Políticas públicas para a população negra : a construção de uma agenda federal na área da saúde

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the possible relationships between racism and health conditions according to the “Brazilian Racial Equality By-law” (Law nº 12.288/2010) whose text specifies national public policies on health for the black population. Before that, however, some of the historical tensions between racism and health in the late nineteenth century when it gives the breakdown of the slave regime are recovered. Then we present as the consensus around the black inferiority of the initial discussions will gradually shift to the idea of miscegenation, another way to deny the racial plurality of the country. With the consolidation and institutionalization of the black movement, the health racialization will emerge as a tool to combat injustice and social inequities. The study suggests that health racialization, as observed in the Racial Equality ByLaw, tends to make biological life a supreme value, by reiterating the centralizing and authoritarian character of the Brazilian state. On the later aspect, the analysis seeks to rise some questions from Foucault's concept of biopolitics.