The 59th medical class at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Quilombo Ubuntu Collective honor, this Friday (8), at the institution’s Teatro de Arena, black corpses used for studies in the Anatomy Laboratory.
An initiative of the black students of the class, the tribute is supported by the Executive Board of Human Rights (DeDH) of the institution and by the Academic Center Adolfo Lutz, which brings together medical students. At the event, a plaque will be inaugurated, which will later be affixed at the Anatomy Laboratory of the Institute of Biology (IB).
The executive director of Human Rights at Unicamp, Professor Silvia Maria Santiago, stated that the action brings to the fore the role of blacks in the university. “Is black the one who builds the walls or who then cleans the spaces, or the one who is on the cold table of an anatomy room? Or can the place of the black person be the place of the student, the place of the researcher, the place of the professor, the place of the specialized technician?”, she questioned her.
“We are revering this anonymous corpse of pathological anatomy, the black man, but pointing to the front, which is the defense that black people can occupy a prominent place within universities”, he said. The corpses used in the institution’s laboratory are mostly black people. In general, according to Silvia, the bodies destined for studies correspond to people considered indigent.
The professor said that this medical class woke up to the issue of black corpses in the laboratory last year, their first year at the university, during a class on medical ethics, in which Silvia spoke about racism at the university and in society. “It was shocking for the black student, when he started his studies in anatomy, to realize that most of the corpses were black, so they questioned why the majority have to be black bodies.”
This year, the proposal for the tribute emerged, an initiative of the black students of the class, which had the support of colleagues, professors and the university. Musical performances by Fabiana Cozza, singer and doctoral student at the Instituto de Artes (IA) are also planned for the event; Ilessi, singer, songwriter and PhD student at IA; Douglas Alonso, percussionist and teacher, and Marília Corrêa, singer and songwriter.
