Marcas da negritude: Estudo sobre as relações intersubjetivas do trabalho de professoras negras

Abstract

The presence of racism in labor situations and its consequences to the subjectivity of black teachers on public schools is compex and it provides extreme challenges. Thus, this paper ana- lyzes the presence of racism in work situations and its effects on the psychic suffering of black teachers on public Elementary schools levels I and II. It is a qualitative research, and it had, as a theoretical-methodological assumption, the Psychodynamics of Work, that has, as an action and intervention method, the labor clinic. Having this study been performed in a public shool on the Campina Grande city, Paraíba State, in wich were used work observation techniques, application of socio demographic questionnaire, Field journal, discussion groups and interview script. Five teachers that work on Elementary school level I and II took part on the research. The results denounce the racist attitudes on the intersubjective work relations, that are provok- ing suffering as also generating illnesses. By bringing to the surface of their questions the trau- matic experiences provoked by the open (verbal attacks, rejection and preterition for beeing black, restriction of the performance of their professional practice) and the veiled racism (nu- merous difficulties of access to both school materials and sociability) they signal to the harmful consequences that racism caused to the research participant teachers. Repercussions that go from transfering request from the school where they suffered the racism situation, isolation within the working environment to a possible “psychic disorganization” caused by the racist attitudes, compromising the mental health of some of the teachers. The research data allow to affirm that the suffering and the illnesses are manifestations of the experiences suffered by the research participant teachers, as well as all the teachers of the school, beeing presented as some- thing common to them all. Nevertheless, the participant teachers consensually bring forward that black teachers tend to dedicate more due not only to external pressure (from school) but also to self demand, in order to show their skills, wich are sometimes questioned because they are black. This issue points to a professional profile that is affected in a more intense way by work overload: the black female teachers. Therefore, the study in question poits to an urgent need of structural changes in the dynamics of the intersubjective labor relations between differ- ent ethnic groups, mainly in relation to school public spaces as institutions of active racism reproduction, where teachers, the main vector of change in the organization, find themselves impacted and mitigated by racial prejudice. As a result, it is expected to arouse in educators the importance of taking into consideration the theme of racism in their working relationships, in order to overcome them.