THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED: AFRO-BRAZILIAN MEDIA PRODUCTION IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Reighan Alexandra Gillam May 2012 © 2012 Reighan Alexandra Gillam THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED: AFRO-BRAZILIAN MEDIA PRODUCTION IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL Reighan Alexandra Gillam, Ph. D. Cornell University 2012 This dissertation documents the development of the TV da Gente (Our TV) television network in São Paulo, Brazil. The first network of its kind in Brazil, TV da Gente producers channeled blackness as a focal point for television production by employing Afro-Brazilians to appear on the shows as central figures and by creating content that sought to appeal to an Afro-Brazilian audience. This dissertation characterizes the racially unequal visual relations in Brazil through the ways in which Afro-Brazilians are and are not seen in public images. It foregrounds these racially unequal visual relations as sites of contestation for Afro-Brazilian media producers at TV da Gente. I track the roles of Afro-Brazilians in mainstream Brazilian visual culture to demonstrate the ways in which they remain conspicuously absent or marginally present with public representations. An examination of TV da Gente television producers’ intentions in program creation and an analysis of the programs they made shows that they privileged middle class images of Afro-Brazilians that emphasized education, professional work, and civic responsibility. I argue that the visual conditions of Afro-Brazilian images that already saturated the public sphere circumscribed the images available to TV da Gente workers for Afro-Brazilian visibility. The emphasis on a middle class image of Afro-Brazilians enabled them to intervene within and challenge the stereotypical and limited representations of Afro-Brazilians that proliferate in public life. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Reighan Alexandra Gillam was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelors of Arts Degree from University of Virginia in 2003, where she double majored in Anthropology and African and African American Studies. She received her Masters of Arts degree from Cornell University in 2007 and her Doctor of Philosophy Degree in 2012. She will be a Post- Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. iii To my parents Warren and Dorothy Gillam iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was funded by: Sage Fellowships from Cornell University, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, a Tinker Foundation Fellowship for preliminary research, the Five College Dissertation Fellowship at Mt. Holyoke College, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Stipend. This support aided in my ability to do field research for this project and write up the results for this dissertation. The seeds for the subject matter covered in this dissertation were planted during my time as an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia. Anthropology classes with Hanan Sabea, Wende Marshall, and George Mentore solidified my interest in the discipline. A class on Brazilian society and culture with David Haberly and a class on race and ethnicity in Latin America with Brian Owensby oriented me towards Afro-Latin America, and specifically Afro- Brazilians, for further research. Thanks to Corey Walker and Kimberley Roberts for their early support in going to graduate school. Thanks to the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers in Andover, MA for facilitating my application to graduate school. I would like to thank my current and former committee members who have provided much needed guidance and advice throughout every step of this process. Thank you to Audra Simpson and Jakob Rigi for their early guidance in helping me to theoretically frame this project. Thank you to Dominic Boyer for his generous insights regarding media, alterity, and anthropology, as well as about the workings of the academy in general. Thank you to John Burdick for agreeing to join my committee and for asking challenging questions and keeping my attention attuned to the Brazilian context. Thank you to Carole Boyce Davies for her sharp analytical focus, her advice on life and on work, and for always acting as a model for and a constant reminder for me to claim my ideas and make a space for myself. Thank you to Jane Fajans for her careful reading of my chapters and the encouragement to finish when I lacked v such direction. Finally, thank you to Viranjini Munasinghe, my advisor, for her consistent support of my research and my project from my entry into this program to my final exit from it. I would like to thank Viranjini for orienting my framework for this project, for encouraging me to think broadly and theoretically, and for helping me shape interesting claims. I would like to thank the members of my cohort for their company throughout the various stages of the PhD process. Thanks to Krista Schoening for her generous spirit, Kate Harding for her quick mind, Olivia Hall for her willingness to be helpful, and Hong Bui, for her reminders to enjoy life. I would like to thank Ivan Small for his constant friendship and his calm entertainment of my machinations. I could not have asked for a better group of people with whom to accompany on this journey. I would also like to thank other students in the Cornell Department of Anthropology for their conversations, their company, and their camaraderie throughout this process: Tina Shrestha, Bernardo Brown, and Tim Haupt. Thanks to Alima Bissenova for your willingness to read. Many thanks to other graduate students at Cornell: Amanda Gilvin, Brinda Kumar, John Phan, Rebecca Tally, and Claudine Ang. Thanks to Gladys Mitchell for her constant support and for helping me find a community of Brazilianists to talk to and share my work with. Thanks to Fatimah Williams Castro for offering to read material when I could not see my way out of it. Thanks to Laurence Ralph and Rocío Magaña for helping me to get me through the final stages of editing and constructing a draft of the dissertation. Thanks to Britt Halvorson, Debbora Battaglia, and Sarah Sarzynski for their friendship at Mt. Holyoke and beyond. Thanks to Nadia Brown for inspiring me to just write. Thanks to Joshua Roth and Daniel Reichman for their interest in my research and support of my academic progression. Thanks to Linston Terry for encouraging me when I doubted myself. Thanks to Bryan Pitts for keeping me in the know. vi Thanks to the people in Brazil who have made São Paulo home. Thanks to Marcio “Kibe” Macedo, Flavio Francisco, Luciana Santos Barbosa, Gabriela Watson, Cintia Gomes, Ailton Pinheiro, Lucas Bento, Rosangela Malachias, Suzanna Ruzzanate, Andre Gustavo Chagas, Thiago Luiz da Costa, Jaira Harrington, Rocío Alonso Lorenzo, and Jamila Cupid. Special thanks to Leticia Stanchi Barbosa for her friendship in São Paulo during my fieldwork. I am forever indebted to the media workers who shared their experiences and insights with me; they made this dissertation possible. Thanks to my friends who have reminded me that there is more to life then a PhD. Special thanks to Brandon Woods for the constant contact, check ins, and conversations. Many thanks to Colleen MacNett for remaining in contact with me from near and far. Thanks to Helina Meri, Rahel Chrinet, and Yemi Aberra, who facilitated my world citizenship. Thanks to those who have helped to make Ithaca a home, rather then just a location where I study. Thanks to my Sorors in the Ithaca Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.: Malinda Smith, Jessica Harris, Schelley Michell-Nunn, Denise Lee, Ella Awa, Shewanee Howard, Erin Johnson, and Michelle Berry. Special thanks to my line sisters: Deniqua Crichlow, Cate Thompson, Jillian Joseph, and Tresala Smith-Parker. Thanks to Dan Castilow for the companionship. Thanks to my family for their constant support and probing questions about when I am finally going to graduate. Thanks to: Brenda Johnson, Claudia Johnson, Evelyn Scott, Tyrone Scott, Wilene Amy Scott, Tyesha, Iliana, and Wanessa, Teisha Johnson, Robert Roman, Stephanie Johnson, Tamara Johnson, Sheila Jones, Raymond Jones, Tasha Jones, Katrina Jones, and Adrienne Jones. Thanks to Milton Curry for your love and support. Special thanks to my mom and dad: Dorothy and Warren Gillam. Their constant support through encouragement, money, and engaging with my research have sustained me from beginning to end. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch ....................................................................................................... iii Dedication ...................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ v Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ............................................................................................................... xii Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 National Media, Hegemony, and Racial Inequality .................................................. 2 Media and Minority Activism ..................................................................................