Manifesto Against Xenophobic Racism
“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” – Angela Davis
The immigrant communities in Brazil and the Black movements in São Paulo publicly express their repudiation against the advance of barbarism and xenoracism, expressed in the murder of the young Congolese refugee Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, and in the lack of responses from the Brazilian State.
Justice and immediate reparation to immigrants, refugees and stateless persons in Brazil, migratory regularization now!
According to the family and the defense, in addition to the violence that ended up with Moïse’s life, there was also an omission by the military police, the metropolitan civil guard and the Mobile Emergency Care Service (SAMU). Additionally, there were reports of negligence against the family of Moïse at the Legal Medical Institute (IML), including serious threats from state agents.
Moïse’s death adds to other murders of immigrants motivated by ethnic-racial issues. Remember their names: João Manuel, Kerby Tingue, Fetiere Sterlin, Inolus Pierrelys, Fallow Ndack, Zulmira de Souza Borges, Toni Bernardo da Silva, and Brayan Yanarico Capcha.
Besides these brutal cases that have gained prominence, oppressions experienced in the daily lives of these populations, especially by Black and ethnic migrants, is critical, as violations of rights in public services and in the work environment are recurring. The Brazilian State has been the main agent of human rights violations, with the intensification of illegal arrests, police violence, threats of deportation and expulsion, and extreme precariousness in working and housing conditions.
Brazil – a signatory country of international conventions and governed by the Migration Law (2017) and the Refugee Statute – has played an important role in welcoming these social groups from all over the world. It is necessary to think about effective public policies with a view to guaranteeing the living conditions of these workers and their families who build the country.
For this, it is essential to provide answers to the serious social problems in Brazil, especially racism and xenophobia.
The functioning of Brazilian society, which was built on the basis of slavery, segregation and exclusion, contributes to the physical and mental health of non-white migrants, from professional disqualification, legal inferiority to the lowering of their standard of living. These exacerbate access to public and private services, such as activities that should be as simple as access to migratory regularization, bank account or education, health, social assistance, and public transport services. It is necessary to put an end to the genocide of Black people, which is still ongoing in the country.
As is the struggle for historical reparation through affirmative policies of black and indigenous people, it is important that the Brazilian State assumes its role of respecting the principles of the Federal Constitution as well as the Migration Law and the Statute of Refugees. The state must prioritize the fight against all forms of exclusion and oppression, especially inequalities in access to work and migratory regularization, which make it impossible for this population to fully exercise their rights.
We call on social movements and all people to show solidarity and unite with the immigrant and diasporic struggles, in neighborhoods, workplaces and housing occupations, for the union of people against barbarism, mass incarceration, structural racism and xenophobic racism!
Join us in solidarity with these fights:
#JustiçaPorMoise #CampanhaSomosJoãoManuel #NduduzoTemVoz #FalilatouLivre
#RegularizaçãoJá #AbaixoPortaria770 #NenhumSerHumanoÉIlegal #MigrarÉDireito
Learn more about how video can be used to combat xenophobic racism in Brazil:
Click here to sign the Manifesto Against Xenophobic Racism.
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