Abolição da escravidão, cidadania e raça no Brasil : uma análise do livro didático

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how the process of racial discrimination in the early Brazilian Republic, especially after the abolition of slavery, contributed to the consolidation of racial prejudice and the limitation of Black citizenship in Brazil, based on the approach adopted in the textbook História: Sociedade e Cidadania – 8º ano by Alfredo Boulos Júnior. Considering the central role of educational materials in shaping values and historical interpretations, the research investigates how the school narrative addresses the post-abolition period, European immigration, indigenism, and the Black presence in republican society. The methodology consisted of a critical analysis of both the textual and visual content of the work, confronting it with the guidelines of the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) and the legal frameworks for education on ethnic-racial relations. The study revealed the presence of silences, superficialities, and conceptual omissions that contribute to the maintenance of an exclusionary curriculum, lacking analytical tools that would allow students to understand racism as a historical structure. The absence of Black protagonists, of terms such as “structural racism” or “reparation,” and of connections to contemporary social realities undermines the material’s critical potential. It is concluded that the adopted approach reinforces a conciliatory and depoliticized view of history, erasing conflicts, erasing subjects, and minimizing the enduring impacts of post-slavery exclusion. Overcoming this logic requires a reformulation of textbooks and the enhancement of narratives that recognize and place the historical Black experience at the center.