“The School is Ours”: Dialogues Between Student and Black Movements in the Face of Brazilian Citizenship’s Crossroads

Abstract

Based on a systematic literature review, the article analyzes Black political mobilizations in Brazil regarding citizenship and the right to education as a general frame to examine the school occupations that took place in 2016. We intend both to underline the relationship between the struggle for citizenship, undertaken by the Black Movement, and their conception of education and to register advances in the construction of the Brazilian school system since 1985, highlighting the introduction of politics of recognition of African, Afro-Brazilian, and Amerindian populations contributions to national history and culture and politics of reparation, such as affirmative action, designed to increase the presence of Black, indigenous, and traditional communities in Higher Education. Despite these advances, from the experiences of the student occupations, we draw the limits of citizenship and schooling during the last three decades. After the occupations, conservative forces have occupied the State. Far from representing the frailty of the movement, this indicates its immense potential for rupture. We conclude that the students managed to expose empty conceptions about the right to education and citizenship and have proven that other modes of school sociability and political participation are possible.