Whiteness is a
place of material
and symbolic privilege
News Letter
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PRO
JECTS
Every project in the Whiteness Observatory is structured along three axes: knowledge production, political articulation, and communication.
Who are the anti-quotas?
The Whiteness Observatory has conducted an extensive survey and profiling of Brazilian social and institutional actors that are opposed to racial quotas. We present a theoretical mirror to these anti-quota groups that are unable to recognize the dominance relationship that founded this country. This dominance relationship is still pervasive and keeps us trapped in the past. Anti-quota groups are anti-Black. They abhor the idea of deracializing spaces of power, and thus should be under permanent scrutiny.
Whiteness and economy
Economic and tax policies are crucial for either the deepening or the reduction of racial inequalities. Mobilization, lobby, and policymaking are, however, generally led by white people representing major economic interests. The Observatory of Whiteness intends to analyze race and gender inequalities starting from the discussion around taxation, macroeconomics, and politics.
Economic and tax policies are crucial for either the deepening or the reduction of racial inequalities. Mobilization, lobby, and policymaking are, however, generally led by white people representing major economic interests. The Whiteness Observatory intends to analyze race and gender inequalities starting from the discussion around taxation, macroeconomics, and politics.
Whiteness and economy
Whiteness and the justice system
The Whiteness Observatory aims to understand how dominance relations are structured within the justice system and how its institutions are adding to the inequalities between Black and white people regarding access to justice. Preferred subjects of study shall be unequal application of rules and access to judicial positions.
Literature review
We have mapped and systematized studies, papers and publications on whiteness in Brazil. The survey cross-referenced data on time, author profiles, and areas of concentration among other data that revealed the profile of Brazilian production on the subject.
We have mapped and systematized studies, papers and publications on whiteness in Brazil. The survey cross-referenced data on time, author profiles, and areas of concentration among other data that revealed the profile of Brazilian production on the subject.
Literature review
Guerreiro Ramos Library
A virtual library containing articles, dissertations, theses, and other materials on whiteness produced in Brazil. The collection honors sociologist Alberto Guerreiro Ramos, one of the early researchers on the theme in Brazil, and contains more than 250 publications, the result of a systematic literature review carried out by The Whiteness Observatory.
Who
we are
We are a civil society initiative founded in 2022 dedicated to creating awareness and strategic incidence focused on whiteness – both its material and symbolic power structures, the foundation upon which racial inequalities rest.
The Whiteness Observatory creates and shares knowledge on a regular and systematic basis to raise awareness about the debate on whiteness and its consequences for racial inequalities.
Whiteness is defined as a space of symbolic and material privilege, historically built as the highest level of racial hierarchy, with the power to classify others, to attribute racial identity and stigmatizing subjectivity to whom they deem non-white, and this is the cornerstone of racism.
Consisting of an all-Black, multidisciplinary team, we are the first Brazilian civil society organization centered on the analysis of white racial identity and its power structures.
Our Team
Vieira
Thamani
Canegal
Santos
PUBLI
CATIONS
read the publications of the Whiteness Observatory
As chances de ser eleito: Branquitude e representação política
Esta publicação observa que candidatos com maior financiamento de campanha tem 6,6x mais chances de eleição. À luz da PEC
> Read moreSupremacia Branca: a Branquitude Organizada
A pergunta deste boletimpropõe uma revisão dos conceitos, diante das diferentes abordagenspresentes nos estudos de branquitude.
> Read moreThe Color of School Infrastructure: Differences between White and Black Schools
The structural conditions of the school environment directly impact students’ learning, either working in favor of or against their trajectories.
> Read moreIn The
Media
Follow the Whiteness Observatory in the media and in the news
Guerreiro Ramos Library
A Família Margarina Recebe Visitas: Branquitude e publicidade em cinco décadas (1968-2017)
Resumo Vários trabalhos qualitativos apontam para o modo limitado
Percepções da racialidade no campo psicanalítico : reverberações de uma análise.
Yuri Garcia Baggio.
Januário
Garcia
Gallery
Januário Garcia was a Brazilian photographer with more than half a century of dedication to documenting the life and struggles of the Black people. He had important works in advertising, music and memory, and is a beacon for young photographers.
The photos on this website are part of the Januário Garcia gallery, featuring the perspective of the new generation in photography and aiming to appreciate the beauty of the Black gaze in the face of dehumanizing representations created by whiteness.