Beating a servant? Bad. Beating a Prostitute? OK!

Late this past Saturday night, 5 upper-middle class men in their early-20s beat up Sirley Dias de Carvalho Pinto, a "domestica," (the maids who serve much of Brazil's elite and middle-class families), and while she lived, the damage was obvious and significant.

The youths' defense? They thought was prostitute. Because, of course, beating the holy hell out of a domestica is a bad idea, but doing so to a hooker? No problem.

All of this happened in Barra da Tijuca, one of the richest parts of Rio (it's the "Miami of Rio", but in none of the good ways). I've written several times on the way classism and racism work in various ways in Brazil, and this is nothing new. The domestica is noticably darker and obviously poorer than the perpetrators. The father of one of the perpetrators insists they shouldn't go to jail, as they are just "children," and insisted (and this is direct quoting) that "they study, they have families and they are not bandits....there exist worst crimes. They can't mix with bandits in Polinter [a prison]. Bandits are these that are regularly involved in shootouts with police in favelas like Vila Cruzeiro".

Because, as we all know, true "criminals" are only those poor and darker skinned people who shoot at cops!! Beating a domestica is just "children" being "children", and god knows what will happen if we mix them with these TRUE criminals in the prison!!! And beating a woman because you (mistakenly) disapprove of her presence as a female making profit on the sexual use of her body?? Eh, there are certainly WORSE crimes - this one is NOTHING!

What's really infuriating about this is this attitude is nothing new, and most likely would not vary from one middle- or upper-class parent to another were it their kids. They really rely upon a double standard that puts a heavier price on crimes committed by the poor and racially darker than the wealthy and whiter. Even the outrage here is far more muted than it would be had it been a domestica beating a white middle-class kid. Even Globo, which never shies away from the sensationalism of a story, is rather muted in its criticisms. Certainly, it's in no way supporting the youth, but descriptions of them lack the perjorative tones and labels that Globo and other papers indiscriminately give to those in the favelas.

It's tough to say how this will turn out. There does seem to be some genuine outrage at this, but not enough. As for Pinto, she's kind of taking the high road, saying that while she forgives them as humans, but also responding to the father above by basically saying, "Children? Well, they sure weren't children when the beat the crap out of me and stole my purse, just because they mistakenly thought I was a prostitute." I doubt much will come of this - the kids will probably never go to a real jail (the father isn't the only one who believes jail is just for "bandits"), but we can certainly hope that, maybe for once, the classism of the legal system in Brazil will be a little less pronounced, and these men will get what they deserve.