President Jair Bolsonaro is fulfilling his campaign promise to oust the “Left” from Brazilian life by taking his anti-leftist ideological war to classrooms and universities, “causing angst among teachers and education officials who say the government wants to fight an enemy that doesn’t exist” according The Albuquerque Journal.
“Bolsonaro and top officials have announced plans to revise textbooks to excise references to feminism, homosexuality and violence against women, say the military will take over some public schools and frequently bash Paulo Freire, one of Brazil’s most famous educators, whose ideas had worldwide influence,” the AJ continued.
In January, following Bolsonaro’s inauguration, the country’s Education Ministry reportedly dismantled its diversity department and provided textbook publishers with new guidelines, eliminating any and all references to topics like feminism, gender, transgender, and “homosexuals.”
Mr. Bolsonaro, who once declared, “I’m homophobic, with pride”, pledged to review the content of the country’s national high school exam to remove questions he finds “corrupting the youth” according to The Independent. He made the announcement in a YouTube video after seeing a question from last year’s exam on a “secret dialect used by gays and transvestites” called Pajuba, which mixes Portuguese and West African languages. It is mostly used in Afro-Brazilian religions but has also been adopted by the Brazilian LGBT community.”
Photo above: An agit-prop anti-Bolsonaro flyer calling him an: F.O.D.A.S.C.E. = Front of Oppression of Arrombados, Socialists, Communists Etc.
By photographer Eugenio Hansen, OFS
