‘’This business of social inclusion is effed up’!’’: Young black woman denounces racial slurs after winning beauty contest

Note from BBT: It always blows me away when I hear people make these types of comments. You can read the comment to which I refer below, but to sum it up, it was basically a white woman who appears to be fed up with advances being made by black Brazilians in recent years.

I’ve made continuous reference to this. For most of the years that I’ve followed the racial situation in Brazil, I’ve noted that black representation in numerous areas of society was often very little or none. And Brazilians know this. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve read comments by black Brazilians catching people off guard when they identifying themselves as someone in a prominent role.

Speaking directly to them, people will often say things like, ‘’Excuse me, I’d like to see the doctor’’, ‘’Could you go and get the dentist for me please?’’, or, ‘’Please, I’d like to speak to judge’’. The reason being that, Brazil’s particular brand of racial exclusion has kept blacks ‘’in their place’’ for so long, that people are shocked when greeted by black doctors, dentists and judges.  A story from just a few days ago provided another example, that time courtesy of a black anesthesiologist.

In today’s case, a woman voiced her anger in seeing a young black girl win a beauty contest. In her view, maybe white people should start painting themselves black in order to win sometimes. Really? Incredible that people can really this in manner. Nevermind the fact that since 1954, only three black women have ever been crowned Miss Brasil. And two of them only won since 2016. In other words, from 1954-2015, a period of 61 years, only one black woman had ever been crowned Miss Brasil. Then, to get back to ‘’normal’’, after two black women won two years in a row in 2016 and 2017, from 2018 to now, it’s been all white women again.

There are simply too many examples of Brazil’s racially exclusionary practices for someone to have such an attitude as if, suddenly, white people should see themselves as being at a disadvantage because black people are claiming a few victories. Whiteness has always been the standard in Brazil, even in a state with a large black population such as Bahia.

Does this woman remember when the Segundo Sol soap opera made headlines for portraying Bahia with a nearly all-white cast? Funny, I don’t remember any white Brazilians making an issue out that. I certainly remember when they made an issue out of seeing one black woman in a beauty contest in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a majority white state, because she didn’t look like what most women look like in that state. Sounds like hypocrisy to me. I’m sure this woman had no problem with Bahia again in 2014, when there was an uproar because of the number of white and near white contestants in the beauty contest of that year.

I could go on and on with examples, but my point is, white Brazilians have had the privilege of having the preferred color for centuries in Brazil. this has only started to change, really, in the past decade or so because of affirmative action policies designed to balance these vast inequalities.

Early reports show that things have indeed changed slightly. The change is notable, even I’ve admitted it. But like reports that have measured these differences, even with noticeable changes in black representation, it will still take decades for Brazil to come anywhere near what can be considered equality at the rate its going.

It’s funny. Brazilians always argue that they’re not like Americans in terms of racial issues, but this reaction is exactly what you’d expect from an American. Black people get a few breaks here and there and suddenly it’s like, “Oh my god! Black people are everywhere. This is reverse racism!”

The woman who complained about the contest in the piece below even went as far as to say that ‘’black people are in charge of everything’’ and that maybe white people should jump in black tank so they can turn black and start winning. I wonder what world this woman lives in to believe that ‘blacks are in charge of everything’. In Brazil, all of the large companies are run by whites, all of the major media outlets are run by whites, they continue to present mostly white faces and the overwhelming majority of congressmen and senators are white men. To put it bluntly, what the f*#k is she talking about?

One thing black Brazilians continue to represent the vast majority of year after year is the murder rate, where they are consistently close to 80% of the victims of homicide. If this woman thinks it’s a picnic being black, I hope she remembers this stat when she claims white people should become black. In fact, if you know the origin of the word picnic, which in Brazil has become the word piquenique, I don’t think this is a choice word to use. I’ll just say, the way that homicide prefers dark skin in Brazil, the origins of the term clearly apply here as well.

I tell you…if you’re a black woman in a beauty contest in Brazil, if you say anything to support other black girls, you lose and if you say nothing, they still want you to lose. But that’s Brazil for you.

‘’This business of social inclusion is f*#ked up’!’’ Young black woman denounces racial slurs after winning beauty contest

Courtesy of Catraca Livre and UOL

Maiza Teresa de Oliveira, 19, was the winner of the “Queen of the City” beauty contest in Santo Antônio do Amparo, Minas Gerais, in an event that celebrated the 82nd anniversary of the municipality.

But the celebration of the young woman, who is black, was interrupted by offenses against her in an audio that circulated on social networks. In the conversation, a woman uses racist terms to refer to Maiza, criticizing her victory in the competition.

“Guys, I was on the farm and now that I’ve seen the results. I’ll tell you something, this business of social inclusion is f*#ked up, silly. It’s the blacks who are in charge of everything. It’s a quota at school, it’s a quota here, it’s a quota there, and the whites are all getting the ink,” said an excerpt from the audio.

The same woman continued – “Next time, we have to jump in a tank of ‘criolina’ (see note one) and come out all black, then you can apply for anything, you win,” she continued.

Maiza’s first place was the result of the sum of the public and jury votes. On social networks, she celebrated her victory, but the focus of the internet users ended up being the repercussion of the racist comment, which angered organizers and family members.

In a post, the young woman said she was sad about the situation, but stressed that she is receiving many messages of solidarity.

“I was very happy with the victory and this ended up spoiling the pleasure of the contest. I am receiving a lot of support and affectionate messages, and this is helping me to make this audio not bigger than my victory,” she said.

The winner vented that she had never suffered this kind of violence and made a formal complaint on Tuesday (15) against the woman who sent the video, who was not identified.

“This is racism and it is a crime, it hurts and kills people who feel bad. We are already in an evolved world and there is no more doing this to people,” said Maiza.

The Civil Police of Minas Gerais confirmed that the case is being investigated as a racial slur. The corporation also said that the suspect of the crime will be heard in a few days.

The incident made Maiza reflect on past experiences she’s been through.

“Since I was a child, I have always been teased because of my appearance, the way I speak. When I was in the salon, doing my makeup, I received an audio of a woman making fun of the way I was talking, on the day of the parade, before the parade, she was making fun of my way of talking and that really got to me, I started to cry, it ruined all my makeup, I think this criticism gave me the strength to be even better,” she told Globo.

To GloboNews, the son of the person responsible for the racially offensive audio said that his mother only expressed an opinion.

The “Rainha da Cidade” event was supported by the City Hall and broadcasted on the Internet. In a note, the Municipal Administration of Santo Antônio do Amparo, which is about 200 km from Belo Horizonte, regretted what happened and reinforced that it repudiates any kind of prejudice.

“We reiterate our commitment to fight all kinds of discrimination,” the statement adds.

Source: UOL, Catraca Livre

Note

1. Creolina is disinfectant for cleaning kitchens, bathrooms, etc. It is a liquid chemical that is black in color. It is also necessary to point out that the word creolina is similar to the world ‘crioulo’, which in Brazil, is in some ways similar to the racist n-word in the United States.