Uma experiência de subjetividade de crianças negras a partir do cabelo crespo: possíveis percepções

Abstract

With this article, I sought to investigate the possible implications that frizzy hair can have on the subjectivity of black children, affecting their self-esteem, their interpersonal relationships, their social skills and their mental health, with the hypothesis that black people, in their subjectivity, are negatively affected by a white supremacist society whose ideal of beauty is whiteness and straight hair. To this end, I carried out a conceptual analysis along with qualitative narrative research, guided by the reflections of Erikson (1968); Foucault (1993; 2011); Moscovici (2011); Fanon (2008); Souza (2021); Berth (2020); Nogueira (2021); Bell Hooks (2005); Gomes (2003; 2006), among others. I also brought the experience "Encontro dos Crespinhos e das Crespinhas", the culmination of the didactic project "Sou Criança Consciente!" (I'm a Conscious Child!) developed in 2022 with kindergarten and primary school classes at the Geração Santa private school in the city of Goiás. My main conclusions were that black children find it difficult to perceive themselves as having curly hair and also as black, and that these relationships need to be reframed. I believe that this psychosocial dilemma is associated with the social representations of violence that black people have been subjected to since their arrival in Brazil. In this way, this research has made important contributions to psychology's ability to promote an anti-racist psychological practice aimed at a more subjective society.