Black genocide is Real: Deaths of young blacks by firearm grow 428%
Note from BW of Brazil: I know that often times people are quick to dismiss slogans that point out the differences in the manner in which Brazilians experience life, or in this case, death, according to certain categories. Online and in debates, I always read comments by white Brazilians that dismiss the things that black Brazilians say in terms of unequal treatment in whatever genre that may be being discussed at a particular moment.
For many, pointing the facts these facts according to race is just people “whining”. It never fails. Enter into any social network, follow debate on Twitter or any other social platform and the attitude is always, “stop playing the victim”, “slavery ended years ago”, “spend more time studying instead of complaining and you’ll get somewhere.”
It’s pretty easy to push such inequalities under the carpet and accuse people of exaggerating the facts, perhaps in an attempt to not deal with the topic directly or to assure themselves that the privileges they enjoy in life were fairly earned, but whatever the reason, stats such as those presented below cannot be dismissed. The data were presented on Brazil’s top television network, so people cannot pretend that they don’t know.
To cut straight to the chase, the Movimento Negro (black movement) have labeled the murder of young black people, mostly aged 15-29, as “genocídio negro”, or “black genocide” for a number of years. Are they just exaggerating? Well, according to the numbers, in 20 years, the rate of murder of black youth increased 4 fold while this rate doubled for young whites. In fact, between 2016 and 2017, the rate of murders of black increased from 4.15 times the rate of young whites, to 4.9 times the rate of young whites. And let us remember something. When young people are killed, their murders don’t just kill off their generations, but also generations to come of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren they would have had.
Still think the label of “black genocide” is just a myth? Peep the story below…
Deaths of young blacks by firearm grow 428% in 20 years
Coutesy of Notícia Preta
Violence against youth is growing throughout the country, but young blacks are the main victims. According to a survey by the Fundação Abrinque (Abrinque Foundation), released by GloboNews, the number of homicides of black youths by firearms increased 428% in the last two decades.
Between the years 2016 and 2017 there was an 8% increase in the murder of young blacks, while that of young whites fell 9% over the same period.
The Fundação Abrinque considered these data as “a scenario of civil war that Brazil is going through today.” In the last 20 years, the period determined by research, the murder of blacks has always been more than twice as much as non-blacks. In 1997, 1,450 children and adolescents were executed against 772 whites. In 2017, the number of black youths killed was five times greater than that of 20 years ago, 7,670 black lives were lost and 1,563 white.
“Lethal violence is one of the dimensions of all the vulnerabilities these young people are exposed to. These young people are probably exposed to other vulnerabilities such as absence of school, rights and services that they should have had access to like other non-black young people. This is not an isolated fact, it is part of a social context where this young person lives,” explained Eloisa Oliveira, Executive Founder of the Fundação Abrinque in an interview with GloboNews.
In 2017, 80% of those killed throughout Brazil were black, and 17.5% were white. In Ceará, 91% of the young people murdered were black, in Rio de Janeiro, 78% and in São Paulo 51.7%
“Violence needs to be understood and treated as a broader social phenomenon and we need to see other policies to combat this violence. Protection and prevention policies are needed so that these children are not so exposed to such homicide cases. Without prevention policies, this situation can be aggravated. If nothing is done these statistics will repeat themselves in the next few years,” warned Eloisa Oliveira.
Source: Notícia Preta
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