Whiteness and daycare center: disquietudes of a white researcher

ABSTRACT

The whiteness’ speech has built the adult white man as the hegemonic model of humanity, representation of the Eurocentric legacy. The assumptions presented in this essay bring disquietudes built from an ethnographic research developed with children from zero to three years old in a public daycare center of the state of Sao Paulo/Brazil. Based on the analyses, I highlight that the experience was marked by the social readings of my body, carrier of traces phenotypically white, which have been read from the images racially propagated by the whiteness, as well as one may observe the conservation of privileges for the tiny young white children.

Keywords:
Whiteness; Daycare center; Racial relations; Ethnography; Sociology of childhood