Note from BW of Brazil: Alright so what else in new in Brazil? Another woman expresses how she feels about black people in a racist manner. We really have to wonder if that woman who declared a few weeks back that “Brazilians aren’t like that” might have heard about this latest example of Brazil’s ‘racial democracy’. It doesn’t really matter, for regardless of how often the racist nature of Brazil’s citizens rears its ugly head, there will continue to be those who live in denial. Oh well, for those of us living in reality, check out the details and video of this latest incident.
Woman called employees “monkeys” in shopping mall; is followed and hides in a store
Police were called; situation angered customers and employees
By Gil Santos and Carol Neves
A woman accused of offending two employees with racist insults hid inside a store of the Barra Shopping mall in Salvador, Bahia, late Tuesday (29) and only came out escorted by the Military Police. According to reports from witnesses, the woman insulted a Fast Shop salesperson, and afterwards also offended r a mall security guard in a racist manner. The situation outraged employees and customers, who surrounded the woman. The situation occurred at about 7:30pm yesterday.
The confusion ended up in the Gregory clothing store where the woman entered soon after. According to an employee who was there, the store had to close the door to ensure everyone’s safety. “It was a mess, people mobbing,” she said. She said he didn’t know what happened. “She came looking at the clothes racks normally like a customer coming in to buy without any pressure. Only after did I see the police already in the front of the confusion.”
Police officers of the 11th Companhia Independente de Polícia Militar (of Barra) were called to the scene to tend to the incident. They were in and out of the store, conversing with the suspect and people outside.
The woman entered Fast Shop already nervously looking for a microwave, according to local officials. She was helped by a black salesperson and being told that the model she wanted was not in the store, assaulted the employee, calling him a “macaco” (monkey) and saying he looked like a “motorista de traficante” (drug dealer’s driver). Another salesperson approached asking her to calm down and was also insulted in addition to being slapped on the back and having his shirt pulled. The woman in the shop said it was police, information that has yet to be confirmed.
A mall security went up to her, who left the store, and he was also called macaco – at that time, the woman made a gesture imitating the animal. In the heat of the confusion, she asked why she was being followed as she wasn’t “stealing anything.” She continued on her way and went into the Gregory store, where she was later detained by MP. Inside the store, she simulated passing out to avoid going to prison.
The people had gathered outside the shop demanding the woman’s arrest. When she left the place, she was led by MP, cries of “racist, racist” were heard. According to the Military Police, all involved were referred to the Central de Flagrantes in Iguatemi. A Barra spokesperson said he didn’t have details of the disagreement between the customer and employee and all were taken to a police station to clarify the facts. The spokesperson also said that the shopping mall repudiates any racist act.
At the police station, she also argued with the salespersons that were also there to be heard. “I felt offended for him (the colleague). He is the best salesperson in the store. Our best seller is black. We live in the blackest city in the world outside of Africa. This kind of attitude is absurd. I can’t believe that the in the twenty-first century people still think this,” said the salesperson who tried to intervene in the confusion. The salesperson who was called monkey said that such a situation had never happened to him. “That was the first time I went through racism, at the time I really had no reaction.”
The woman’s name was not disclosed. She was still being heard until about 11pm.
Videos show crowds awaiting the woman’s departure and also the time she would leave the store:
Note from BW of Brazil: Below is a follow up report on this incident.
Woman accused of calling workers monkey employee at the mall works for the Civil Police
The investigator Núzia Santos de Aquino, 49, has spent 15 years in the corporation
By Amanda Palma
The woman accused of calling the staff of a store in Shopping Barra monkeys was identified as Civil Police employee Núzia Santos de Aquino, 49. She is a researcher and was on sabbatical, waiting for retirement, according to information from the Civil Police.
Núzia has been with the corporation for 15 years, has a history of absences for psychological problems and was crowded at the Delegacia Especial de Atendimento ao Idoso (Special Commission of Assistance to the Elderly), police said (1). She has no children and internal affairs are trying to find family members to understand what might have happened. In addition to the police investigation, a disciplinary administrative proceeding to investigate the case will be opened.
According to the police, after being taken to the Central de Flagrantes, Núzia was referred to the Internal Affairs Division of the Civil Police, where she remained detained as of early Wednesday morning (30). This morning, she showed signs of depression, and even claimed that she wanted to kill herself. The police also said that she is accompanied by a psychiatrist.
Injury
Núzia is accused of having cursed a salesperson of Fast Shop, assaulted another and then offended mall security in a racist way. The situation outraged employees and customers, who surrounded the woman late Tuesday (29).
The policewoman was accused of the crime of injúria racial (racial injury/slur) under the Penal Code, the penalty for which is two to five years in prison. According to the Civil Police, she will also respond to light bodily injury. According to the chairman of the Special Commission for the Promotion of Racial Equality OAB-Ba, Dandara Pinho, the racial slur crime happens when there is damage to the reputation of a person individually. “It is an individual crime, that can prescribe, and the one who committed the crime may pay bail,” she explains. Beyond this depends on the victim’s representation for an inquiry to be opened.
Source: Correio 24 Horas,
Note
- Interestingly, in the incident referenced earlier, another woman that used the “macaco” slur was also said to have psychological problems. While this writer doesn’t dismiss the possibility, as I argued in that previous post, it’s intriguing how a word that is so commonly used to insult Afro-Brazilians is a word so quickly used by these allegedly mentally disturbed women. Again, how deeply rooted and associated with black people must this word be in Brazil? Pretty deep, as we have seen in numerous previous posts.
The only bone of contention I have with stores like this is the assumption that the majority of Brazil’s European decent population dislike it’s Black population.
While Brazil’s minority mostly goes around calling Blacks monkeys, we have murders….
I’m not sure about Brazil’s under belly but the US’ under belly/dark corners of the internet are full of racist morons and “free speech” allows them to exist despite the fact if they were Arab’s they would be called Terrorist by most people. But because it’s mostly White and mostly Male, it’s just dismissed as uneducated and poor White people that engage anything from tagging Jewish houses of worship, name calling from moving vehicles to actually killing people.
So it is WORSE in America than Brazil, which has laws to protect society from even the name-callers and makes them pay for it. In America such a law would never get passed because again it’s “free speech” and education would stop it, when there’s very little scientific data to back that up.
And? Does that excuse your behavior?