ABSTRACT: Black youth is the central focus of this article. To understand it, we sought to analyze the relationship between youth, inequality, race and racism in the conformation of black youth’s extermination. The text presents and discusses statistical data on homicides of black youth and interprets them in the light of the discussions on whiteness and racism. Understanding violence as a multi-causal phenomenon, this paper also discusses racism as the macro-cause of this situation, fruit of the idea of race that was built since colonial times in Brazil. Race and racism became even more complex ideas and practices after the abolition of slavery making possible the racial whitening policy. They are part of the structure of inequality experienced by the Brazilian black population. The analysis also points out the protagonism of black youth in denouncing the situation of violence they experienced, going beyond the idea of extermination and politicizing it as genocide.
Keywords:
Black youth; Racism; Extermination; Education; Violence