Note from BBT: It’s always funny to me when I come across two or more stories that, on the outside, don’t seem related, but then with further analysis, you find a link that ties the stories together. Such is the case with two recent stories I came across, both involving SBT-TV owner Silvio Santos. American rapper Snoop Dogg (hard to believe dude is pushing 50) has had quite a few connections with Brazil going back to his video “Beautiful” back in 2003. Wow, that song was released almost exactly 18 years ago…My, my, time is always flying.
Anyway, after that video, Snoop’s name has come up more than a few times in regards to Brazil and I’m quite sure I’m not aware of every time, but clearly something about this country has caught Mr. Broadus’s attention. Gee, wonder what it could be. Among the other connections Snoop has made with Brazil, he also found a “cousin”, 39-year old Jorge André, of Rio de Janeiro. Via Instagram, Snoop wrote, “I found my cousin in Brazil,” in the subtitles of the publication that had over 2.7 million views.
Jorge, born and raised in the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio, where he lives with his wife and three children, is the owner of a car wash, and also works as a tequila seller at parties, street events and Rio’s carnival, when he most hear comments about his resemblance to the “Sensual Seduction” rapper.
“When I was told that I looked like this guy (Snoop), I started to investigate his life and I thought: ‘isn’t it that he looks like me?’ Then I started to see the clips, the dances, everything,” explains the double, who didn’t know much about Snoop’s music, but was always a fan of black music.
It’s something I’ve always said about Brazil. No matter where you’re from, you’re bound to find people who look like people you know and celebrities. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen someone who reminds of people back in the US, usually black, but sometimes white.
In a recent dialogue with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Snoop shared how he was a fan of the great “King” of soccer, Pelé, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. “Pelé, he up there with Ali…when a motherfu**er got one name, you know they the sh*t,” said the rapper. He also mentioned two other giants of Brazilian futebol, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, during the clip.
Snoop’s connection with Brazil came up again this week when he had some fun with a video produced on Silvio Santos’s SBT-TV network. The “Doggfather” used his Instagram to share the Candid Camera style jokes shown on a SBT program. The clip was taken from the Câmeras Escondidas (Hidden Cameras) segment of the Programa Silvio Santos show. Silvia Abravanel, one of the host’s daughters, thanked the American rapper in the comments of the post.
In the “Frango que Mexe” (chicken that moves), an apparently already cooked chicken starts to ‘move’ its thighs while people eat their meal in a restaurant. After the chicken moves, you see a woman scream and jump out of her seat, while two other men were clearly caught off guard. You can hear the typical laughter of Silvio Santos during the video exhibition.
“What an honor, Snoop Dogg. Thank you”, wrote the host, in English.
Silvia also tagged the profile of her sisters, Rebeca, Patricia, Daniela, Renata and Cintia and commented: “Look at this, girls, Snoop Dogg honoring our father’s work!
But there’s other things about Brazil that I wonder if Snoop knows, and if he found out, how he would react.
For example, speaking of Silvio Santos, I wonder how Snoop would react if he knew all of the things Santos is known for. His twisted sort of humor, his jokes and actions that people have labeled as racist. The time he overruled a black woman’s victory in a singing contest on one of his programs when viewers had chosen her. His jokes about black hair. Asking a child a question of a sexual nature. The lack of black faces on his network, which recently became the talk of the internet again.
SBT is called ‘White Television System’ due to lack of blacks
By Miguel Arcanjo Prado
SBT was called “Sistema Branco de Televisão” (White Television System) and “Só Brancos Trabalhando” (Only Whites Working) by internet users due to the absence of blacks on the channel’s New Year message photo.
The lack of ethnic diversity in Silvio Santos’ station was highlighted in the photo with which the channel celebrated the arrival of 2021, printing its hosts. There is not even one a black man or black woman in the image.
An Internet user said that the photo looked more like “a channel from Sweden”, “from Switzerland” or “from Australia”, than a Brazilian broadcaster, in the country in which blacks are more than half of the population. (In fact, this accusation applies to almost all of Brazil’s TV networks.)
The advertising image of SBT with only white people appears at the end of a year in which the importance of black representativeness to create new meanings and social places for this historically oppressed population was widely discussed and removed from the prejudiced discourse that structural racism perpetuates.
It is worth remembering that in 2020 there were violent murders of blacks by white policemen or security guards, as in the cases of George Floyd in the United States and João Alberto Silveira Freitas in Brazil, which provoked a flurry of protests not only in the countries where these brutal crimes took place, but throughout the world.
The lack of black representation in front of the cameras is not exclusive to SBT. Brazilian broadcasters still insist on ignoring black men and women professionals in prominent places on their networks. This only reinforces the need for public discussions of what images like the SBT New Year’s photo, composed only by white communicators, mean and perpetuate in the social imaginary.
Follow @miguel.arcanjo – Really a Brazilian Television System, it only has white people! – Jão (@eudomjoao) January 1, 2021
SBT: White Television System – The face of MERITOCRACY in Brazil 👇🏾 https://t.co/MwF08Y7R2h – – Sandra Regina 💙♥️✊🏾 (@Sanrcj) January 2, 2021
White Television System. Zero diversity! https://t.co/m35BGT7AAA – M VITAL (@MatheusVital) January 1, 2021
SBT – White Television System
I never knew that SBT meant Only Whites Working. https://t.co/JplEs4DGuA
– Viadinho Esquerdopata (@viniciustrein) January 1, 2021
Note: It’s incidents such as these that give us more reasons as to why black folks need to know the situation of black folks in other countries. What I notice is that most African-Americans don’t really keep up with what’s going on with blacks outside of the US, while in Brazil, while Afro-Brazilians know a lot about African-Americans, they rarely view news about black Americans with a more critical eye. What I mean is, the Afro-Brazilian press and Afro-Brazilians in general celebrate any apparent progress by African-Americans but are often clueless about the criticisms African-Americans direct toward prominent black people such as Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Lee Daniels or Jay-Z just to name a few.
In terms of Snoop, this makes me wonder, if he knew some of the racial politics that went down in Brazil, would he be rolling with black Brazilians or would he be rolling in elite circles which are mostly white in Brazil. I would assume that Snoop’s been a multi-millionaire for many years but he still ocassionally will speak on racial issues.
Considering the flack around his comments directed toward journalist Gayle King, and her subsequent defense by former US Ambassador Susan Rice, which led to an apology by Snoop nearly a year ago, I DO wonder how he would see Silvio Santos if a few black Brazilians were to tell him how Santos gets down. Maybe we’ll never know, but again, this is why black folks need our own global media platform.
Source: Blog do Arcanjo,
I don’t get the feeling Snoop invests time in research. He probably doesn’t know about Silvio Santos’ treatment of black people.
You never know, but I doubt he knows too…