Deborah Peterson Small on Racism, Drug Policies, and Police Violence in Brazil and the U.S.

Activist and lawyer Deborah Peterson Small, 60, founder of Break the Chains, analyzes systemic racism through the lens of the "war on drugs" and police violence, drawing parallels between the United States and Brazil. She highlights that the U.S. prison system holds 2.2 million people, the world's largest incarcerated population, while Brazil's prisons hold 515,482 people, 57% of whom are Black. Brazilian police killed an average of eight people per day in 2015, according to the Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública. Small argues these policies function as institutionalized racism, leading to premature death for Black populations. She criticizes the political climate under Michel Temer in Brazil for rolling back affirmative action and increasing police repression. Small also discusses the internalized racism within Black communities, the role of white people in confronting racism, and the limitations faced by President Barack Obama in enacting policies specifically for Black Americans. The conversation extends to the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the misogyny faced by women like Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.