from disciplinary power to biopower to necropolitics: the black child in search of a decolonized childhood

Abstract

The article discusses how the emergence of the term "minor" in Brazilian society, from the mid-nineteenth century, forged mainly by the practice of legal and medical discourse, outlined a path of institutionalization for poor children; first, in the post-abolition period  of enslavement until the thirties of the last century and, later, until the period of democratization of Brazil, considering the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The analysis for the proposed periods was based on the concept of disciplinary power and biopower, both coined by Foucault. Furthermore, the emergence of the black child was discussed, based on its status as a citizen child, contained in the Federal Constitution of 1988, and in the Statute of the Child and Adolescent created in the 1990s. From this period up to the present day, the text deals with the new devices created by the Brazilian State, which have ensured unequal conditions for black children and mainly promoted the increase of homicides among them.The analysis of the last period presented was based on the concept of “necropolitics,” developed by Achille Mbembe. Finally, we defend the principle that another childhood for black child will only be possible through a becoming-other, a new opening of the world and, above all, a decolonization of childhood for children belonging to the black ethnic-racial group.