Note from BW of Brazil: Can’t wait to read this! The contest that led to this book was the topic of two previous posts here on the blog. Like another book, Mulheres Negras na Primeira Pessoa (Black Women in the First Person), and two other books featured here, it’s great to see black women be able to share their stories and life experiences as the Brazilian mass media clearly is not interested in what they have to say or their very existence unless they’re cleaning houses or gyrating their bodies. The objective on this blog is to present black Brazilian women in a variety of ways thus the release of this book is very much appreciated. Special thanks to Secretarias de Políticas para as Mulheres da Presidência da República and Raquel Lasalvia for the story and wonderful photos!
The book Mulheres negras contam sua história (Black women tell your story) was released at the 3ª Conferência Nacional de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (3rd National Conference on the Promotion of Racial Equality)
Courtesy of SPM and SEPPIR
Authors of the essays that make up the publication attended the event, organized by SPM and SEPPIR
Narratives of the struggle for rights and life stories permeate the essays that are part of the book Mulheres negras contam sua história (Black women tell your story). The publication was released at the 3rd National Conference on the Promotion of Racial Equality, on Wednesday (06). The release event brought together authors of published texts, representatives of the Secretarias de Políticas para as Mulheres da Presidência da República (SPM-PR or Secretariat of Women’s Policies of the Presidency of the Republic) and the Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (SEPPIR or Policies of the Promotion of Racial Equality)
The book presents the ten winning texts and four who received honorable mentions in the competition of the same name. Secretary of Articulação Institucional e Ações Temáticas da SPM (Institutional Articulation and Thematic Actions of SPM), Vera Soares, said the construction process of the award, was realized in partnership with SEPPIR. “The release contains a small cycle, initiated with the proposal of the award and built jointly by the two departments. For SPM, it was an important activity we did with joy,” she said.
Vera said the idea of the competition came mainly from the need to have more input on the inequalities that affect black women in their daily lives. “We seek to grasp these mechanisms, so perverse, of racism in our country, in order to recognize the practices of resilience and strength of women,” she added.
The secretary of Políticas de Ações Afirmativas da SEPPIR (Policies of Affirmative Action Policies of SEPPIR) Ângela Nascimento, said the publication is a symbol of what has been constructed from the Plano Nacional de Políticas para as Mulheres (PNPM or National Plan of Policies for Women) for black women.
In addition, Ângela reiterated role of these women in policy making. “For us, it has been very important to read and hear the stories they have presented. They are women who bring, their trajectories of life, grains and seeds, and even foundations of a new way of working within public policies,” she concluded.
Mulheres Negra (Black women) – Glória Maria Gomes, one of the authors present at the release, commented on aspects of her work. Author of the essay “O bullying e a criança negra na escola pública, até quando?” (Bullying and the black child in public school, until when?) Glory narrated facts of her childhood in Rio Grande do Sul (state in southern Brazil), to address the marks and emotional consequences of racism. She stresses that the same postures of which she was a victim suffered in her childhood still remain in public schools. “My essay talks about my childhood, at school, and about the discrimination I went through, but we still see it today in public school.”
The psychologist Eliana Aparecida, who wrote the essay “O direito ao narcisismo” (The right to narcissism), drew attention to the stereotype of black women in the media and to the standards of beauty that exclude her. “I went through things in my life that made me never see myself. It lacks in the constitution of our personality, our self esteem and our dignity as a person,” she said.
Inclusion – The Prêmio Mulheres Negras Contam sua História (Black Women Share Your Story Award) aims to stimulate social inclusion of black women, through the strengthening of reflection about the inequalities experienced by them in their daily life, in work, in family relationships and violence and overcoming racism.
The first edition of the awards received 521 entries, 421 writings and 100 essays. The texts were sent by self-declared black women, who narrated their experiences and life trajectories, which insert themselves in the history and culture of African descendant culture, an essential part of the construction of Brazil.
Source: SPM, all photos courtesy of Raquel Lasalvia of SPM
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