MP-SP denounces hairdresser for racism, homophobia and insult

The Public Ministry of São Paulo denounced a hairdresser for racism, homophobia and racial slurs. His name is Diego Beserra Ernesto, he owns an establishment in the capital of São Paulo, and had audios released with offense to black people, obese people and homosexuals.

The complaint took place from the audios in which the professional laughs and claims not to hire “black”, “fat” or “faggot”. In January 2023, a professional who was attending the site conducted a test with a woman interested in acting as his assistant. The owner of the salon, however, was present and “cast looks of contempt and disdain at her, which left her embarrassed”, causing the victim to give up the job.

Upon learning of the woman’s withdrawal from the vacancy, the professional contacted the owner of the salon “expressing nonconformity”. In response, he received audios in which the owner of the establishment made negative comments towards black, fat people with a certain political position, stating that he would not hire them. He even claimed not to hire homosexuals, using derogatory terms to refer to them.

In addition to offering a complaint, the Special Group to Combat Racial Crimes and Intolerance (Gecradi) asked for the recognition of collective moral damage and the fixing of compensation to the community and the victim.

Recording went viral on social media

In February of this year, the audios went viral on social networks. In the message, Diego tells his professional colleague that he intended to hire a black assistant, fat and with short hair, that he does not hire “fat”, “PT”, “black” and “faggot”. At the time, the defense claimed that the conversation was taken out of context.

The material was received by hairdresser Jeferson Dornelas on January 12th. He explained that he rented part of Diego’s salon, in the neighborhood of Perdizes, in the west zone of São Paulo, where he served clients. He said that the hairdresser had already given evidence of this behavior, but never verbalized in this way.

In the audio, Diego says: “I made a rule ‘for’ me. I don’t hire fat, petista and I don’t hire black. In the case of blacks, some pretend to be victims of society. In the case of women, there are two things. Fat and black. She doesn’t even take care of her own body. How will she take responsibility in life? These girls who wear short hair are [sic] feminist. We don’t know. I don’t know. I’m not ‘generalizing’, saying that all are, but it has a high probability of being a feminist. Feminist sucks bro! You can’t say anything. Forgot to mention, bro. I don’t contract anymore. Only if the person is lying.”

Jeferson filed a police report. He was approached by Diego asking for a settlement of the case and saying that he would be willing to retract.

At the time, the woman who performed the test at the salon declined the job offer. After the repercussions on the internet, she said that she felt embarrassed with “the face he made looking at me, as if I was bothering him to be in his space”, referring to Diego.