Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday blamed the global economic crisis on “white people with blue eyes” and said it was wrong that black and indigenous people should pay for white people’s mistakes.Tags: Race, racism, Social Justice“It’s not an ideological question — the fact is that once again we find that most of the poor who have not even participated in globalisation have been the first victims of the crisis.”
Speaking in Brasília at a joint press conference with Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, Mr Lula da Silva told reporters: “This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.”
He added: “I do not know any black or indigenous bankers so I can only say [it is wrong] that this part of mankind which is victimised more than any other should pay for the crisis.” via LR, FT & BT
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Lula is, and always has been, a polemical politician. This is stance is pretty common for him…I guess he finally said something offensive enough, on a big enough stage, to receive international attention. Lula underscores two of the strongest, yet often unaddressed, -isms at work in Brazil: class-ism and racism. I read through some of the comments (reader responses) on the O Globo online newspaper and the us/them (bourgeoisie/proletariat) rhetoric is strong. I’d be happy to share/translate some of those for discussion.
AC
I had not heard this statement before. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’m off to Google Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva now. : )