"We Brazilians are not racists," writes Globo journalism czar Ali Kamel. This seems to me to be the opposite of true. Life in Sambodia strongly reminds one of apartheid South Africa in many ways, in fact. I have never met so many open racists in my life as I have in my Sambodian boteco conversations. Racist like Rhodesian border guards. Crazy racist.
The delusional is no longer marginal. –- Bill Moyers
Entrelinhas is the blog published by DCI political editor and Observatório da Imprensa associate editor Luiz Antônio Magalhães.
In this post, he points out what he argues is some boneheaded quantum massaging of the numbers by Veja.com’s designated neo-Lacerdist blogger Reinaldo Azevedo — Brazil’s most prominent contemporary exponent of the gabbling and hysterical political rhetoric pioneered by tropical Fascist Plinio Salgado in the 1930s.
Azevedo had reportedly written in his column that numbers from the recent U.S. elections proved that race was not a factor in the election of Barack Obama:
A FARSA RACIALISTA: OBAMA FOI ELEITO PELOS BRANCOS
The racial argument is a farce: It was white voters who elected Obama
Wrote Azevedo:
A nossa sorte é que jornalistas e analistas políticos não constroem casas, ou elas cairiam sobre nossas cabeças. Também não são cirurgiões, ou arrancariam as vísceras do paciente ao tentar lhes reparar algum mal. Obama, o suposto candidato de uma minoria nos EUA, foi ELEITO PELOS BRANCOS, mas a clivagem que se faz para analisar o resultado é a racial. É UM MOVIMENTO DE ESTUPIDEZ COLETIVA. É o triunfo do politicamente correto sobre a razão. Os números são inquestionáveis. E, ademais, se é para falar em racismo, então racistas foram os negros e os hispânicos, que teriam VOTADO CONTRA UM BRANCO.
Lucky for us that journalists and political analysts don’t build houses. If they did, those houses would collapse on our heads. Or that they aren’t surgeons, or we would wind up with our guts yanked out in the effort to cure our illness. Obama, supposedly the candidate of a minority in the United States, WAS ELECTED BY WHITE VOTERS, and yet the point of cleavage cited by those seeking to explain the results is a racial one. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF COLLECTIVE IDIOCY, the triumph of political correctness over reason. The numbers are unassailable. And besides, if we are going to talk in racial terms, then we should say that blacks and Hispanics were racists for supposedly VOTING AGAINST THE WHITE CANDIDATE.
Magalhães comments:
O jornalista Reinaldo Azevedo lida melhor com as palavras do que com os números. No comentário publicado em seu blog e reproduzido abaixo, ele refuta os argumentos expostos aqui sobre a eleição de Barack Obama. Bem, o ultraconservador colunista de Veja não percebeu que as suas próprias contas mostram que Obama venceu exatamente pelo voto dos negros, ou seja, que a questão racial teve importância, sim, na eleição. Senão vejamos, usando os números de Reinaldão:
Azevedo is better with words than he is with numbers. In the commentary on his blog reproduced [above], he rebuts the arguments made here about the election of Barack Obama. What the ultraconservative Veja columnist failed to see was that his own numbers show that Obama won precisely because of the black vote. That is to say, race did matter in the election. Let’s check it out, using Azevedo’s own numbers:
Quantas pessoas votaram? 153,1 milhões
How many voted? 153.1 million.
Quantas são negros? 13% – ou 19,9 milhões
How many of those are black? 13%, or 19.9 million.
Quantos negros declararam ter votado em Obama?
How many blacks said they voted for Obama?
95% ou 18,91 milhões
95%, or 18.9 million.
Do total de eleitores, quantos são hispânicos?
How many voters are Hispanic?
8% ou 12,25 milhões
8%, or 12.25 million
Quantos hispânicos declararam ter votado em Obama? 66% ou 8,09 milhões.
How many Hispánics said they voted for Obama? 66%, or 8.1 million.
Do total de eleitores, quantos são brancos? 74% ou 113,29 milhões.
How many voters are white? 74%, or 113.3 million.
Quantos brancos declararam ter votado em Obama? 43% ou 48,71 milhões.
How many white voters said they voted for Obama? 43%, or 48.7 million.
I am not sure where these numbers are supposedly coming from, but let’s accept them for the sake of the argument here, which is that Azevedo has used numbers supporting A to conclude that not-A.
War is peace. Black is white. Good is evil. Veja practices quality journalism.
LOGO, VOTARAM EM OBAMA
THEREFORE, OBAMA WAS ELECTED BY
27 milhões de negros e hispânicos e 48,71 milhões de brancos
27 million blacks and Hispanics and 48.7 million whites.
Bem, tudo isto posto, qualquer criança vai entender: Obama perdeu a eleição entre os brancos. Se não tivesse conseguido os 95% entre os negros e 66% entre os hispânicos, McCain seria hoje o presidente dos Estados Unidos.
If you put it that way, any child could see it: Obama lost the election among white voters. If he had not gotten 95% of the black vote and 66% of the Hispanic vote, McCain would be president.
É simples assim, basta supor que o candidato democrata fosse outro branco (ou a loira Clinton), que a votação entre os brancos fosse a mesma obtida por Obama e que o score entre os negros e hispânicos fosse menor, digamos que da ordem de 60% a 40% para os democratas.
It is quite simple. Just suppose for a moment that the Democratic candidate had been another white man (or the blonde and ambitious Hillary), and that this candidate had gotten the same proportion of the white vote as Obama, but that the vote for the Democrat among blacks and Hispanics was less substantial, let’s say 60%-40%.
Fazendo a conta, teríamos o seguinte resultado: 48,7 milhões de brancos + 11,9 milhões de votos entre os negros + 7,5 milhões entre os hispânicos, totalizando 68,1 milhões de votos ou 44% do eleitorado total. John McCain estaria eleito. Em outras palavras, sem o apoio maciço de negros e hispânicos, o candidato democrata não teria vencido.
Running the numbers, we would have the following result: 48.7 million whites + 11.9 million blacks + 7.5 million Hispanics = 68.1 million votes or 44% of the total electorate. McCain would be president. In other words, without massive minority support, no Democratic candidate would have won.
Felizmente Reinaldo Azevedo não precisa fazer muitas contas no seu dia a dia – a maior parte do tempo ele utiliza, com o talento que lhe é peculiar, para difundir as idéias ultraconservadoras pela blogosfera e nas páginas do panfletão de direita para o qual trabalha. O autor destas Entrelinhas não tem a pretensão de construir casas, mas também jamais confiaria ao colega da Veja esta atribuição.
Fortunately Azevedo is not required to do a lot of math in his daily work. He spends most of his time using his peculiar talents to spread ultraconservative ideas in the blogosphere and in the pages of that right-wing pamphlet that pays his salary. The author of this blog does not intend to start building houses, but he wouldn’t hire his Veja colleague to build one, either.
Por fim, este blog não acha que a maioria votou em função da cor da pele de Obama. Mas tem certeza que a cor da pele de Barack Obama motivou os eleitores negros e hispânicos a votar e na proporção que se verificou nas urnas. O blogueiro de Veja não concorda com isto e tenta bolar uma argumentação mirabolante para provar que os brancos deram a vitória a Obama. Argumentação esta que, olhando de perto, não deve convencer nem o próprio autor.
Finally, this blog does not believe most voters took Obama’s race into account, but it is certain that his race did motivate black and Hispanic voters to vote in the proportions verified by the official results. Veja’s designated blogger does not agree and tries to pull a rabbit out of his hat to show that white voters gave Obama his victory. An argument that, examined carefully, not even its author could possibly find convincing.
Veja’s Reinaldo “Mr. Hat” Azevedo, ex-editor of the failed Primeira Leitura
Filed under: Brazil, Journalism, Politics
