Black movements demand banning the use of Confederate flags in Brazil

[OBenario4]

Confederate Party held in the city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, Brazil.


"Old times that are not forgotten". The sentence is stamped on the website of the Fraternity of American Descendents, an association responsible for organizing the "Festa dos Confederados" (Confederate Party), in the Brazilian city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste. The event that celebrates the immigration of Southern Americans to Brazil, after the Confederate States were defeated in the American Civil War, became subject of controversy after the recent happenings in Charlottesville, a city of 45,000 inhabitants in Virginia, USA.

Charlottesville hosted a white supremacists rally that resulted in confrontation, deaths and injuries. The conflict started after members of the American racist far-right gathered to protest against plans of removing a statue built in honor of Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), general of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, who was unsuccessful in his attempts to defeat the Northern States and to to keep slavery system alive.

In Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and in the neighboring city of Americana, both founded and colonized by Southern Americans in the 19th century, Confederate symbols are still alive. Though the Brazilian cities do not have statues celebrating Robert E. Lee, the general from Virginia gives his name to an Avenue in Santa Bárbara. In Americana, an old obelisk with the names of the first Confederate families to arrive in the city is still decorated with Confederate flag patterns. And the Confederate flag, which became a symbol of the pro-slavery states, is vastly used in the decoration of the annually-celebrated Confederate Party. "It is possible to pay homages without using these symbols that have a very negative connotation. They are symbols of the perpetuation of racism and supremacy. They are offensive to us", said Antônio Carlos Vianna de Barros, president of the black movement "Associação Beneficente Cultural Carolina Maria de Jesus".

Barros asked the Fraternity of American Descendents to no longer use the Confederate flags during the events. "What we have told them is that the Confederate flags have to be banned. You can not say that you respect Jews and host parties decorated with swastikas, for example." João Leopoldo Padoveze, president of the Fraternity, disagrees: "The flag is not a racist symbol. It was misappropriated by extremist groups. For us, descendents, it means heritage, family, rebuilding".

Translated from Portuguese:
http://liberal.com.br/cidades/s-barbara/festa-dos-confederados-de-sb-volta-a-ser-alvo-de-polemicas-644350/


Obelisk with the confederate flag, in the city of Americana, Brazil.

[Judi Lynn]

1. These creeps have no right to wave that filthy flag under the noses of people in Brazil.

It's poison in the U.S., an insult to all people of conscience, a celebration of barbarity and a culture ruled by vicious perverts. It's time they stopped pretending it's just great if they wave it around in Brazil, when they know it's an evil symbol, to be despised and shunned.

It was a shock to learn these same buttheads ran to Brazil to keep their evil way of life intact. It's time they grew up and started living the way respectable, decent people live, without the need to have others to abuse.

Can't believe they named their town "Americana." Oh, barf.

It sounds as if they created their own bogus history, too, trying to claim Robert E. Lee had no slaves. That's a hot one, too. If they tried to sell that story, one can only imagine the other whoppers they've tried to sell to their new neighbors about their old way of life!

Best wishes to Antônio Carlos Vianna de Barros. He is going in the right direction, he deserves support.

[OBenario4]

2. Let's hope that despite the current conservative tide...

Last edited Sun Aug 20, 2017, 08:09 PM - Edit history (1)

... that Brazil and the entire hemisphere have been facing, the regional social movements and counsellors are able to do something. The fraternity can not keep saying they'll insist with this freak show every year because the flag "is not a negative symbol" to them. It is for everyone else, to everyone sane.

Yes, they called it Americana. Which is even funnier now, since, due to the immigration waves of the World War II, about 60% of the inhabitants of the city have Italian ancestry. Including, I believe (judging by the last name), the president of the "Fraternity of American Descendents", Mr. Padoveze. Go figure.

Nice to talking to you, Judi.