Oi Tudo! Today was full of learning, walking, and eating. We started the day by meeting Eder Muniz, a local street artist, in Castelo Branco, a community here in Bahia. Our time with Eder was enlightening; he spoke of the art and method behind graffiti in Salvador and other Brazilian cities. We learned of the history of street art and “tagging” and how locals can use it as a form of expression, a way to create beauty in their community, a form of resistance, and sometimes even to bring attention to an issue in the community.
Later in the day, we attended a lecture by Dr. Clarice Mota on Race and Collective Health in Brazil. Dr. Mota is a professor at the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBa), and has spent many years working to decolonize the concepts of race and health. We spoke of the history of race and racial identity in Brazil and how the colonization of Brazil has shaped the way that people relate to their ethnicity, even today. I noticed many similarities between the history of colonization and racial violence between the U.S. and Brazil. Both indigenous Brazilians and Americans experienced a literal and cultural genocide and have not received adequate reparations. Dr. Mota spoke on the myth of racial equality and how it actually perpetuates inequality because it devalues the experience of non-white individuals and encourages a meritocracy in which people who experience adversity are not given the agency to succeed. We discussed the difference between equity and equality and how to achieve equality, equitable practices have to be put into place now.