The Revolution Will Be Televised: Afro-Brazilian Media Production in São Paulo, Brazil
On November 20, 2005 a group composed predominately of Afro-Brazilian media workers launched the TV da Gente (Our TV) television network in São Paulo, Brazil. Hailed as the first television station to racially diversify its programs, TV da Gente challenged the ideal of racial democracy, which has historically informed Brazilian national identity. In my dissertation, I describe the marginal presence of Afro-Brazilians in the dominant representational terrain, which TV da Gente workers actively sought to resist and reframe. I argue that media workers at TV da Gente extended the field of social activism around racial equality from the state and NGOs to the mediated arena of commercial television by producing images of Afro-Brazilians that deviated from and opposed mainstream public representations of blackness. Overall, my dissertation contends that commercial television acts as a new site of and resource for black cultural politics in Brazil.
Reighan Gillam - DAAS - University of Michigan - [email protected]