Dialogue in Black and White: an essay on masks, positionality, the self and the other in co-authorship

um ensaio sobre máscaras, lugar de fala, o eu e o outro em coautoria

Abstract

This essay develops a philosophical reflection on racism, positionality, and silencing through an experience of co-authorship between a Black female doctoral student and a white male PhD. The text adopts the form of dialogue, arguing that writing itself may function as a philosophical gesture rather than as a neutral vehicle for conceptual exposition. Drawing on the situated experiences of both authors, the essay examines the notion of positionality, especially in relation to the historical erasure and delegitimization of Black voices, particularly those of Black women. It then brings this discussion into dialogue with Paul Ricoeur’s phenomenology of suffering, emphasizing the links between suffering, diminished agency, the rupture of self-narration, and radical separation from others. Within this framework, Anastácia’s mask, as presented by Grada Kilomba, emerges as an exemplary figure of silencing: not merely a historical metaphor, but a living image of the prohibition of speech, action, and recognition. The essay argues that, when approached from the experience of racism, positionality reveals spaces of non-speech and silencing. It concludes that a philosophy committed to Brazilian reality must make room for forms of writing, language, and thought capable of accommodating historically marginalized epistemologies.