Whiteness and its expressions in the career of higher teaching.

Abstract

This paper aims to broaden the discussion of the results of a Master’s in Education research on the reflexes of whiteness in Brazilian higher education, based on two central aspects: “the expression of whiteness in the career of higher education” and “white privilege”. Through a theoretical framework that discusses institutional racism in education in the light of critical studies of Brazilian and American whiteness, we seek to identify the racial integration process of the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) from 1969 (the institution’s founding year) to 2019, locating, in the under-representation of non-whites, the expression of whiteness in the institution, as well as in the process of implementing Law No. 12.711/14, which institutes the Vacancy Reserve for Blacks (RVN) in the federal civil service. The discussion opens the way for the analysis of aspects related to the racialization of subjectivity and the “privilege of race”, which were analyzed based on excerpts from an interview carried out with an effective teacher for 20 years at the institution. The results found reiterate the complexity of the theme and can become even more dense when included in decision spaces. This demonstrates that the objective understanding of racial inequalities in the university needs objective instruments to understand their effect, but these must go together, with a broad and transparent dialog, with the professors, favoring “racial self-awareness” and, therefore, enhancing institutional transformations.