Racism and Discourse in Latin America

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Racism and Discourse in Latin America investigates how public discourse is involved in the daily reproduction of racism in Latin America. The essays examine political discourse, mass media discourse, textbooks and other forms of text, and talk by the white symbolic elites, looking at the ways these discourses express and confirm prejudices against indigenous people and against people from African descent. The essays show that ethnic and racial inequality in Latin America continue to exacerbate the chasm between the rich and the poor, despite formal progress in the rights of minorities during the last decades.

Teun A. van Dijk brings together a multidisciplinary team of linguists and social scientists from eight Latin American countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru), creating the first work in English that provides comprehensive insight into discursive racism across Latin America.

Reviews

Dutch communications scholar Van Dijk (Pompeu Fabra Univ., Barcelona, Spain) has been studying what he terms 'discursive racism' for decades. His publications range from the seminal 1993 monograph Elite Discourse and Racism (CH, Sep'93, 31-0615), in which he focused on how elites in North America and Europe reproduce white domination and racism through speeches and writings, to the present edited volume, which examines how racism is learned, articulated, and communicated in Latin America. From his base at a Spanish university, he assembled a large cast of international, multicultural, and interdisciplinary linguists and social scientists to examine how racism is reproduced daily through public discourse in eight Latin American countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Because discourse by definition concerns public speeches and published writings, it necessarily focuses on the style and substance of elite expressions....Recommended. All levels/libraries. * Choice Reviews *

Author Bio

Teun A. van Dijk is professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.