The poor on the right

In this unprecedented interpretation, Jessé Souza surprises by indicating that racism – and not economic gain or the agenda of customs – is at the root of the moralist shift that catapulted the extreme right in Brazil.

Jessé Souza isn't a sociologist who hides behind difficult words. His work, which is gaining increasing public attention, not only outlines an innovative social theory but also invests in explanations for urgent issues that reflect Brazil's sociopolitical situation.

This is what we see in *The Poor on the Right* , a book that targets one of the most heated current debates. After all, the rise in popular support for the far right is a recent phenomenon that, starting in 2018, completely changed the landscape of electoral races in Brazil. However, how can we explain this sudden embrace? Why did a large portion of the impoverished classes embrace the far right's agenda precisely at a historical moment when living conditions were significantly improving? What justifies the poorest supporting politicians who strip away rights and benefits?

To answer these questions, Jessé Souza focuses on two groups—poor whites and Black evangelicals—as models of this engagement. By listening directly to the complaints of people in these groups, the sociologist helps us understand, for example, how the racist demands of the white majority population in the South and the state of São Paulo also come to be defended by the racialized population, which is often strongly influenced by evangelical groups that are committed to political domination. In this way, Jessé Souza proposes a new and deeper interpretation of Brazil, in which the new conservative arrangement, which fuels the far right, reveals itself beyond economic demands or the agenda of customs.

It is within this tapestry of identifications, social stratifications, religious fervor, regional differences, and political imagination that the author reflects on the main causes of the "revenge of the bastards." Thus, it becomes possible to examine the true thinking of these resentful social groups that began to organize themselves in the shadows of the Citizen Constitution's main promise—the construction of a democratic, just, and egalitarian Brazil, without discrimination and with universal guarantees.