Racism and Discourse in Latin America

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 of African descent. The essays show that ethnic and racial inequality in Latin America continues 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 is professor of discourse studies at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.