Ways and detours in guarantee of health for the black population and the confrontation of racism in Brazil.

Institutional racism is prevalent in the health services in Brazil and is based on concrete power relations that subjugate, dominate and exclude blacks from having adequate access to health care and health institutions. This critical essay analyzes the importance of expanding the debate, and the production of knowledge about the health of the black population (HBP), focusing on two points: the role of the National Policy for the Integral Health of the Black Population (PNSIPN) and the importance of including the skin color item in the health information systems; and the need for a process of permanent training of professionals, including contents related to the understanding of racism as an element of the social determination of health/disease and heir effects. To demonstrate how structural and institutional racism have affected the black population, we bring also examples of the quilombola populations in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country since 2020.