State, media and Capital

the imagetic construction of the black in the class society

Abstract

The present work aims to establish an institutional approach on racism by analyzing the relationship between direct state repression and ideological discourse of legitimation, using the concepts of “Ideological Apparatus of State” and “Repressive Apparatus of State” from Althusser. Therefore, the term "tropes" was used in an effort to expose that, on capitalism, State violence and exploitation of black population (e.g., mass incarceration and genocide) seek to legitimize themselves through the construction of pejorative fixed narratives about blacks. These circulate through the mass media and influence the social imaginary by hiding or legitimizing that violence. In the first part, the relationship between institutional racism and ideological state apparatuses will be discussed; in the second one, the conceptualization of tropes and their ideological function; and in the final part, an analysis on the application of tropes as an ideological apparatus throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.