Debating Black slavery in management and organizational studies from decolonial and afro-diasporic perspectives

Abstract

Abstract This special issue, generously accepted and published by Cadernos EBAPE.BR, emerges from the daily life-preserving struggles in Brazil and other parts of the Global South against the radical invisibility of colonial and racial oppressions at a time of the double pandemic of COVID-19 and white supremacy. This collection of articles that we have the pleasure to share with you embodies our decolonizing and deracializing response to normalization of necropolitics, of deciding who may live and who must die. This normalization can be seen in the false idea of impunity of law enforcement officials, such as the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd in the USA. It is important to highlight that George Floyd’s death would have been yet another mere statistic if not for the courage and determination of the 17-year-old Black teenager who filmed it with her cell phone. Inspired by the attitude of this Black girl, we brought together eight provocative and insightful articles which will help us to reflect on the struggles faced by marginalized communities and the impact of the domain of Eurocentric perspective on the understanding of management practices and organizations’ dynamics. These papers cover topics such as the role of accounting in the slave-owning system, contemporary forms of slavery in Brazil, and the intersectional experiences of Black women in labor exploitation. Our goal is to challenge existing narratives and shed light on hidden histories to contribute to the decolonization and deracialization within and outside the field of Management and Organizational Studies.

Keywords

• Black slavery
• Decolonization
• Management and organizational studies
• Afro-diasporic perspective