“Veja os cabelos dela” and the Case of Race in Brazil
When in 1997 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued its “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Brazil,” it criticized the Caó law of 1989 for making little progress 1. The law, which was designed to legislate discrimination, was criticized for being “excessively ambiguous and superficial” and for requiring the accused to explicitly state he was motivated by racial discrimination 2. Coincidentally, while the Commission prepared its report in 1996 and 1997, various nongovernmental organizations were legally challenging Sony for distributing a racist song titled “Veja os cabelos dela,”(“Look at Her Hair”) by Tiririca 3. The legal case, which would not conclude until 2011, sought to apply the law and force Sony to pay reparations to anti-racism nongovernmental organizations 4. A close analysis of the legal case and the song allows us to see how racism permeates the social sphere to the extent that insults to the black female body are ignorantly deemed harmless and not racist. Ultimately, I hope to show that the lyrics were indeed racist and that the claims of the Sony representatives were pervasive, because they delegitimized the experiences of the Afro-Brazilian people affected.
In 1996, performer Tiririca, who entertained children as a clown, released his song “Veja os cabelos dela.” In the song, Tiririca ridicules a black woman for having hair that resembles “a brillo to scrub a pan” 5. Moreover, he derides her for smelling “worse than a skunk,” 6 a stench he implicitly attributes to her hair by his use of the word “catinga” (“stink”; often associated with the hair of black people) 7. The release of the song was met with backlash from many civil rights organizations committed to fighting racism in Brazil (Telles, 2004). Given that Brazil already had laws in place, such as the 1988 Constitution 8 and the Caó law 9, to combat racism in the media, various civil rights organizations were able to take Sony to court. What was difficult, and a challenge that the Commission rightfully anticipated 10, was proving that the song was indeed racist and its distribution by Sony a crime. Ultimately, after a series of trials Sony was declared culpable and ordered to pay 1.3 million reais to the civil rights organizations 11. Yet, as we will see, this was a tumultuous path on account of popular notions of race and racism in Brazil that impeded the case.
Perhaps one of the most insidious ways in which race is perpetuated is through humor. Notwithstanding the final verdict, the case reveals the problematic assumptions of racism and humor that allowed Sony representatives to dismiss the claims of the civil rights organizations. For instance, in the first trial a judge dismissed the song as “innocent bantering” (Telles, 2004: 241) and claimed that such humor was common enough that Sony should not be singled out for it 12. This apology for humor and Sony reflects a common belief that humor is “inoffensive and does not have significant negative consequences” (Telles, 2004: 241). Humor, however, sociologist Edward Telles notes, “popularizes and reproduces negative stereotypes about blacks, potentially impairing black self-esteem” (2004: 154). The failure of Sony representatives and the judges to acknowledge that humor can be racist and have a real effect on its targets reflects the extent to which humor disguises racism. In this case, we see that the aforementioned claims rely on and reproduce a faulty logic that absolves Sony of liability and accountability for its actions and decisions.
It is this very “suffering of the victim” that the Inter-American Commission anticipated would arise from the need for the accused to “state expressly that his conduct was motivated for reasons of racial discrimination” 13. The Commission adds, “by making it necessary to prove that discrimination was intended leads to situations in which the aggressor and the aggrieved must confront one another and the offense must be proved objectively” 14. Both intention and objectivity become muddled in and manipulated by the legally advantageous viewpoint and position of Sony. In a statement to reporters a Sony representative “maintained that the song was not intended to offend women” 15. Nevertheless, attorney Humberto Adami argued that ”black women were offended, exposed to ridicule and felt violated” by the lyrics 16. Furthermore, he claimed that black children refrained from going to school to avoid being teased by their peers 17. In a statement to reporters, he said, “Bullying combined with racism is a very difficult thing, a very sad and awful thing” 18. Ultimately, the experiences of Afro-Brazilians afflicted by the song are irrespective of the “intention” of the song. Reliance on intention to determine culpability in theses cases is flawed. It implies ignorance, but most importantly, it is an attempt to elude accountability. As a result, Sony reproduces a larger societal view that blames victims of humor for being too sensitive. In the case of “Veja os cabelos dela,” the black Brazilians who felt ridiculed by the song were victims of an attack, but were not granted legitimacy in their grievances. The attitude taken towards the victims of bullying and shaming delegitimizes them by highlighting their sensitivity and unreasonableness. In essence, it further damages the victims and makes it difficult for them to be taken seriously in these matters.
Since children were being teased by having the song sung to them, one can only presume that many of these children were made to feel ashamed of their bodies. The statements of Adami lead one to conclude that bullying coupled with racism can cause shame, the effects of which are felt on the body. In her discussion of shame, Sara Ahmed (2004) presents shame as a sensation centered on the physicality that is impressed on the body and felt as a form of self-negation. Since shame exists out of exposure and the attribution of “bad feeling” (Ahmed, 2004: 104) to the self, the subject turns away from the view of the other . Thus, one of the ways to avoid this shame was for the children to stay home. But, since an imagined gaze of another may persist, the body may nevertheless experience shame (Ahmed, 2004). Moreover, the experience of shame is exacerbated since it is also experienced as “the affective cost of not following the scripts of normative existence,” (Ahmed, 2004: 107) or a failure to live up to an ideal.
It is through shame that we observe the pernicious effects of the song. By disparaging and belittling the black body, the song emphasizes the black woman’s failure to embody normative ideals of beauty. Firstly, this is achieved by animalizing the black woman through the use of the word “bicha” (“animal”) and the comparison to a skunk (Section 1.1). Secondly, it’s achieved by calling the woman’s hair hopeless, and thereby denying her the possibility for relief. Ultimately, we must recognize that insofar as beauty functions as a form of social capital in which we invest because of its ability to grant us privilege, it is a salient issue. In addition, it is one we must constantly interrogate because its privileging power is not divorced from underlying assumptions about race and gender. The history of beauty and race has evolved concomitantly, such that, on the one hand, “blonde, blue-eyed women represent the ideal of female beauty” (Brand, 2000: 10). On the other hand, black women have historically been excluded from the category of beauty (Craig, 2006). Furthermore, they have instead been objectified and reduced to body parts for the sake of “supporting racist notions that black people were more akin to animals than other humans” (Hooks, 1997: 114). In essence, beauty has been socially constructed and informed by a gaze relying on historical understandings of the body, beauty and race.
The racism behind these historical understandings is carried over to modern Brazilian society in subtle forms. Thus, in order to understand the racism behind the song’s lyrics, we have to dismantle centuries’ worth of thinking that has denied Afro-Brazilians the ability to validate their own bodies and experiences. We also have to realize that the logic that claims humor to be innocent and absent of negative consequences is the same one that overlooks the racial history behind many of the song’s disparaging remarks. Inevitably, the implications of these remarks function such that they instill shame, and, in turn, bring discomfort to the black body. As a result, this logic conveniently perpetuates a cycle of ignorance that marginalizes Afro-Brazilians by negating their experiences and shaming it for embodying “blackness,” and, therefore, not beauty.
Lastly, the statements of Sony representatives present an additional element of race relations in Brazil. Since the judge to case established her decision based on the Caó law, which prohibits discrimination or prejudice on the basis of race or ethnicity, a lawyer for Sony maintained that song was not racist because it did not target an ethnic group 19. The lawyer then followed by saying that it very well could have said “dumb blonde” without there being a racial connotation 20. But, as we have seen, the lawyer’s comparison is flawed because saying “dumb blonde” does not have the same historical significance and implications as insulting a black woman’s hair. Moreover, as Telles shows (2004), the significance of Tiririca’s skin color played a role in determining whether the song was racist in the first trial. He notes that the Tiririca’s mixed ancestry permitted him to evade being classified as a racist (2004). And, although Tiririca did not identify as a black person, he conveniently identified as such for the sake of legal matters (Telles, 2004). The case fundamentally demonstrates how nonwhites attempt to avoid being deemed racist even though, as sociologists Jonathan Warren and France Twine note, persons of color can – and do – participate “in the naturalization and reproduction of the racial order” (2002, 541). Accordingly, in order to dismantle the racial and cultural hegemony that delegitimizes the experiences of black Brazilians, we must first interrogate and dismantle Brazil’s limited notions of what racism looks like and how it is manifested.
The case of “Veja os cabelas dela” and the legal fallout that ensued reveal the very insidious and complicated ways in which racism is experienced in Brazil. Despite the claims of Sony and Tiririca, we see that humor is not innocent or detached from a larger societal system that renders racism invisible to all but those who are victims of it. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the different elements of racism are now being challenged in the legal sphere and by extension Brazilian society. In a place where racial democracy and harmony has largely been heralded as markers of moral superiority, we see that it proved difficult to dismantle the notions of humor and beauty that blinded Brazilians to the realities of racism.
Bibliography
Ahmed, S. (2004) The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Brand, P.Z. ed. (2000) Beauty Matters. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Craig, M. L. (2006) “Race, beauty, and the tangled knot of a guilty pleasure”, Feminist Theory, 7, 2: 159-177.
Hooks, B. (1997) “Selling Hot Pussy”: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace”, in K. Conboy, N. Medina, and S. Stanbury, (eds.) Writing on the Body. New York: Columbia University Press.
Telles, E. (2004) Race in Another America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Warren, J.W. and Twine, F.W. (2002) “ Critical Race Studies in Latin America: Recent Advances, Recurrent Weaknesses”, in D.T. Goldberg and J. Solomos (eds.) A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
Data Bibliography
Anonymous. (1996) “Difunden disco ofensivo” Reforma http://search.proquest.com/docview/311184196?accountid=13314. Accessed May 7th 2012.
Brazilian Consitution. (1988) “Article 5, paragraph 42” http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2006/teams/willr3/const.htm. Accessed May 7th 2012.
Brossard, P. and Sarney, José. (1989) “LEI Nº 7.716, DE 5 DE JANEIRO DE 1989”, Soleis http://www.soleis.adv.br/racismo.htm. Accessed May 7th 2012.
Castillo, M. (2012) “Lawsuit highlights Brazil’s struggles with race”, CNN http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-13/americas/world_americas_brazil-racist-song_1_appeals-court-court-ruling-francisco-everardo-oliveira-silva?_s=PM:AMERICAS. Accessed May 7th 2012.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (1997) “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Brazil” Organization of American States. http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/brazil-eng/Chaper%209%20.htm#GUARANTEES%20AGAINST%20RACIAL%20DISCRIMINATION%20IN%20BRAZILIAN%20LEGISLATION. Accessed May 7th 2012.
Telles, E. (2004) Race in Another America. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 154.
Tiririca. “Veja os cabelos dela” http://www.kboing.com.br/tiririca/1-1053848/. Accessed May 7th 2012.
Wilson, J. (2012) “Natural Hair Song By Tiririca Deemed Racist, Sony Music Ordered To Pay $1.2 Million” The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/natural-hair-racist-_n_1189068.html?view=print&comm_ref=false. Accessed May 7th 2012.
- Law 7716, Caó Law with alterations by Law 8081/90.
Art. 1º Serão punidos, na forma desta Lei os crimes resultantes de discriminação ou preconceito de raça, cor, etnia, religião ou procedência nacional.
Art. 20. § 2º Se qualquer dos crimes previstos no caput é cometido por intermédio dos meios de comunicação social ou publicação de qualquer natureza: Pena reclusão de dois a cinco anos e multa
http://www.soleis.adv.br/racismo.htm
Translation:
Art. 1o In the form of this Law, the crimes resulting from discrimination or prejudice of race, color, ethnicity, religion or nationality will be punished.
Art. 20. § 2º If any of the foreseen crimes in the caption is committed by means of social communications media or publication of any nature: Imprisonment of 2 to 5 years and a fine ↩
- As footnote 1 ↩
- “Veja os cabelos dela” by Tiririca.
Original lyrics
(Alô gente, aqui quem fala é Tiririca
Eu também estou na onda do axé music
Quero vê os meus colegas tudo dançando)Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos delaParece bom-bril, de ariá panela
Parece bom-bril, de ariá panela
Quando ela passa, me chama atenção
Mas os seus cabelos, não tem jeito não
A sua catinga quase me desmaiou
Olha eu não aguento, é grande o seu fedorVeja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela
Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos delaParece bom-bril, de ariá panela
Parece bom-bril, de ariá panela
Eu já mandei, ela se lavar
Mas ela teimo, e não quis me escutar
Essa nega fede, fede de lascar
Bicha fedorenta, fede mais que gambá(Vamo todo mundo agitando, com Tiririca)
Veja veja veja veja veja os cabelos dela (12x)
Lyrics and song from: http://www.kboing.com.br/tiririca/1-1053848/
Translation of lyrics
Hello folks, this is Tiririca
I am also into Axé Music
I want to see my friends dancing
(Refrain) Look, look, look at her hair.It looks like brillo to scrub a pan
When she passes by, she gets my attention
But her hair, it’s hopeless
Her stink almost made me faintYou know, I can’t stand her smell
(Refrain 3 times).It looks like brillo to scrub a pan
I already sent her to take a bath
The stubborn girl won’t listen
That black woman (nega) stinks, can’t stand the way she stinks
Smelly animal (bicha) smells worse than a skunk.
Taken from Telles, E. (2004) Race in Another America. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 154 ↩
- Lawsuit highlights Brazil’s struggles with race. January 13, 2012. By Mariano Castillo, CNN
Brazil, which recently overtook the UK as the world’s sixth-largest economy, has been enjoying a lot of positive press. It is sealing its reputation as a dynamic place, a fun place, a diverse place — but, with this last point in particular, the country still suffers black eyes. A recent court ruling ordered Sony Music Brazil to pay a hefty fine for a song with racist lyrics. The song, about a black woman’s hair, led civil rights organizations to sue Sony not just because it is offensive but because such pejoratives remain common in Brazil. An appeals court in Rio de Janeiro ruled December 15 that Sony must pay nearly 1.3 million reais (U.S. $723,000) for publishing “Veja os Cabelos Dela,” or “Look at Her Hair,” by the singer and comedian Tiririca. Tiririca, whose real name is Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, is now a federal congressman and was not named in the suit. Even the judicial process for this case was slow: The song came out more than 15 years ago, and the initial lawsuit was filed in 1997. “In the bigger picture, I think the music companies are going to be more careful when they choose music to sell,” said Humberto Adami, the lawyer for the rights organizations. The recent ruling was simply the completion of the monetary part of the case; the heart of it was decided years ago, and Sony has abided by it, the company said. “Since 1997, spontaneously, Sony Music Brazil removed the track from this product and reissued it in the market,” the company said. Adami, who recused himself from the case for a period while he served as ombudsman for Brazil’s agency for racial equality, said the ruling comes in an environment where racism lingers. Tiririca’s song, which he reportedly wrote to his wife, includes lyrics comparing a woman’s hair to “scouring pots and pans” and about her “stench.” In fact, Adami’s clients lost in the first trial because the judge ruled that such comments and “jokes” were commonplace in Brazil and that Sony shouldn’t be singled out to pay for it. But the rights organization persisted, given the outrage over the song. Some black children did not go to school because others were bullying them by singing the song, Adami said. “Bullying combined with racism is a very difficult thing, a very sad and awful thing,” he said. An appeals court later ruled against Sony by a vote of 2-1, with the dissenting judge using the same argument as the judge in the first trial. The case was appealed to Brazil’s highest court, but it declined to take the case, so the appeal court ruling stands. But the case was far from over and dragged on for years as both sides went back to the lower courts to fight about how big the fine should be. Sony had paid a smaller fine, but an appeals court last month upheld a ruling that the actual amount to be paid was much larger, closer to the 1.3 million reais. “This case is a real step forward for Brazil, and Brazil is changing,” said France Winddance Twine, a sociology professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Brazilians see themselves as a tolerant society — interracial marriage was never illegal, other forms of state-sanctioned racism were never implemented, and there were no groups like the Ku Klux Klan — but the truth is not as tidy. The particular form of racism found in Tiririca’s song has been tolerated for a long time in songs and jokes, said Twine, who has written a book about race in Brazil. “For the first time, the court is saying, yes, this is common, but it is no longer acceptable,” she said. “They are acknowledging that this is harmful to people.” http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-13/americas/world_americas_brazil-racist-song_1_appeals-court-court-ruling-francisco-everardo-oliveira-silva?_s=PM:AMERIC ↩
- See translation of lyrics in footnote 3 ↩
- See translation of lyrics in footnote 3 ↩
- See lyrics in footnote 3 ↩
- Brazilian Constitution: Article 5, paragraph 42: “the practice of racism is a non-bailable crime, with no limitation, subject to the penalty of confinement, under the terms of the law;” http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2006/teams/willr3/const.htm ↩
- See footnote 2 above ↩
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Brazil.
13. On January 5, 1989, Law No. 7,716, known as the Act against racism or “Lei Cao” was passed. This law deals with crimes resulting from prejudice as to race or color. Despite its title, this law made little progress if any on the racial discrimination front since it was excessively ambiguous and superficial, requiring that for an act of racial discrimination to occur the individual who committed the act to state expressly that his conduct was motivated for reasons of racial discrimination. If the individual in question does not do this, it becomes his word against that of the person filing the complaint.(8) That is the moment at which the suffering of the victim of discrimination begins and which often turns him to radical views or racism.
14. Federal law 8,081/90, defines acts of discrimination or prejudice on account of race, color, religion, ethnic group, or nationality of origin by the communications media or publications of any kind and prescribes penalties for these crimes.15. The above-mentioned law 7,716 has proved difficult to enforce since it establishes mechanisms to facilitate proof that a crime has been committed. Moreover, by making it necessary to prove that discrimination was intended leads to situations in which the aggressor and the aggrieved must confront one another and the offense must be proved objectively. http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/brazil-eng/Chaper%209%20.htm#GUARANTEES%20AGAINST%20RACIAL%20DISCRIMINATION%20IN%20BRAZILIAN%20LEGISLATION ↩
- See footnote 4 above ↩
- See footnote 4 above ↩
- See footnote 10 above ↩
- See footnote 10 above ↩
- Natural Hair Song By Tiririca Deemed Racist, Sony Music Ordered To Pay $1.2 Million
The Huffington Post, by Julee Wilson
First Posted: 01/06/12 11:10 AM ET Updated: 01/06/12 01:03 PM ETWe couldn’t stop laughing when Franchesca Ramsey joked about white girls comparing the feel of black girls’ hair to a Brillo pad in her “Sh-t White Girls Say…To Black Girls” video. But a version of the same unflattering sentiment is costing Sony Music $1.2 million…not laughs. Sony Music has been ordered to pay $1.2 million (equivalent to about $656,000 in American dollars) in retroactive compensation back to 1997 for the release of the song “Veja os Cabelos Dela (Look at Her Hair)” by the Brazilian singer, comedian and politician Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva whose stage name is Tiririca. The lyrics not only liken a black woman’s hair to “a scouring pad for pots and pans,” but also calls her a “stinking beast.” Oy! The lawsuit was brought forth by 10 non-governmental organizations that fight against racism. Humberto Adami, the defense attorney of the NGOs, argued that black women were offended, exposed to ridicule and felt violated due to the lyrical content of the song.
A representative for Sony maintained that the song was not intended to offend women and that Tiririca was in fact alluding to his wife in the song and that the terminology used in the song are used by Brazilians in reference to not only black women but white women as well. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/natural-hair-racist-_n_1189068.html?view=print&comm_ref=false ↩
- See article in footnote 15 above ↩
- See article in footnote 4 above ↩
- See article in footnote 4 above ↩
- Difunden disco ofensivo.
Reforma (Mexico City) 28 July 1996: 5.
La Juez Viveiros fundamenta su decision en una disposicion legal que tipifica como delito “practicar, inducir o incitar, por medio de los medios de comunicacion social o publicaciones de cualquier naturaleza, la discriminacion o el preconcepto de raza, color, religion, etnia o procedencia nacional”.
La cancion tambien contiene estrofas en las que se repiten sentencias tales como “negra que apesta” y “no aguanto mas tu gran pestilencia”, mientras que el abogado de la compania discografica sostiene que “eso no tiene nada de racista porque no ofende a ningun grupo etnico”.
Bien podria decir “rubia burra o blanca acida y en eso no hay ninguna connotacion racial”, declaro al Diario O’ Globo. http://search.proquest.com/docview/311184196?accountid=13314
Translation
Judge Viveiros establishes her decision on a legal provision that classifies as a crime “practicing, inducing or inciting, by means of social communications media or publications of any nature, discrimination or prejudice of race, color, religion, ethnicity or nationality.”
The song also contains verses that repeat sentences such as “black woman who stinks” or “I can’t stand anymore your stench,” meanwhile the record company’s lawyer maintains that “that is not racist at all because it does not offend a single ethnic group”.
It could very well say “dumb blond or acidic white woman and there is no racial connotation in that “, he declared to Diario O’Globo ↩
- See footnote 19 above ↩