A filed a lawsuit to guarantee compensation for a black teenager who was the target of at Shopping Patio in the capital of São Paulo, in mid-April. The agency is asking for R$759,000 in compensation for moral damages. The Public Defender’s Office also requests that the mall and the outsourced company involved, for which the employee who committed the crime worked, offer the teenager free medical and psychological support.
There is a requirement that the psychotherapist has anti-racist training and serves the young person for the time necessary for their recovery. The body also wants the granting of a permanent scholarship, plus an amount that covers expenses with food, transportation, tutoring and support for sporting activities. In the process, it also requires a formal retraction, which must be published in the Official State Gazette and in a newspaper with wide circulation. At the time, the student defended in the action was a scholarship holder at Colégio Equipe. A week after the case, students and teachers at the institution held a protest at the mall a week after the incident.
Understand
He and a colleague, both black, were discriminated against by an outsourced employee, a member of the security team at the shopping center, which is located in an upscale neighborhood of the city. The woman asked if they were asking another white student for money. The two young people were in elementary school II and had just left an activity that aimed to debate racism.
“The effects of racism on the life and health of the black population are profound and, often, insurmountable. Being systematically exposed to situations of segregation and degradation, such as being accused of harassing a colleague, just because of her skin color, can cause severe psychological and emotional damage, especially when the victim is a child or teenager”, considered the defenders. When filing the action, the defenders highlighted that this is not a case of isolated racism and that, previously, recommendations were made to the shopping mall, but the administration did not promote corrections or improve conduct in this regard.
“Different people”
Higienópolis is an upscale neighborhood in the capital of São Paulo, with middle and upper class residents. In 2011, the region went through another controversial situation with the refusal of some of the neighborhood’s inhabitants to open a metro station there. At the time, a resident stated that the structure would attract “different people” to the neighborhood, an expression she used to refer to poor people and other minority and marginalized groups.
The statement provoked a collective reaction, which culminated in the “barbecue of different people” to counter the elitist and exclusionary stance. When contacted by Agência Brasil, Pátio Higienópolis said that it “is unaware of the action and will comment on the case as soon as it is notified”. The shopping mall is one of those belonging to Iguatemi SA, part of the Jereissati Group, which has other units throughout the country.
*With information from Agência Brasil
