The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Ongoing Genocide of Black and Indigenous Peoples in Brazil
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The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Ongoing Genocide of Black and Indigenous Peoples in Brazil Raimundo C. Barreto Jr 1 Received: 10 August 2020 / Accepted: 21 October 2020 / Published online: 18 November 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Cardinal Czerny has compared COVID-19 with a magnifying glass and an X-ray; this article reflects on the tragedy of the Brazilian experience with the COVID-19 pandemic and the deeper wounds it reveals and magnifies. Drawing from journalistic reports, firsthand accounts, statistics, and existing academic literature on race and racism in Brazil, this article interrogates Brazilian racialized society and how the racial divide and economic disparities have been exacerbated through the devastating impact of the pandemic upon a large parcel of the Brazilian people, focusing particularly on how the pandemic magnifies and intensifies the genocide of black and indigenous Brazilians. The article also underscores how Bolsonaro’s strong man politics aggravates the situation, and scrutinizes the ambiguous role of religion in the construction and exacerbation of structural racism as well as in offering creative responses to the current situation. Keywords COVID-19 . Brazilian Christianity . Evangelicals and politics . Structural
racism . Black and indigenous genocide . The Amazon Synod Cardinal Michael Czerny, head of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the Vatican’s Comprehensive Human Development Service, recently referred to the coronavirus as “a magnifying glass that reveals the immoral social structures present in the world.”1 According to him: COVID-19 not only intensifies the human rights violations that are already happening, but also acts as an amplifier, a magnifying glass or an x-ray that reveals the immoral social structures present in the world. This is not a surprise to those who suffer them, but it can and should open the eyes of those who are responsible for them. (Religión Digital 2020) 1
All translations are mine.
* Raimundo C. Barreto, Jr [email protected]
1
Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, USA
418
International Journal of Latin American Religions (2020) 4:417–439
Inspired by this quote, this article reflects on the tragedy of the Brazilian response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past 7 months. As of today,2 Brazil has surpassed 5.2 million COVID-19 confirmed cases and 153,000 deaths. These numbers put Brazil behind only the USA and India on the list of the hardest-hit countries in this pandemic, placing it in a horrendous second place when it comes to the numbers of pandemic-related deaths.3 The tragic suffering and death of many Brazilians during the pandemic should not be dismissed or accepted as inevitable. Using the playbook adopted by Donald J. Trump in the USA, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro—a declared fan of Trump—has strategically and repeatedly diverted attention from the failures of his administration to deal with pandemic by blaming China, state governors, and his opponents for its spread and impact. Bo
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