‘Tornar-se negra, tornar-se branca’ e os riscos do ‘antirracismo de fachada’ no Brasil contemporâneo

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article is the result of an encounter between a white Professor and a black student during a course about racism and whiteness, in a graduate program of sociology at a Brazilian university. Black students now reach about 50 percent of Brazilian public universities’ student population, thanks to affirmative action policies initiated in the 21st century, challenging white professors and researchers to deconstruct traditional curricula, writing, and teaching practices. That experience in the classroom led the Professor and her former student to construct a collaborative autoethnography, critically elaborating memories about their processes of ‘becoming’ black and white. Both opposed and intertwined, their narratives make it possible to unveil broader dynamics of racialization in course in Brazil. Reflecting on their experiences, the authors outline the notion of ‘the anti-racism façade,’ which they propose as a critical and political tool for the analysis of contemporary movements against racism. They also propose autoethnography as an ideal method to take into consideration researchers’ personal implication in studies on whiteness. With auto-ethnography, anti-racist intellectuals can engage in a more effective and visceral way in the face of the persistent ideology of mestizaje in Brazil and Latin America.