Brazilian CS:GO player Fer has been fined by MIBR for going on a racist tirade on his Twitch stream.
We tend to make things very America-focused around here, but protests and demonstrations for #BlackLivesMatter is hardly just an American thing. They’re happening all around the world, from London to Madrid. Racism is a global problem, one that’s just as bad in Brazil as it is in the United States.
Which can be a little bit weird for North Americans since Brazil is a nation where tons of people have at least some African descent; that’s why they all have such beautiful skin tone (seriously, jealous). In Brazil, racism is less about the color of your skin (although that’s certainly still a thing) and more about other typically African traits such as the straightness of your hair.
Understanding that is important to understanding just why CS:GO player Fer’s recent Twitch tirade would be considered pretty darned racist in Brazil.
We have Reddit user danielord92 to thank for a translation of just what MIBR player Fer said in a recent stream. When a Twitch viewer asked him to stop flipping his hair (something he’s rather fond of), Fer went a little over the top.
“Stop touching my hair? Are you sad because your hair is hard and bad? My hair is good, it is quite smooth, look–look how good this s— is,” he said. In Brazil, “good” hair is smooth and straight, whereas “bad” hair is stiff and curly. After his chat started accusing him of racism, Fer flipped the middle finger at the camera and told his viewers to stick something in their respective rectums.
We’re not sure why. That might be a specific Brazilianism.
Days passed before Fer finally did apologize, but the outcry from Brazilian fans meant that MIBR had to step in with a statement of their own condemning Fer’s words and also issuing him a hefty fine.
Keep in mind, this is all done to the backdrop of Brazil’s own demonstrations against police brutality, where police regularly shoot black citizens at a rate that would even put America to shame.
Source: Reddit, Twitter
