Paper short abstract:

There is no ready-made path towards abolition or any other form of liberation. This paper compares the practices of activists from Rio de Janeiro’s favelas with the practices of 2020 protests in the U.S. to discuss the problems of (and continued desire for) a global how-to model of abolitionism.

Paper long abstract:

There is no ready-made path towards abolition or any other form of liberation. Attempts at creating a “how-to” scholarship for social change, such as the book White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, have been critiqued as a form of performative activism that superficially insulates privileged communities and talks down to marginalized communities. The question, then, is: how do scholars facilitate and encourage the practical deconstruction of unjust systems across the globe without re-creating a hegemonic vernacular? For example, abolitionist models found in the U.S. and elsewhere, such as defunding or abolishing the police, may have implications for Brazil’s unique problem of demilitarizing the police. Rather than being authorized by local municipalities like in the U.S., Brazil’s federally funded military police would require nothing short of a constitutional amendment to disrupt the problematic hierarchy of tactics that is responsible for thousands of police-caused homicides each year. Furthermore, Brazil’s antiprohibicionistas (or anti-prohibitionist) movement is focused on the backdoor solution of legalizing all drugs rather than outright police abolition and piecemeal drug legalization found in the U.S.. This paper compares the practices of activists from Rio de Janeiro’s favelas with the practices of activists who participated in 2020 racial justice protests in the U.S. to discuss the problems of (and continued desire for) a global how-to model of abolitionist mobilization.