BETWEEN COLOR AND CLASS: DEFINITIONS OF WHITENESS AMONG WHITE MEN IN RIO DE JANEIRO
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Abstract
In this article I discuss how whiteness is perceived and described by white men of upper middle class of Rio de Janeiro. In the first part I present the debate of the critical whiteness studies and the characteristics of whiteness studies in Brazil, highlighting the classification by color system and the relation between color and class. Then I discuss the methodological challenges of research on whiteness in the Brazilian context, resuming some French sociological analyzes of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. In the last part, I analyze the difficulties of the interviewees to give definitions of whiteness, the meanings of its silences and laughter. The class is presented as the privileged language to give content to the whiteness because considered more tangible and objective, while the whiteness is felt as unstable and nameless.
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