Blacks were born to serve: A Racial Slur in City of Campo Grande

Blacks were born to serve: A Racial Slur in City of Campo Grande

Note from BW of Brazil: Nothing particularly shocking here, just another example of the fact that Brazilians clearly don’t see each other as “all equal”. Now, one could argue that the woman who made such a degrading statement was elderly and sick, but I tend to believe that such sentiments are part of a person’s mentality and perhaps other factors contribute to the person exposing what they’ve always felt. When you look at all of the evidence of racist comments, attacks, assaults and jokes, it would be difficult not come to the conclude that Brazil is a country in which three and half centuries of the enslavement of black people continues to influence an unofficial racial hierarchy that continues to set the standard for how people see, rank and judge each other. And of course, this simply wouldn’t be Brazil if the accused didn’t deny being racist because they knew someone black.  

Brazil, Brazil….

After 7 years, ex-mayor is convicted of saying ‘blacks were born to serve me’

Nelly Elias Bacha’s sentence is one year in prison, in addition to a fine and will be converted into community services

With information courtesy of Campo Grande News, Mídia Max and MS Notícias

The former mayor of the city Campo Grande, Nelly Elias Bacha, 75, was sentenced to one year and 10 days in prison – the fine for the crime of injúria racial (racial injury/slur) after having having said: “blacks were born to serve me” towards a woman who was in a supermarket line. The crime occurred on october 24, 2013, and the conviction took seven years to finally come down. The penalty will be reversed for the provision of community services and payment of a minimum salary (BRL $1,045) to charity.

A retired teacher and lawyer, Nelly Bacha made history by being the first woman to become mayor of Campo Grande. She was mayor of the capital city between March and May of 1983. Bacha was also a professor and a lawyer, but even with such credentials, and advanced education, apparently this has no influence on how she treats people as she clearly adheres to belief in a racial hierachy. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were the type that harbors a certain nostalgic sentiment about the slavery era.

Because she is a primary defendant, elderly and has no criminal record, and is bedridden with Parkinson’s disease, the Court understood that Nelly shouldn’t be sentenced to a closed regime prison. In addition, the crime has a sentence of less than four years in prison, which justifies the possibility of changing it for a lighter sentence. However, the judge rejected the request.

The sentence, issued by Judge Roberto Ferreira Filho, is dated May 15 and was published in the Diário da Justiça of Mato Grosso do Sul on Wednesday (20). Campo Grande is the capital city of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, located in Brazil’s midwest region.

The case

According to the information in the police report, on October 24, 2013, the victim was in line at a supermarket butcher located on Rua Rui Barbosa (street), when the former mayor approached and asked the attendant something. She then got angry at the victim and declared, “Go ahead! Get in front preta (black woman), I have other things to do! Blacks were born to serve me”. In addition to the victim, other women witnessed the offense and confirmed it in court. Nelly denied being racist saying that her cardiologist and physiotherapist “are black-skinned.”

“In fact, the statements of the victim L. and the testimony of witnesses A., A. and C., all heard in court, under the sieve of the adversary, showed that the accused, perhaps bothered by an extraneous fact and because she was waiting for assistance in the butcher shop of the supermarket where everything took place, said to her companion S., referring to the first (victim), to ‘pass in front of her, that blacks were born to serve me’, which, to my feeling, configures, undeniably, an intention to despise, to diminish, to discriminate,” observed the magistrate.

“The substitution takes place, then, even by the amount of the penalty (not exceeding 1 year), by a restriction of rights, as indicated in § 2 of the aforementioned article 44, in the form of pecuniary benefits for the benefit of the social service entity, according to article 45 of the CP, which is fixed at 1 (one) minimum wage, which is proportional to the penalty established and, also, due to the lack of more reliable data about the defendant’s real economic capacity. It is also worth noting that, due to the defendant’s personal circumstances, namely, an elderly person and a sick person (pages 255), no other kind of restrictive penalty would be adequate,” justified the magistrate.

Source: Campo Grande News, Mídia Max, MS Notícias