"O resto da minha vida sem meu filho”: pandemia de racismo no caso de Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva

Abstract

This research will analyze the case of Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva, 5 years old, son of domestic worker Mirtes Renata de Souza. On June 2, 2020, in full lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in the city of Recife (PE), Mirtes had to go to work and left her son Miguel in the care of her boss Sarí Côrte Real, while she took the dog is allowed to do it physiological needs in the vicinity of the building. The boss left the child alone in the elevator, causing the boy to fall and die. The focus of the analysis is based on the concept of Agency (BERNARDINO-COSTA, 2007; ASANTE, 2009), to understand the mobilization created by mother Mirtes. We will use the Digital Ethnography method to analyze the impact this case had in terms of denouncing racism on digital social networks. The research also gives centrality to the work of Lélia Gonzalez (2018), seeking to understand the relevance of her work for the analysis of domestic work in the lives of black women. We also make use of the concept of whiteness (CARDOSO, 2014; BENTO, 2016) in order to elaborate a reflection on the infantilization of white women (ALBUQUERQUE; DINIZ, 2022) for the interpretation of this case, and of African Womanism (HUDSON-WEEMS, 2020) to understand matriarchy and its relationship with care work, the basis for sustaining life.