Brazil Is Posting People's Random Racist FaceBook Posts On Local Billboards

"I got home stinking of black people." "Preto" is an offensive way to say "black" in Portuguese, compared to "negro," which is neutral.

The comment roughly translates to "If you showered, you wouldn't be so filthy."


Yahoo-  A new campaign in Brazil is plastering billboards with racist Facebook comments. The point is not to expose anyone but to educate people that their words have a real impact.

The campaign, "Virtual racism, real consequences," is using the location tag from Facebook posts to find where the offenders live. The group is then buying billboard space in their neighborhoods, but blurring out the names and photos of the commenters.
Behind the project is the Criola group, a nonprofit that works to defend the rights of black women in Brazil.
The campaign was prompted after Brazilian journalist Maria Júlia Coutinho was targeted by racist Facebook comments online. Coutinho, the first black weather forecaster on Brazilian prime-time television, corrected another anchor on air in July. When another news site praised her for getting the terminology correct, Facebook commenters responded with a torrent of comments against everything from her hair to her race.



I have one problem with this idea, and one problem only. You simply can't leave the identities of these people undisclosed. As a matter of fact, I am pretty blocking out the names and faces of those that post racist comments online basically just achieves the exact opposite the desired effect. It essentially just gives racist people the chance to reach a broader audience without having to suffer the consequences of doing so. Public ridicule is the ultimate deterrent, but if the public doesn't know who to ridicule then this billboard won't deter anybody from saying offensive things on the internet. In fact, it will probably encourage more people to be racist in hopes of increasing their viewership. Getting your post on a billboard is like the anonymous, discriminatory equivalent of trying to get your inappropriate sign on the JumboTron. As long as there is no backlash it's actually considered an accomplishment.

I am pretty sure every relatively new racist concept originates from FaceBook. That makes up about 93.7% of Facebook's content now-a-days. I bet you didn't even know your second cousin had a hard-on for the confederate flag before he shared a meme about how super important it is to Southern culture. If we are talking about close minded people posting ignorant shit then Facebook is almost always the media of choice. That's mostly because they know that a large percentage of the people that it's going to reach will agree with whatever prejudice crap they are spewing. I am going to go out on a limb and assume that the person that thinks their "home stinks of black people" isn't adding too many African Americans to her friend list. Probably doesn't have too many black acquaintances. I would assume they aren't liking too many #BlackLivesMatter posts. I can rest pretty assured that they weren't blacking out their default picture for Trayvon Martin. He/she doesn't mind saying terrible things about black people, because black people most likely won't see them. You put these posts on a billboard without a name attached then you are just advertising racist thoughts without giving people a reason to stop having them. Sure, putting people on blast to every person that happens to drive down a particular highway could very well end in violence, but that violence will be the real reason people start thinking before they post.