By VINÍCIO CARRILHO MARTINEZ*
Letter to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Dear companion, illustrious, excellent, President of the Republic “Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva”, in the certainty that I will not be read, I write to you to list some brief thoughts about the necessary, mandatory, appointment of a black woman to the Supreme Court Federal (STF).
Considering our appeal from now on: for less racism, for a black woman on the STF!!
Considering that your excellency will never be aware of this letter, but that other people can read it and thus, together, we can increase the chorus in favor of the instigating defense of all struggles against racism, misogyny, feminicide,
Considering that (I think) I have always placed myself within reach of the struggle for the right, as a living component of the political struggle, at the heart of the inexhaustible class struggle,
Considering that the struggle against national fascism (2016-2022) has not ceased, it should never cease, and that today we are committed to the conquest/recovery of restorative political justice within the scope of the democratic rule of law (profoundly secular, as the art. 19 of the Federal Constitution of 1988 – CF88),
Considering that even the “letters to/from time” (those trapped in bottles and thrown into the deep sea) make some sense, we are forced to speak out in the untimely fight to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court.
Therefore, insisting on a fair fight, let's start with the statement: “Why a black woman in the Federal Supreme Court (STF)”. In the case of an emergency, to fill the vacancy of Minister Rosa Weber who is retiring.
There are many answers that converge on a single point: doing justice to history. Especially regarding the history of black women who fought (fight), who fell (still fall) in the face of violence, archaic machismo converted into misogyny and leading to feminicide.
This future nomination for the presidency – in practice, appointment – would do justice, even if initially symbolic, to all Marias Quitérias and Marielles. Thousands of them, throughout history, and often right in front of our eyes.
It would be a response worthy of the promises of inclusion, emancipation, adherence to the best human values. It would be a definitive deposit in the certainty that human rights prevail, as well as the fight for social and political decompression.
This indication, appointment, would be a clear shot at the core of patriarchy and the dominance (true “dominus”) of the white man, highly educated, but heir to the dominant cultural elites. It would be a definitive bet on compliance, enjoyment and constitutional respect; it would be an unshakable, unreliable belief in the normative force of the Constitution.
It would be the ultimate call for constitutional sovereignty, for respect for the secular, democratic and lawful State – it would be a fatal shot at the thesis of those who defend yet another name (masculine, dominant) associated with “terribly evangelized”.
Your nomination/appointment would be a clear, opposite attack, contrary to other nominations/appointments obedient solely to personal or political interests.
This nomination/appointment would take a black woman (guarantor and constitutionalist) to where she should go: the superior house of justice. This, which is not (should not be) the Big House, would be comforting to the ideal of justice, democracy, public affairs, as it is the space where black women could contribute to the construction of popular justice that we so long for.
This black woman, guarantor, constitutionalist – with her evident and notorious legal knowledge – would look at her own. She would look even more at herself and hers if she came from legal (judicial) activism in favor of poor, black and oppressed people.
This black woman would do justice to herself, her life story, her loved ones, the defenseless people she has always defended; it would do justice to the Supreme Court itself, guardian of the Constitution. We just need to think that not all those nominated have a very accurate vision of what a constitutional State is.
This black woman would do justice to this writer, because, as a physically disabled person, she would find in this active black woman, combative in the defense of constitutional guarantees and human rights, a noble and brave black woman who defends the fundamental rights of all social minorities. Because she herself has always felt in her skin color what it is like to be a minority in an elitist, profusely racist and exclusionary national society.
The technical criteria would all be observed when appointing this black woman to the STF. In fact, forged in the fight for the effective fulfillment and enjoyment of fundamental human rights, this black woman would demand that this be the case. It's her stone clause, the stone thrown by everyone who stands on the right side of history. Knowing and defending her entire history, her intellectual honesty, the black woman would never lower the defense of her notorious legal, human, social, anti-fascist, anti-racist knowledge.
Once nominated and sworn in, this black woman – the first at the STF – would immediately know how much hypocrisy the elite of the constituted powers are made of. As a combatant, in the historic affirmation of Fundamental Human Rights, this black woman would not be impressed. This would be his added will in the fight for social and political decompression.
Mr President, my last consideration, just as I started: for less racism, for a black woman on the STF!
*Vinicio Carrilho Martinez He is a professor at the Department of Education at UFSCar.
the earth is round exists thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
CONTRIBUTE
