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9 Things You Didn’t Know About the Mistreatment of Black People in Brazil

Posted byBy Nick Chiles | Published on: CommentsComments (27)

 Zeze Motta

Blacks Are Ugly

Zeze Motta, who became Brazil’s first Black sex symbol when she starred in the film Xica da Silva in 1976, said the producer of the movie that made her famous at first didn’t want to give her the part because he thought she was ugly.

“Until very recently in Brazil, Black people were all considered ugly,” Motta, now 70, told Henry Louis Gates in his documentary, Brazil: A Racial Paradise? As Gates points out, this is reflected in the fact that all the top actresses, models and television personalities in Brazil look white.

 

Abdias Nascimento

Abdias Nascimento

Racial Democracy Is a Joke

Abdias Nascimento, who died in 2011 at the age of 97, was one of the most famous Black activists in Brazil. Asked by Gates whether Brazil has ever truly been a racial democracy, Nascimento laughed.

“This is a joke that has built up ever since Brazil was discovered, and Brazil likes to spread this around the world,” said Nascimento, who was also a celebrated writer, painter and professor. “It’s a huge lie. And the Black people know this. They feel in their flesh the lie which is racial democracy in this country. Look at Black families, where they live. The Black children, how are they educated. You will see it’s all a lie. I am saying this with profound hatred, bitterness, with the way Black people are treated in Brazil. It’s shameful that a country that has a majority of Black people, Black people who built this country, they should remain as second-class citizens.”

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