Unraveling Jeremias Batuqueiro

Jeremias Batuqueiro is a wind-up plastic toy launched by the Brazilian company Estrela in 1954. Marketed until the 1960s, it represents a black man wearing a yellow suit and hat, a tie and details in red and white, and black shoes.

Jeremias invites reflection on the spread of caricatured images of the Black population among children in Brazil. The character—a smiling Black man dressed as a "Rio de Janeiro rogue"—highlights stereotypes marked by racist and reductionist views.

The toy associates Afro-Brazilian music and dance with a simplified and exotic image, naturalizing inequalities and masking racial tensions. Thus, it reflects how structural racism and the myth of "racial democracy" influenced the children's imagination in the 1950s and 60s.

Today, derogatory images of the Black population are widely combated, but this was not always the case. Until recently, reproductions that reinforced racialized views were common. The Jeremias Batuqueiro toy exemplifies this imagery that devalued Black contributions.

By critically examining the collection, we realize how racism and social inequalities have been reconfigured since abolition. The legal freedom of Black people did not bring real equality, giving rise to new forms of exclusion and silencing in Brazilian society.

Jeremias Batuqueiro reveals an imaginary world that caricatured the Black figure, reducing it to stereotypes of joy and subservience. Beneath its playful appearance, the toy reinforces racial hierarchies and sustains the myth of harmonious coexistence between whites and blacks.

Jeremias shows that even toys can reveal ingrained inequalities and prejudices. He not only refers to history, but also calls on us to reflect on the persistence of racist representations and the need to retell Brazilian culture from an anti-racist perspective.