Augusto Neves, 2024
There are loads of types of discrimination and prejudices. Everything that it’s related to black
people tends to be seen as something negative and this must be changed in our anti-racist daily
practice as Educators.
The trend world it’s just a social construction and shouldn’t be seen as a model that everyone
should follow. In a nutshell, the world it’s too diverse and even the labels of race, gender and
sexuality aren’t enough to define our individuality.
It was very common to hear during the Art classes something like: “Pink, the colour of skin.” or
“Skin colour Pink”.
As if there was only one right colour for the skin, the Pink one. Besides my experiences, it’s not
only the colour of the skin that can cause racism, but, the hair type that includes the curly and
Afro hair and the Afro-Brazilian religions as well.
In other words, it seems that not being white it’s wrong. Then, when I was a teenager, I let my
hair grow out, curls came out and as a result I used to believe that something was wrong with
my hair because it’s not straight and greasy, but curly and dry. I always loved my curly hair and
it’s very common to hear people saying things indirectly such as: “poor people’s hair” or
“bad hair”. Statements like that create an environment where those who it’s not white and
especially black can’t be rich, can’t be doctors, can’t stay outside of favelas, etc.
I mean, seriously: What the heck?
THE BNNC Law mandates teaching of Afro history and culture - MEC
There is a law provided in the BNCC document that obligates schools to study Afro-Brazilian
and African culture, which for me it’s a good start since the black people’s voice has been
silenced, erased and even worse the presence of someone black seems to bother. The law itself
it’s a good start engine, but it doesn’t mean that the car will start, in other words, it’s necessary
materials to work with and as Ferreira (2019) mentioned, the English textbooks in Brazil only
portray the negative side of Africa and black people.
It's a constant fight for the educators to work for an anti racist education, it’s not easy and
it isn’t something that can be performed only in 45 minutes. For me, racism exists because we
only reproduce without realising that we are referring to people and not objects, this lack of
consciousness reproduces the violence and exclusion against people of colour and specially
black people.
THE PRACTISE:
This is not a blog’s recipe, but I believe that our praxis can start when we look at the students
and we ask them: who are they? How do they label and consider themselves?
In a class where the majority are white and privileged, it can be even hard. I see that it will
depend on us to be literate in this topic, and in an English class to teach about how we use
language to exclude and to express discrimination and even invite the students to research
about the black heroes, what racism is and why it’s a resistance. Then, it will be a theme to be
discussed in the classroom. It's also important to use videos and the voices of black people.
I presume that it must be a task to be performed within 6 months at minimum and unfortunately it won’t be enough. Overall, I think English as an additional language class tends to be harder
because of the fact that students need to learn English and the vocabulary. So, I can see that
double work is necessary as a non-stop fighting.
After all, during a conversation with other teachers in a event that I attended related to the
BNCC and the ethnic racial education ( Racismo Linguístico e Ensino de Línguas: Debates,
perspectivas e possibilidades metodológicas by Santos. The teachers of the basic education
related that when the subject it’s about Afro-Brazilian religion, there is always a guardian or
parents that will complain out loud claiming that the teacher it’s indoctrinating them. It was also
shared that there isn't a law to protect us, the educators and in most cases we are now seen as
villains as a misunderstanding of those who want to protect the old fashion values that were
good for themselves but assuming that it was also good to everybody. So, there is a conservative
tendency or a wave that seems to be growing slowly and silently.
Note: the comic strip bellow it’s only to promote a provocative reflection:
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?
HAVE YOU GOT EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH ANTI RACIST PRACTISE?
HAVE YOU GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO COMPLETE OUR DISCUSSION?
HOW DO YOU ACT IN A SITUATION OF RACISM IN THE CLASSROOM?
PLEASE, FEEL FREE AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE COMMENTS BELOW:
Stay safe, be anti-racist
Ta, xx
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REFERENCES:
FERREIRA, Aparecida De Jesus. Social Identities of Black Females in English Language Textbooks
used in Brazil and Cameroon: intersectionalities of race, gender, social class and critical racial literacy.
Revista X, v. 14, n. 4, p. 20, 2019.
MACHADO, Maria Clara. Lei obriga ensino de história e cultura afro. PORTAL MEC. 2007. Avalaible at
<http://portal.mec.gov.br/ultimas-noticias/202-264937351/9403-sp-
482745990#:~:text=A%20Lei%20n%C2%BA%2010.639%2F2003%20acrescentou%20%C3%A0%20L
ei%20de,e%20o%20negro%20na%20forma%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20da%20sociedade%20nacional.>
Accessed on 25/03/2024
SANTOS, Nicolas de Oliveira. Racismo Linguístico e Ensino de Línguas: Debates, perspectivas e possibilidades metodológicas. In: Conectando processos formativos antirracistas entre a universidade e a educação básica. UEL, Londrina, 2024.
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