Mirrors Of Whiteness

In Mirrors of Whiteness, Mauro P. Porto examines the conservative revolt of Brazil's white middle class, which culminated with the 2018 election of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro. He identifies the rise of a significant status panic among middle-class publics following the relative economic and social ascension of mostly Black and brown low-income laborers. The book highlights the role of the media in disseminating "mirrors of whiteness," or spheres of representation that allow white Brazilians to legitimate their power while softening or hiding the inequalities and injustices that such power generates. A detailed analysis of representations of domestic workers in the telenovela Cheias de Charme and of news coverage of affirmative action by the magazine Veja demonstrates that they adopted whiteness as an ideological perspective, disseminating resentment among their audiences and fomenting the conservative revolt that took place in Brazil between 2013 and 2018.

In Mirrors of Whiteness, Mauro P. Porto examines the conservative revolt of Brazil’s white middle class, which culminated with the 2018 election of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro. He identifies the rise of a significant status panic among middle-class publics following the relative economic and social ascension of mostly Black and brown low-income laborers. The book highlights the role of the media in disseminating “mirrors of whiteness,” or spheres of representation that allow white Brazilians to legitimate their power while softening or hiding the inequalities and injustices that such power generates. A detailed analysis of representations of domestic workers in the telenovela Cheias de Charme and of news coverage of affirmative action by the magazine Veja demonstrates that they adopted whiteness as an ideological perspective, disseminating resentment among their audiences and fomenting the conservative revolt that took place in Brazil between 2013 and 2018.

Blackness is a prized commodity in American pop culture. Marketed to white consumers, it invites whites to view themselves in a mirror of racial difference, while remaining “wholly” white. From sports to literature, film, and music to investigative journalism, Eric Lott reveals the hidden dynamics of this self-and-other racial mirroring.

An elegant, page-turning thriller in the vein of Night Film and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, this tautly crafted novel is about stories: the ones we tell, the ones we keep hidden, and the ones that we’ll do anything to ensure they stay buried. When literary agent Peter Katz receives a partial book submission entitled The Book of Mirrors, he is intrigued by its promise and original voice. The author, Richard Flynn, has written a memoir about his time as an English student at Princeton in the late 1980s, documenting his relationship with the protégée of the famous Professor Joseph Wieder. One night just before Christmas 1987, Wieder was brutally murdered in his home. The case was never solved. Now, twenty-five years later, Katz suspects that Richard Flynn is either using his book to confess to the murder, or to finally reveal who committed the violent crime. But the manuscript ends abruptly—and its author is dying in the hospital with the missing pages nowhere to be found. Hell-bent on getting to the bottom of the story, Katz hires investigative journalist John Keller to research the murder and reconstruct the events for a true crime version of the memoir. Keller tracks down several of the mysterious key players, including retired police detective Roy Freeman, one of the original investigators assigned to the murder case, but he has just been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Inspired by John Keller’s investigation, he decides to try and solve the case once and for all, before he starts losing control of his mind. A trip to the Potosi Correctional Centre in Missouri, several interviews, and some ingenious police work finally lead him to a truth that has been buried for over two decades...or has it? Stylishly plotted, elegantly written, and packed with thrilling suspense until the final page, The Book of Mirrors is a book within a book like you’ve never read before.

Many of our countryOs children face daily a threat to their personal safety and well-being. As school boards, law enforcement officials, and policymakers continue to look for ways to stop youth violence in urban and suburban schools, not enough attention is paid to eradicating the socioeconomic and cultural conditions that give rise to these acts. In this timely and thought-provoking collection, seasoned educators and cultural theorists emphasize this connection between youth violence and the realities faced by many children--poverty, racism, unequal opportunity, and the mediaOs glorification of violence.

Leslie is struggling to defend herself against the constant aspersions she encounters over her bi-racial relationship. It's 1970 in Chicago. She's 18, her boyfriend is Black. She's experiencing constant shunning and shaming for defying that not-remotely extinguished, age-old American taboo against those unions. White America is relentless in its crass, dehumanizing assumptions about her motivations. What is propelling her is an intuitive quest for her own birthright. American-born Leslie doesn't know it, but her grandma was "passing." Her grandmother had been shamed and coerced into pretending she was from the people who, later in her life, in an ignored corner of the WWII Holocaust, sadistically exterminated hundreds of thousands of her people as racial undesirables. This slaughter consumed half of her own family, who had struggled for centuries before that as part of an exploited minority -- hated "inferiors." Leslie's family had lost everything -- their culture, their identity, their history, their self-respect and their self-esteem. Only one thing remained, one beacon of hope, one rich resource, that might lead to the reversal of this cultural genocide, the last thing to go when all else was lost . . . Who was familiar.

"That they all may be one" was Jesus' first-century prayer. With mind and emotions set towards Golgotha, he poured out his heart to the Father. But what is our twenty-first-century reality? Local churches are siloed. Pastors do not know one another and rarely work together. Christians drive by church buildings on their way to Sunday worship and seldom pray for one another. Vitriolic disunity spews across social media in front of an onlooking world. Our culture sees our fractured reality and increasingly dismisses Christianity as a viable option for their lives. And it is time for believers to recognize that it is our fault. But there is hope! When Collaboration Mirrors the Trinity is a timely invitation for local churches to make the practice of unity our new normal. Avery Stafford presents a biblical model to actualize this invitation. He details four rhythms that mirror the loving community of the Triune God. Each one can help pastors, lay leaders, and faith communities deepen their resolve to bless the world through effective gospel partnerships. This work is a bold call for believers to discover an untapped resource for the gospel--the believers who attend other churches in their city.