“Race and health”: Black female healthcare providers in the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study stems from postdoctoral research with Black female healthcare providers who worked on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pernambuco/Brazil. It sought to understand their experiences based on their family and professional trajectories and in the care of themselves and others, having racism as a common thread. In total, 14 women from different health backgrounds were interviewed. The technique of network of affections was used, in which these women indicated other women in their work cycle and/or friendships. The interviews were conducted online or in the workplaces. Analyses were based on the concepts of “device of raciality” and “gendered racism,” showing aspects related to the precariousness of work, exhaustion, loneliness, the erasure of these women’s, contributions and the colonial continuity in institutional and interpersonal relations in health, which symbolically and materially attributes to Black women functions linked to servitude, which were raised to maximum power in the context of a global health crisis. This study brings a contribution to the field of study on the health of the Black population by showing the need for self-care and institutional care for these workers, focused on the daily micropolitics of confronting racism.