Hoje é dia de branco: a branquitude de médicos de família de Juiz de Fora/MG e a equidade racial no cuidado em saúde

Abstract

From several studies that prove the racial inequalities and inequities in health produced by the various dimensions of structural and institutionalized racism in Brazilian society, by the power socially attributed to the physician in the production of health care and the implications that the identity white subjects have in the production and sustenance of racism and of material and symbolic privileges that support white racial supremacy, this study had as research object the whiteness of family physicians in the daily relationship with the black subjects who are assisted by them. Of a qualitative and exploratory nature, this research aimed to analyze the whiteness of family physicians from Juiz de Fora / MG and to verify if / how such identity influences the promotion of health equity and / or racial inequity. The work was built from march 2018 to september 2019, from the assumptions of race relations theories, among them the Critical Studies of Whiteness, a fundamental inflection in this field of research for theorizing white racial identity. It was also based on studies on care, equity and social determinations in health, both from the perspective of understanding from SUS with its social policy, and in the National Policy for Integral Health of the Black Population of 2009, which aims racial health equity in Brazil. Twelve phenotypically white family physicians working in the Family Health Strategy of Juiz de Fora (MG) were interviewed from semi-estructure interviews. Used the thematic content analysis proposed by Bardin, from which emerged the following categories: health care; health equity and the racial dimension in health equity. The findings demonstrate that most family physicians participating in this research were socialized in mostly white universe and have an understanding and practice of care that seek to break with the biomedical technicist model; present a perception of fairness by the sense of justice, however they exercise equitable practices from mostly clinical evaluations done for prioritization of assistance; confirms a total invisibility and lack of discussion of the racial issue in the medicine curriculum, ideologically white and biologicist; low appreciation on the race / color criterion from SUS forms; present a low reflexive and reductionist view of the social determinations in health of the black population to the economic order; reproduce the tendency of objectification of black people and does not recognize white identity as racialized, nor promote racial equity practices in health. Some participants who went through continuing education that addressed the racial issue, demonstrated to understand racism as a condition for black vulnerability and illness, which confirms the importance of creating educational spaces that address this theme, with a view to the process of deconstruction of racism.