Entre a “harmonia”, o racismo velado e o silêncio: as relações raciais entre negros/as e brancos/as no curso de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Pará.

Abstract

In this study, our general objective was to analyze how black and white students perceive racial relations in the academic-institutional space of the Medicine course at the Federal University of Pará, Campus Universitário de Altamira. And as specific objectives it was defined: 1) to understand how the students understand and perceive the affirmative action policies in general and, in particular, those adopted by UFPA, Campus Universitário de Altamira; 2) to analyze the interviewees' perceptions about possible racial privileges and disadvantages existing in the Bachelor of Medicine course; and 3) analyze how students perceive the experience of being black and being white in the studied course. Therefore, we carried out this exploratory research, through a qualitative approach, using the questionnaire as a data collection instrument and the interview as a technique. The data were analyzed using the discourse analysis technique. The results indicate that white students are benefited by the privileges accumulated by their parents, but this collection of privileges does not come simply or solely from the fact that their parents are white, but, above all, because they are made available for being members of a social group on which no racial stigma weighs. At other times, we verified those privileges that derive directly from the fact that some/but students are white, being given free of charge by their peers, generally, systematically through the institutions. We also verified a kind of non-formalized protectionism and collaboration (<narcissistic pact=) by which it is possible not only to guarantee the majority presence of a single racial stock in a place considered to be of high social prestige, but also that this presence is marked by a differentiated treatment, garnished with privileges. Other issues verified were the impacts of racism on the psyche of black people, the false projection arising from white people and, more than that, it was possible to infer that racial relations in the investigated course, as well as in the institution itself, they are permeated by racist ideologies, stereotypes, prejudices and racial discrimination. When it comes to racism, it is perceived as being of the veiled type that is not only common and normal in Brazilian racial relations and institutional spaces, but is the conventionally accepted form of racism. In line with this veiled racism, it is common for the practice of equally veiled racial discrimination to occur, with considerable resistance to naming and punishing it as such. Despite veiled racial discrimination practices being the modus operandi of the subjects in the investigated locus, there are breaches of patterns that cause a mixture of astonishment, indignation and revolt, both on the part of white and non-white groups. However, we realize that this shock is caused by the breach of decorum and, consequently, by the breaking of silence on the racial issue, causing discomfort in that space. In short, it was possible for us to understand that the racial relations established between black and white students, despite the silence and lack of institutional concern, are permeated by racialized ideologies and practices that produce and reproduce racial stigmas and stereotypes, privileges racial disadvantages for white groups and, consequently, racial disadvantages for non-white groups, particularly blacks.