Racismo e branquitude : um estudo com graduandos da área da saúde.

Abstract

The racism, in its plurality of forms and expressions, permeates the various social living spaces, unfolding as a historical and as a political process. The existence of racism is the existence of white supremacy, politically constructed throughout history, which produces concrete and symbolic racial inequalities. The incorporation of racists standards operates directly in the relationship established between white subjects and people from the other ethnic-racial groups in the daily life of health institutions, an aspect that is directly linked to the fact that, in addition to the existing inequality in access, there is also an inequality in the quality of the care and treatment offered. Therefore, this study was configured as qualitative exploratory research that aimed to analyze the representations and meanings of “white being” identified in the speech of white undergraduate students in the health area. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were carried out with five academics from different undergraduate courses in the health area of the University of Santa Cruz do Sul. The methodological technique for sample selection was the “snowball”, with sampling for convenience, the analysis and interpretation of data were based on Psychoanalysis in extension or extra walls in conjunction with social studies on the subject. The data analyzed point to a representation of the white subject as a universal human being, from which racialized individuals differ. The perception of oneself as a white person is referenced by respondents in contact with black people, the so-called “different" so that the feeling of superiority accompanies this identification of the “different". The narcissistic component of egoic self-preservation was evidence as it was possible to identify, through the analysis and interpretation of the interviewees’, feelings of fear about black people, in addition to the exemption from responsibility for the privileges experienced, the denial of their racism and the responsibility of blacks themselves for the inequalities they face. It was possible to identify several contradictions expressed in the speech of the research participants, which highlight the specificity of Brazilian racism: it’s a racism that asserts itself through its denial and is characterized by ambiguity. The omission of the white subject’s place in the maintenance of racism in the inequalities arising from it in the context of health graduation can be understood as one of the various manifestations of Brazilian racism. Therefore, white health professionals must recognize not only the suffering experienced by black people – and other non-white racial-ethnic groups, but that also recognize their own racial identity; and that they seek to subvert the colonial logic and the white ideal in their daily interpersonal and institutional relationships. In this sense, there must be changes not only at the individual level but above all at the institutional level. So, it is essential to raise reflections on the scientific racism that served as the basis for structuring Western knowledge, both in social sciences and human sciences, and to make into account the epistemicide that marks the academic trajectories up to the present day.