Last Tuesday, August 8th, a 25-year-old pregnant woman was shot and killed during a police operation in the Barro Vermelho community in Rio de Janeiro. The Minas Gerais band Black Pantera posted about the tragic case on social media and, unfortunately, it didn't take long for them to receive racist comments about the incident.
Using a line from their 2020 song “Todo Camburão Tem Um Pouco de Navio Negreiro” (Every Police Van Has a Little Bit of Slave Ship in It), the group expressed their grief over yet another tragedy involving a Black victim. “Kethlen Romeu was just over 3 months pregnant and died today during a police 'action' in Rio de Janeiro,” they wrote in the caption. “Crossfire, stray bullets that always find Black bodies, regardless of age, mothers, fathers, children, we are born with a target on our backs. (…) Black lives matter? Only in the hashtags.”
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According to information from UOL , the state's Military Police claimed that Kathlen Romeu , an interior designer and entrepreneur with a clothing store, was hit during a confrontation with criminals in the region. In a comment, an internet user made insinuations about the cause of the victim's death. "Then stop trafficking, partner, because if there weren't traffickers, these actions wouldn't happen," he wrote before being answered by the band and deleting the comment.
“This girl was trafficking the child in her womb, if that’s what it is. Why doesn’t this so-called war on drugs extend to luxury condominiums where playboys sell all kinds of drugs?” questioned the official Black Pantera account in response. “So her death is justified because, supposedly, she lived in a more humble area, as if the life of someone who is poor is worth less.”
See the screenshot shared by the group below.
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