O passado que insiste em não passar: racismo, trauma transgeracional e constituição subjetiva do negro no Brasil

Abstract

This study sought to understand the impact of racism on the subjectivation of Black people in Brazil. Initially, we historicized the lives of Black individuals from the post-abolitionist period to the present day, aiming to understand how Black individuals dealt or deal with the traumatic legacy of slavery. To understand the different generations, we used the concept of transgenerational trauma, demarcating at least three generations. The demarcations were made, firstly, in the social (macro) sphere, highlighting historical events that evidenced the precariousness of the lives of Black subjects, even with the long-awaited “liberation.” And, secondly, based on life narratives (Bertaux, 2010), we narrated the life stories of Black women (brown/Black), as well as my own story, with the aim of understanding the particularities of these women's experiences and the ways they dealt with racism. We concluded that slavery in Brazil did not end with the signing of the Golden Law, leaving Black subjects on the margins of society. Racism in this work is understood as a traumatic legacy of slavery. Our key to understanding the traumatic as the denial (Gondar, 2012), beyond physical, moral, institutional violence, etc., racism traumatizes because it is not recognized, it is denied, and therefore, denying the pain of these subjects and nullifying their own humanity.