Brazil Officer Sergio Camargo Calls Black Rights Movement 'Scum'

A Brazil official was recorded making appalling comments about the black rights movement. In a resurfaced recording, Sergio Camargo, whose job involves promoting black culture in Brazil, described the movement as “scum” and dismissed Brazil’s annual Black Consciousness Day as a joke.

The recording, which was obtained by the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, exposes Sergio Camargo engaging in a conversation about a mobile phone that had gone missing from Brazil’s Palmares Cultural Foundation’s headquarters. He was also complaining about how the black movement was curbing his freedom of expression by criticizing him.

“If there is a leftist here, you tell me where this son of a bitch is so that I can fire them or send to another agency,” he said. “The black movement, those bums from the black movement, bloody scum,” he added, voicing out his suspicion that members of the black movement were responsible for the disappearance of his corporate cellphone.

“Who could? Someone who wants to harm me. The black movement, the vagrants of the black movement. That damned scum,” he said.

At one point during the meeting, which was held on April 30, Camargo also called the anti-slavery resistance hero Zumbi a “filho da puta.” He also vowed to abolish funding for events related to the country’s annual Black Consciousness Day, saying the annual celebration was a mere joke.

The resurfaced recording sparked outrage among the blacks in Brazil. Flavia Oliveira, one of Brazil’s most renowned black journalists, revealed that activists were already preparing to take legal action against Camargo and push for his removal from office. “It is truly lamentable that the debate over such an important issue is in the hands of someone so unfit,” he said.

In a statement following the resurfacing of the recording, Camargo described the recording of their “private meeting” as illegal. He also reiterated that he was in tune with the federal government and that his job was aimed at the entire Brazilian population and not only at “certain groups that have historically and deliberately benefitted from public money.”