Entre presenças e ausências: repensando as relações entre hipertensão, raça e cuidado

In this article, I reflect on how race emerges and produces effects in the practices developed for hypertension care. High blood pressure is a chronic health condition prevalent among Black people, and I propose to show how differences and inequalities shape its care. I argue that, even when not objectively invoked, race and racism are nonetheless present, to some extent, precisely through their supposed absences. The data presented here stem from ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2024 in a primary health care service and a research group focused on Black population health. The analysis centers on the different ways hypertension is diagnosed and treated, and on how distinct ontological domains become entangled, producing effects on how the condition manifests in the body. In light of this, I describe how race constitutes an absent presence in hypertension care practices. By making this analytical move, I aim to denaturalize purely biological explanations and to expose the concrete effects of processes of differentiation and inequality on ways of falling ill. I argue that the emergence of this health condition goes beyond purely pathophysiological explanations, making it evident that race, although often silenced in health care practices, produces tangible effects in both diagnosis and care. By navigating presences and absences throughout the article, my aim is to take seriously not only visible objects and practices, but also those that are not, in order to ethnographically describe the effects of race on the manifestation, diagnosis, and care of hypertension.