Description: Highlights the Intersections between Media, Whiteness, and Middle-Class Identity That Feed Brazil's Ultraconservative Movement
Review Quotes: This is a well-written and well-argued book on the centrality of whiteness and middle-class identity in Brazil's recent turn to the far right. Porto's thesis is that the white middle-class has been a key protagonist of the conservative revolt that has led the country to a process of profound democratic decay. He shows that the intersection of race and class is central to understanding this process, for which the dominant media have contributed by offering 'mirrors of whiteness' that allow whites to legitimate their power while naturalizing inequality and injustice.--Patricia de Santana Pinho, University of California, Santa Cruz