“Ou você resiste ou desiste”: racismo e trajetória de professoras negras em Jundiaí (SP)

Abstract

The research presented, entitled Either you resist or give up: racism and the trajectory of black teachers in Jundiaí (SP), aimed to answer how the training of six black teachers who work in the city of Jundiaí took place, considering their trajectories. The method chosen was the use of semi-structured interviews and, later, content analysis (Bardin, 2010). In the meantime, we were interested in investigating aspects related to childhood, family, professional qualification, insertion in the world of work, perceptions about ethnic-racial designation and episodes of racism. In addition, some details related to the history of the education of black men and women, the teaching profession, and the impacts of eugenic policies on teacher training were covered. As a theoretical assumption, the discussion proposed by the Critical Theory of Society (ADORNO; HORKHEIMER, 1985; ADORNO, 1993) and the studies on racism in Brazil (GONZALEZ, 1983; SANTOS, 1983; MUANGA, 2008; 2009), in in particular, the reference to the lives of black women and teachers (GOMES, 1995). Data are presented in categories of analysis, organized based on the establishment of thematic axes. From them, it was possible to verify that the awareness of racial belonging is not unanimous, which illustrates the impact of racism and whitening policies on the black population; that the verification of the existence of racism is linked to the recognition of oneself as a black person; that obstacles related to the intersection between race and class led them to choose teaching as a profession to be followed; and that the support networks were fundamental in terms of educational training and change in the social level of the interviewed teachers