Legitimizing and camuflaged identities: between racism, submission and resistance

There is a clear tension within Brazilian society between the racial definition of categories which identify people in relation to their ethnic origin and the impact of this marking upon their social status. Several studies have discussed the ‘Myth of Racial Democracy’ in Brazil, identifying the existence of a “cordial” racism, and the tendency for a false "whitening" of the population. Our study aims to analyze the discourses used by coroners who are responsible for determining the race-skin colour of individuals who have died by violent causes (statistically one of the most important causes of death). The analysis considers the very specific nature of the work of the Medico-legal, by exploring the discourses used to classify skin-colour and the accompanying attributions made to behavior (qua cause of death) dependent upon these classifications. The professional’s discourses concerning race-colour tend to correspond to a spectrum of what we term political-ideological positions. These positions reveal political identities concerned with processes of legitimizing, camouflaged, resistance and project. The research confirmed the phenomenon of “whitening” in cases of violent death, whereby people from non-white groups were classified as white on the death certificate. This means that this phenomenon affects not only the census record of the living but also the statistics of mortality. The results showed the main ideological mechanisms through which both racism and the construction of political identities run in health institutions. Also, they highlight aspects of the identity of those who identify the dead, how their identities determine the identity of their object, and how the adopted discourse justifies this determination.