Assistentes sociais no combate ao racismo: a agenda política da categoria no Brasil

Abstract

The present research poses the following central question: Why is racism structural, and how has social work in Brazil engaged with this issue? The general objective of the study is to understand structural racism and how the social work profession has apprehended this issue in the Brazilian context. The general objective of the study is to understand structural racism and how the social work profession has apprehended this issue in the Brazilian context. The specific objectives are: analyze the socio-historical formation of Brazilian society and its relationship to structural racism from a historical-critical perspective; to examine how the debate on ethnic-racial issues has developed within the professional category; and to expand theoretical-methodological reflections and strategies for confronting racism within both education and professional practice. The first step toward achieving these goals involved a literature review, followed by documentary research on the websites of the Federal Council of Social Work (CFESS) and the Brazilian Association of Social Work Education and Research (ABEPSS), which are the profession’s representative bodies. Based on this, research participants were identified for the fieldwork phase, which included eight (8) interviews with leaders from these organizations. The analysis of field research data was structured around three interconnected themes: the socio-historical understanding of racism, social work constructions on racism, and the contradictions and challenges faced. Social work, both as a profession and as a field of knowledge production, has historically developed the understanding that racism is structural. This perspective emerges from the profession’s engagement with the movement of social reality. The analysis of the political agenda of representative entities reveals this dialectical relationship. The engagement of social workers—particularly Black women—organized within the Black movement, was essential in enabling the concrete demands of reality to be expressed through interventions within these representative bodies.