Análise crítica do papel do YouTube na perpetuação do racismo estrutural sob a perspectiva da Escola de Frankfurt

Abstract

This dissertation presents a critical analysis of the role of the YouTube platform in the perpetuation of structural racism in Brazil, grounded in the theoretical perspective of the Frankfurt School. The study is based on the premise that racism is a historical system of power whose roots date back to the colonial period and slavery, becoming consolidated in modernity through ideological mechanisms such as the myth of racial democracy. The main objective is to describe the discursive strategies of racial hierarchization present on the platform and to identify their forms of contestation between 2019 and 2025. Drawing on the framework of Critical Theory, the research investigates how YouTube, operating under the logic of the Culture Industry and profit- and engagement-driven algorithms, tends to privilege hegemonic narratives while marginalizing racially subalternized voices. Methodologically, the study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), based on Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, to examine a corpus of ten highly popular videos available on the platform and their respective comment sections. The findings reveal the coexistence of hierarchization strategies — characterized by the denial of structural racism and the defense of meritocracy — and powerful manifestations of resistance that mobilize testimony, statistical evidence, and critical pedagogy. The dissertation concludes that, although YouTube functions as a site for the reproduction of symbolic inequalities, it also provides opportunities for the circulation of counter-hegemonic discourses that challenge the racist structure of contemporary Brazilian society.