RACISM IN THE COURTS

The Geledes Black Women’s Institute charged in
court that a Sgo Paulo shop owner was publicly
maligned by a neighboring resident on several
occasions. The businesswoman was called a “black whore,” “black maniac” (maloqueira), “black monkey” and “stinking black,” and was told that “if blacks don’t shit coming in, they shit going out.” Judge Paulo Miguel de Campos Petroni delivered the following judgment on March 11, 1994:
To offend an African-Brazilian with the words and expressions mentioned would not exactly be racism, since ‘whites’ or ‘yellow’ persons could also be pros- titutes, maloqueiras, smelly (in certain circum- stances, any person of any color could exude unpleasant odors, data maxima venia), similar in appearance to monkeys (our ancestors), and could also s..t coming in or going out.
Sra. Silvana Mota (the aggrieved) is apparently well accepted by the community, as she provides com- mercial foodstuffs there, this being proof that in Brazil we practically don’t have exactly racism. The darker-skinned in sports and music are even idol- ized by the lighter-skinned, being that women pop- ularly called mulatas seem to be proud of their situ- ation and exhibit themselves with great success in many fashion and entertainment establishments. In Brazil, ‘whites’ marry ‘blacks’ and normally have children, naturally, and in truth we are a country in which approximately half have dark skin, so that Laws No. 1390 and 7716 are in fact very little known and remembered. Here we don’t have cruel and rigid racism as in other nations, where ‘non-whites’ are segregated, separated and don’t have equal rights. That is racism.