A racist and homophobic country

Brazil and the USA share certain similarities and contrasts regarding their colonial past; they are nations with vast territorial and population sizes, situated in America continent, former European colonies. Both countries have a significant population of African descent, although the criteria for race differ between them, and unfortunately, they are countries that retain intolerance, racism and prejudice.

In Brazil, according to IBGE ( Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) data from 2022, around 20.6 million Brazilians declare themselves as black, approximately 10.2% of the population; behind 45.3% of mixed-race (pardos) and 43.5% white ( caucasians). Despite Brazil being a heterogeneous country, incidents of racism are recurrent, and yet some Brazilians boldly claim that Brazil is not a racist country, pointing to the United States as the main culprit of racism. Faced with such a fallacy, it is necessary to deepen the dialogue and expose our blindness based on the myth of a racial democracy, a concept that was the subject of past studies and aligns with common beliefs about Brazilian tolerance toward minorities.

Police violence in the favelas (slum areas) against the black population is frequently reported in the news, and stores and hotels also contribute to the perpetuation of racism. Gloria Maria, one of Brazil's most celebrated black journalists, was denied entry to a Copacabana hotel in 1980 because she was black. In 2013, a black young man adopted by a white couple was expelled from a BMW store in Barra da Tijuca ( a neighbourhood situated in Rio de Janeiro). Supermarket security guards also frequently appear in the news, often perpetuating false accusations, suspicions, insults, and aggression against black people. In 2020, according to a BBC report, João Alberto Silveira Freitas, a 40-year-old black man, was beaten to death by Carrefour security guards; in 2019, Pedro Henrique Gonzaga, 19, was suffocated to death in front of his mother by Extra supermarket security guards in Barra da Tijuca, west Rio de Janeiro. Also in 2019, a 17-year-old was assaulted at Ricoy supermarket in the southern region of São Paulo. The young man was tied up, tortured, and whipped by two security guards. In 2020, Matheus Pires, an Ifood delivery driver, was verbally abused, insulted, and humiliated by a customer who unleashed a torrent of racist slurs, and the racism was captured on video.

Football ( Soccer) also has numerous emblematic cases of racism, such as the case of the Gremio ( football team/ soccer team from Rio Grande do Sul) supporter Patricia Moreiro, that was caught on TV insulting goalkeeper Aranha, calling him a "monkey" during the Santos vs. Gremio match on August 24, 2014. In 2021, Celsinho, a player for Londrina, suffered racist attacks from Brusque (football team/ soccer team from Santa Catarina) during a match. This is not to mention the extensive list of famous Brazilian players who frequently face attacks abroad or from foreigners.

Overcoming racism will only be possible through awareness of the issue; racism divides society and is a problem that should not be ignored. Racism is combated with knowledge, the only powerful weapon capable of eliminating preconceived and erroneous concepts.

The Brazilian media has contributed to racism by crafting racial stereotypes and perpetuating racism. Politically incorrect stand-up comedy often relies on insults to surpass tacitly agreed-upon limits in a pluralistic society. In the distorted view of such comedians, all minorities are stereotyped. For instance, the Northeasterner from Brazil is portrayed as retrograde, archaic, and ignorant in these comedies. Blacks are depicted as lazy, uncommitted, victim-minded, resentful, slaves to vice, and speaking a separate dialect full of slang that differs significantly from standard Portuguese. Indigenous peoples are portrayed in Brazilian media as savages, barbarians and retrogrades.

Countless and tasteless racist jokes were present in the classic Brazilian sitcom "Os Trapalhões", translated as Fumblers, (1977-1984) conceived by Renato Aragão from Sobral ( a city situated in Ceará State). His jokes also targeted homosexuals, objectified women, and any slip of masculinity from Dedé, a comedian and character of Trapalhões was promptly ridiculed by the character Didi. In recent interviews, the comedian tried to justify that the times were different. These racial stereotypes were also recurrent in the work of another Ceará native, Chico Anísio, whose versatility created numerous caricatured characters that spared no minority. Homosexuals represented by the character Seu Peru (Orlando Drummond) embody a series of stereotypes, seen as the butt of jokes in mannerisms, voice, dress, speech. The homosexuals in Brazilian comedies are often depersonalized and decharacterized, in contrast to the conventional model of the alpha male, now the top heterosexual. To accentuate this distinction, homosexuals are often contrasted with heterosexual men, strong, virile, unfaithful, symbols of strength, while homosexuals are frequently portrayed as weak and feeble. Suppapa Uaçu (Jaime Filho), a character from 'Escolinha do Professor Raimundo', translated as "Professor Raimundo's Little School"( 1990-2001) was portrayed as an ignorant indigenous person who barely understood contemporary society, and jokes occurred due to the cultural gap between the cultured Professor Raimundo (Chico Anísio) and the portrayed acculturated indigenous person.

Brazilians have a predilection for black comedies like those produced by the Wayans brothers or the comedy 'Everybody Hates Chris,' which did not gain much success in the USA due to perpetuating racism. Although they critically address racism, such comedies reinforce racial stereotypes and do not contribute to a dialogical advance in this area.

Brazilians soap operas have also contributed to the dissemination of racial stereotypes and sometimes a misguided understanding of slavery and racism. The soap opera 'Xica da Silva' (1996), produced by the extinct tv channel Rede Manchete and featuring a black protagonist, Xica (Thaís Araújo), based on novels about the historical Chica da Silva, a black slave (later freed) married to the wealthy diamond contractor João Fernandes, is one of the most accurate portrayals of slavery with a beautiful storyline, despite some historical inaccuracies and the deviation from the historical Chica da Silva. However, the same cannot be said, for example, about the soap opera 'Sinhá Moça' (2006), produced by Rede Globo ( Tv channel). The main character is an abolitionist, the daughter of a conservative slave-owning father, and the black characters are relegated to a secondary role in this plot, as in the traditional story, being mere extras to provide well-being and ensure the happiness of the white protagonist.

It is not possible to understand the current situation of Brazilian society without looking at the terrible slave system perpetuated for over 300 years in Brazil. This is cruel, a trauma more enduring than the Holocaust, and no less terrible. Slavery gradually gave way to racial prejudice. Before, the black and indigenous people who sustained the work of the Colony and the Empire for over 300 years were accused in the Republic of being lazy, a repression by white elites not accustomed to labor. Those who once held titles of professions without actually practicing them had to adapt to modern times. The false stereotype that blacks and indigenous people were lazy persisted. They, who sustained Brazil's economy, often found themselves unemployed due to the lack of equal opportunities.

Many slave owners became rich through slave labor, which was advantageous to them. Their descendants inherited wealth, mostly land, possessions, and goods, and were able to excel over the descendants of slaves, who, as seen, had no political benefits at the end of the Empire and the beginning of the Republic. Poverty was perpetuated; from slave quarters, they moved to shanties, finding no political support.

The segregation of favelas, the hills of Rio de Janeiro, and any suburb disregarded by political power in each city in Brazil carry a large number of black and mixed-race residents. This is why quotas were envisioned—not to benefit blacks and mixed-race individuals solely based on their racial categories, but to promote greater social justice. In every corner of Brazil, statues honoring historical black or indigenous figures are rare and almost nonexistent. But the bandeirantes "followers of the banner", who enslaved and killed numerous indigenous people, have statues, avenues, and streets named after them. Yet, from Oiapoque to Chuí, Brazilians insist on saying that Brazil is not a racist country.