Veterannan Ana Luiza Ferraz, 32, went to the São Paulo Civil Police to register a rare complaint: blond with white skin, the woman claimed she had been a victim of racial discrimination by her domestic worker.
The police registered the occurrence and inaugurated an investigation into a possible crime of racial insult.
The employee supposedly made the racist offenses in April, when she had disagreed with the woman, and jokingly sent an audio message to her husband calling her "grime of the South," and "dog of the South."
The employee is a 55-year-old white woman and lives in Taboão da Serra in São Paulo. Folha tried to contact her at five numbers but was not successful.
After being fired, the employee sent more audio messages. The employee referred to the "South" in her messages because the woman is from the South and has an accent of the area.
"The majority of the cases we receive involves the black race. But nothing prevents a Japanese or Indian from being a victim of this type of behavior, which is always discriminatory behavior,” said delegate Rubens Barazal, head of the 23rd DP (Perdizes).
Maria Sylvia Aparecida de Oliveira, president of the OAB-SP Racial Equality Committee, said that it is possible for a white person to file a complaint of racial insult because the law does not specify the victim's race or color. "I have defended a black woman, a teacher, who was indicted. The allegation was that she was committing racism against a white student, but we were able to reverse this even during the investigation," she said.
According to Sylvia, this type of complaint is uncommon because white people, in general as a rule, do not see themselves as belonging to a race.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon