“A Casa Grande Surta Quando a Senzala Aprende a Ler”: Resistência Antirracista e o Desvendamento da Branquitude Injuriada no Brasil

Abstract

This article examines the use of the expression “the slave masters freak out when the slaves learn to read” and the “casa grande & senzala” dyad as a strategy of anti-racist resistance in contemporary Brazil. The dyad and the expression have been mobilized to challenge the increasingly racist and reactionary rhetoric of the Brazilian traditional middle-class that refuses to let go of the privileges it has historically accrued. The enunciation of these idioms contributes to the unveiling of an “injured whiteness” that emerged in reaction to the Workers’ Party’s administrations (2003-2016).