Racist Discourse Circulating in the Media in Times of Crisis

Abstract The present article sets out to analyze instances of racial discourse circulating in both the Brazilian and international media during a particular time of crisis - the Covid 19 pandemic - and follows this analysis with a reflection regarding such texts and the ongoing antiracist struggle in Brazil, with a view to the crucial role played by language and discourse in such contexts. To this end, I draw on Kilomba (2019), Fanon (2008), Muniz (2016, 2022), Munanga (2024), and Austin (1962), among others. The data selected comes from textual tracking work in digital networks (Fabrício, 2014) from 2020 up to the present. In transnational trajectories of text circulation, racist discourse features in a variety of semiosis contexts, ranging from traditional media (such as newspapers) to WhatsApp groups. Alternatively, so do discourses that celebrate black populations, whether in English language classrooms, or in regular schools, where children have access to more positive perspectives of black populations, thus signaling that through language/discourse new inroads can be made on the long-term path of a struggle that is more imbued with hope.