MARX, RAÇA E NEOLIBERALISMO

A perspectiva Marxista pode ser útil para a compreensão dos conceitos de raça e racismo na medida em que propõe uma percepção dialética do capitalismo, enquanto uma totalidade social, que inclui os modos de produção, relações de produção e o conjunto pragmáticamente em evolução das instituições e ideologias que facilitam e impulsionam a sua reprodução

The Evolution of ‘Race’ and Racial Justice under Neoliberalism

Social or cultural resentments – including racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia – certainly played a role in the rise of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald J. Trump. But to acknowledge the important influence of race in American political and social life is not to insist that it operates independently of evolving political and economic relations of power. The problem is that the discourse of social justice now dominant presumes, even demands, an either/or construction of the relationship between inequalities rooted in capitalist class dynamics and those attributable to ascriptively-based ideologies of hierarchy such as race or gender. Postwar racial liberalism generated a moralistic discourse that seems rhetorically powerful. However, because it is devoid of meaningful content, moralism – affirming, though it may be – offers neither useful interpretive frameworks nor practical remedies capable of redressing the social, historical, and political-economic dynamics that reproduce inequalities of all sorts in US capitalism. High-minded idealist constructs such as ‘racism is our nation’s Original Sin’ or ‘our national disease’ or, more recently, that ‘racism is in our DNA’, are evasions that deflect attention from the historical and material sources of racial inequality past and present. Many self-identified liberals and far too many leftists continue to embrace these evasive metaphors that treat ideological or cultural attachments as if they can, in fact, ‘take on a life of their own’. Such constructs have become especially appealing in recent years because, much like underclass ideology, they allow one to sidestep the proximate material and cultural processes that inform the constitution of racial ideology and its evolution. Ironically, this ostensibly antiracist view, in asserting that race/racism transcends specific historical and social contexts, is itself quintessentially racist. There is no doubt that racism is real and has negative consequences for people’s lives. This is why we have consistently argued for the continued value of anti-discrimination policies. But race reductionism’s insistence on uncoupling disparities from political economy lends itself to individualist reforms (anti-racism training and swelling the ranks of black capitalists) as responses to structural ailments. We must reject race-reductionist analyses and refuse to accommodate charges that a left focused first and foremost on critique of and challenge to capitalist political economy as such, with its corrosive human consequences, is unacceptably ‘class reductionist’. To summon an old Maoist slogan, at a time such as this, it is imperative that we clarify who are our friends and who are our enemies

Global prevalence and burden of depressive and anxiety disorders in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Before 2020, mental disorders were leading causes of the global health-related burden, with depressive and anxiety disorders being leading contributors to this burden. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has created an environment where many determinants of poor mental health are exacerbated. The need for up-to-date information on the mental health impacts of COVID-19 in a way that informs health system responses is imperative. In this study, we aimed to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence and burden of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders globally in 2020. Through a systematic review of data reporting the prevalence of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic and published between Jan 1, 2020, and Jan 29, 2021 and using the assembled data in a meta-regression to estimate change in the prevalence of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders between pre-pandemic and mid-pandemic (using periods as defined by each study) via COVID-19 impact indicators (human mobility, daily SARS-CoV-2 infection rate, and daily excess mortality rate) by age, sex, and location. Final prevalence estimates and disability weights were used to estimate years lived with disability and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders

Estimating global, regional, and national daily and cumulative infections with SARS-CoV-2 through Nov 14, 2021: a statistical analysis

Timely, accurate, and comprehensive estimates of SARS-CoV-2 daily infection rates, cumulative infections, the proportion of the population that has been infected at least once, and the effective reproductive number (Reffective) are essential for understanding the determinants of past infection, current transmission patterns, and a population’s susceptibility to future infection with the same variant. Although several studies have estimated cumulative SARS-CoV-2 infections in select locations at specific points in time, all of these analyses have relied on biased data inputs that were not adequately corrected for. In this study, we aimed to provide a novel approach to estimating past SARS-CoV-2 daily infections, cumulative infections, and the proportion of the population infected, for 190 countries and territories from the start of the pandemic to Nov 14, 2021. This approach combines data from reported cases, reported deaths, excess deaths attributable to COVID-19, hospitalisations, and seroprevalence surveys to produce more robust estimates that minimise constituent biases