brazil
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A Brazilian Gang Kidnapped Nurses so They Could Deliver Vaccinations to Poor Favela Residents
Thomaz Vieira Gomes has been described as one of the “most notorious criminals” in Rio de Janeiro by the International Business Times, but his latest move has some calling him a modern-day Robin Hood. According to various reports, Gomes kidnapped two nurses from a clinic in Rio late last month to take them to one…
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Samba and Misogynoir: Will 2018 Be the Last Year of Blackface in Brazil’s Carnival?
The United States isn’t the only country with a bad case of “blackface.” Brazil has its own version of blackface, and it is most often on display during Carnival, when some revelers sometimes dress up as “Nega Maluca,” translated as “crazy black woman” in Portuguese. During this year’s Carnival in Brazil, blackface made an appearance…
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Becoming an Ebony Goddess: Why This African-American Woman Competed in an Afro-Brazilian Beauty Pageant
Sheryland Neal wanted to be a Deusa do Ébano—an “Ebony Goddess,” in Portuguese. That’s why Neal, an African American from Atlanta, became the first foreigner to ever compete in the A Noite da Beleza Negra (the Night of Black Beauty) beauty pageant on Saturday, Jan. 20—the premier beauty pageant for Afro-Brazilian women in Brazil—for the…
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Love, Afro-Brazilian Style: Afrodengo Is Making It Easier to Find Black Love in Brazil
Thaisa Moreira Xavier met her husband in a Facebook group. Although she was conscious of her Afro-Brazilian heritage, she had few black friends growing up. The city she lived in and schools she attended were mostly white. But when she moved to Campinas, a city of 1 million approximately two hours outside of Sao Paulo,…
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For the Love of God? Evangelical Drug Traffickers Are Terrorizing Practitioners of Afro-Brazilian Religions
Candomblé priestess Carmen Flores was leaving her house three months ago when seven armed men confronted her. They demanded that she destroy the sacred contents of her house, a spiritual home for more than 125 followers of the Candomblé Afro-Brazilian religion. “Since my orisha is Oxum, our house was all about love,” said Flores, 66,…
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Brazilian Toilet Paper Brand Takes a Slogan for Black Empowerment and Wipes Its Ass With It
A few weeks ago, Dove captured the prize for the dumbest marketing campaign, and this week, a Brazilian brand of luxury toilet paper is trying to wrestle it away. The “Black is beautiful” slogan has been applied to various campaigns over the years to inspire black people across the world to have self-confidence in their…
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Rio Wharf, Where More Than 900,000 Enslaved Africans Came to New World, Becomes UNESCO Heritage Site
We know that the largest number of black people in the Western Hemisphere— and the most outside of Africa—live in the country of Brazil, because of slavery. But did you know that nearly 1 million Africans came through a recently discovered site in Rio de Janeiro—Valongo Wharf—also known as “Slave Wharf”? The area was recently…
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Brutal Crackdowns, Hidden Poverty: How Preparations for the Rio Olympics Hurt Afro-Brazilians
In the next few weeks, Aug. 5-21, the city of Rio de Janeiro is going to host the 31st Olympic Games. Like a mother preparing her home for 500,000 tourists, Rio has swept the city’s poverty under the rug by increasing police and army presence in favelas. As a result, part of the local population…
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World Cup 2014: Soccer Rules Everything Around Me!
I’m an avid soccer fan. Well, let me rephrase. I’m a fan of playing soccer and watching every four years when the World Cup comes around. I grew up in Germany and the first sport I was introduced to athletically was soccer. I was pretty good too. Turns out I could run around for hours with…