Representations and relations among students in Rio de Janeiro: talks, jokes and TV audience, according the self-defined ethnic group.

Abstract

Our objective was to observe themes used by students to talk and to entertain themselves in the school environment and elsewhere. The social representations’ theory was adopted, which states that psychosocial groups are formed through the sharing of symbolic knowledges/practices. The participants were secondary level students of public schools in Rio de Janeiro, who had selfdefined as Afro-Brazilians, White and Mixed people. We used a questionnaire to observe talks, jokes and TV audience. In talks and jokes, White and Mixed people presented more themes about sex and White people talked about people and told jokes, which are aggressive to minority groups, while Afro-Brazilian people talked about school works and avoided uttering jokes. Besides, AfroBrazilian people presented more jokes about academic deficiency/incompetence, while the other groups puzzle/play with words. Regarding TV audience, White people preferred humor programs and Afro-Brazilian people dispersed. In conclusion, there is continuity among talks, jokes and TV audience, depending on the ethnic group.