Not so many years ago, I was intrigued by the landscape of the new Brazilian literature, noting the almost absence of published Black men. Speaking of tradition, it was only in high school that I learned that Machado de Assis was a Black man, even though his name had been familiar to me for a long time, and I had already had some contact with his texts. The fact is that things have changed, and figures like Itamar Vieira Júnior, Jeferson Tenório, Geovani Martins, and Edmilson de Almeida Pereira are some of those responsible for transforming this reality. Despite the bourgeois origin of the novel genre, these authors are not only published but very well published, read, known, and awarded. Thanks to them, and other older ones that I came to know, my perception of the intellectual and artistic elaboration of Black men has changed radically.
On the other hand, the urgency and emergence of these voices, narratives, and books that are now being read disturbed a group of well-intentioned citizens. They are heirs of a country that has never dealt well with Black people in prominent positions, and also nostalgic for the dictatorship, responsible for the rise of the far-right and a now former president who continues to mislead his fanatic followers.

Excerpt from the cover of "O Avesso da Pele" by Jeferson Tenório.
The current target is the book by the Rio de Janeiro-based writer Jeferson Tenório. In the author's third novel, published in 2020 by Companhia das Letras, we follow Pedro's quest to uncover the past of his father, a Literature professor murdered by racism. The book, which garnered a significant number of readers, also won the 2021 Jabuti Award, a respected Brazilian literary prize. All of this attests to the work's relevance, firmly grounded in its literary quality. However, just over a week ago, the work, approved by the National Textbook Program (PNLD), was criticized by the director of a school in Rio Grande do Sul. An unfounded attack on an author who lived for years in this state, educating numerous individuals, as he is an excellent teacher with experience in basic education classrooms. There should be no doubt: his work can and should be present in schools.
A few days later, the Regional Education Center of Curitiba issued an official document demanding that schools with copies of the book return them within a specified period. How else can we describe these actions if not as censorship? Moral and educational inspectors, using excerpts from the work completely taken out of context, claimed it to be a book with a high pornographic content. It has been some time since I read the work, true, and I recall brief descriptions of sex and confessions of desire, typical of adolescence.
And aren't teenagers going through these issues?
At what stage of life do we begin to deal with this?
It is at least simplistic and shallow to base the censorship of a book that goes far beyond sexuality on a Christian and repressive morality. Perhaps old Freud can explain something... Yes, the scenes are there, but the book is far from being even remotely similar to pornography. In fact, Brazilian literature is well supplied with scenes of sex and eroticism. To know this, one just needs to know the basics. Also, the time has passed when books (or magazines) were needed to access erotic or sexual content, hasn't it? The internet, which these same inspectors curiously do not want to regulate, is easily accessible to high school students. Or am I mistaken? I wonder if these protectors of morality and decency have read "O Avesso da Pele" in its entirety, and I question the humanity and critical thinking of those who read the book and don't think it is suitable for high school students. Unfortunately, it does not surprise me that such foolishness, conservatism, lack of aesthetic and ethical sense come from where I speak, the southern part of the country.
These people who, in the abuse of their positions of power, challenged such a serious and accurate decision, and censored a Black author, a teacher, boldly show their racist and uncritical faces. With the decision coming from Paraná, I understand that they attack Jeferson's work because anti-racist education is not on the agenda of a government that undermines the teaching profession every day. I write this as someone who is a teacher in the public school system of this state and realizes that the work is being increasingly replaced by "teaching" platforms.
These attempts to censor literature expose that those who flirt with authoritarianism have a horror of art, and the desire to muzzle voices that denounce racist police violence becomes evident. "O Avesso da Pele" is a dive into the inner side of Black individuals, into the complexities of family relationships, into the impact of racism on our psychological processes. The fact that this book is in schools only fulfills what Law 10.639 advocates, in addition to being a wonderful instrument for the literary enjoyment of students, given the care in its construction. For those who have read "O Avesso da Pele" and advocate for emancipatory education, there is no need to explain why the book can and should be in schools across the country; for followers of obscurantism, however, a formidable and provocative work is unsettling.

Jeferson Tenório
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