Moïse Kabagambe: what Lélia Gonzalez teaches us about the myth of racial democracy

By Rodolfo Lima, from Dialogues from the South - Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, a Black Congolese refugee worker, was brutally murdered at a kiosk in Rio de Janeiro on January 24th. He was beaten to death by five people simply for demanding his overdue wages for two days of work from the owner of the establishment.

The Congolese community has rightly denounced the fact that the problem is more profound, as it manifests the structural racism and xenophobia present in our country.

In Brazil, structural racism is masked by a very powerful ideology: the myth of racial democracy. Historically, the Black movement has fought against this myth, and a very important figure in this struggle was the Black activist and intellectual Lélia Gonzales, who would have turned 87 this week.

For her, "the biggest effect of this myth is that racism doesn't exist in our country, thanks to the process of miscegenation." In other words, a romanticized conception of history prevails, suggesting that due to miscegenation, we live in a harmonious country where everyone is equal before the law.

As Lélia shows, this equality formally assumed by the State, at least since abolition, has been accompanied by a set of practices of racial discrimination – the absence of a policy of compensation, access to land and education, coupled with a policy of whitening the population, genocide, incarceration, exclusion from the most dynamic sectors of the economy, among others – which perpetuate real inequality to this day.

Thus, paradoxically, everyday cases of racism, police violence, and murders, such as Moïse's case, are generally seen as normal—that is, as a normal part of our racially structured society dominated by dependent capitalism—hidden by the ideology of myth and treated as mere isolated incidents.

Few episodes come to light, and if it weren't for the Black movement, they would hardly have any repercussions. That's why the fight against racism in Brazil causes so much discomfort; it's because it shakes what is considered normal.

Another important lesson from Lélia is that dependent Brazilian capitalism maintains a mass of marginalized workers, and due to the sexual and racial division of labor, it is Black men and women who make up the most marginalized segments of society, occupying informal, precarious, and impoverished sectors. This is also true for Black refugee workers from Africa and Haiti, as they are marginalized and subjected to situations of racial discrimination and economic exploitation.

This is perpetuated in Bolsonaro's neo-fascist government, with the denial of the existence of racism in Brazil, the denial of Black protagonism in the struggle for abolition, and, at the same time, with its attacks on the rights of quilombola communities, the quota law, and a social and economic policy that particularly affects our people. In fact, the neoliberal economic policy implemented since the Temer government, such as the labor reform, the pension reform, the spending cap amendment, among others, has had nefarious effects on the Black population.

Here, the construction of national identity is intimately linked to the myth of racial democracy; it is like a fundamental pillar of its support. This idea of ​​a mixed-race nation, receptive to all colors, nationalities, and beliefs, is propagated even abroad. In a short time, these Black refugee workers feel the racial discrimination, structurally built into Brazil, where they cannot even demand that their salary be paid as a formal worker, because in addition to being Black, they are African.

We must join the demands for justice, as it is important that the murderers be punished, complementing the struggles led by the Black movement and strengthening ties with the African and refugee communities in general. Furthermore, we cannot fail to emphasize unity in the fight against structural racism, its economic, political, and ideological aspects – present even in the neo-fascist government – ​​as well as its connection to dependent capitalism, in order to build an anti-racist Popular Project for Brazil.

Rodolfo de Souza Lima He is a doctoral candidate in Geography at Unesp in Presidente Prudente, an educator, and an activist with the Popular Youth Uprising and the Popular Consultation movement.