Child identity‐based activism in Brazil: Wearing Afro‐style hair to contest discrimination, racism and oppression

Abstract

AbstractIn Brazil, Afro‐descendant children continue to be stigmatised and excluded due to race‐based discriminatory practices and attitudes inherited from colonial times. In order to challenge racism, Brazilian child activists (aged 13–17) instigated a movement encouraging children to wear Afro‐style hair as a symbol of contestation and liberation and to reject hair straightening as a form of domination. Based on empirical qualitative research conducted in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro, Recife and Fortaleza, this article discusses the intersection between children's participation and activism, and the use of Afro‐style hair as a tool of identity activism to restore the right to non‐discrimination on any grounds.