digital
integrator
The
n Brazil, we have
reached a
decisive moment in our history.
Abroad, we are now considered
one of the so-called emerging
countries. At home, ethnic and
racial inclusion is an increas-
ingly important part of the na-
tional agenda. On the economic
front, the giant pre-salt oil re-
serves recently discovered in the
offshore Tupi fields give us the
potential to be a major oil ex-
porter in coming decades. And
we will soon be hosting both
the 2014 World Cup and the 2016
Summer Olympics.
However, if Brazil hopes to
be a leader among emerging na-
tions, we must overcome seri-
ous internal problems such as
inadequate income distribu-
tion, low investment in educa-
tion, institutional racism, and
digital apartheid.
Paulo Rogério According to a 2005 United Na-
b. tions Development Programme
1 February 1981 (UNDP) survey, 70 percent of the
poor in Brazil are black. UNDP
Founder, figures also show that Afro-Bra-
Instituto Mídia Étnica zilian women (according to In-
Salvador, Brazil stituto Ethos) make up only one
percent of executives in the
country’s 500 largest compa-
nies and that blacks represent
just 15 percent of journalists,
although they make up 45 per-
cent of the population, reflect-
ing the under representation of
Afro-Brazilians in forming pub-
lic opinion. All this in a country
where Afro-Brazilians, at current
levels of population growth, are
likely to become an absolute ma-
64  Americas Quarterly  w i n t e r 2010
jority in 10 years.
Our most important chal-
lenge is overcoming what I con-
sider digital apartheid.
Global connectivity is one of
the defining characteristics of
Generation Y—those born after
1980 who did not need to learn to
use computers and cell phones as
adults. They grew up during the
development of personal com-
puters and the Internet. The fact
that many of us were raised with
an intimate knowledge of digi-
tal media greatly influences the
way we see the world and how
we face challenges. This genera-
tion has pioneered open-source
digital systems, the use of cyber-
activism to promote democracy
and global actions in defense of
the environment.
However, many Brazilians
have not been included in this
“digital revolution.” In Brazil’s
capital, Brasilia, for example,
the richest 10 percent have an In-
ternet access rate of 76 percent,
equivalent to that of the Nether-
lands. Among the poor blacks of
Salvador—another major Brazil-
ian city—only a minority of res-
idents have a computer at home.
According to a 2008 study by the
Centro de Estudos sobre as Tecno-
logias da Informação e da Comu-
nicação (CETIC), nearly half (47
percent) of Brazilians had never
used a computer.
This technological exclusion
violates human rights in the
same way that policies of racial
apartheid kept millions of black
South Africans outside their
a m e r i c a s q u a r t e r ly . o r g
Voices
from
the
New
Generation
country’s political system.
The state recognizes this prob-
lem and has taken steps to de-
mocratize Internet access. By
2010, Brazil’s Ministry of Sci-
ence and Technology will have
invested approximately $28.2
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Mário Neto
Rogério at
Instituto Mídia
Étnica,
December
2009.
million in building 2,000 tele- Key measures that we believe
centros that will provide free In- will help build a true global de-
ternet access to users and also mocracy include:
in helping the Ministry of Edu- Ending digital apartheid by
cation bring computers into the increasing Afro-Brazilians’
public schools. access to Internet technology
But more needs to be done. Encouraging entrepreneur-
winter 2010  Americas Quarterly  65

If we are able to ship for all economic classes
of Brazilians
influence public Improving the social and en-
opinion through vironmental role of corpo-
our own media rations
Increasing political participa-
outlets we tion of youth
will be able Expanding the transparency
to overcome and efficiency of public insti-
the black tutions
There is also a need for policies
community’s that will help bring about the
traditional lack full inclusion of the poor, blacks,
of political indigenous, migrants, and other
voice. “wretched of the earth” as identi-
fied by the late Frantz Fanon.
To this end, Brazilian youth
have attempted to advance racial
equality by fighting for affirma-
tive action in universities, cre-
ating networks of cooperation
and building alternative forms
of communication.
The organization I founded,
AQ ASKS Instituto Mídia Étnica (www.
midiaetnica.org), aims to help
the black community develop
Paulo Rogério appropriate communication and
What countries information tools. I created Mí-
have you visited? dia Étnica because I understood
U.S., England, that, historically, Afro-Brazil-
Germany, France, ians have been excluded from
Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia, the production and broadcast
Greece, and Turkey. of media content.
When I studied communica-
What is your tions at Universidade Católica do
favorite website? Salvador in 2002, I became aware
www. that issues of diversity in the me-
direitoacomunicacao. dia were simply not discussed
org.br
and that there were no black
With which musician teachers in a city where more
do you most identify? than 80 percent of the inhab-
Fela Kuti because of his itants were of African descent.
message for the union Our organization intended to
of all Afro-descendants involve Brazil’s black advocacy
across the world. organizations in discussions
about the media with a goal of
Whom do you campaigning for greater media
most admire? diversity. We were one of the
Barack Obama.   first groups of Afro-Brazilians
to discuss communication oli-
gopolies—the concentration of
Brazilian media in the hands of
a few white families.
66  Americas Quarterly  w i n t e r 2010
Voices
from
the
New
Generation
If we are able to influence
public opinion through our own
media outlets, we will be able to
overcome the black communi-
ty’s traditional lack of political
voice. One of the topics we dis-
covered was that the concentra-
tion of radio licenses for areas
that served Afro-Brazilian com-
munities—often with public
concessions—were controlled by
non-Afro-Brazilians—a serious
constraint on the ability of Afro-
Brazilians to reflect their own
cultural and political issues. Our
initiatives seek to help increase
the self-esteem of thousands
who do not recognize themselves
in the media, and we will contrib-
ute to Brazil’s development as we
help give voice to the majority of
the population­—voices that are
now silenced.
We began our organization as
a group of media students in Sal-
vador. Today, we have collabora-
tion across Brazil and the world.
We have our own news portal, a
collaborative Web 2.0 platform
(www.correionago.ning.com),
and soon will have our own on-
line TV channel.
We also helped to organize
what became an historic event
for Brazilian democracy, the First
National Brazilian Conference on
the Media. The event helped re-
define the legal framework of the
Brazilian communications land-
scape by rethinking issues such
as universal broadband, the de-
mocratization of digital TV and
criteria for allocation of radio
shows, among other topics.
I predict that in 20 years, we
will have implemented a suc-
cessful development agenda for
Brazil based on sustainable de-
velopment, a democratic com-
munications platform, equality
of opportunity between the
sexes, and especially an end
to the silent genocide of black
youth who are systematically
targeted by police and paramili-
taries—often the result of sensa-
tionalist media that stigmatizes
Afro-Brazilians.
There are many encouraging
signs of progress. The Instituto
Cultural Steve Biko (www.ste-
vebiko.org.br), for example, has
worked to popularize science and
increase the number of Afro-Bra-
zilian scientists. With the help of
this project, Sheila Gomes, a black
youth, was given the Young Sci-
entist Award by President Lula
in 2007.
Minister of Sports Orlando
Silva is one of the youngest min-
isters in Brazilian history and
was the first black member of
the National Student Union. In
the private sector, Romero Ro-
drigues founded BuscaPé, an
Internet search engine, in 1988,
with an initial investment of $56
and over the next decade trans-
formed his idea into Brazil’s larg-
est e-commerce company, with
operations in Mexico, Argentina,
Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Spain.
Recently, the site was sold to a
South African group for $342
million, and the young found-
ers remain in the company’s se-
nior management as minority
shareholders.
These experiences should
serve as examples to millions of
young people around the world,
showing that youthful vitality
coupled with creativity and per-
severance can make our world a
better place to live with greater
equality, prosperity and respect
for the environment.
Constructing a genuine de-
mocracy in Brazil requires
broad public access to commu-
nications—whether through
public concessions or univer-
sal access to the Internet. In all
these cases, we must ensure that
the media reflect the opinions
and traditions of our social di-
versity. 
a m e r i c a s q u a r t e r ly . o r g