Branquitude em foco: análises sobre a construção da identidade branca de intelectuais no Brasil

Abstract

The goal of this thesis is to understand, from social experiences and academic trajectories, the perceptions of researchers classified as whites about being white in Brazil and in the field of knowledge production about race relations. To carry out the work we highlight how whiteness, along with miscegenation and the ideal bleaching, is part of a little explicit discourse which enabled the construction of a national identity. We believe that the current reflection on whiteness cannot do without a global discussion on race relations that articulates the process of colonial domination and the construction of the eurocentric worldview. Also interested in understanding how these power relations based on race are reflected in spaces of production of academic knowledge. The field research was developed through interviews with classified and / or self-identified as white intellectuals working in the field of race relations in Brazil. These individuals were nominated by the Centers for Afro-Brazilian Studies (NEABs). The analysis centered on the diversity of possibilities of construction of racial identities, as well as the similarities and differences between racial classification and identity. Miscegenation and bleaching are presented as key elements for understanding the articulations of whiteness in Brazil. The specificity of the studied group brought up an important reflection on the existing raciality in academia.