Experiences of Anti-Indigenous Racism Against UFAM's Undergraduate Women

Abstract

When dealing with prejudice and discrimination against indigenous people, literature has named it anti-indigenous racism, a phenomenon that also occurs among university students. Our objective was to analyze, from a psychosocial perspective, the experiences of anti-indigenous racism reported by indigenous undergraduate women at the Federal University of Amazonas during their schooling and graduation. Through qualitative research, with an open narrative interview, four self-declared students from the Baniwa, Mura, Sateré-Maué and Yanomami ethnicities participated. After thematic content analysis, we arrived at the categories: cultural shock with schooling and university; questionings about quotas and indigenous identity; appearance and beauty; language silencing and heteroidentification. We found that episodes of anti-indigenous racism due to prejudice, discrimination and social humiliation generated suffering and non-recognition of the students. We conclude that the university environment is not yet a place that is fully welcoming or respectful of differences, but rather a place that reproduces ethnocentric Western standards of aesthetics, privileges and knowledge.