The Color of Crack : A case study of Racialised Urban Governance and Spatial Control in Cracolândia, São Paulo

This case study explores the overlap between urban policies, drug policies, gentrification, spatial control and race within the Cracolândia community in São Paulo, Brazil. It traces the interlocking systems of control that contribute to the exclusion of Cracolândia’s inhabitants, based on the analysis of urban and drug policies that have been applied in the area since the late 1990s, academic literature and previous studies, as well as on observations and three semi-structured interviews. The study addresses how state violence, surveillance, and forced removals reflect patterns of social cleansing and spatial segregation that are rooted in Brazil’s colonial and racial history. It investigates how urban and drug policies, as well as the use of gentrification as a strategy contribute to and reinforce systemic racial bias in spatial control, disproportionately affecting black and brown communities.