“To put an end to this damned thing”: Rebutting denialism strategies performed by people in situation of homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemics (Brazil)

Abstract

In this article we highlight some responses of collective resistance by members of the National Movement of People in Situational Homelessness (MNPR) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), during the COVID-19 pandemics. In this context, this collective had to face a deep state of crisis, aggravated during the pandemic and as a result of its effects. During the months of July 2020 to August 2022, through a project funded by the National Research Council (CNPQ), we conducted participatory research within vulnerable social groups in order to help them strengthen their social and community organization in the face of the pandemics by analyzing and producing knowledge. The chosen ethnographic approach took place through virtual meetings, telephone contacts and a chat flow during the period in WhatsApp groups. As a result, we contrasted the potent local struggles of this movement with the denialist, negligent and pseudo-scientific attitudes of the Federal Government, which strengthened a genocidal process based on dehumanizing policies of neoliberal nature. We note that, even when the population mentioned dealt with the effects of a pandemic potentiated by structural racism and social exclusion, they organized creative coping strategies, and exemplified, through pedagogies of struggle, growing paths for the practice of citizen science.

Keywords

• covid-19
• homeless population
• brazil
• denialism
• social suffering