"Race and health": Black female healthcare providers in the COVID-19 pandemic

This article stems from postdoctoral research with Black female healthcare providers who worked on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. It sought to understand their experiences based on their family and professional trajectories, when caring for themselves and others, with racism as a common thread. In total, 14 women from different health backgrounds were interviewed. The network of affections technique was used, in which these women indicated other women in their work cycle and/or friendships. The interviews were conducted online or in their workplaces. Analyses were based on the concepts of "device of raciality" and "gendered racism," revealing aspects related to the precariousness of work, exhaustion, loneliness, the erasure of these women's contributions and the colonial continuity in institutional and interpersonal relations in health, which symbolically and materially attributes to Blackwomen functions linked to servitude, which were raised to maximum power in the context of a global health crisis. This studybrings a contribution to the field of study on the health of the Black population by showing the need for self-care and institutional care for these workers, focused on the daily micropolitics of confronting racism.