Narrativas (auto)biográficas de mulheres negras doutoras: estilhaçando a máscara e escancarando o racismo, o sexismo e a branquitude na saúde coletiva

Abstract

Black women demarcate writing as a political act. Narratives make it possible to understand the experiences of black women who intersect the personal and the social, producing knowledge that goes beyond the rigid, closed and quantifiable lines of modern science. Racism is a structural system that constitutes social relations in this country, underpinning inequalities based on race or ethnicity. The general aim of this research is to analyze the trajectories of black women doctors, considering their positions in the academic and scientific space of public health. The research has a qualitative design, at an exploratory level, and was submitted to and approved by the Research Ethics Committee. The instruments used to produce the data were a sociodemographic identification questionnaire, biographical narrative interviews and notes in a field notebook. Hermeneutics was used to interpret the data, in the light of Conceição Evaristo's concept of writing. Three black women were interviewed, two self-declared black and one brown, between August and October 2023. The interviews took place in locations chosen by the research participants, two coffee shops/bookstores, located in a neighborhood in the city of Porto Alegre/RS and one interview via Google meet. The narratives were recorded and after recording, they were transcribed into a Word file. The three women built their academic careers in health courses, with doctorates and/or post-doctorates in Public Health. They are currently lecturers at higher education institutions, work in social movements, in black collectives and carry out other activities in addition to teaching. The dense narratives, full of striking situations, revealed episodes of racism in their academic careers. From their formative years to postgraduate studies, the interviewees were victims of racism, which was presented in different ways during their academic career, a characteristic of "Brazilian racism". As teachers, they were mistaken for the staff responsible for cleaning the building and sometimes for undergraduate students. The professors reported that, because of their choices regarding the theoretical framework adopted in their research, their academic productions were called into question. Although they have been victims of sexism and racism during their careers, they have not given up and have continued to open doors for other black people. They produce knowledge, demarcating their academic positions and occupying positions as project coordinators. The fight against racism must be extended to all social demands and academia is no different. There is an urgent need to implement affirmative action in all postgraduate programs and to comply with the law on reserving places for black people in higher education competitions.