ABSTRACT
Based on the statements that (1) the word in interaction manifests itself as an ideological sign, oriented to a precise social audience, circumscribed in a given historical time; (2) that race is a language and (3) that geographic displacement involves a clash between different systems of meaning, I interpret data from the cultural translation process for the term black [negro, in Portuguese], based on the enunciations of two Portuguese language learners in a course for immigrant mothers held in Southern Brazil. The data presented were generated as part of an ongoing ethnographic investigation.1 1 See doctoral thesis defended in 2021: REIS, N. O. Como dar certo em português? A experiência de mães imigrantes aprendizes de português em Florianópolis. 2021. 261f. Thesis (PhD in Linguistics) – Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 2021. Available at: https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/229909. The discussion points to controlling images that persist in the social imaginary from effacement procedures, discursive whitening and hypersexualization of the term negro [black]. Data also reveals that the processes of attributing meanings around race are in full dispute in the current socio-historical context.
KEYWORDS:
Discursive whitening; Hypersexualization; Invisibility; Controlling images