Shooting targets become sobering graphs in this anti-racism campaign

Unlike most pandemics, COVID-19 spread first through wealthy international travelers, rather than among people living in poverty with little access to healthcare. But that doesn’t mean the poor won’t still bear the brunt of the repercussions.

Already, celebrities and politicians have access to test kits and private doctors, but low-wage workers are also the most likely to lose their jobs during mass layoffs due to social distancing. And in many countries, the effects of poverty are amplified by racism.

A new campaign from Wunderman Thompson Brazil for the Black Coalition for Rights highlights such disparities that have now appear in sharp relief during the pandemic. It names the structural racism that is leading to worse outcomes for people of color as “genocide,” and paints a sobering picture from the data, using graphs repurposed as firearms targets.

“Genocide is the word used to describe the extermination of people motivated by ethnic, national, racial, religious and socio-political differences,” the organization said in a statement. “In Brazil, a black person is murdered every 23 minutes. 80 percent of users of the Unified Healthcare System (SUS) are black. Blacks fall victim to firearms 2.5 times more than white people. These numbers are not coincidental. They are the result of the structural racism within the Brazilian Government and society and demonstrate that the target of violent deaths in the country has a color.”

The campaign rolled out on the International Day Against Racial Discrimination, with print and out-of-home placements in large Brazilian cities, Youtube videos and digital content created and shared by influencers on Instagram and Facebook. A website, www.alvosdogenocidio.org, contains all of the campaign’s charts.