Few countries are as aggressive as Brazil in prosecuting racist speech. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of cases soared fivefold, from 794 to 4,871 prosecutions, according to government crime statistics. This shift reflects Brazil's strict legal approach, which treats racist speech as a crime, unlike in the United States, where such expressions often fall under free speech protections. Brazilian law also bans personal attacks that offend someone's honor and threats to democracy, prioritizing human dignity over unrestricted speech.
This legal framework recently led to the country's harshest penalty for racism. Day McCarthy, a 35-year-old social media provocateur, was sentenced in August to eight years and nine months in prison for racist remarks made in 2017. Her comments targeted Títi, the adopted Black daughter of two prominent Brazilian actors, Bruno Gagliasso and Giovanna Ewbank, parents of three children, including two adopted from Malawi. McCarthy referred to the child as a "monkey" and questioned how a Black girl could belong to "White people with blue eyes."
