This study aims to analyze how women and men with different social background, color / race and sexual orientation, attending social spaces in Rio de Janeiro, conceive and experience the expressions of prejudice and discrimination in everyday life. It is considered that prejudice and discrimination are part of a social process of production of social inequalities that articulates different markers (social class, gender, sexuality, race / ethnicity) and operates through naturalization acts of discriminating and being discriminated against. However, there are dissonant theoretical perspectives that view discrimination and prejudice as arising from interactions which are inherent and circumscribed to the scope of interpersonal social relations, disconnected from macro-factors. The testimonies of the study youngsters show that agents of discriminatory action avoid talking about prejudice, justifying their practices based on taste, preference or strangeness to something unusual. However, some individuals who are subject of homophobic, sexist and / or racist actions realize that these situations express an attempt to guarantee privileges to specific groups and that social class affects those involved in the events. Others believe that homophobia and racism stem from lack of knowledge and / or socialization. One notes the absence of references to political action to face discrimination. The development of studies for the apprehension of prejudice and discrimination as a complex social phenomena, associated with the (re) production of social markers of difference, can guide the actions against these processes in different social contexts.
discrimination; prejudice; sexual diversity; color/ race; youth