Why the US should pay close attention to race and class in the response to Brazilian insurrection 

Brazil’s Jan. 8,2023, and America’s Jan. 6^, 2021 storming of the capitols after democratic presidential elections are invigorating anti-democratic white nationalist values. We have a chance to help stop it.

Brazil’s 2022 election parallels the U.S. 2020 election with the voting out of right-wing openly racist and misogynistic President Jair Bolsonaro in favor of progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On Jan. 8 2023, pro-Bolsonaro attackers invaded the Brazilian presidential palace, the Brazilian Congress, and the Brazilian Supreme Court. Attackers destroyed irreplaceable artwork and historical artifacts, defecated in the presidential palace and slashed portraits of political leaders. These scenes of destructive chaos are attempts to delegitimize political leaders and democratic institutions. 

Yet, race and class are key components of facilitating white supremacy while sustaining the devaluation of Black life. Just on Jan. 5, military police killed Dierson Gomes da Silva, after mistaking a piece of wood Gomes was holding for a gun. Gomes da Silva’s murder corresponds to longstanding state violence that disproportionately impacts Afro-Brazilians who comprise 55 percent of the population but 84 percent of the people killed by police and are often the victims of mass police orchestrated shootings.  

In understanding and organizing against the far-right extremist threats to democracy, it is crucial to have a racial, class, and gendered lens. The motivations of Bolsonaro’s movement are in part fueled by white grievances, and resentment of Black, brown, Indigenous, and poor people gaining power. Under Workers Party presidents Lula da Silva (2003-2011) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), Brazil’s Black, Indigenous, and poor populations benefited from widespread transformative social welfare, anti-poverty, and race-targeted equity programs after decades of the denial of racism by the Brazilian government.

Bolsanaro sought to roll back those same gains. The far right struck back and eventually took over mass street demonstrations and the orchestration of the dubious impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. The mass populism opened the floodgates to Bolsonaro’s election backed by white patriarchal conservative evangelical Christianity and the repudiation of Black and Indigenous inclusion. Dubbed the Trump of the tropics, Bolsonaro openly expressed racist and misogynistic views while denying the existence of racism. With fears of the left retaking power and opening up doors of inclusion, Brazil’s 2022 election parallels the U.S. 2020 election with the voting out of right-wing openly racist and misogynistic President Jair Bolsonaro in favor of Lula da Silva. Donald Trump, Trump’s son, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) all endorsed Bolsonaro during his campaign while Trump allies like Steve Bannon called into question the validity of the Brazilian election system. Like Trump, Bolsonaro drove conspiracy theories about election fraud. Without formally conceding, Bolsonaro refused to attend the inauguration ceremony of Lula da Silva and left for Florida while his pro-Bolsonaro backers set up camps outside Brasilia, the Brazilian capital.

These anti-democratic values and practices are not new. In 1964, a military coup overthrew a left-wing democratically Brazilian government. The U.S. government legitimized and embraced the military government, but years of political organizing from U.S. citizens helped shift the discourse of himan rights in Latin America. The violence of Bolsonaro’s presidency and the violence of the military dictatorship (1964-1980) are part of a long history of racial violence against Black and Indigenous Brazilians. 

Bolsonaro has repeatedly expressed nostalgia and admiration for the Brazilian military dictatorship and has called Colonel Carlos Alberto Ultra a national hero. Jair Bolsonaro himself cast his vote in honor of Colonel Carlos Alberto Ustra in his vote to impeach then-president Dilma Rousseff, who was jailed and tortured during the military dictatorship. This dictatorship executed dissidents and attempted to squash Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous organizing but Afro-Brazilian, Indigenous, and feminist activists demanded equality and reconstructed democracy.  Under the mantle of moral order, the military dictatorship justified their actions with the defense of respect for authority, Christianity, and traditional patriarchal family values. With Bolsonaro’s regime under the guise of law order, police raids increased with 75 percent of killed victims as Afro-Brazilian. He has ties to paramilitary and the assassination of Marielle Franco, a Black LGBT feminist councilwoman from a Rio de Janeiro favela. With this backdrop, the Jan. 8 invasion is an alarm to Brazil’s democracy.

This is not merely about discontent with elections, but a reproach of democracy and the inclusion of Black and Indigenous groups into the public sphere.

Yet, there is major hope. Large street demonstrations defending democracy emerged in Brazilian cities. Lula da Silva demanded that the invaders be held responsible. Over 1500 Brazilian invaders of the capital have been arrested. All three branches of the Brazilian government including Bolsonaro allies condemned the capital invasion. The U.S. can offer more than just words to Brazilians in democratic solidarity. Jan. 6, the U.S. failed to show that our democracy will be safeguarded. Deporting Bolsonaro is a chance to show that the U.S. stands for democratic processes everywhere. Denying Bolsonaro a visa would ensure that the U.S. is not a comfortable haven for insurrectionists and those conspiring against democracy. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have all called for the backing of Brazilian elections with Castro and Cortez are calling for his extradition.

Brazilian first lady Janja Lula Silva circulated images of Black and brown, poor women cleaning up and picking up the pieces of the destruction of Brazilian government buildings. Let’s not have them pick up the pieces alone. Encourage the denial of Bolsonaro’s visa so that he can face the consequences in Brazil. Commit to solidarity and the empowerment of Black, Indigenous, poor, and women’s inclusion in Brazil and the United States. Our democracies depend on it. 

Jasmine Mitchell is Associate Professor of American Studies and Media Studies at the State University of New York-Old Westbury and author of the book “Imagining the Mulatta: Blackness in U.S. and Brazilian Media.“