals at the fringes of any one movement. At the intersections of sites of oppression, Franco allowed each and all of the aspects of her identity to inform her activism and uplift all oppressed Brazilians. Cavalcanti explains: “it is the story of a black woman slipping through the cracks of an extremely patriarchal, racist, machist society. She occupied every possible space that opened up (and forced open many others) for social inclusion, the furthering of human rights, and the deepening of democracy over the course of the last four decades. (p. 223, 2020)” Brazilian social justice movements follow Franco’s lead; they demand recognition and reform, and declare “I am because we are”.
Lesbian Representation and Lesbocide in Brazil
While LGBTQ+ rights were not centered in Franco’s activism, she became a prominent symbol of black queerness when she publicized her relationship with Mónica Benício and came out as bisexual. On discovering Franco’s relationship with Benício, Rocha explains “For Marielle, as for the majority of Brazilian women, machismo and the patriarchy are strong barriers preventing women from living their complete emotional and sexual experiences. (XXX)” Even as Franco defied patriarchal demands as a black woman in office and as a radical social justice leader, homophobic legislation and social norms led Franco to conceal this aspect of her identity. The current president, Jair Bolsonaro, openly declares that he is proud to be homophobic throughout his career, politics, and presidential campaign. Such unabashed homophobia demonstrates how the discrimination is systemic and widely accepted or tolerated among those with power; white, heterosexual presenting, men (lesbocide). Soares writes “This type of ideology that preaches prejudice as something morally acceptable brings about devastating consequences to lesbian’s lives.” This system allows and encourages the genocide of bodies at the intersections of queerness and womanhood, and continues to exacerbate the marginalization of black queer women.
Lesbians are often described as not being women because of their deviance from heterosexuality; Soares explains that “we are patriarchy’s mistake”. In particular, strong women, regardless of their sexuality, are persecuted for challenging a male-dominated system that necessitates the denigration and exploitation of women’s labor: domestic and familial affection. Marielle Franco was not only a radical and prominent leader, she was also just one more marginalized body targeted in the persecutions of those who exhibit deviance from patriarchal systems. According to Soares: “it is impossible to build common ground with the patriarchal society to legitimate our existence, as we do not find support among established patriarchy […] thus, what cannot be legitimate, must be exterminated.” This violence particularly targets indigenous and black lesbians who often are at the highest risk of violent discrimination while cases of their discrimination and deaths are under-reported and often not acted upon. Franco is an exception because of her high degree of exposure but, more often, murders of black lesbians go ignored or lack any institutional response. Achieving equity for marginalized populations necessitates representation of all intersections of oppressed identities: race, gender, sexuality, class, privilege, and disadvantage, and a united movement that demands collective recognition and rights.
The Assasination of Marielle Franco
On March 14 of 2018, Marielle Franco was assassinated while returning home from an event held in a community space for black women in the Favelas called “Jovens Negras Movendo as Estructuras” (“Young Black Women Moving Power Structures”); she was shot in the face four times and once in the neck, with a total of fourteen shots fired in her direction. (Cavalcanti, 2020) It is vital to recognize that the same systems Marielle Franco spent her life battling are the very same systems that allowed, if not necessitated, her death. In the aftermath of her assassination, Franco’s supporters demand to know who killed Franco and they demand justice. In an institutional sense, justice would be satisfied if the individuals responsible for the crimes were punished; however, the punitive system is not capable of preventing further atrocities because the problem is beyond the individual; it is systemic.
At the time of her death, Franco coordinated in the report: “Summary Executions in Rio de Janeiro 1983– 2018” which scrutinized the relations between public security policies and politics with the executions perpetrated by agents of the state. Regarding this report, Cavalcanti writes: “Marielle went from being one of the commissioners, designers and discussants of the research to becoming what is perhaps the most significant case, and certainly the most symbolic, of the entire report. (2020)” The report highlights the systematic, selective, and systemic (mis)practice of law in Rio. Whether legal or not, the executions were systematic in their consistency during the study, selective because they targeted poor black citizens from favelas, and systemic because they necessitated a network of institutional actors who reproduce and sustain this brutal system of daily executions.
Militarization of Brazilian Police Force
In February of 2018, Brazilian President Michel Temer signed a decree that charged the army with directing Rio’s security forces under the guise of curbing rising street crime. Loureiro elaborates that “the National Council for Human Rights (2018) called the intervention a “licence to kill” as it creates a state of exception where the habitants of the favela are seen as the enemy of the state in a war ideology. (2020)" Such irresponsible management of justice recalls a Brazilian authoritarian history rife with state violence directed at minority populations, and the recent militarization of favelas in Rio around the time of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Marielle Franco fervently fought such a deadly transfer of power and claimed: “it threatened to raise bloodshed without addressing the root causes of violence.” She recognized that the intervention would not address street crime but would perpetuate and exacerbate already high levels of violence against minority populations, particularly black youth.
Necropolitics
Brazil is a country that practices necropolitics in order to control and maintain unjust and violent structures by delineating social roles and geohistorical places. This system of governance is not limited to Brazil and is the extreme form of unequal capitalistic divisions of race, gender, sexuality, class, privilege, and disadvantage. Loureiro (highlights) “the favela can be viewed through these lenses as a geohistorically criminalised space where life is not seen as valuable as life in other neighbourhoods and the favelado is seen as a disposable body.” Legislation and military action further demonstrates misconduct regarding marginalized populations and the seeming ease with which they maintain a system wherein they determine who has the right to life and who is to be killed. Franco laments: “First they generate a violent inequality and create a war to exterminate the Black and poor population, then they use the fear discourse to generate even more violence. Until when will we be hostage to this extermination politics? (Franco, 2018).” Brazil cannot and will not be liberated until the circumstances of selective, systematic, and systemic necropolitics in Brazil are recognized and directly combatted.
Conclusion
In daring to occupy many spaces dominated by elite and powerful white men and in creating radical and nurturing community movements, Marielle Franco challenged systems of corruption in Brazil. Following her death in March of 2018, her closest friends wrote “they buried a seed”; Marielle was catalytic in uplifting oppressed Brazilians and her legacy boldly continues even after her death. Currently, three powerful and radical black women occupy congress and advance legislation and ideology that aims to reform Brazil and movements cry out “Quem mandou matar Marielle” (Who ordered the murder of Marielle?) and “I am because we are” which demand justice for a woman who accomplished so much. As a black queer single mother from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Marielle Franco revolutionized Brazilian politics as an activist, congresswoman, and community leader by recognizing the interlocking nature of oppression and such problems required a movement that uplifts all oppressed people. Franco became a figurehead for resisting corrupt systems in Brazil not only because she embodied an intersectional identity, but because of her dedication to deconstructing the very system that murdered her.
Bibliography
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[1] Gabriela Silva Loureiro. _“To be black, queer and radical: Centring the epistemology of Marielle Franco.” Open Cultural Studies4, no. 1 (2020), 54 doi:10.1515/culture-2020-0005.
[2] Keisha‐Khan Y Perry. “The Resurgent Far Right and the Black Feminist Struggle for Social Democracy in Brazil.” American Anthropologist 122, no. 1 (2019),158. doi:10.1111/aman.13358.