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Black Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil
The book, Black Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil describes the key roles played by local women to get land and housing rights. The book is an ethnographic study of the North-western part of Brazil. This part of the country consists of poor black’s community whose main occupation is fishing. The author has studied the struggle of a black woman in this community and reveals the main role of community base politic of black people. Perry has focused on the struggle of black women to get their social rights of dignified housing and drinking water (Perry, 2013).
The books say the local women activist became part of the citywide movement to get their basic rights. It also labels the importance of geographical locations in the gender aspect of the renewal of urban areas. The author explains the formations of a social movement led by a black woman (Perry, 2013).
However Keisha-Khan Y. Perry further discusses in her book that how can black women take part in the redevelopment of urban areas by shaping the political makeover of the country. She also reveals that such an intervention explains the legacy of black women. Her work highlights the ways in which black women stood against institutionalized racism and fight for their right to have resources and to be the citizen of Brazil. The books focus on the political life of black people who are considered as politically corrupt in urban areas. It correlates our understanding of black women and their role in politics and it has emphasized (Perry, 2013).
The main argument that the author has focused I am the historical racism in Brazilian Social life and its politics. The case of black racism is being narrated and pictured the failed Brazilian democracy. The land grabbing of Bahia’s white society. The author explains the strategies opted by black women to keep their lands despite experiencing racism, violence and poverty. The book talks about the disconnection of black women with politics and reveals the renewal practices of racism, in urban areas (Perry, 2013).
The main topic discussed in this book is about black politics and gender racism. The author has beautifully presented her work on black identity and black culture. The content of this book is unique as compare to other work done on racism because it has a special focus on black politics (Perry, 2013).
In chapter one of the book, the author explains the neighborhood of Gamboa de Baixo as a neglected urban world and the white upper class has kept black people for domestic works in this locality. In chapter second of the book, the author talks about how history used to be a community of tourism and public consumption in Salvador. The urban renewal programs have tried to preserve the great historical places in the areas and the living areas of black people have now being used for commercial purposes (Perry, 2013).
However, in chapter three of the book the author discuss the community movements in Gamboa de Baixo against renewable urban programs which were aiming to access the natural resources in the city. Furthermore, the chapter talks about the issue faced by black people in this community including water issues (Perry, 2013).
In chapter four the author explains, gender, class and racial discriminations that have been the base of Brazilian society. Black women have the highest rate of unemployment and they are facing a lifelong struggle to get respectable jobs. Chapter five talks about the violence of police against black women in the neighborhoods of Gamboa de Baixo. It also reveals how black women guided their community to fight against this violence. The chapter also talks about police terrorism in the area. Despite all these challenges the black women in the community accepted this violence and struggled to fight against this (Perry, 2013).
However, the political consciousness of the country is shooed by violence, racial and gender sensibilities and the local community had to fight to get their basic rights. The local back women build up their leadership skills and became part of the domestic movement to get rid of the discriminations and violence by the dominant class. The black women came in front with their unique style of protest by explaining the level of racial and genetic violence in the community. The black women with the help of local Gamboa de Baixo association became able to stand for the development of their community. They organized their association as a residence of the community and demanded to improve their social conditions (Perry, 2013).
In the concluding part of the book, Perry talks about the need of professional architects and engineers to develop the community without destroying the cultural heritage of the area. The local; government should take care of the needs of the local black community. Regularized land should be given to the state for their own use and the rest of them should be given to the local community in order to maintain the dignity of the local people (Perry, 2013).
Black Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil gives an in-depth understanding of black culture and the leadership of black women. The book is helpful to understand social movements and the mechanism of the struggle of black women against racial discriminations (Perry, 2013).
The book is also contributing to the public policy areas by discusses the non- inclusion of the citizen in policymaking. Its main emphasis is on the poor policy making of Brazil which has an authoritarian politics. This political system has completely excluded the poor black community in Brazil and thus the book is an eye-opener for the rest of the world regarding citizen right (Perry, 2013).
Recent directions in the area of neighborhood discrimination
It is not just only Brazil but Black people in other developed countries face discriminations. Ranganathan (2016) explains that the case of Michigan water dispute is mainly associated with environmental racism. The poisoning of the Flint population in Michigan is not merely a racist intent but is a matter of liberalism that is usually ignored in the modern ages.
However, the city of Flint has been facing property dispossession due to the financial forces of the city. Majority of the population of Flint consists of lower-class black people. Black constitute 57 per cent of the population and 42 per cent of people live below the poverty line. These people faced water issue as the source of pour treated water was diverted to an untreated source. The water is full of chemical poured from the industrial sites of the city. These industries are used to make motor vehicles from the upper class of the United States (Ranganathan, 2016).
This incident shows that racism is used to judge individual actors and is an example of racial killing. The previous government of the United States had promised to support the people of Flint but the racial discrimination in Flint is not just “de facto”. Because the segregation of black people is due to the priority of the government towards white and high-class people (Ranganathan, 2016).
To control this situation racialized personification of liberalism needs to be stopped. In such a system the rights of the individual are colure coded (Ranganathan, 2016).
Like the communities in Brazil and the United State, indigenous people of Canada also face legal policy issue. They are charged with a fee to have ownership of their own indigenous land. Modern treaties in Canada are saving the ownership of indigenous land making the original deprived of their basic right in the country. The country is having failed property laws that are giving rise to property gap and people are struggling for a legitimate claim of their geography. The indigenous understanding of geography and property should be focused to cope up with such circumstances (Egan & Place, 2013).
The public housing estate of Canada is also facing issues of territorial stigmatization. The residents of Regent Park have different social housing development than the rest of Canada. These people live in concentrated poverty and the state has redeveloped public housing with socially mixed patterns. The people have access to the support system and have strong community relationships. But this area is neglected from THE REST OF Canada due to the welfare state retrenchment program. This community is also facing an issue related to safety and drug abuse. Socially mixed development approaches are not appropriate to tackle such issues and other mechanisms need to be adopted for the benefits of the community (August 2014).
Moreover, violence in the colonial geography of British Columbia is used to eliminate indigenous people. Colonial power always intercepted in the bio political geography of children and indigenous women by tender disruptions. Colonial violence is conducted to remove the ontology of indigenous children and women. The conditions of these women and children need complete focus in order to understand the geography in which colonialist operate their bio politics. Canadian colonial was are full of Indian problem and yet the indigenous people are facing the issue with bio politics (De Leeuw, 2016).
The contemporary situation in Canada also shows social justices issues. In Toronto up to 125000 children living in poverty. Despite being the symbol of wealth and property the city is not able to control poverty of Children. Toronto is given the status of Canada’s Child poverty capital. Poverty is confined to the 25 ward structure of the city and its tendency is high in a certain part of the city. Child poverty is 15.5 per cent in the St. Paul’s region and it is 24.7 per cent in the Oakwood Ave, the northwest corner of Ward 12.
Many provincial youth funded projects are being operated in the city to eliminate the rate of childhood poverty. The rate of poverty is more in children belong to West Asia, Latin America, and black families. A serious commitment is needed to overcome the poverty among these ethnic groups in Toronto, Canada ("Child Poverty Plagues Every Corner of Toronto, Census Data Shows | The Star").
There are various programs that were implemented to upgrade the status of neighborhoods. Favela-Bairro is one of those programs that was designed in 1994 to upgrade Favelas to a suitable neighborhoods. The program has introduced new public policies, public services and public facilities to the Favela people of Brazil. The program was started by César Maia, the then mayor and continued during his second term as well ("25 Years On, Seminar Celebrates Favela-Bairro Upgrading Program | Rioonwatch").
The education system, of Favela, is also under progress and new research programs are going to be implemented. Other areas of Rio de Janeiro are also under great concern and their social, political and overall development are focused ("25 Years On, Seminar Celebrates Favela-Bairro Upgrading Program | Rioonwatch").
However, the book, Black Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil represents the struggle of marginalized groups. The strategies black women being discussed in this book could be helpful to guide to marginalized people worldwide.
References
"25 Years On, Seminar Celebrates Favela-Bairro Upgrading Program | Rioonwatch." Rioonwatch.org. N.p., 2019. Web. 2 July 2019.
"Child Poverty Plagues Every Corner of Toronto, Census Data Shows | The Star." thestar.com. N.p., 2019. Web. 2 July 2019.
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY August, M. (2014). Challenging the rhetoric of stigmatization: The benefits of concentrated poverty in Toronto’s Regent Park. Environment and Planning A, 46(6), 1317–1333.
De Leeuw, S. (2016). Tender grounds: Intimate visceral violence and British Columbia’s colonial geographies. Political Geography, 52, 14–23.
Egan, B., & Place, J. (2013). Minding the gaps: Property, geography, and Indigenous peoples in Canada. Geoforum, 44, 129–138.
Perry, K. K. Y. (2013). Black women against the land grab: The fight for racial justice in Brazil.
Ranganathan, M. (2016). Thinking with Flint: Racial liberalism and the roots of an American water tragedy. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 27(3), 17–33.
