RACIAL DISCRIMINATION: PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS FROM HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The impacts of racism in contexts such as the school environment, the labor market, and the prison system significantly affect young black people. Within this perspective, this article aims to analyze the experiences of racial discrimination experienced by students from five higher education institutions in the State of Ceará. The study is part of a broader research entitled "Racial Discrimination and Mental Health in Universities", characterized as an exploratory, descriptive and cross-sectional research, with a quantitative approach. The research was carried out with students regularly enrolled in undergraduate courses at five higher education institutions in Ceará, resulting in a final sample of 829 students. The instrument used was the "Racial Discrimination Scale". The results show a significant difference in the response to unfair treatment (p = 0.016), with the majority of students trying to react to racial discrimination, especially those from FIED, with 82.9%. Regarding concern about racial injustice in the last year, students from UVA and FIED had the highest rates, with 73.9% and 73.2%, respectively. Regarding the experience of having suffered racial discrimination, students from UVA and F5 were ahead of the other institutions, with 34.3% and 30%, respectively. It was found that while the majority of students from FIED 82.9% and UVA 77.4% tend to adopt an active stance, trying to react to unfair treatment, a considerable proportion of students from FLF 42.6% tend to accept this discrimination as a fact of life. These results indicate that there are differences in the way students perceive and react to racial discrimination in the institutions analyzed. While some adopt active postures of confrontation, others tend to accept discrimination as something inevitable, reflecting different approaches to racism. Concern about racial injustice is more pronounced in some institutions, suggesting that cultural and contextual factors play an important role in shaping these perceptions.