The construction of ethnic-racial identity of African-Brazilian students and their pre-university experiences

Abstract

This article was developed from a survey carried out at Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), in the Education master course. It discussed the processes of ethnical racial identity construction of eight Afro-Brazilian students, in four graduation courses in UFPel which were social sciences, history, mathematics and biology degrees. To analyze how the construction of this identity is build up, the main source of data used were the students oral testimonies obtained through interviews with semi-structured scripts where they talked about their family and school life trajectories. The referential adopted to give theoretical basis for research had the contribution of Cultural studies and studies based on Critical Theories in Education, in which are producing data about it in Brazil. This paper analyzes the report of students talking about the experiences of prejudice, racism and discrimination that have influenced or still influence directly their identities, showing how are marked along the their lives by being seen as "different", due to the fact that the color of the skin and hair texture of another form, which are not established as a standard pattern in society. The research wanted to show, through the students own speech, the difficulties that people considered from popular classes and ethnic minority must face to remain in educational school system and to give voice to those who have not had the opportunity to express themselves.