De terreiros a encostas: uma análise acerca do racismo e injustiças ambientais presentes no cotidiano de moradores da Rua Militar

Abstract

The present academic work sought to analyze the environmental racism and the environmental injustices presents in the daily lives of the residents of Rua Militar, in the Cruzeiro do Anil neighborhood, in São Luís, state of Maranhão. To achieve the presented results, we were based on bibliographic research, on works by authors who study environmental racism, environmental justice, institutional racism and structural racism, as well as on personal experience, since the author is a member of Casa Fanti-Ashanti, and interviews with local residents. The study begins with a description of the processes that constituted the urban reality of São Luís do Maranhão, from its initial settlement, by indigenous peoples, throughout the period of colonization by the Europeans and the arrival of enslaved African people from several African nations. As this research has a racial profile, focused on the reality of black people, the historical construction of urban reality sought to demonstrate the way Africans and their descendants were pushed to the edges of the city, as well as establishing the origin of the formation of houses of worship of African religions, fundamental in maintaining the history and culture of the black people. Thus, understanding how this process of disseminating the terreiros took place in the capital of Maranhão, the search for the origin of Casa Fanti-Ashanti began, which is the starting point for us to understand the establishment of Rua Militar and its housing by the resident filhos de santo and people who, even coming from other social groups, ended up being part of the construction

of this reality. In the second chapter, we sought to demonstrate, through constitutional and infra- constitutional legislation, the rights that also belong to individuals in the locality, but that are

not exercised, either by the structurally imposed alienation of these people, or by neglect from the state. In the third chapter, we sought to analyze the situation from the perspective of institutional and structural racism, rooted in Brazilian society, and how these two concepts are linked to the problem of environmental racism. This reality, which subdues black people through evident or veiled racist practices, gives rise to a series of urban and socioenvironmental problems that can be evidenced in the case of Rua Militar, and is closely linked to the neoliberal model of exploitation, which perpetuates the diminishing of peoples and the conditions for the maintenance of white supremacy.