“Target skin”: the natural suspect. Considerations on the unjust imprisonment of musician Luiz Justino

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze a patent paradox: the same society that supports and invests in social inclusion programs and projects and that, with many of these actions, aims to discuss and make amends for the place historically attributed to the black population in our Society, is the one that, without hesitation, takes away any possibility of ascension and representation of this same population when put to the test, as was the case with Luiz Justino. A musician and member of the Orquestra de Cordas da Grota – a social Project teaching classical music located in Grota do Surucucu, a “community” in the South Zone of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro – Luiz, a young black man, was unjustifiably approached in the center of Niterói on September 2, 2020 and was immediately taken to the police station, Where he was detained until he was transferred the following day to Benfica prison. Due to the great mobilization of the members of the Orchestra with the media and social movements committed to anti-racism, the musician had his arrest revoked on September 6, 2020 and was acquitted of the case on June 9, 2021. The ethnography on which this article is based was carried out through direct observation while following the Orchestra’s rehearsals and performances, through interviews with interlocutors in the field and by analyzing the repercussions of the case in the media, since the musician’s arrest and its developments were followed by the entire spectrum of the media, configuring it as a “case of repercussion”.