O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para a compreensão de marcos importantes no debate sobre racismo no Brasil e seu efeito no ativismo negro, enfatizando a última fase, que trata de violência policial.  A forma como organizamos as ideias faz deste texto um material introdutório para aquela(e)s que porventura estejam interessada(o)s no ativismo negro no Brasil e/ou pretendem apenas ter referências sobre o debate racial, nos limites do que já está consolidado no Brasil e no seu diálogo com as teses brasilianistas. Além de realizar a revisão da literatura consolidada no tema das relações raciais no Brasil, repassamos casos emblemáticos do protesto negro contra a violência violência racial.

In this article, we assess the effects of and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Brazilian peripheries by relying on resilience theory and the experiences of peripheral actors during the first year of the pandemic. We consider these experiences to examine whether the initial responses to the crisis had the potential to bring about long-term positive change. We rely on thematic analysis of 80 interviews with leaders of grassroots organizations of different nature all over the country between October 2020 and January 2021. We argue that we cannot speak of resilience and system change unless we engage with the voices of those most affected by adversity. While in its first year the pandemic brought important traces of structural violence to the surface, providing an opportunity for structural change, peripheral views at that moment cast doubts about the extent to which those changes could lead to long-term structural changes.