"CABOCLO", "MULATO" AND "CAFUZO": THE PROJECTION OF THE OTHER THROUGH RACIST LANGUAGE

Abstract

This article aims to point out reflections and problems regarding the use of racist terms "caboclo, mulato and cafuzo" in an opinion article written by Luísa Galvão Lessa called "as raças formadoras da sociedade brasileira" (the races that form brazilian society), which is available in the newspaper A Gazeta, a large circulation periodical in rio branco, acre. The efforts are based on the attempt to deconstruct such terms, explaining the factors of their historical construction, whose premise comes substantially from the idea of race that emerged from the sixteenth century with the "modernity" that classifies and hierarchizes individuals using their cultures, beliefs and ways of life. In this sense, the methodology is bibliographic and documental in nature, and the authors who subsidized the dialogue and analysis are: Hall (2016); Krenak (2019), Kilomba (2019); Mbembe (2014); Mendes and Autor (2021), Quijano (2005), Nascimento (2019); among others. In short, the intention is to problematize the discourses of otherness present in the press, henceforth de-explaining what is already pretentiously explained.