HISTORICAL MEMORY OF SLAVERY IN BRAZIL: SILENCING, ERASURE, AND NARRATIVE DISPUTES

Abstract

This article analyzes structural racism in Brazil based on its historical origins and its persistence in the present This article analyzes the construction of the historical memory of slavery in Brazil and the processes of silencing that shaped its narrative consolidation. It is based on the assumption that social memory does not constitute a neutral record of the past, but rather the result of selective frameworks that define what should be preserved or marginalized. The general objective is to examine how the official memory of slavery was structured and how its gaps contributed to the naturalization of racial inequalities in the post-abolition period. Specifically, the study investigates the formation of the official narrative, the role of the myth of racial democracy in neutralizing historical conflict, and contemporary disputes over the interpretation of the slave past. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, theoretical-bibliographic study grounded in the articulation between studies on collective memory, archive theory, and structural racism. The results indicate that the erasure of enslaved violence did not occur through the absence of records, but through their symbolic reorganization, producing a narrative of historical closure. It is concluded that the memory of slavery remains a field of interpretative dispute and that its silences play a significant role in sustaining contemporary racial hierarchies.