simple farmer

Note from BW of Brazil: Maybe you’ve never heard of singer Elza Soares. If you live outside of Brazil and never listened to the music of other countries, it is very possible that you’ve ever heard of one of Brazil’s national treasures. The BBC surely knows who she is as the British media conglomerate who also dubbed her the “Brazilian Tina Turner” named Soares the “Singer of the Millenium” in the year 2000. But still today, at the age of 80, Soares, now performing in a wheelchair, still has something to say, especially on the topic of race. Her song, “A Carne”, which means “meat” or “flesh” became an oft-repeated phrase by Afro-Brazilians speaking on the way Brazilian society devalues black life. “The cheapest meat/flesh on the market is the black/dark meat” goes the main lyric. Very fitting, considering the genocidal numbers of black youth that are killed every…