Disturbing study confirms that Brazil has a dark side

[mvan1]

See the below sited article from today's Rio Times.

The article is disturbing in several ways.

I was not aware of the huge number of violent deaths reported in Brazil each year.

I also was not aware that Blacks were a major portion of those reported violent deaths.

The article mentions the "arbitrary" behavior of police when it comes to dealing with the poor, particularly Black poor people. Based on the article, it appears that police in Brazil "shoot first, then ask questions later" when it comes to the poor Blacks.

The article also discusses other causes for the disparity of death ratios.

This is a very ugly side of Brazil.

We tourists tend to only see the fun and glory of Brazil. To use a famous idiom, "all the glitters, is not gold."

http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/study-finds-black-brazilians-killed-by-gunfire-2-5-more-than-whites/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRioTimes+%28The+Rio+Times%29

[alwaysrio]

This article is no surprise to anyone who lives or works in Brazil. One of the things in reading this forum which I find so interesting is how people think Brazil is not racist. Brazil is extremely racist as is all of Latin America that I have ever been or worked. You will never see a poor kid from a favela make it big in a traditional way. The spoils of society are reserved for white Europeans (of which I am one) in Latin America it always has and will not change in our lifetimes.

One very small example. My driver in Rio when I first met him spoke a little english. He wanted to go to english school so I asked at a party with all White European Brazilians, in a beautiful house in Joa looking up at the Christmas tree which is Rocinha at night, what is the best english school in Rio, they gave me a name and I said I am going to send Thiago there. Your driver Thiago! They all said you can’t send him there and I said why not. Well you all know why not. Well I sent him there anyway.

Took him down there and enrolled him in full-time classes and he attended for 3 years and was the most popular guy at the school everyone loved him.

A brief second example when I was on another project in Latin America I had a driver who was black. My family came to visit, we stopped at Hagen Daz. Pulled into the parking lot and there were seven or eight SUV with drivers sitting in them. We got out of the SUV and my family (they were visiting) said “Robert isn’t coming”. I said sure Robert can come. Every eye in the parking lot and in the store was on us.

I could give 500 examples, daily examples of subtle and overt racism in these countries. At times it works the other way. One day I was walking down the street from my house in the Zona Colonial of a Latin American city and a new restaurant opened and the man outside started yelling at me “no Gringos allowed” and he did this every time I would walk by until he went out of business a few months latter.

Rio has one great equalizer the beach. That is the only time everyone is equal.

I would love to know how many Brazilians of Non-European decent read the Rio Times. I could make a guess.

[Badboy81]

See the below sited article from today's Rio Times.

The article is disturbing in several ways.

I was not aware of the huge number of violent deaths reported in Brazil each year.

I also was not aware that Blacks were a major portion of those reported violent deaths.

The article mentions the "arbitrary" behavior of police when it comes to dealing with the poor, particularly Black poor people. Based on the article, it appears that police in Brazil "shoot first, then ask questions later" when it comes to the poor Blacks.

The article also discusses other causes for the disparity of death ratios.

This is a very ugly side of Brazil.

We tourists tend to only see the fun and glory of Brazil. To use a famous idiom, "all the glitters, is not gold."

http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/study-finds-black-brazilians-killed-by-gunfire-2-5-more-than-whites/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRioTimes+%28The+Rio+Times%29

Excellent article and very much appreciated that you created a forum to educate others....While we love going to Brazil, we should know all aspects of the city....the good and the bad....

[msclelovr]

Very interesting article. Thanks for providing the link. I appreciate your posts on various aspects of life in Brazil.

[Strafe13]

See the below sited article from today's Rio Times.

The article is disturbing in several ways.

I was not aware of the huge number of violent deaths reported in Brazil each year.

I also was not aware that Blacks were a major portion of those reported violent deaths.

The article mentions the "arbitrary" behavior of police when it comes to dealing with the poor, particularly Black poor people. Based on the article, it appears that police in Brazil "shoot first, then ask questions later" when it comes to the poor Blacks.

The article also discusses other causes for the disparity of death ratios.

This is a very ugly side of Brazil.

We tourists tend to only see the fun and glory of Brazil. To use a famous idiom, "all the glitters, is not gold."

http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/study-finds-black-brazilians-killed-by-gunfire-2-5-more-than-whites/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRioTimes+%28The+Rio+Times%29

Sadly, as recent events have shown, this doesn't sound all that dissimilar to the U.S. :-(

[boiworship]

I remember reading an article about Brazil under General Geisel that stated that they only hired whites in the major airports so that tourists would perceive Brazil as a European nation.