South Africa and Brazil in the 20th century were very different: the former had apartheid, one of the most sophisticated and wide-ranging systems of racial domination in history, while the latter had little legal system of racial domination at all. And yet both countries have struggled, and continue to struggle, with high levels of racial inequality. How have black movements developed in these two countries in relation to their differing power structures? And what subjects will these movements challenge, and how will they do it?

In the present, Brazil is similar to South Africa in that neither currently have laws explicitly subjugating black populations. From this fact, one could conclude that racism is over. In Brazil, there was slavery a century ago, but then it was abolished and now there is a “racial democracy” (Dec. 5 class discussion). In South Africa, there was apartheid, but then Nelson Mandela was elected and now there is a “rainbow nation” (Noah, Ch. 15; Dec. 5 class discussion). These were very real battles that were fought and won, but there are other battles in progress now. Every new social movement has to challenge the mythos that the previous social movements solved everything. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is very well aware of this fact. As a member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she was tasked with facilitating healing in the wake of apartheid's end. Through starting uncomfortable conversations about the painful realizations that emerged from the commission, the people of South Africa moved forward. So Gobodo-Madikizela might be surprised at Brazil's non-confrontational approach, and some of its successes. Anthony Marx identified Brazil's “alternative racial order” as a method of suppressing revolts by Brazil's slave population, which was the largest in the Americas, and later black protest (Marx, Ch. 7, p. 165). Marx also attributes the racial order to the lack of conflicts requiring white reunification, like the American Civil War or the Boer War, which would have provided an “imperative for legal racial domination” (Marx, Ch. 7, p. 165). On one hand, Brazil has been able to racially progress without the blood typically associated with such a struggle, like in its peaceful abolition of slavery. But on the other hand, Brazil has often adopted half-measures, like the lack of reparation after the abolition of slavery, which left the racial order essentially stagnant (Marx, Ch. 7, p. 161). The willingness of the Brazilian government to compromise provided stability and allowed some progress to be made, but it also prevented aggressive black movements from coalescing around a simple enemy.

In addition, Brazil's racial categorization is much more ambiguous and fluid than the strict categorization of South Africa. Brazil's fluidity of race is due to a long history of racial whitening, where Brazil encouraged miscegenation and blocked black immigration (Marx, Ch. 7, p. 162). In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah retells how, as the child of a white father and black mother, he didn't fit in with his white, black, or colored peers (Noah, Ch. 4, 11, 17). If Noah grew up in Brazil, he may have felt less isolated in a less rigid racial structure. But Noah may have simultaneously felt less ethnic community around him, since Afro-Brazilian community and solidarity was weakened by whitening. Anthony Marx explains that, in Brazil, “as long as it was possible to become white, there seemed little reason to insist on defining oneself as black, with all of the associated negative stereotypes” (Marx, Ch. 7, p. 163). Brazil's unique racial dynamics are relevant when attempting to implement affirmative action. Unlike in South Africa — where every citizen was labeled by the government as white, Indian, colored, or black — discrete self-identification of an individual's race is first appearing for many Brazilians through restorative justice programs like affirmative action. We see difficulties play out in the Wide Angle documentary Brazil in Black and White. Yolanda Dos Santos, who identifies as black, opts not to “take advantage of being black” and enter university admissions through the racial quota system (9:02); Karinny Da Silva is lightskinned (7:25) but attempts to qualify for the racial quota anyway, saying, “if others are benefiting, why shouldn't I?” (14:25). Compare this to the university students in South Africa shown in the MTV documentary The People Versus The Rainbow Nation — albeit, a more one-sided documentary not representative of the population at large — who see the “rainbow nation” as a myth, recognize South Africa needs to move forward, and are part of organized black movements. There is a race consciousness problem in Brazil.

This is not to say there isn't a Brazilian black movement; how else would racial quotas in university admissions be instituted in the first place? And it's growing — Leesa Dillon of The Root documents how Afro-Brazilian solidarity has been built in recent years through sharing experiences on social media. Professor Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, a professor of sociology at the University of South Florida, commented, “The use of digital technology has been a game changer in terms of linking individual experiences to a collective struggle” (Dillon). Included in this greater connection was the importation of the Black Lives Matter movement from the U.S. to Brazil as “Vidas Negras Importam”, bringing greater attention towards police brutality, racist mistreatment, and institutional inequalities (Dillon). When individuals connect themselves to a collective struggle, it also brings attention to larger, institutional problems.

The question arises of what issues these black movements will tackle. Universities will certainly continue to be central to social movements, like they have been for decades. Universities are not only institutions dedicated to intellectual development, but also are where new generations come of age and first develop substantial agency. Brazil has seen a movement for racial quotas and affirmative action policies in Brazilian university admissions, while South Africa has seen #FeesMustFall, a South African student movement that fought to decrease university fees. These struggles enlighten us as to another reason why universities are so vital for equality movements: universities are practically essential for elevating oneself into a higher socioeconomic class. For black people to have equal opportunity to white people, they need to have equal access to institutions of economic mobility: they need to have an equal chance to be accepted, and also be able to afford to attend university. Black people are overrepresented in the poor populations of both Brazil^[1] and South Africa^[2], so issues of economic access are pertinent to their black power movements.

The intersections of race and class relevant to student movements are only part of a larger theme of intersectionality. Conversations surrounding social prejudices are reemerging as more complex; the public's perception of “racism” can no longer be reduced to its most extreme forms. And as more nuanced conversations about race are taking place, the topic of confounding elements of oppression naturally arise. Intersectionality is an increasingly important concept for progressive movements as organizers question who should be included in a fight for equality. South African activist Thato Pule said, “When the black youth organizes — no matter powerful they might be, no matter how many numbers they bring together — till this day, it's usually for the struggle of a black, cisgender, heterosexual man, and normal” (The People Versus The Rainbow Nation, 38:12). From a state-making perspective, only by being comprehensive in countering prejudices can a movement “build a truly inclusive or ‘civic’ nation” (Marx, Conclusion, p. 275). There is also a practical argument to be made for intersectionality: in order for the various progressive movements (black movements, indigenous movements, women's movements, queer movements, etc.) to succeed, they need to be unified to the extent that they are not harming each other. Unifying makes sense when recognizing all these movements are fighting the same evil, supremacy, and they're fighting it in intersecting ways. This is why future progressive social movements will likely continue the trend of integrating intersectional concepts in their fight, because those movements will likely be successful.

Social movements in both South Africa and Brazil will struggle with pushback due to fears of violence and instability. In The People Versus The Rainbow Nation, Shaeera Kalla, who was President of the WITS University's Students' Representative Council, describes how the media coverage of #FeesMustFall was dominated by the violence of the protestors. This violence was sparked by frustration at what Kalla calls the “systematic violence of [the] universities” (The People Versus The Rainbow Nation 35:58), but these frustrations were overshadowed by media frenzy about violence, impacting how the South African populace viewed the movement. One might think a non-confrontational, incrementalist approach may be more effective in this regard, but Brazil does not escape this problem either. Efforts to institute racial quotas in Brazil's universities have been attacked for threatening to “produce a society divided into whites and blacks,” as said by Yvonne Maggie, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil in Black and White, 12:23; Maggie). One can have reasonable opposition to the racial quotas as they were enacted, specifically how they might unnecessarily exacerbate tensions. But Maggie speaks to a greater idea that Brazil has a “tradition” of being “not defined by race” (Brazil in Black and White, 12:41), which is nonsensical when understanding Brazil's long tradition of racial discrimination after slavery. Maggie believes affirmative action policies will inspire people to “identify as part of a racial group” (Brazil in Black and White, 29:52), which she believes will inspire racism. But when a group is subjugated, self-identification can be empowering. Like the opposition to substantive movements due to incidents of violence, arguments against racial quotas on the basis of them being “divisive” opt for stability over justice. But if states help create race, like Anthony Marx asserts, wouldn't creating laws that take race into account just reinforce racial division? Well Anthony Marx himself argues against color-blindness: “Institutions must reinforce racial justice or race conflict will continue to shake the social order built on and still tied to foundations of racial domination” (Marx, Conclusion, p. 275). In other words, justice and stability are not at odds because true stability can only be achieved by racial justice, which must be reinforced by institutions.

In conclusion, although both South Africa and Brazil both have prominent black movements, Brazil's movement has faced more difficulty organizing due to a relative lack of legal structures to fight, its government's historic willingness to compromise, as well as the nation's racial fluidity derived from its history of racial whitening. Black movements worldwide are likely to share common themes due to sharing of experiences on social media, which has built solidarity within groups and between nations. Social movements are likely to center issues at universities, since they are intellectual institutions where generations first develop agency, as well as being vital tools of economic mobility. Future progressive social movements will also likely continue the trend of integrating intersectionality in their fights as more nuanced conversations about supremacy take place. But social movements will struggle with pushback due to fears of violence and instability, both in race-conscious South Africa or non-confrontational Brazil. No matter the political structure in which they are forced to operate, black movements may have to embrace similar strategies in order to make progress.