afro-brazilian
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Ava DuVernay, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Janelle Monáe and More Join Call for Justice for Slain Afro-Brazilian Activist
More than two weeks after the assassination of Marielle Franco, an Afro-Brazilian politician who had staunchly advocated against police violence, grim details have emerged around her death. As Kiratiana Freelon reported for The Root, the 38-year-old Franco was gunned down in her car by armed men in Rio de Janeiro. She was shot a total…
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Say Her Name: Marielle Franco, a Brazilian Politician Who Fought for Women and the Poor, Was Killed. Her Death Sparked Protests Across Brazil
Editor’s note: This story has been updated. Marielle Franco, 38, a black politician from Rio de Janeiro, died fighting for the rights of women and favela dwellers. As a councilwoman from the Maré favela, she denounced the police brutality that favela residents, most of them black, regularly experienced. On Wednesday around 9:20 p.m., armed men…
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Black Panther Inspires Black Brazilians to Occupy White-Dominant Spaces
Black Panther has inspired the Diaspora in myriad ways. The film has been applauded by black people across the world for touching on the complex relationships between Africans and African Americans, for serving up positive images of African culture for global audiences, and for providing a vehicle that allows black people throughout the world to…
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Samba and Misogynoir: Will 2018 Be the Last Year of Blackface in Brazil’s Carnival?
The United States isn’t the only country with a bad case of “blackface.” Brazil has its own version of blackface, and it is most often on display during Carnival, when some revelers sometimes dress up as “Nega Maluca,” translated as “crazy black woman” in Portuguese. During this year’s Carnival in Brazil, blackface made an appearance…
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Becoming an Ebony Goddess: Why This African-American Woman Competed in an Afro-Brazilian Beauty Pageant
Sheryland Neal wanted to be a Deusa do Ébano—an “Ebony Goddess,” in Portuguese. That’s why Neal, an African American from Atlanta, became the first foreigner to ever compete in the A Noite da Beleza Negra (the Night of Black Beauty) beauty pageant on Saturday, Jan. 20—the premier beauty pageant for Afro-Brazilian women in Brazil—for the…
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Love, Afro-Brazilian Style: Afrodengo Is Making It Easier to Find Black Love in Brazil
Thaisa Moreira Xavier met her husband in a Facebook group. Although she was conscious of her Afro-Brazilian heritage, she had few black friends growing up. The city she lived in and schools she attended were mostly white. But when she moved to Campinas, a city of 1 million approximately two hours outside of Sao Paulo,…
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The Re-Emergence of the Turbante: A Brazilian Fashion Statement With a Deeply Political History
Just four years ago, Monica Almeida, 34, an Afro-Brazilian woman living in Rio de Janeiro, didn’t identify as a black woman. “When I was an adolescent, I believed in the myth of the mulata (mixed-raced woman). It wasn’t until I was 30 years old and I had already experienced so much racism, read tons of…
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Brutal Crackdowns, Hidden Poverty: How Preparations for the Rio Olympics Hurt Afro-Brazilians
In the next few weeks, Aug. 5-21, the city of Rio de Janeiro is going to host the 31st Olympic Games. Like a mother preparing her home for 500,000 tourists, Rio has swept the city’s poverty under the rug by increasing police and army presence in favelas. As a result, part of the local population…