Man who sent racist messages to black photographer will be indicted for racism and slander; says he is not racist because he considers himself black

Note from BW of Brazil: You all should know by now that Brazil isn’t and has never been a racial democracy. I mean, you could read the body of work on this blog to get an idea of the effects on race on Brazilians of all races, skin colors, hair textures, etc. I mean, what’s the point in the denial? But on the other hand, the denial is often as intriguing as the racist attack/insult. So, today, I present a follow up to a story posted a little over a week ago about a guy sending some extremely racist messages to a black photographer through a phone app.

Man who attacked black photographer will be indicted for racism and slander

Man who confessed to be the author of the racist audios sent to the photographer Mirian Rosa tried to relativize their acts, stating that he acted “to defend himself.” Despite the seriousness of the offenses, he says that he doesn’t not consider himself racist

The Civil Police of Várzea Grande, in the metropolitan region of Cuiabá, questioned the man responsible for racist audios directed to photographer Mirian Rosa. The aggressor’s name is  Rafael André Janini.

According to the police chief Claudio Álvarez, the man claimed that he sent the audio messages in legitimate defense, after supposedly arguing with the victim.

“He confessed to the facts, because faced with the audios and the voice of the suspect, it would be difficult to deny it. In his defense, he argues that there was an argument with the victim at an earlier time and that he had sent the audio into a group of WhatsApp to defend himself,” he said.

Rafael also stated that he was “hot headed” when he sent the audios and denied being racist. “He declares that he is black and, therefore, says that he is not racist,” said the police chief.

An investigation has been initiated against Rafael André for racial crimes of injúria racial (racial injury/slur) and racism and he will respond in freedom.

Racist audio messages

Mirian Rosa, 32, registered a Boletim de Ocorrência (police report) on May 2 after receiving audios of a racist nature via WhatsApp.

In the messages, the photographer is called a ‘mucama’ (maid), ‘saco of lixo’ (garbage bag), ‘crioula maldita’ (damned nigger) among other insults. “Since when are blacks people? I’ll say something better: who you are in the line at the butcher? I will respond to you: the poor do not eat meat. So, not even in the line at the butcher shop do you enter, crioula maldita,” says Rafael in one of the audios.

Then other audios of man were forwarded. In them, he calls the photographer a slave and asks for her price on the market.

“I want to know if you have owner or not. I went to the slave market at the port and I didn’t see any slave at your value. I want to buy a slave, mucama, cozinheira (cook), faxineira (cleaning woman) or something like that for my house. I want to see the crioulada (bunch of niggers) working for me,” he says.

“You can shoot at a crioulo, set fire on him and he feels nothing. The only thing that the crioulo feels is he being on the tronco (whipping post) whip on his back.”

In one of the recent audios, the man ironically invites Mirian for a barbecue. “It’s the following: I’ll burn meat there at home. I need you, as the material: the charcoal and the garbage bag to collect the remains,” he says.

When the case came to light, Rafael came to deny the authorship of the attacks and said that he would ask for an examination of the audios to prove his innocence.

Note from BW of Brazil: So here we have yet another example of a Brazilian feeling free to say all of the racist things he has in mind but then not having the same courage to proclaim himself racist. So let me get this straight; he refers to a woman as a crioula, basically equal to the term nigger, but he considers himself to be black? (see note one) I pointed out a few days ago that this guy most like has some Indian or African ancestry, but I don’t believe for a moment that he identifies himself as black. He simply got busted and he needed to come up with something to explain his utterly ridiculous claim of not being racist. More entertainment from the country where no one is racist but everybody else surely is.

Note

1. Someone reading this post will surely point out the fact that African-Americans freely use the “n-word” in addressing each other, but regardless of how one feels about the term, I would argue that generally, African-Americans have a sense of deciphering when the word is used as a term of endearment and when it is used as an insult.