A mother’s ill-advised idea of coloring her son’s skin and dressing up the boy as a slave for a school Halloween party has opened up wounds from Brazil’s ugly past.
Sabrina Flor is now apologizing for her poor taste in judgment after she was met with backlash. She shut down her Instagram account hours after her son appeared at his private school’s costume event Monday in the city of Natal, located in the northeastern part of the South American country.
Flor has been widely criticized and accused of being a racist after she posted pictures of her son wearing chains, with his body covered in brown body paint from head to toe.
A nine-year-old boy in northeastern Brazil was dressed up as a slave for his private school’s Halloween party on Monday. His mother shared photos of the costume on Instagram
Brazil’s historic wounds about the Atlantic slave trade were reopened Monday when a mother made the poor choice for creating the slave costume from scratch for her son
Sabrina Flor, a businesswoman in Natal, a city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte has been accused of being racist after she posted the photos
The mother made light humor of her decision to cast her son as a slave with multiple pictures on her since-deleted Instagram account, sabrinaflor.
Flor’s odd choice in costume ahead of the October 31 holiday featured the nine-year-old boy with a collar wrapped around his neck while a long plastic chain bounded his neck area to both of his wrists, a reference to the Atlantic slave trade that brought close to 4 million slaves from Africa to Brazil.
The South American nation was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to ban slavery, in 1888.
The schoolboy, perhaps unaware of the uproar the costume was about to generate, also sported a set of plastic chains wrapped around his right ankle.
His only clothes are a white head wrap and a towel covering him from the waist area down to the knees.
A Brazilian boy perhaps had no idea the firestorm his slave Halloween costume was set to create
A mother’s poor choice in judgment conjured memories of Brazil’s racist historical era by applying a special substance to create huge welts on her child’s back as part of his Halloween costume
Flor’s creativity conjured memories of the nation’s racist historical era by applying a special substance to create huge welts on her child’s chest as well as his upper and lower back, suggesting the boy had been whipped by a slave master.
On Tuesday, a message appeared on an Instagram account associated with a business account allegedly tied to the embattled mother in which he expressed her sincere forgiveness while denouncing the bullying she had been subjected to.
CEI School issued a statement denouncing the Brazilian mother decision dress her son as a slave for this year’s Halloween festivities.
A statement allegedly attributed to Sabrina Flor expressed her sincere apologies. ‘It has never been my intention to offend anyone, I am extremely sorry for everything that has happened’
A controversial nine-year-old’s slave Halloween costume features a plastic chain link wrapped around the boy’s right ankle
‘I just wanted to apologize for the fact! It has never been my intention to offend anyone, I am extremely sorry for everything that has happened,’ the mother supposedly wrote.
‘I feel VERY wrong with the horrid curses and threats that they are sending me. Apologies to all, from the bottom of my heart! #Peace.’
According to Brazilian outlet G1, law enforcement authorities as well the local government child welfare agency were looking to question the mother about her controversial decision.
Colegio CEI, the school the boy attends, decried the mother’s poor choice and said it abhorred any practices that promote slavery.
‘Unfortunately, the choice of the costume for the participation of the Halloween, made by the student’s family, touched on a historical wound of our country,’ the private school said in a statement.
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