RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A representative of the United Nations human rights office in Geneva on Tuesday said the deadly beating of a black man by white in Brazil is an illustration of the country’s “structural racism” and called for an independent investigation as well as urgent reforms.
Protests have been going on for several days in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, following the publication of a video last week showing 40-year-old welder João Alberto Silveira Freitas being beaten in the face and head by a supermarket security guard while another guard held him down.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, told the press during an online press briefing from Geneva that his death was “an extreme, but unfortunately all too common, example of the violence suffered by Afro-Brazilians”.
“It provides a clear illustration of the persistent structural discrimination and racism faced by people of African descent,” she said, insisting that government officials have a responsibility to recognize the issue of persistent racism in order to address it.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the issue of structural racism in Brazil, a country where about 55 percent of its 212-million populace identify themselves as black or mixed-race.
Bolsonaro said he himself is “colorblind” on this issue, while his vice-president Hamilton Mourão triggered outrage on Friday when he claimed that “there is no racism” in Brazil.
According to the UN spokesperson, “the structural racism, discrimination and violence faced by Afro-descendents in Brazil are supported by official data.”
Ravina Shamdasani quoted statistics showing that “the number of Afro-Brazilian victims of homicide is disproportionately higher than other groups.”
“Afro-Brazilians suffer from structural and institutional racism, exclusion, marginalization and violence, with lethal consequences in many cases,” she said.
Although Brazil has opened an investigation into Freitas’ death, Shamdasani called for it to be “prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent” and insisted that it should “examine whether racial prejudice was a factor” in his death.