Abstract
The phenomenon of racism impacts the lives of Black population, leading them to social marginalization, including professionally. Thus, this qualitative study analyzes the coping strategies adopted by Black undergraduates from a public higher education institution to confront racism during career construction. Adopting the Career Construction Theory as a framework, 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted (16 women and 11 men) with self-declared black undergraduates from a university located in southeastern Brazil. Similarity analysis of the collected data, performed using the IRaMuTeQ software, showed that, from a maximum tree, the participants’ speeches centered around the term “racism” and on four similarity trunks related to the words: “black”, “talk”, “situation” and “happen”. Results indicated that racism majorly impacts the subjects’ careers, especially by upholding veiled discriminatory practices and limiting professional opportunities. To cope with it, undergraduates adopt four main strategies: a) dialogue with close subjects; b) search for support with the support network established at the university; c) denunciation of its impacts; and d) adoption of individual strategies to transform reality. The findings point to different actions, individual and collective, adopted to fight racism, whose development should be supported by higher education institutions so that they become systemic practices that favor discussing the phenomenon in academic and professional fields.
Keywords:
Racism; Coping Behavior; Career Development; Professional Development; Undergraduates
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