Popular blond TV host Xuxa says in the next life she wants to come back as a black woman; actress Taís Araújo gives her a reality check

Note from BBT: Hol´lup. Xuxa said WHAT?, in my best DMX voice (RIP). When news broke in social networks a few days ago that the famed television host appeared on a televised interview and dropped another headline-making comment, all I could do was laugh. “What’s the deal with Xuxa?”, I thought to myself. People are still trippin’ over her recent remarks that Brazil’s prison inmates should be used for medicine and vaccine testing, and now this.

So, now one of Brazil’s most popular blonds of all-time says she’d like to come back as a black woman in the next life. I don’t buy it especially after a vídeo surfaced of Xuxa expressing her pride  in foreigners knowing that Brazil is not just “black and mulata”, but also blond. In my view, there are a few possible reasons as to why she would make such a laughable statement.

1. She’s as clueless as people think she is.
2. She really doesn’t know what it means to be black in a clearly anti-black world.
3. She doesn’t realize how much her success is based on her being the extreme opposite of blackness, a whiteness that elites have always desired for the Brazilian population. 
4. She wants to silence those who criticize her on social/racial topics 
5. She wanted to say something just to be featured on Black Brazil Today again (LOL).

Whatever the case may be, all I can really do it shake my head. But really, on the other hand, I know that there are some people out who are as white as Xuxa who really do admire blackness to such a degree that they actually would consider making such a transition. I mean, there are those so enamored with elements of black culture that they imitate aspects of the culture to the best of their ability. They try to “dress black”, “talk black”, “dance black”, etc.

Other folks may not consciously desire to be black, but I often wonder why it is that so many white people roast themselves in the sun for such long periods of time to attain that “beautiful tan”. Or why some white women can be seen rockin’ braids in their hair. I mean, blackness has been denigrated for so long, why would people who have been politically placed on the throne as the “standard of beauty” that all non-Europeans should aspire to, what fascination do such people have with imitating the most despised race of people on the planet? Do any of you have a clue?

In terms of the piece below, I don’t really even need to add anything else because many people made some of the same points I’ve so long made about Xuxa. Read on…

Xuxa says she wants to be black and hears truths from Taís Araújo

By Karol Gomes

Xuxa Meneghel got a special episode of the Superbonita television program, on the GNT channel, to celebrate her birthday that happened in March. Almost a month later, the gift ended up being bitter pill for the blonde. An excerpt of the interview given by the “rainha dos baixinhos” (queen of the little ones) to actress Taís Araújo went viral on the internet and wasn’t pleasing.

Xuxa was severely criticized on the networks for telling Taís that she would like to be a black woman in her next incarnation.

“Taís, I would like to come with your color, your hair, your skin”, said Xuxa. Taís then countered that “being black is not easy. Later, I’ll tell you what it’s like to be black in this country and in this world,” warned the actress, referring to the obstacles imposed by racism.

And the racism, Xuxa?

It seems that, for Xuxa, Taís’s argument meant something related to self-esteem and not to racism, because she said afterwards that “I would love myself very much, I would look at myself in the mirror all the time.” Taís didn’t fail to explain. “I love myself too, but the problem is not me. It’s the world out there,” she said.

“When I look at people with the color of your skin, your hair … I have little hair. I have a skin that I really wanted to be golden, morena (mixed or dark), black. If I had a choice, I wanted to come out like that,” added Xuxa.

Xuxa may not have thought, but women are part of the so-called base of the Brazilian social pyramid. Although they represent almost 30% of the population according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), mulheres pretas (black women) accounted for just over 3% of the mayors elected in 2016, as shown in an article by Agência Brasil (see note one).

Furthermore, black women were part of the largest number of unemployed people in 2019, according to data released by the Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities (CEERT).

After Xuxa insisted on the idea, Taís ended the conversation with some advice. “Asking to come with the spirit, prepared to take the bomb too”, concluded Taís, to which the blonde said she would take it because of “everything that has already happened in this life”.

The video ended up going viral on Twitter and took Xuxa’s name to the list of most commented subjects. The negative repercussion set the tone for how Xuxa’s comment was received by the public. Taís was applauded for her patience in trying to educate the host, while others fully went in on Xuxa’s remarks.

Translation of above comments

“Xuxa told Taís Araújo that she would have liked to be born black. That’s impressive. The scars that racism produces are never recognized. Xuxa romanticizes the condition of the blacks precisely because she has no idea what it is to be charged, canceled and judged at the first opportunity.”

“ah, you didn’t want to be born black, no Xuxa. because you wouldn’t be queen of the little ones, you wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be a model and host so easily, much less be almost a billionaire today. it’s very easy to say that when you’re born gaúcha (native of the state of Rio Grande do Sul), blonde with blue eyes.”

“white privilege is being able to say that because you don’t understand that black people come into the world and have to start preparing their backs… slavery is over but the whip is still snapping… let there be backs, let there be! Xuxa will never really understand”

“What I find most interesting about Xuxa having said in an interview with the actress Taís Araújo that she “wanted to be black” is the fact that ALL of her paquitas were blond. Really, Brazil is not for amateurs!” (see note two)

“I just saw the video of Taís Araujo with Xuxa, and the following: if Xuxa were black she wouldn’t even be a paquita, let alone XUXA! Go f*#k yourself!” (see note two)

Xuxa, detainees and covid

One reason the interview with Taís Araújo didn’t go viral in March may have been another controversy starring Xuxa in the same month. A subject that is also related to race and social class.

In an interview with Alerj (Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro), the “rainha dos baixinhos” defended the idea of Josef Mengele – considered the ‘death angel’ of Nazism – that prisoners should be used for testing medicines and vaccines. With the comment, Xuxa represented the ignorance, racism and a recurring thought of the Brazilian elite: that whoever is in jail is no longer a person.

“I think they would at least be good for something before they die, to help save lives with medicine and everything. Then here come the Human Rights people saying that they can’t be used. But if it is people who are tested to spend 60, 50 years in jail and who will die there, I think they could use at least a little bit of their life to help other people. Testing medicines, vaccines, testing everything on these people,” said the host.

Xuxa is wrong to believe that many of the Brazilian prisoners are in this condition for “proven crimes”. One third of prisoners in Brazil are detained by preventive arrests, often for minor or victimless crimes. Of the more than 700,000 prisoners we have in the country, 31% of them have not been convicted or tried.

The host’s estimate that prisoners will spend “sixty, fifty years in jail” is also far off the mark, since it is rare for people to spend more than 30 years in prison. Finally, the host didn’t consider that, to speak of the prison system in Brazil, it’s necessary to take the race perspective: 66.7% or two thirds of Brazilian prisoners is black. In fact, in recent years, the number of black prisoners has grown by 14% while the number of white prisoners in prison has dropped by 19%. Xuxa apologized for the comment with a video where she receives tributes from black people for her birthday.

Source: Hypeness

Notes

1. I have to slightly disagree with the way these statistics are presented. As I mentioned in numerous posts, I no longer see Brazil as a majority black country. Brazil is promoted as a majority black country based on the combination of two groups, pretos/blacks and pardos/brown being joined together as representing the black population. In reality, although there are pardos (browns/people of mixed race) who are black, many are simply impossible to define as a single race and a large percentage are pretty close to the white phenotype. In the census, the term preto or preta refer to clearly black people and as people defining themselves as pretos or pretas represent about 8% of the overall population, it could be a quite a stretch  to say that mulheres pretas make up 30% of all Brazilians.  The only way to come to such a figure would be join mulheres pretas (black women) and mulheres pardas (brown women) together.
2. I’ve discussed Xuxa’s teenage song and dance group As Paquitas made up of all young white females in a number of previous posts. Since her popular children’s programs, Xuxa has taken a lot of heat for never having had a black paquita as millions of Brazilian girls of all phenotypes dreamed of being one of the Paquitas.