The impacts of racisms on the occupations of the black population: reflections for therapy and occupational science

Abstract

In Brazil racisms are structural and structuring, since they are rooted in the structure of society, in interpersonal relationships, in institutions, traversing significant occupations of subjects and collectives. This explains the disparities in various sectors of Brazilian society, notably in the employability of black people, as well as in their ways of getting sick and dying. Understanding the role that the racisms play in the occupations of black people, this study proposes to systematize observations that allow us to understand the phenomenon of the production of injustices based on racialized relations and, eventually, suggest ways to confront this reality. Thus, we discuss how racisms were established in Brazil, gathering elements for the understanding of human occupation and its conditioning factors. We then reflect on the concepts of occupational justice and injustice, which bring light to the occupational processes experienced by black people. Considering that, in occupational therapy and in Brazilian occupational science, studies relating racisms and occupation are still incipient, we point out some strategies to reorient occupational therapists’ professional practices to make them proactive and transformative.