Brazilian Necropolitics: Not even the coffin men will be left to dance
In order to understand Brazilian necropolitics, we have to talk about Marielle Franco. Marielle was an active voice and a champion of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, she was also a vocal critic of the city’s security forces — both official and unofficial — and the high cost in civilian casualties of their war against Rio’s drug gangs. Marielle repeatedly denounced police brutality and the mass killings of Black people, a topic that is not often covered by mainstream media in Brazil. On March 14, 2018, while in a car after delivering a speech, Marille and her driver, Anderson Gomes, were shot multiple times and killed by two murderers in another vehicle, North in Rio de Janeiro. Two years after the fatal shooting, the crime remains unsolved and has become an example of the impunity regarding violence against Black Brazilians.
Marielle was assassinated for being a powerful and fearless Black woman who dared to denounce the Brazilian state’s necropolitics. Many men also did it, but a Black woman from the favela determined to fight for her community could not. It’s not enough to be the successful Black woman in Brazil, where Black bodies are in the front line and will be executed first. Her execution, therefore, can be understood as part of the necropolitics she denounced — the destruction of human bodies and populations characterized as ‘disposable.’
Mbembe defines “necropolitics” as political actions centralized on the large scale production of death at the hands of the state, which decides who should live and who should die. It dictates who is reducible to the ‘unhuman’, bodies without political status, who is “killable” and who is not. In Brazil, these bodies belong to the Black, LGBTQ, and Female communities- as the country leads with the highest murder rates of the members of these communities.
With Bolsonaro becoming president, Brazil potentializes the acts of necropolitics.*** He has promised to end race-based quotas in Universities, decrease social services aimed at aiding marginalized populations, and cut funds from the public health care system, called SUS. Bolsonaro's frequent racist, misogynist, and homophobic statements are reproduced by his followers who feel empowered to materialize such necropolitics.
Bolsonaro's reluctance to take comprehensive action to fight COVID-19 is already causing devastation in Brazil, with the poorest and most vulnerable members of society suffering the most. In the favelas, where most of their residents are Black and Brown, they do not have the luxury to practice social distancing or self-isolation. They also have problems accessing running water, and as a result, are unable to adhere to the hygiene protocols recommended by medical professionals to curb the spread of the virus. Moreover, most residents of these favelas do not have job security or savings, so they continue to go to work using public transport on a daily basis despite the high risk of infection.
We can already see the consequences of Brazilian necropolitics during the coronavirus pandemic- as reported by Fernanda Mena, COVID-19 has been more lethal among the Black population than among whites. Black and Brown populations represent almost 1 in 4 of Brazilians hospitalized with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (23.1%) and 1 in 3 among those killed by Covid-19 (32, 8%). The situation will soon get worsen for them since SUS is at risk of collapsing, and 67% of Brazilians that depend exclusively on the health care system are Black.
Even though the scenario is looking terrifying for Brazilians, they have turned to their online platforms, especially WhatsApp, to make fun of Bolsonaro's attitudes and to engage in creative ways to promote awareness. One of the most shared and remixed content is the Dancing Coffin Crew meme, which is a clip of six men from Ghana carrying a coffin dancing to a choreographed routine. The clip is often preceded by another video clip of people doing something painful or that could lead to their death.
As Bolsonaro continues to snub social distancing rules and to motivate the population to go back to their normal lives, Brazilians have tried to bring the meme in different types of media, such as WhatsApp stickers and even on billboards with the message “stay home or dance with us,” as a way to avoid the politicization of the crisis and create awareness in a humorous way. However, not even the Dancing Coffin Crew seems to bring the president to his senses. Yesterday, 04/10, Bolsonaro went back on the streets and shook hands with a large crowd, in fact, he was seen wiping his nose just before shaking hands with an elderly woman [insert Dancing Coffin Crew clip :-/]. Bolsonaro brings Brazil's necropolitics to a whole new level — in which his political actions are also centralized on the large scale production of the death of his own base.
The Dancing Coffin Crew tries to lift the spirits at funerals in Ghana with their moves and songs. Their services are usually dedicated to older people, who have lived a long and full life. However, if they were to offer their services in Brazil, they wouldn't be able to celebrate the lives of fellow Black people, since they have the lowest life expectancy in the country. In fact, the Dancing Coffin Crew wouldn't even be able to survive the necropolitics amplified by Bolsonaro- who would be the only one left to dance on everyone's graves.
*** Edit: Before I had written that "with Bolsonaro, Brazil moves dangerously closer to institutionalize the acts of necropolitics," but in fact, as pointed by Guilherme Lemos, necropolitics have been institutionalized in Brazil since its colonization.
