Black Taxi Driver: Woman accused of racism | Black Racism in Brazil

Black Taxi Driver: Woman accused of racism | Black Racism in Brazil

Note from BW of Brazil: I think I’ll file this one under the category of “Brazil’s racists taking the gloves off”. As is a previous situation, I will again state the undeniable fact that racism and racists have ALWAYS existed in Brazil. But what we’re seeing nowadays under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro is that it seems that people are now being bolder and open to define themselves as racists and commit acts that clearly show where they stand. Let’s get to the story…

Black Taxi Driver: Woman accused of racism | Black Racism in Brazil

Woman accused of racism said she “doesn’t ride with blacks”

Natália Burza Gomes Dupin will respond for racial injury and contempt for authority – she declined to give information to black policemen

A taxi driver from Belo Horizonte reported a case of racism to police in Belo Horizonte (MG) late on Thursday afternoon after a female passenger declared that she “didn’t ride with blacks” and was “really a racist” when confronted by her affirmation.

According to taxi driver Luis Carlos Alves Fernandes, 51, he was walking on a street in Belo Horizonte when he spotted Natália approaching an elderly man and apparently looking for a taxi. Asking if she needed a ride, she said yes, but she “didn’t ride with blacks.” The taxi driver countered and said the statement was criminal. Natalia was emphatic: “I don’t like blacks, I’m racist, I’m really racist,” and then she even spat on his foot.

According to the police record, Fernandes who has driven a taxi for 16 years, was standing on Avenida Alvares Cabral, in front of the Federal Justice building, at the time of the incident.

Following the abuse, the taxi driver called the authorities. Still, he told the press that the passenger said nothing would happen to her. People on the street prevented her from getting into a cab and leaving until the police arrived. The victim narrated that people were very angry and tried to attack her. In a vídeo of the incident, people witnessing the scene are heard yelling ‘’racista’’, meaning ‘racist’, at Dupin as she was being directed to a police car.

Dupin, 36, was charged with racial injury by the Civil Police. Arriving at the police station, she still declined to testify to black police officers and called a sergeant a “sapatão” meaning ‘dyke’, a police officer told reporters at the scene.

Fernandes said he had never suffered any kind of prejudice, but that he got angry at that moment. According to the victim, from the first moment, the woman was very arrogant and was sure of impunity. “She thought she would say what she said and get away with it. She said that her father is a police chief and said, ‘You don’t know who you’re talking to.’ Luis Carlos also said that it is important to be aware: “Racism is not only in the words used by this women. It may be very subtle, but we need to report it,” said the man, who expects the case to be classified as racism.

”I want justice. And you who are black cannot let this pass. You need to report it. It happened to me today, but if I didn’t report it, it could happen to you tomorrow,” said Fernandes.

The sum of crimes committed led to her being accused of injury, civil disobedience and contempt for authority. She was arrested and sent to a prison unit on Friday the 6th, police say. The defense of Natalia said that it would only comment on the case during the process.

Sejusp data show that cases of racial injury have remained at high levels in recent years. From January to September this year, there were 221 reports. In the same period last year, there were 230 occurrences, and the same number recorded in the state in the first nine months in 2017. Regarding the crimes of racism, the total number of cases registered in 2017 was 173. The number fell to 112 in 2018 and between January and September this year was 73.

Natália’s lawyer and her sister, who were at the police station, did not talk to the Minas Gerais report and said they would respond in court. By the close of this edition, Luís and Natália were being heard by the chief of the Polícia Civil da Central de Flagrantes. The chief will determine whether the woman will respond for injury or racism.

Cases of repercussion

At least three other cases of injury have had major repercussions in recent months in Belo Horizonte and the metropolitan region. On November 15, a man was arrested in Betim for referring to a taxi driver as “that little black boy over there,” according to the Military Police report. The statement took place in the presence of Military Police and other witnesses. The 61-year-old was charged in the act for the crime, paid bail and released.

A taxi passenger and 39-year-old driver got into a argument about the price of a trip when the Military Police was called. In conversation with the Military Police, the passenger, Celso Serafim de Cássia Rezende, said, according to the police report, that he requested a ride to Esmeraldas. The taxi driver accepted and said that the trip would cost BRL 80. The man then tried to negotiate and asked if it could be done for BRL 60.

At this point, according to MP reports, the taxi driver reportedly told Celso to go by foot, which started an argument. The MP went to the place where the argument took place and, during the investigation of the case, caught Celso referring to the taxi driver in a discriminatory manner. As a result, the man was arrested for racial injury and was sent to the police station.

In the capital city, a selection process released by two companies is under investigation because, by disclosing vacancies for caregivers of the elderly, the description of the prerequisites brought the condition that the candidates not be “black or fat”. One of those excluded was Elisângela Lopes, 41, who has four years of professional experience. “I won’t remain silent,” she said in an interview.

Another case occurred during the last classic between Cruzeiro and Atlético for the Brazilian Championship of futebol. After a 0-0 draw, the stands of Mineirão became a war where fans were offended and attacked, while security guards tried to contain them. Amid the confusion, Adrierre Siqueira da Silva turned to security guard Fábio Coutinho with contempt and said: “Look at your color.”

Adrierre’s brother Nathan Siqueira da Silva is also accused of committing a racial injury. According to police, the fan called Fábio Coutinho “macaco”, meaning ‘monkey’. Both were indicted by the Civil Police and can be sentenced to one to four years imprisonment and a fine based on article 140, paragraph 3 of the Penal Code.

In that case, the accused attempted to defend himself against the charges. Natan Siqueira Silva, and his brother, Adrierre Siqueira da Silva, gave testimony on Tuesday (11/12/2019) in Belo Horizonte (MG) and refuted being racist. According to both, the statements were motivated by the “heat of the moment”. The intention of both is to meet with the victim to apologize for what happened.

According to Nathan, who talked to the press after the deposition, he didn’t call the security guard Fábio Coutinho a monkey.

“Not at all, so much so that I have a black brother, I have people who cut my hair that are black, friends that are black. That was not of my character, on the contrary. The way it’s circulating on social networks, in the press, that I directed the word ‘monkey’ at him, in no way did I say that. The word directed was ‘palhaço’ (clown)’ and not ‘macaco’ (monkey)”, he declared.

Adrierre, who spit on the security guard and then shouted “look at your color”, chose to ask for forgiveness and reinforce that he wants to apologize personally to Fábio Coutinho.

“I was excited at the time of the game and I want to ask his forgiveness for all the insults I made, for the spit. That’s not of my nature,” he said.

Note from BW of Brazil: So, here we have a number of situations that are simply very typical of Brazil. And again, these are just cases that get media attention. If we were consider how often these things happen everyday, never get reported, or just imagine how often people think in this way, we’d probably have to condemn about half of the population. You think this is an exaggeration? I don’t, because all Brazilians, whether black, white, racially indefinable, whatever, are educated in a system and culture in which people learn that white people are ‘superior’ and blacks and non-whites are ‘inferior’. I’ve written a thousand times, even among non-whites, one can sense a deep desire to be white. 

The story involving the preference that caregivers not be black is simply another example of the discriminatory nature of Brazil’s job market that seeks ‘‘good appearance”, a thinly veiled code for whiteness. Just a few decades ago, it was very common to see such preferences in job advertisements in newspapers. Simply because this filtering practice isn’t always openly announced doesn’t mean the attitude doesn’t still exist. Simply put, Brazil’s job market is still difficult, and skin color continues being a huge obstacle for people to secure employment regardless of the position. Well, with perhaps the exception of trash collectors. 

In terms of the guy at the futebol game, yet another example of two possibilities. One, the Brazilian racist who cannot bring himself to admit to being racist. Time and time again, we see the scenario where the Brazilian isn’t ashamed of being racist, but once caught in the act, the decades long myth of the ‘racial democracy‘ won’t allow them to proclaim themselves as such. Also, I do believe that in some of these situations, it is possible that the person isn’t necessarily the blatant racist, but rather a victim of a Brazil that teaches its people to rank the value of others according to physical characteristics.

Think about it.

In the heat of a tense situation, people will often offend their opponents verbally by calling out the social stigma that that person happens to have, be they black, overweight, a woman, unattractive, etc. Admit it, if you haven’t said it to someone, you’ve probably thought it. Either way, the man himself was racist or his actions were provoked by a racist society.

The last points I’ll make in relation to that case is the man’s claiming he said ‘palhaço’ rather than ‘macaco’. Don’t know if I can buy that. The ‘ç’ in palhaço has a strong ‘s’ sound versus the strong ‘k’ sound of the ‘c’ in macaco and I don’t think these words can be mixed up. Besides that, although he denied calling the security guard a macaco, he didn’t deny saying ‘look at your color’, which is still a manner of demeaning someone according to a prevailing racial hierarchy. And his denying being racist because he has a black hairstylist, a black brother, etc….too typical to even comment on…

Translation of above text

The name of this white scumbag is: Natália Burza Gomes Dupin. She was arrested! She said to the face of a taxi driver that she was a racist, that she didn’t ride with black people, and spit on his feet. At the police station, he called a sergeant “Sapatão” and offended two other police officers for being black. But she’s already released and free. The rich scumbag has paid bail and can already commit other crimes. This is despite the Constitution’s definition that “the practice of racism constitutes an unspeakable and imprescriptible crime, subject to imprisonment under the terms of the law”.

Now, in terms of the woman in the first story…THIS is the type of racist that has no shame in proclaiming herself as such. When this story first broke, people, as they often do in such situations, dug into her social networking pages and found, guess what…she was apparently a Jair Bolsonaro supporter. As we live in an or ‘fake news’, when I first read this somewhere I didn’t want to immediately accept it as true, although it would be totally believable. But when I found the woman’s Facebook page myself, it was confirmed. As such, her openly racist views make her part of the population who Bolsonaro’s ‘dog whistles’ reached and with the extreme right politician now in command of the country, his minions feel more confident to ‘come out’ and expose their views, different from others, like the guy at the futebol game who could be just as racist but ashamed to admit it. 

Not only does the woman openly proclaim herself a racist, she also subscribes to Brazil’s social hierarchy in which people expect to be respected more than others. Her words, ‘You don’t know who you’re talking to’, is a very common phrase uttered by well to do people when caught breaking a law or doing something unethical. But the danger in ths case was the attitude that I find increasingly common in Brazil  (see here and here). This woman knows that, as the laws on racism are so flimsy in Brazil, she could just pay the fine and move on as if nothing ever happened. Another example of Brazil being racist and allowing such behavior to continue because it refuses to do anything serious to fight it.

Black Brazilians need to understand this. 

With information from Carta Capital, Correio Braziliense and Metropoles