"Branco com branco, preto com preto" : contribuições da educação eugênica para a produção da branquitude no Brasil (1909-1945).

Abstract

The thesis analyzes how modern racial theories disseminated in Brazil from the second half of the 19th century and the eugenics movement unfolded from these theories at the beginning of the 20th century contributed, through educability/subjectivation, to the constitution of whiteness in Brazil in a context marked by the construction of national identity narratives. The time frame was concentrated from 1909, with the first article that quoted eugenics on Brazilian soil, until 1945 with the end of the Second World War, when the eugenics movement lost its status as a science and went into decline throughout the world, after the exposure of the practices carried out by Nazi Germany. The theoretical lenses that anchored this research were biopolitics and State racism according to the perspective of philosopher Michel Foucault and his commentators. To achieve this objective, it was initially necessary to problematize and explore the constitution of the concept of race in the West and its receptions by Brazilian intellectuals. Eugenics emerged in England at the end of the 19th century, initially gaining ground in Europe and later in other countries, such as Latin America and Japan.Focusing on Brazil, this research problematized and explored the concepts of race, miscegenation, eugenic education, population whitening, immigration, (myth of) racial democracy, subjectivity and whiteness, in addition to the racial trajectory throughout the censuses of the country. The proposition of the concept of Micropower of Whiteness, the findings of unpublished historical documents in national historiography about the arrival of eugenics in Brazil and the central theme of this thesis justify the originality of the research. The following primary historical and documentary sources that make up the empirical corpus of this research were analyzed: (1) Legislation and official documents; (2) Congresses, conferences and similar events; (3) Doctoral theses in medicine; (4) Magazines, periodicals and similar; (5) Newspapers; (6) Books and (7) Art. In hundreds of sources consulted, evidence was found that eugenics education has contributed substantially to the constitution of whiteness in Brazil, in a country marked by racial and eugenicist cuts in society based on white privilege and superiority and non-white inferiority, often relegated to prejudiced stereotypes.