The Racism of the Body:Psychosociological Processes of School Discrimination

Abstract

Objective.
This article aims to reflect on the results of a socio-educational study whose purpose was to
understand the social construction of students’ bodies and emotions and their relationships with the production
of violence, keeping in mind that coexistence is framed in a network of social bonds whose emotional matrix
is encoded and decoded within the bodies.
Method.
In-depth interviews with a semi-structured guide were
used. Data analysis included inductive-deductive procedures.
Results.
The analysis of the young people’s
testimonies, wrought with material and symbolic conditions of urban marginality, allows for the interpretation
of certain corporal features that work as signs of humiliation and self-humiliation, particularly the skin. Racism
of the body is expressed in the modes of school interaction where some groups believe themselves superior and
subsume others who they consider to be of lesser social value.
Conclusion.
Faced with the feeling of exclusion
and the denial of subjectivity, certain behaviors associated with violence towards others or practices of self-
destruction may be triggered. The skin is the repository of this social pain that may be translated into bodily
self-injury.