Indigenous Languages in Brazil: Unveiling Linguistic Prejudice

Abstract

Prejudice against indigenous peoples and languages in Brazil may be related to the lack of knowledge about them, which can be inferred from their treatment in the media, in teaching materials, and in publications on social networks. Concealing the subject, in the most diverse strategies, opinion makers perpetuate a prejudice that today can be considered criminal. We approach here a brief discussion on this subject, presenting questions about the official discourse (such as data from the last IBGE census), about the presence or even absence in the media, and about the misconceptions widely presented also in school education. We point out strategies that can be used to bring knowledge, reduce prejudice, and encourage interaction with indigenous peoples and their languages, which may be relevant at the beginning of the decade of indigenous languages, proposed by UNESCO (2022–2032).