Xenofobia racializada: os bolivianos nas redes sociais Corumbá (MS)

Abstract

This study aims to understand how everyday practices of xenophobia, often treated as humor, opinion or “normal border stuff”, become visible on social media and contribute to the permanence of stereotypes about a group historically present in the city, that is, Bolivians. The methodology adopted is qualitative and descriptive and interpretative in nature, based on ten publications collected on Facebook throughout 2025, recorded during everyday browsing. The study dialogues with Aníbal Quijano (2000; 2002), whose formulations on coloniality help to understand how racial and social hierarchies structure discourses that still circulate on social networks full of xenophobia, further demonstrating the logic of coloniality. The results indicate that social networks function as amplifiers of colonial imaginaries, allowing old stigmas such as dirt, illegality, abuse, delay or threat to circulate at an accelerated rate. Even integrating the economy, affections and urban life, Bolivians continue to be represented as “others”, reinforcing a symbolic border that persists despite daily coexistence. We conclude that understanding the logic that supports this understanding of coloniality is fundamental to deconstruct it and to promote debates that recognize the shared humanity on the Brazil/Bolivia border.