Note from BW of Brazil: Stories such as this one are absolutely absurd, but I like analyzing them because it exposes the depths of how race is experienced in Brazil. A few things immediately came to mind when I first read this story. Number one, it once again shows the connection between black people and the immediate stereotypical connection to criminality. Number two, it demonstrated once again the adoration of white skin and whiteness. Like, “Oh my God, what are those terrible negros doing with that precious white child?”
Question: If the races had been reversed, what would have happened? Well, considering past events that show how little black children are valued in Brazil, people would have asked what such a beautiful white couple would be doing with a black child. Someone would have tried to tell the pesky black child to get away from the couple. Or maybe people would just insult a child simply for being black. After all, it’s Brazil; it happens every day! The third thing that came to mind is that a similar case happened a few months ago in another state. In that situation, a black woman, the mother of a white child, was accused of kidnapping her own child! Ah, Brazil….the place where race doesn’t matter!
Black couple accused of kidnapping for being with white child
The case happened in Magé, in the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro. The person who made the accusation owns a restaurant in the city and made a point of taking the case to the police station, where it was disproved. See the video
Elisângela and her husband Edivaldo are residents of Magé (Rio) and went shopping on Monday night (9) at a supermarket close to their home. The couple took the grandson of the landlady, the boy Cristiano Ronaldo, who lives next door, with the proper authorization of his grandmother.
Upon arriving at the supermarket, the boy was called by a woman and warned about the couple. The person, identified by Elisângela as Amanda Marques Costa, “thought that we were there to kidnap the boy … Simply because I am black, Edivaldo black also and we were with a criança branca (white child). The woman screamed a lot, made us very embarrassed and we stopped by the police station,” he said.
The following scene was videotaped by Elisângela herself, who, disagreeing, said that she would take the case to the final step: “This was a case of racism and it cannot be like this. We had the authorization of the boy’s grandmother and we were accused only because we are black with a white child,” she said.
At the police station, the case was cleared after a phone call to the child’s grandmother, who confirmed the authorization. Elisângela alleges that she was instructed by the chief on duty to leave the case there, but she says she going to take it to the final consequences.
According to Elisângela, Amanda owns the restaurant Galeto na Brasa, very well known in Magé. Forum (website) tried to contact the establishment several times, but the manager said that she was not authorized to give any information.
Source: Revista Fórum
Leave a Reply