Doctor and presenter Thelma Assis, 41, won the case she filed against businessman and journalist Rodrigo Branco after a racist comment against the BBB 20 champion. In a sentence handed down by the 6th Civil Court of Regional Court XII – Nossa Senhora do Ó, in São Paulo, the court ordered the businessman to pay R$40,000, in addition to interest and monetary correction for moral damages.
In 2020, during the doctor’s participation in the program, Rodrigo participated in a live on Instagram and made racist comments. He stated that the participant’s fans only existed “because she’s a poor black woman.” Even after being reprimanded by his colleague, influencer Jude Paulla, he also cited journalist Maju Coutinho to argue that black women would reach prominent spaces just because they are black.
In the decision, judge Flávia Snaider Ribeiro, from the 6th Civil Court of São Paulo, highlighted that Rodrigo’s comments cannot be admitted and attributed the speech to:
“In this context, jurisprudence (…) has recognized that racism transcends the individual sphere and affects the community, insofar as it reproduces symbols of structural oppression and reinforces historical patterns of exclusion and symbolic violence. The defendant’s conduct, therefore, is not limited to offending the individual victim and their families, but has the propensity to also affect the community as a whole by reproducing historical symbols of inferiorization and exclusion, demanding a compensatory and pedagogical-dissuasive response capable of preventing repetitions and to reaffirm the constitutional and conventional commitment to eradicating racism”.
Elsewhere, the decision also highlights that the statements belittled the professional and personal trajectory that led Thelma to public recognition, associating her favoritism with the exclusive fact of being a black woman, which would be unacceptable, in the judge’s words.
“I needed justice to recognize the fact, and it was done. I spent six years fighting practically alone, only with the support of my family and my lawyers, against a cowardly racial insult”, said Thelma in a note published on social media.
“This is not an individual offense, but a collective repercussion (…). And this impact cannot be undone with a simple apology in front of the cameras. He needed punishment — an educational punishment so that actions like this do not happen again,” she concluded.
Businessman Rodrigo Branco, who lives in the USA, was cited by notice and did not comment in the case file. The decision can still be appealed.
