Racist discourse of the Brazilian Sports Media at the World Cups

Purpose. We analyzed and interpreted media manifestations within the field of Brazilian sports, regarding white and colored players, in the context of different events in the history of Soccer. Basic procedures. We focus our study on the use of metaphors by the sports media to describe performance failure, based upon the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Main findings. Racism, an ideology forbidden by law in Brazil, continues to negatively impact the lives, careers and status of colored soccer players, often in very subtle ways, by comparing the treatment given by the media to poor performances by white and colored players. Conclusions. The analysis shows that white players are consistently evaluated based upon their professional performance, whereas colored players are evaluated by means of racially-loaded, often offensive, categories which directly attack their character.