Ser mulher e ser mulher negra : caminhos de uma emancipação epistêmica

Abstract

This dissertation entitled Being a woman and being a black woman: paths of an epistemic emancipation seeks to investigate a theory that points to a path of liberation for black women. Investigating whether this ―woman‖ concept excludes black women in a more socially profound way. I begin by explaining the social, political and epistemic implications that occurred as a consequence of philosophical ideas propagated mainly in the Enlightenment period about what a woman is. The idea of humanity was conceived through male and European subjects. Excluding all non-members of this group and classifying them as irrational. Faced with the questions presented by Simone de Beauvoir about the process of epistemic, political and social erasure of European women, I question the epistemic and consequently social place of black women in a general scope and within feminism itself. For this discussion I use the work of Angela Davis, problematizing the question of black women, who do not correspond to Beauvoir's definition of second sex. But where would the consolidation of the subordination of black women be? In the various oppressions. And how are such oppressions founded? This question is dealt with in the second chapter by analyzing the philosophical and social constructions about who is the subject of knowledge. In this chapter I propose to analyze the traditional idea of a disembodied epistemic subject and how this notion affects the knowledge of people who do not fit the mold of the same. In the course of answering these questions, I use the theories of feminist epistemologists, such as Sandra Harding and Miranda Fricker, to demonstrate how the notion of a universal subject is a problem in the production of knowledge, as it only allows a restricted group to produce it along the lines traditionally put. In the third chapter I deal with the epistemic injustices that affect the lives of black women in socially disadvantageous situations. Using the social and philosophical theory of Patrícia Hill Collins, I open a dialogue with Chapter 2 to seek to identify and conceptualize how black women deal with this structural erasure and organize themselves to produce knowledge and undo the stereotypes thrown at them.