Note from BW of Brazil: With the recent focus on the events of Charlottesville, Virginia, in the United States, a number of Brazilians have been expressing the idea that the display of white supremacist ideology could and often does happen right here in Brazil. I’ve asked this for over five years; how is it that everyone is so familiar with racism in the United States while Brazil has been and, for the most part still, continues to harbor similar views against its black population but the country’s image of racial harmony remains intact?
I mean, most of the elements are all there. Everyday displays of racism/racist views, an obsession with blackface, racial exclusion, Eurocentric standards and even a history of white supremacist organizations and followers. A recent incident in southern Brazil reminds us once again that the latter ideology continues to exist in Brazil. As I’ve also maintained, the fact is that sentiments that blacks should remain “in their place” have always existed in Brazil, the only difference is that with recent Afro-Brazilian social advancements and a desire for their place in the sun, elements of the society are showing how they feel about advancements.
Students suffer racist assault with phrases and swastikas in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul
By Julia Saggioratto, for Desacato.info.
Again, the Academic Directorship of the law course at the Federal University of Santa Maria, campus headquarters, the Diretório Livre do Direito, was the target of racist attacks. On August 17 the Directory issued a note of repudiation of another attack that happened in the same place, where symbols that promote Nazism were found.
This morning two UFSM students, Fernanda Rodrigues and Elisandro Ferreira, came across their names written on the walls along with phrases like “O lugar de vocês é no tronco”, “fora negrada” e “negros fora”, meaning, “Your place is on the whipping post”, “out with blacks” and “blacks out”, as well as a Nazi swastika. The student Fernanda Rodrigues expressed her repudiation of the act suffered in her profile on Facebook.
“As much as we, as two blacks, deal with racism every single day, we never look forward to such a biased attitude as to show the WORST of human beings. Outraged is little to define how I feel at the moment. It is shocking to realize that we are bothering (people) because of the COR DA NOSSA PELE (COLOR OF OUR SKIN) in the middle of 2017. It has been a very difficult year for the advancement of human rights and we have been able to experience live the worst of a world that has increasingly been able to show hate speech against minorities,” she said.
Check the complete post below:
Text by Fernanda Rodrigues
No, the images are not from the fifteenth or nineteenth century. They are from the 21st century, year 2017.
“Your place is in on the whipping post”, “out with blacks” and “blacks out”, accompanied by swastikas (symbols of Nazism), were the expressions used by COWARDLY people, who, behind ANONYMITY, decided to curse and attack, in a direct way, me and my colleague Elisandro Ferreira Ferreira. They were written on the wall of the Diretório Livre do Direito (academic directory of the Federal University of Santa Maria – UFSM) and clearly demonstrate the racism and hatred of some members of the course. In fact, they don’t represent faculty, but they point to the kind of person that is forming within the walls of a public university – a place that should be welcoming, plural, and supportive of differences.
My friend and I, always dedicated to finishing the course, each with our difficulties, we were caught by surprise by this disgusting and unscrupulous act, on the morning of this cloudy Friday. As much as we, as two black people, deal with racism every single day, we never look forward to such a biased attitude as to show the WORST of man. Outraged is little to define how I feel at the moment.
It is shocking to realize that we are bothering (people) because of the COLOR OF OUR SKIN in the middle of 2017. It has been a very difficult year for the advancement of human rights and we have been able to experience live the worst of a world that has increasingly been able to show hate speech against minorities.
This post, however, does not have the power to instigate penalty of what it reads. On the contrary, it is a cry of RESISTANCE of two people who DENY shutting up in the face of such a lack of respect, humiliation, and discrimination. We regret being part of the daily statistics of uncontested cases of racial slander – which many still have the audacity to call “mimimi,” (whining) when they could not stand a day under our skin.
However, we are even sorrier for those who have offended us, because their purpose of putting us down and trying to withdraw us from the academic environment HAS FAILED WITH MUCH SUCCESS.
We will not go back to the senzala (slave quarters), the whipping trunk we’ve already put in the fire and we have no pretense of becoming less than the best jurists we can be.
You’re going to have to swallow us. We are sorry (or rather, not).
“IF THE BIG HOUSE WANTS THE SENZALA BACK, MAYBE WE SHOULD REMEMBER HOW TO SET FIRE TO THE PLANTATION”
Source: Desacato
Leave a Reply