Judicialization of black suffering. Black maternity and the flow of the Criminal Justice System in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This article is based on ethnography carried out between 2015 and 2017 at the Human Rights Nucleus of the Public Defender’s Office in Rio de Janeiro (NUDEDH), specifically in the Program for the Protection of Victims of Violence Practiced by State or Private Agents. In the context of anti-blackness in Rio de Janeiro, this line of action by NUDEDH has become a tool used by mothers of police violence killings in slums and peripheries. In this scenario, the mothers support and impel the accusing entity in the criminal proceedings on the murder of their sons and daughters. This article, by mobilizing Critical Race Theory and Black Studies literature, aims to examine the uses of black suffering and black motherhood for the Flow of the Criminal Justice System.