“Many see a monkey, I see Aladdin’s best friend”: Father apologizes after dressing his black son as Abu from Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ cartoon

pai pede desculpas apc3b3s fantasiar filho negro de macaco e imagem viralizar nas redes 31
pai pede desculpas apc3b3s fantasiar filho negro de macaco e imagem viralizar nas redes 31

Pai pede desculpas após fantasiar filho negro de macaco e imagem viralizar nas redes (3)

Note from BW of Brazil: Hmm, OK, so how should we file this? Should we label it under “we Brazilians aren’t racists”? The “difficulty of Brazilians admitting racist gaffes”? The “continuation of the myth of racial democracy“? Perhaps, “you blacks see racism in everything”. Over this past week of Carnaval festivities, today’s post outraged thousands of people as it was continuously shared in various social media outlets. Today’s story is so typically Brazilian in several ways. 1) Yet another example of Brazil’s continuous association of black people with monkeys, 2) An outlandish racist gesture while simultaneously denying any racist intent, 3) As with the infamous ‘Nega Maluca’ character, Carnaval costumes used to deny subliminal/blatant racist messages. What I wonder is how this man will explain the photo’s meaning to his son when he grows up and understands the symbolism. One other thing I would add here. Regardless of how people think, adopting a black child or even dating a black person doesn’t automatically disqualify someone from being racist or committing racist acts

Pai pede desculpas após fantasiar filho negro de macaco e imagem viralizar nas redes
Belo Horizonte man provoked controversy when he appeared as Disney character Aladdin and his black son as the monkey Abu

Father apologizes after dressing his black son as a monkey; image went viral on social networks

Courtesy of Revista Fórum

The photo was registered during a Carnival bloco in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Fernando Bustamante said that the intention was to characterize Abu, the best friend of the Aladdin character and was criticized by web users calling it racist.

Aladdin
Disney cartoon ‘Aladdin’ featuring characters Jasmine, Aladdin and Abu

Few costumes generated as much impact this year as that chosen by actor Fernando Bustamante to celebrate Carnival with his family. The couple appears dressed as the characters Aladdin and Jasmine, with his son on his shoulders characterized as Abu, the pet monkey. Going viral on social networks, the scene was soon criticized for exposing the boy, who is black, in an awkward position.

The photo was taken during a bloco in Belo Horizonte. After the fact, Bustamante apologized to those who were offended. “Many may see a monkey in the costume from yesterday. I see the best friend of Aladdin that will know the Ideal World with him and Jasmine. Without prejudice and much, much love”, he wrote on his Facebook page after being called a racist.

SourceRevista Fórum

About Marques Travae 3747 Articles
Marques Travae. For more on the creator and editor of BLACK WOMEN OF BRAZIL, see the interview here.

15 Comments

  1. Being that the majority of white Brazilians 1) don’t even REALLY know what racism is, outside of calling a person a bad name 2) are fairly uneducated about any Brazilian community other than their own narrow white one 3) have an ingrained – almost unconcious sense of their “superiority” (in Brazil) 4) are pretty ignorant about their own history (and I mean ALL of it) 5) lack basic logic and reasoning skills because those private schools only teach them to pass vestibular 6) are probably at least a LITTLE bit inferior genetically, due to all the inbreeding that goes on among them (since they don’t really like to let their money trickle down outside of their own society)….I could actually believe that this idiot really DIDN’T know that he was sending a racist message and disrespecting his son (who he, hopefully, didn’t just adopt to be a servant to him and his ugly wife).

    Thank GOD for all of the woke, Black Brazilians who continue to take people like this burro to task for being so gd DUMB!

  2. I have seen this pic around Facebook. At the beginning I did not get why ‘racism’. Reading the comments I understood. I believe racism is in the people that look at the pic and see bad intention in dressing a black kid as this Monkey.

      • I read the article. I am not talking about what is written in the article, but about all the comments i read around FB.

    • Totally agree.. Only blank people would think this is a racist point.., instead of the father and mother making sure their child is with him.. So what would be better having him dress in a hot monkey costume or having the child feel comfortable and being a part of a special occasion.. Black people are the most racist people on the face of the earth… They hate white people….

      • Let me correct one thing… African ameicans as they call themselves hate white people… I know black people who were not born in the USA.., they get mad at the Africa American they let it be known rhey are not kin to them and sure would not act like the blacks born in the USA… They feel ashame because they try every thing they can to make a good life for themselves…

      • I have had a woman that was actually from Africa tell me that same exact thing about how African people feel about African Americans.

      • i find it strange that many person here never heard a Hispanic call a black person a monkey or some other term….racism in Latin America is rampant and real and class division still goes on

  3. It still puzzles me why our country produces these retards. “Burros” like this exist everywhere but why do we have so many of them? Anyway.

  4. Ok! so tell me, what are your thoughts on Bruno Gagliasso’s adopted kids?
    Since you think, that if a white person dates or is friend with black person, does not mean he/she isn’t racist.
    I hate stupid people, can’t be around them for to long, does it make me a ‘racist’ towards idiots?
    You always generalize racism, if a person dates or gets married to a black person, they can not be racist! They’re ignorant. Hitler was racist, K.K.K member’s are racist.
    Shame on this post..

    • Still stuck on simplistic arguments, huh? Your opinion is actually one of the reasons it is necessary to discuss the multiple methods of people being racist. Racism is not only Hitler or the KKK. I’ve addressed this issue in numerous posts so I won’t bother addressing this again here. Very typical this view…

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