Musician Carlinhos Brown defends controversial new program “Sex and the Negress”; blogger accuses him of selling out

Note from BW of Brazil: With the debut of the Globo TV network series Sexo e as negas, there is now a full out battle over the minds and opinions of the viewing audience. Black women activists have vehemently rejected the program and voiced their opinions in comments and blogs all over the internet as well as filing complaints denouncing the program as racist and sexist in the depiction of black women as lascivious, sexually available “mulatas” whose lives seem to revolve around sex. Since the program’s debut, the Globo network has started its campaign to snuff out detractors of the program who point out the racist stereotypes portrayed on the program. Racist stereotypes that have a long history in the Brazilian media. To combat these accusations, a tried and true method in the attempt to deflect accusations of racism is to present other blacks who support the position of those who stand accused. In the past few weeks, the onslaught has clearly begun (more evidence of this to come). Of course it was expected that the show’s producer and stars would present positive opinions of the show as they are directly involved in it, but now other voices are being brought into the battle to sell the product as a positive step forward. Up first is famed Grammy nominated musician Carlinhos Brown. Clearly there are more interests involved than what appears. Good to see that some people aren’t falling for the hype!

Carlinhos Brown, you do not represent the “negos and negas” of Brazil…..

Courtesy of Cabaret das Letras

Yesterday (September 16) I had the bad idea of watching some parts of the Globo talk show Encontro, where Miguel Falabella and “his negas” were talking about his newest creation, moreover his poorly formulated show: Sexo e as negas.

At some point when asked, quite sympathetically, by host Fátima Bernardes about the “discontent” of some internet voices about the possibility of the program Sexo e as negas possessing racist and sexist nature, Falabella gave a crude justification, saying that was a joke on the estadunidense (1) sitcom (my adjective, because he used the term American for the United States), Sexy and City and had before thought of making “Sexo e as loiras” (sex and the blondes), because he is suburban, raised in Governorador (it must be Ilha do Governador, Rio de Janeiro) and has experience in the community because he was vice-president (?) of the Unidos da Tijuca Samba School. In short: he thinks that it’s an homage to black women who fight everyday and such and such.

To him I say: thank you, shove your honor where you want, without us. Okay?

But let’s talk about Carlinhos Brown and his disgusting defense for the exploitative elite. Brown, being asking if sex is still a problem in the country, he responds with the following pearls loaded with beautiful verbiage:

“In truth, it’s not just sex, but neologisms and corruptions. People confuse it a lot. Negas are all women we love. It has nothing to do with skin tones. So: minha nega (my nega, in the feminine)…. meu nego (my nego, in the masculine) … is affectionate… so this is a simple corruption, affection … why? Everyone is attracted to everyone, but in a country miscegenated in the sun everyone goes to the beach a little searching for this blackness, but when I call you nega, I’m not imposing on your skin tone or color any kind of prejudice.” (2)

Serious, Brown? And when I was a child and I heard: “that black nega from the dog”! it was love and I didn’t know it? Oh! Such a little fool I am! Or when they said: stinking nega. Or when so and so said to a friend that he had a hot nega at work hitting on him, this was his affection with a black girl? Oooh! How it is for me to understand the obvious. You only lack resurrecting Gilberto Freyre and raising your voice to say: VIVA THE BRAZILIAN RACIAL DEMOCRACY.

At the end Falabella also tried to smooth things over saying that he doesn’t want the program to say that there are no black doctors, but that it’s much more interesting to portray the problems of the women of the community. Do me the favor, OK! Brown said the program was very positive, because there are times that we were asking that these things were portrayed on TV. I didn’t ask to be Globo’s negas, let alone have my ethnicity directly linked to sex. This idiotic idea of Falabella and supported by you, an opportunist, unfortunately. Another impropriety were “the negas” thanking their good savior (read Falabella) for his having elected the negas and not the blondes for his fabulous tale.

And to finalize I only have one more thing to say: Thank you, Carlinhos NOTHING Brown, you serve the white ruling elite very well.

Source: Cabaret das Letras

Note

1. “Estadunidense” is a term that is commonly used in Brazilian academic circles in reference to persons, companies, businesses, etc. that originate from the United States. If such term existed in the US, it would translated as something like “United Statian”. For many, the term “American” defines ALL citizens of the Americas (North, South, Central and Caribbean) rather than only persons from the US.

2. In Brazil, derivatives of the terms negra and negro, such as nega/nego, neguinha/neguinho, have long been a part of the culture. Although many continue to accept the terms as affectionate, some now reject it’s usage as racist. Depending on the context of a conversation or an argument, the terms can indeed be means of demeaning a person.