Race/color, gender, and class in the social and affective relations of young black women: an intersectional approach

The experience of adolescence occurs in multiple contexts mediated by the positions these individuals occupy in social structures. We aim to understand the role of interactions between social markers of difference, such as race/color, gender, and social class, in the social and affective relationships of young black women in a working-class neighborhood in Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil. This qualitative research is based on a multicenter study in five Brazilian municipalities. Data from 16 interviews from May 2021 to August 2022 and a focus group conducted with black adolescents who were aged from 15 to 19 years were included. The analysis of the empirical material had intersectionality as a theoretical framework. The experiences of black adolescents in spaces of sociability in popular neighborhoods, such as paredões and the school, were crossed by racism, sexism, and class discrimination. Affective relationships, on the other hand, were mainly marked by the intersection between racism and sexism, which and objectifies black female bodies. In this context of multiple crossings, the collective spaces of resistance in the territory emerge as powerful equipment to promote racial and gender awareness and to discuss strategies to produce equity. This context evinces that the intersection between the social markers of race/color, gender, and social class acts in the production of multiple oppressions against black and peripheral adolescents in these spaces and affective experiences.

Keywords:
Adolescent; Intersectional Framework; Gender Perspective; Social Class; Black People