GENDER AND RACE ISSUES IN BRAZILIAN MENTAL HEALTH

THE DISTRESS OF DONA ANA AND HER WHITE FAMILY

Abstract

The article addresses the relationship between racism and mental health in Brazilian public policies, the naturalization of violence against the black population, and the whitening policy of the population. We aim to contribute to the debate on the invisibility of black women in the health field, demystifying the idea of a racial democracy in Brazil. Using critical fabulation and escrevivência (a concept coined by Brazilian author Conceição Evaristo, combining lived experience and writing as inseparable acts), we construct an intersectional analysis based on professional practice within the Psychosocial Care Network (RAPS) and fragments of the story of Dona Ana - a black woman born in the 19th century, whose trajectory is marked by experiences shaped by racism - and of her family, which still carries the marks of the whitening policy to this day. We revisit situations in which racism and discrimination appear in mental health services, concluding that the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform was not immune to the structural racism perpetuated in the country, and that possible ways out of this entanglement must include intersectional analyses, racial literacy, and quilombola resistance and community building, in pursuit of overcoming inequalities and inequities, in favor of the realization of the rights of each and every citizen.

Keywords: Mental Health; Racism; Whiteness; Gender.