Black women: political bodies also deserve affection

In this quarantine time, mental health is under discussion especially because we are in contact with the deepest dimensions of our subjectivity. But it is not possible to disregard structural dimensions such as gender, race and class, precisely because we live in a society organized by sexism, racism and capitalism.

Thus, even if we are a microorganism of this structure, we are daily impacted by each of the complexities imposed by this symbiotic system, which leads us to many questions.

Eurocentric society authorizes white as a subjective standard that must be loved, desirable, understandable, and worthy of affection. Therefore, many black women are isolated from healthy affective experiences to the point that loneliness is something that many of them go through during life, which sooner or later will bring melancholy, anguish, insecurity, anger and loss of self-esteem, as explained by psychoanalyst Neusa Santos in the book "Tornar-se negro: as virtudes da identidade do negro brasileiro em ascensão social, 1983." (Becoming black: the virtues of the identity of the Brazilian black on social ascension, 1983).

This is part of the much larger project, because Eurocentrism has established the narcissistic pact in all facets, including affection among their white counterparts. For Maria Bento, “White's raciality is experienced as a concentrated circle: whiteness expands, spreads, branches and directs the gaze towards itself”. - "Pactos narcísicos no racismo: branquitude e poder nas organizações empresariais e no poder público" (Narcissistic pacts in racism: whiteness and power in business organizations and public power).

On the other hand, this same whiteness hypersexualizes, castrates and regularizes the experience of black women in an attempt to continue their colonizing project based on the objectification of these bodies.

Hence, to get out of this trap imposed by whiteness, it is first necessary to dive into the experience of becoming black outside the structurally imposed white ego ideal. Neusa Santos believes that this white Ego ideal is related to “the sign of omnipotence and marked by the register of the imaginary, characterized by massive idealization and the predominance of phantasmatic representations” .

Therefore, the construction of desire is related to symbolism. For those aware of the decolonization aimed at retaking the subjective integrality of black women, it is essential to experience the fusion of the body, mind and spirit components that, in the hegemonic perspective, were totally separated to produce more pain, impotence, hatred and domination to these people .

Besides, Neusa Santos points out that the Ego Negro paradigm cannot be separated from History and politics, as these are also places where bodies assume their existence.

These reflections are an invitation to think about who produces the abysses of affection for black women, since care for these women is denied in the early years of childhood when they interact with institutional environments such as kindergarten and schools.

Later, in adolescence these girls are marked by sexualization. In adult life this tends to be aggravated, as violence is more open: toxic relationships, abuse, sexual harassment, hidden and inhuman relationships.

Therefore, understanding all the violence accumulated by black women related to denial of affection is also an invitation to move away from this ideal of white ego, so that intimacy, sexuality and affection also become a place of enjoyment for these women.