2 research outputs found
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"We have to be alive in order to marry": Black LGBTT Youth and Geographies of Violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
This paper interrogates contradictions between (1) pro-LGBTT discourse through tourism, planning and LGBTT activism and (2) black LGBTT youthâs particular experiences with violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Despite many pro-LGBTT political gains (e.g. national anti-homophobia policies and legalized same-sex marriage), many black LGBTT youth still navigate a homophobic landscape segregated by race and class. A geographical and discursive divide emerges between spaces of gay tourism and social lifeâensconced in affluent, white neighborhoodsâand majority-black peripheral neighborhoods, which are both sites of gendered, anti-black violence targeting non-normative black youth. I am particularly interested in black LGBTT youthâs strategies to negotiate gendered, anti-black violenceâeven in places that claim to be inclusive and safe for them. Secondly, I examine where and how black LGBTT youth create sites of pleasure, kinship and support amidst this violence. Drawing on feminist, queer and black feminist engagements with human geography, I contend that black LGBTT youth in Rio de Janeiro consistently appropriate urban space in order to refashion themselves and create sites of potential through social media, performance, music and political demonstration. These âremappingsâ explain how anti-black racism is central in ordering urban space, even when black people are not visibly present. Thus, citiesâ promises of diversity and inclusion through âgay-friendlyâ tourism and planning are often naĂŻve in their conception and implementation, complicit with gendered, anti-black violence. Christen Smith (2016) terms this paradoxical spectacle as an âafro-paradiseâ, orchestrated by society and the state. NOTE: This paper serves as an exploration of relevant literature as well as an empirical analysis based on preliminary fieldwork for my MA/MS thesis. Fieldwork will continue in summer 2016 and winter 2017.Community and Regional PlanningLatin American Studie
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Hip-hop urbanism, placemaking, and community-building among Black LGBT youth in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The city of Rio de Janeiro has become a global gay tourist destination as well as political hub for the local and national LGBT movement. However, despite the cityâs gay-friendly, racially diverse reputation and pro-LGBT political gains, violence has increasingly endangered LGBT Brazilians amidst the rise of extreme conservativism in both government and society. This violence is not only gendered but also racialized, disproportionately impacting Black women and LGBT youth. Rio has become particularly renowned for a dual, paradoxical legacy: that of Black spectacle, celebration, and sexual freedom as well as that of great inequality, violence, and Black premature death. According to Smith (2016), this paradox is intentionalâan âafro-paradiseââwhich simultaneously fetishizes and threatens Black lives. Numerous structural forces have transformed Rio into a hostile racial-sexual terrain in which Black LGBT youth must survive and build community. This critical ethnographic study examines: 1) how Rioâs Black LGBT youth negotiate violence and exclusion in everyday life; and 2) how they use physical and virtual sites as well as their own creative expression to claim their stake in the production of urban space. I ask, how do young Black LGBT people build political power when virtually locked out of state institutions and formal politics? I contend that Black LGBT young people are consistent placemakers across many spatial realms and scales, creating sites of self-making and political intervention through new media, art, events, and popular education. I highlight three particular spatial tactics: 1) occupying physical urban spaces and claiming territory; 2) Diasporic self-making through digital activism; and 3) leveraging cultural labor as young entrepreneurs and kinfolk. The key to youthâs success has been the everyday strategic use of space, culture, and creative expressionâa strategy of âinfrapoliticsâ. Black LGBT youth enact a form of âhip hop urbanismâ, in which they continuously make something out of nothing and quite literally put their creative expressions to work. Lastly, I argue that Black LGBT youthâs placemaking practices demonstrate alternative ways of building power and innovating communal support systems, all in ways that do not entirely depend on state institutions, party politics, or even spatial proximity.Latin American StudiesCommunity and Regional Plannin