Using evolutionary concepts as a counterpoint to xenophobic manifestations

Abstract

In recent years, an economic crisis in Venezuela resulted in a wave of emigration to different countries, including Brazil. In the digital publications available at internet about the Venezuelan migration, several xenophobic comments were emitted by Brazilian internauts. Taking into consideration that xenophobia is reinforced by social reproduction, favored by insufficient Technological-Scientific Literacy, it is possible that this theme could be target of Evolutionary Biology teaching within a critic perspective. In this context, here we apply a Discursive Textual Analysis on internauts comments, in order to investigate their rationality. Thus, we survey xenophobic comments emitted in news related to Venezuelan immigration to Brazil and classified they into three emergent categories: ufanist nationalism (12 comments), racial inferiority (8 comments) and immigration as detrimental factor (10 comments). To each category, it was presented Evolution concepts which may be used to interpose xenophobic ideas. As xenophobia in related to cultural aspects, unknowledge or imprecise information, we stress that the contextualized teaching may contribute to overcome this worldview.