On the Matter of Black Lives across the Americas: Historical, Transnational, and Educational Perspectives on Antiracist Struggles in Brazil and the United States

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between Black social movements in Brazil and the United States through over a century of formations of struggle. Drawing from a review of Black periodicals in three time periods ranging from twentieth-century print press to contemporary digital social media, this article affirms the significance of the transnational Black struggle; demonstrates the ways in which knowledge and language about Black struggle has been circulated, exchanged, and produced within a dynamic and shifting relationship; and analyzes ways that US and Brazilian Black movements have served as educators for one another and their own societies. We argue that understanding the contemporary moment of antiracist struggles requires examining the longer and nuanced relationship between US and Brazilian Black activism. This deepening, critical relationship fortified the Black movement as educator of society and reframes how we understand the global Movement for Black Lives as a historical and transnational phenomenon.