Moody College Presents: "Mirrors of Whiteness" - Media and Brazilian Democratization
For:
Faculty , General Public , Students
Date:
Dr. Mauro P. Porto draws on his recent book Mirrors of whiteness (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023) to examine the conservative revolt of Brazil’s white middle class, which culminated with the 2018 election of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
The presentation highlights the role of the media in disseminating representations that allow white Brazilians to legitimate their power while softening or hiding the inequalities and injustices that such power generates.
A detailed analysis of representations of domestic workers in the telenovela Cheias de Charme and of news coverage of affirmative action by the magazine Veja demonstrates that they adopted whiteness as an ideological perspective, disseminating resentment among their middle-class audiences and fomenting the conservative revolt that took place in Brazil between 2013 and 2018.