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Felipe Luther spends most of his afternoon studying at a major university in Brazil, located in the lush green mountains of Rio de Janeiro above the majestic beaches of Leblon and Ipanema.
At night he would dump his garbage in a dense underground environment.
“When I tell my schoolmates about my work, they are often surprised,” Luther told Reuters.
In 2017, he graduated with a degree in social science program from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio (PUC-Rio), a business school that has made intermediate bankers and film professionals.
Luther’s lack of opportunity and daily activities are a reminder of the differences between the Brazilian people and Rio in particular, as police tortured and killed many in May sparked a new wave of dangers and hardships for black men like him.
Luther, 38, had just graduated from high school with the responsibility of helping his family, including street sweepers and cleaners since 2009.
The study at PUC-Rio has made Luther’s dream come true, and it has led him to come face-to-face with a very white group of whites from which 54 percent of the population came from Africa.
In 2000, a national census found that white Brazilians were five times more likely to go to university than their black, mixed, and Indian counterparts.
“Because there are so few black people at this prestigious university, most people see black people as servers, not as their peers,” said Luther, recalling the hardships of the school.
At one point, Mother assumed that Luther was in charge. In one case, someone tried to pay him for coffee, interrupting him with restaurant staff.
“It hurts, in a way, because you have the feeling that you don’t have it,” he said.
Educational inequality in Brazil has become more prevalent during the epidemic, as remote groups force students to rely on domestic resources, widening the gap between those who have and those who do not and those who do not.
For months, Luther had been reading at night and lighting a candle in Niterói, across the camp, from where his disciples could not stand. He rang his cell phone and laptop at work and used them for study until he woke up on the street from 9pm to 5am.
“My study, which requires a lot of reading, I need a better computer than the one I got. But some people are not even given a computer, ”he said, noting that the disadvantaged students are forced to study at home.
“Not all phones are good enough to work, and not everyone has a phone … or enough internet to download.
Recent events in Rio have confirmed the seriousness of Luther’s plight.
In May, police raided Jacarezinho, a poor community in northern Rio, after a riot broke out by a group of drug lords Red Command. The long-range shooting killed 27 local men and one policeman, making them the most dangerous police in the city’s history and the torture of human rights activists.
Luther picks up trash left by the solar eclipse on the shores of Arpoador in Rio de Janeiro [Pilar Olivares/Reuters]
Luther said he was constantly on the lookout for police brutality and tried to keep him out of the streets at night.
“Even if I were rich or famous, I would still be living in a black body in a city, a state, a country where black people seem to be consumers,” he said.
More than three-quarters of the nearly 9,000 people killed by Brazilian police in the last 10 years were black men, according to Human Rights Watch.
Despite the threats, the Afro-Brazilian culture continues to flourish in Brazil as it has been for many years.
Twice a week, Luther visits a local “terreiro” to commit crimes, a religion based on West African spiritual traditions. Dressed in all his white robes and with a string of beads around his chest, Luther participates in dance, music, and ceremonies with fellow believers.
Shortly after completing his studies, Luther stated that one of his goals was to start a college education in low-income groups, opening up the next generation of aspiring students.
“I want revenge on some young people for letting them believe this is possible,” he said.
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