Agence France-Presse
Rio de Janeiro, August 12: Top Brazilian athletes Rafaela Silva and Joanna Maranhao have hit back at racist and sexist insults that have caused Olympic heartbreak and tears.
Rio gold medal judoka Silva, who was called a ‘monkey’ after crashing out of the London Games four years ago, and swimmer Joanna Maranhao, who has had rape threats in recent days, said they will use the hatred to fuel change.
“This medal is (a response) for all those who said I should be in a cage,” said a tearful Silva, who was targeted after being disqualified at the 2012 London Games, but came back with a stunning win in the 57kg category. “This can be an example for children from (poor) communities,” she added.
Silva informed the racism against favela slum residents goes far deeper. “If you are black, people in the street looks at you with suspicion. If you go by someone they move their wallet away. This is what we have to endure,” the new Olympic champion informed.
Silva hopes her star profile can aid in that struggle against racism. Back at her low point after London, she almost gave up judo, her father said, and ‘it wasn’t the loss that affected her – it was the racism’.
Now Silva is answering her critics the way she knows best, by showing she is a winner. “The monkey came out of the cage in London and became champion in Rio de Janeiro,” Silva told reporters here.
“Now you have a black who isn’t assaulting someone but bringing joy to the Brazilian people. I want to show that we have good things, not just bad, and that’s why I’m here,” asserted the judoka.
Maranhao, who is not black, but comes from the heavily black northeast of Brazil, was crudely pilloried Tuesday after losing in the 200 metres butterfly and exiting the Olympics.
“It shouldn’t be possible for people to say that they’ll rape you or that you should die,” she said, crying after her defeat. “Brazil is a macho country, a racist country, a homophobic country, a xenophobic country. I am not generalising because there are people like that, I’m afraid,” she lamented.
She also informed that she would file lawsuits against those who insulted her. She hopes to use any money from damages to fund a group working against pedophilia, ‘Infancia Libre’.
