The Presence of Structural Racism in Brazilian Culture and the use of Law as a tool of Domination

Abstract

The present work is dedicated to the study of elements similar to the oppressive structure of the sociocultural relations developed in the Brazilian society that undertake structural racism and its social stains. Therefore, it is intended to rescue the ideas that postulate the cultural and universal identity, revealing the social forces that act in the construction of the Brazilian cultural framework. For this, the main understandings of authors such as Eric Wolf, Frantz Fanon and Lélia Gonzalez will be explored, who expose the hidden bases of national identity, namely, racism and coloniality, both agents in favor of the imposition of a model of Eurocentric culture designed to exclude the “different” and impose favorable behaviors on dominant groups, while silencing the cultural existence of subjugated peoples, as well as the way in which the Law is used to consolidate these relations of domination. Three topics will be presented in this work aimed at achieving the objective described above: at first, the reflection of culture as discourse, undoing the notion that it would arise spontaneously; then, through the exposition of phenomena resulting from structural racism impregnated in Brazilian culture, as well as the way in which manifestations of black culture are appropriated and silenced; finally, with the analysis of Law as a mechanism of power used by this ideology of domination to impose its ideals on individuals.