The nordic origin and the effects of whiteness in the state of Ceará /Brazil

Abstract

This paper discusses the discursive whitening of the population of Ceará/ Brazil based on the idea of the Nordic origin of Ceará, a discursive construction

that surfaced in late July 2020, when a research commissioned to an American laboratory analyzed the genes of 160 inhabitants of the state and came to the con- clusion that the predominant genetics in the population would be the same as that of the Nordic peoples. When analyzing the question, I seek to place this narrati- ve within a discursive panorama historically monopolized by whiteness, which points to the support of a whitened self-image of the state, which has the effect of minimizing the contribution of non-white groups in the ethnic-cultural constitu- tion of the country Ceará, although population data for the state say otherwise.