Note from BW of Brazil: For any follower of this blog, this report isn’t shocking nor is it new. Issues of race, racism and racial discrimination are part of the DNA of Brazilian society although citizens continue to downplays its affects behind empty rhetoric that suggests that “we are all equal”. As human beings, we are in fact all equal, but values associated with physical appearances make it so that we are not all treated equally. For example, race was clearly a factor in the massacre of five young black males a few weeks after Military Police fired 111 shots at the car in which the young men were sitting. Influenced by this latest tragedy, numerous Afro-Brazilians took to the internet and created the latest viral hashtag to share their personal experiences with racism and further demolish the idea that Brazil doesn’t just its citizens according to race or color. Check out the story below.
Campaign #seráqueéracismo (could it be that it’s racism) goes viral with racial profiling complaints; read reports
Courtesy of Bolsa de Mulher
After some campaigns such as #meuamigosecreto (my secret friend) and # meuprimeiroassédio (my first harassment), the #seráqueéracismo (could it be that it’s racism) movement has comes to generate a larger debate on the issue of racism in Brazil. Created after the death of five young black men in Rio de Janeiro, executed with more than 100 shots by police, the hashtag started to go viral on social networks.
The proposal is that Internet users share experiences and stories involving racism using the hashtag. The campaign aims to report situations in which prejudice appeared, but is not always noticed, especially by those who make racist remarks.
Reports from the campaign #seráqueéracismo
“Whenever I go into stores like MAC, Nyx or Sephora or I make an issue of waiting for someone to come help me. It’s already happened with me to be twice in MAC, looking at some products and really hoping someone notices my presence and comes to offer to help me as they do with all the ladies of leisure entering the store, and nothing happens. The sellers look me in the eye, and as quick as lightning go running to help the first white woman with a rich face that just entered the store after me. #SeráQueéRacismo?”
“#Seráqueéracismo Arriving in a salon in an upscale neighborhood of SP (São Paulo), and before I could ask if there is any free time to do my nails, being addressed by the salon manager saying they are not hiring manicures. As if I couldn’t afford to pay for the service?”
“#Seráqueéracismo They always tell me ‘você é morena’ (you’re a morena/brown/mixed), ‘você não é negra não, menina’ (you are not black no, girl), ‘sua pele é mais clara que a de fulana’ (your skin is lighter than such and such), ‘seu cabelo nem é duro’ (your hair is not even hard), ‘você diz que é negra, mas sua pele é clarinha’ (you say you are black, but your skin is a little light) as an attempt to soften a fact that in their minds must be unpleasant?”
“’But is he really your son?’ ‘Are you taking care of him?’ ‘But the father is white, right?’ ‘He’s light, isn’t he? How beautiful.’ #Seráqueéracismo”
“#Seráqueéracismo when I enter a supermarket or a store in zona sul (south zone) and the security guard insists on accompanying me through the corridors (following)??”
“#Seráqueéracismo when you’re at a party frequented by upper middle class white people and you’re approached by a white man saying “what a beautiful morena. It’s hard having people like you in these parties. Can we talk?” treating you like an exotic article?”
“In a group of people recently acquiring technical degrees, some friends and I went to distribute resumes in all the specialized stores in the city. Me, the only black in the group and the holder of the highest grades in the class, was the only one who did not get a job. #Seráqueéracismo?”
“#Seráqueéracismo when you are with with a foreigner and automatically people look at you as if you were a prostitute? And they even bar you in the hotel where he is staying because ‘the entrance of ~ these women ~ is not permitted’ being that he was in a room that allowed visitors?”
“#Seráqueéracismo when I’m trying to get a taxi and I make at least four attempts before managing to get into one.”
Source: Bolsa de Mulher
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