“Professora, e se eu fosse branco?” Usos do biográfico por uma educação antirracista

Abstract

In this study, we reflect on the uses of the biographical as an interesting tool to make visible the agency of the black population in history. The reflections made here had as their motto the speech of my black student "J", in which he expresses the desire to experience being white. From the concerns raised by this episode, we reflect on the demand of the black movement for a re-evaluation of the role of black people in history and on which life stories approach may be more appropriate to promote an anti-racist history teaching. The subjects are Tia Ciata, an important Bahian who contributed to the formation of the samba in Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century, and Professor Hemetério dos Santos, a black intellectual who fought public debates against scientific racism. Their lives are part of the historical context of the post-abolition period and the First Republic. Both were black subjects who acted against the racist structures of their times, facing them in their own way and inventing a life with dignity for themselves and their fellows. This work also includes an analysis of the path taken to build the didactic proposition. As a result of these reflections, we produced a set of didactic workshops on these historical figures to be used by elementary school teachers.