ABSTRACT
Based on the theoretical framework offered by Narrative Analysis, this work seeks to analyze and describe narratives of the life stories of poor black women, assisted by social assistance programs, observing the ways in which these women construct their identities and discursively operate with certain established normative aspects socially about the crossing of “race” - especially the discourses about a supposed “absence of racism” and the hegemonic ideal of “whitening”. Using the qualitative interview as a research tool, the results pointed to an overlap between the crossings of “race”, “gender” and “social class”, proving the need pointed out by intersectional theories of gender in general and by contemporary black feminism in particular of if we consider the social subject always intersected by such crossings. Considering that in all interviews the existence of racism is affirmed, the myth of racial democracy existing in common sense is called into question and, furthermore, the importance attributed by black feminism to the need to observe experiences enunciated by other subalternized places of speech, far from hegemonic positions. Furthermore, in all the interviews analyzed, especially in the assessments that emerged in the narratives, the issue of skin color was performed as a “stigma”, a deeply derogatory trait, based on the naturalization of whiteness. However, if in the narratives of older women the whitening ideology is not questioned, in the “evaluations” of the analyzed narratives from younger interviewees we observe hegemonic whitening competing with new elements, characterized by establishing significant fissures on normative aspects about of blackness.
Keywords:
narrative analysis; blackness; bleaching; genre