MAYBE I AM “TOO BLACK”

when there is a lack of love, there is too much melanin

Abstract

Historically, black women have experienced multiple adversities due to racism and sexism that reflect in their affection. For society, being black means being taken, being subdued, and suffering intimate violence. However, there are a few studies that address racism, gender, and affectivity. The objective of this research was to understand the implications of being a black woman in the affective field. As a methodology, social constructivist qualitative research was adopted, which uses the Map of Associations of Ideas to analyze the discourses of five self-declared black women. The results suggest that aesthetics and black women are spaces in which racial prejudice is fed in the affective field. The more melanin, the less love and the more humiliation and loneliness. The results were presented in four topics together with the speeches of the participants. Therefore, the conclusion is that the more African characteristics, the less love and more affective loneliness. However, the situations reported also suggest the possibility of reversing this process with “aquilombamento”, a form of resistance and possibility of new types of support among black women.