Debates About Race

1)What is your first memory (or memories) of African Americans in mass media? How do these memories inform us about race, gender, and sexuality?  This might be of watching a particular tv series with your family, playing with a doll, reading a comic book, watching a music video, going to the movies with friends, etc.  What were some of your impressions and recollections? How did these memories impact the way you viewed African Americans or your own identity?  When was the mass media object made and what does that item say about the time period it was produced in and when it was consumed?  How is your personal experience with this item linked to social, cultural, and/or political contexts? 2) How are Brazilian telenovelas immersed in debates about race, blackness, and national identity?   What are some of the similarities and differences with U.S. mass media?  What can we learn from the Brazilian televisual context and apply it to our own understandings of race and media in the U.S.?