Si, It's A Black Thing Now

Brazilian anchor Willam Waack

In last Friday's New York Times, Shasta Darlington wrote an interesting article about the recent backlash in Brazil caused by the release of a leaked video clip of William Waack, the well-known news anchor of the Brazilian network Globo, casually remarking, "It's a black thing. No Doubt."

He made the off-hand remark to a guest while preparing for a live shot in front of the White House during the 2016 presidential campaign.

As Darlington reported, Waack's snide remark came in response to a car honking loudly in the background, and the guest who was standing beside him (also a white Brazilian) chuckled with amusement.

Now as a former TV reporter, I can attest that a loud honk from a car or truck while you're outside trying to speak in front of a camera can be frustrating and annoying.

But bringing race into something as petty and random as that is pretty low rent, particularly coming from a well-known and experienced journalist doing a live report from in front of the White House in 2016 - especially given the plethora of racial overtones that shadowed the 2016 presidential campaign.

The video clip of Waack's comments, leaked onto YouTube by a former Globo news editor who was offended at the remarks, quickly sparked an organic backlash on Brazilian social media that became a catalyst for ongoing discussions about race and the cultural identity of a country where over half the population are of African descent in a BRIC-nation economy that didn't outlaw slavery until 1888.

Brazilian actress Tais Araujo

Like the United States, the gradual migration of people of color into Brazil's upper economic strata in terms of employment, social organizations and prominence in high-profile sectors like media, entertainment and professional sports, has led to an all-too-familiar backlash born of resentment, lingering concepts of black inferiority, fear and ignorance.

Despite the fact that Brazil, like the U.S., has an extremely diverse population in terms of race and ethnicity, like it's North American neighbor, the society as a whole still finds it difficult to have an open dialog about race.

As the Brazilian graphic designer and blogger Leopoldo Duarte, "who loves to dissect everyday racism in Brazil and to contextualize the social injustices news media fail to deepen" (my kinda guy) observed in a November, 2015 op-ed on Telesur in the wake of a well-known Brazilian actress of African descent named Tais Araujo making headlines after a series of overtly racist comments were posted on her Facebook page:

"As blacks ascend the social ladder and start occupying the same social and professional circles formerly exclusive to the white elite, bigots will feel the urge to put them 'in their place'." 

The disturbing and denigrating racial animosity that was posted on Araujo's Facebook page back in 2015 (including people saying she looked like a "monkey") is not unique.

As Shasta Darlington observed in her NYT article last Friday, Maria Julia Coutinho, the first black female meteorologist to appear as a weather forecaster on prime-time Brazilian television, was also subjected to a toxic social media campaign of racial hatred in 2015.

Brazilian meteorologist Maria Julia Coutinho

A number of the racist comments appeared on the Facebook page associated with the television program on which she appears, Nacional Journal, on July 3rd, 2015 - a day that Brazil recognizes as the National Day To Combat Racial Discrimination.

Scores of people began using the Twitter hashtag #WeAreMaju (Coutinho's nickname is Maju) on social media to support her and express opposition to the outward displays of racial bigotry directed at her.

As the BBC reported back in November of 2015, a Brazilian civil rights activist organization run by Brazilian women of color called Criola began an ingenious campaign to put the racist comments posted on Coutinho's Facebook page onto large billboards.

The group used technology to locate where the people who posted the the racist comments lived, then purchased billboard spaces near their homes which displayed their comments - albeit with their names and photo's distorted.

Leopoldo Duarte's Telesur op-ed offers some pretty interesting insight into the issue of racism within modern Brazilian society if you want to give it a read.

More recently, William Waack was suspended from his news program by Globo last Wednesday hours before he was scheduled to appear on air - it is of interest to note that Globo, and other Brazilian networks have made efforts to hire and promote more Afro-Brazilians in front of the camera to combat racism.

Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold & John Ashton
in Beverly Hills Cop II

The network quickly distanced itself from Waack's remarks.

To wrap up, I just wanted to note that in this day and age, when race and ethnicity is such an intricate part of the ongoing dialog about American culture, it's easy to forget what an enormous impact comedian and actor Eddie Murphy had in terms of bringing a discussion of contemporary African-American identity into the mainstream.

In hits like 48 Hours, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, Murphy used comedy to talk about racism.

In ways that were deceptively complex, his razor-sharp wit was used to direct serious social commentary at issues surrounding race and ethnicity that most Americans found hard to have an open honest dialog about.

When Murphy's character Axel Foley, a smart-mouthed Detroit police detective, sarcastically asked the perpetually angry white Beverly Hills police Chief Lutz "Is this a black thing?" during a scene in the 1987 movie Beverly Hills Cop II, it inspired a popular meme (often seen on clothing, hats and buttons) in the 80's and early 90's during a resurgent black identity movement that took place in popular culture in music, film and in schools and college campuses across America.

The line morphed into a statement that encapsulated something that many people of color found difficult to actually say to white people - that there were situations and scenarios tinged with racism or bigotry that African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians were keenly aware of, but that white people simply didn't see in a racial context.

Eventually the line became popularized as "It's a black thing. You wouldn't understand." and it helped to open up broader discussions about race in America in the 80's and 90's.

In some ways, Eddie Murphy has done more for dialog about race in this country than a bus full of Washington politicians ever did - and he often doesn't get deserving credit for that.

So it's more than ironic to see a highly-respected white Brazilian journalist torpedo his career and cause a social media storm by casually using a movie line that Eddie Murphy made famous in 1987 to make an astoundingly ignorant racist remark on a live television broadcast.

It would probably help for William Waack to simply acknowledge that it was inappropriate and apologize, I don't think it warrants his being fired - but as a journalist he should know better, especially in the context of the racist comments directed at well known Afro-Brazilian media figures.

Regardless, it's cool to see that Eddie Murphy is still influencing a broader discussion about race - I for one look forward to the long-awaited Beverly Hills Cop 4.