Black CNN Brasil journalist denounces racism after police points weapon
Note from BBT: So, tell me again the one about, if you’re black, have a good job and are dressed well the police won’t harass you, again. Today’s story is even worse than a story I read back in May about a black CNN journalist, Omar Jimenez, being arrested while he was covering the protests against the murder of the African-American male, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Jimenez spoke politely to the police but was still handcuffed and taken to a police station. All of this happening while the same police forces treated another CNN journalist, this one white, with total politeness. So, what would provoke police to arrest one CNN journalist but not another? I wonder…
In Brazil, another story has recently made headlines, but I would argue that the situation is even worse. I mean, how you feel if a police force such as Brazil’s, one of the most deadly in world, suddenly pointed a rifle in your face? CNN journalist Jair Nascimento was dressed well, doing his job and in a nice car. Oh, and he was with two other black men, also CNN Brasil employees. Nascimento has already worked for three of Brazil’s top TV networks and has worked at CNN Brasil for 9 months, almost since the news network opened a branch in Brazil.
Year after year, the number of Brazilians, specifically non-white, murdered by the Military Police is consistently 5-6 or more times than police in the United States. So, again, just wondering out loud. If a black man or woman in Brazil attained a college degree, got a good job, wears nice clothes, lives in a neighborhood and drives a nice car, is there anything else he/she can do to not be treated as criminals by police? What? Oh, change of skin color is not an option!
CNN reporter denounces police racism in Rio after rifle was pointed at his face
He and his team, which was composed only of black men, underwent a brutal approach by the police who treated them as criminals
CNN Brasil reporter Jairo Nascimento reported last Monday, 12, through a video publication about two cases of racism he suffered in Rio de Janeiro. In one of the situations, he was stopped in a police approach and even had a rifle pointed at his face.
The journalist says that his team went out to work normally, the news car had advanced about 30 meters. The journalist also revealed that he was driving within the speed limit. “Soon a police car came up, told us to stop, with the siren on and everything. When we got out of the car, the policemen were pointing a rifle at us, even right in my face,” he said.
“The approach only stopped because the cameraman came out with the camera and I came out with the microphone. At that moment, the police saw it and order an end that situation,” added the journalist on his social network.
Jairo, who has worked for affiliates at Globo, Record and SBT in the state of Paraná, spoke about the police’s truculent approach, reflecting on structural racism, which occurs when a policeman mistakes a black man for a criminal.
“Could it be that at that moment there was some information about car theft of the same model, with the same color and the same license plate? The car was at low speed, the windows were open. Was there any other suspicious attitude other than the color of the three people inside the car? And this is the second time that this happens, when we, the three blacks men, went out on the same team. This is called structural racism. People don’t admit the fact that three black men are inside a nice car,” he said.
Another case of racism
The reporter recounted another situation of discrimination that same working day, when he was mistaken for a valet. ‘I was waiting for the team to arrive, wearing a suit and tie, the way we present on television, and someone asks me if I was doing vehicle parking.”
Nascimento addresses the issue of structural racism again, because according to him, the question only existed because it is more “common” to see a black man as a valet than as a journalist.
“Is the problem being a valet? Obviously not, it’s honest work, but can black people only do this kind of work? Can they not be in another situation, one day be in charge of leadership, analysis, any other situation, or should they just be service providers in all environments?” he asked.
The end of the outburst was a message from Jairo to the racists. “If you didn’t know, get to know. It’s worth studying, understanding, knowing and stop practicing structural racism. We blacks should not and will no longer accept this type of situation. It is the message for you who sometimes does this without thinking, without realizing it or for you that is racist. And every racist deserves jail,” he says.
Note from BBT: Well, I don’t think jail would suffice. In Brazil, it’s pretty normal for racists to do what they do against black people, get taken to jail, pay a small fine and walk free. In such as system, what are black Brazilians to do?
Source: Catraca Livre
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