Raça Magazine and FCB Brasil Launch Digital Tool to Amplify Black Voices

While more than half of the Brazilian population is Black, the country’s racial makeup is not reflected in its institutions. For example, 90% of its CEOs, 84% of the journalists at its largest newspapers, and 82.2% of its deputies and senators are white. 

As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, Raça Magazine is launching #VozPreta ('Black Characters'), raising awareness of, and speaking out against, the structural racism that regularly erases and silences Black voices and references in Brazilian society. #VozPreta went live on April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of iconic Black activist Martin Luther King Jr. 

Developed by FCB Studio and FCB Brasil, the opt-in tool can be accessed at VozPreta.com.br or used directly on Twitter when users download the Chrome extension. The social network was selected based on its high levels of engagement among journalists, politicians and opinion-makers. 

While Twitter allows for tweets of up to 280 characters, people tend to use an average of only 33. The idea of #VozPreta is to leverage that unused space by automatically filling the remaining character count with Black references. When someone starts typing a tweet, the tool recognizes the subject of the text and provides a Black cultural reference that automatically fills in the remaining space. 

If someone tweets briefly about politics, for example, #VozPreta might respond with information about a leading Brazilian political figure like Erika Hilton. If someone tweets about the economy, it might fill in the remaining space by mentioning Lisiane Lemos, co-founder of the Black Professionals Network, which connects Black professionals to companies.  

In a country where structural racism is so prevalent, #VozPreta is intended to help amplify the voices of Black intellectuals and professionals by covering a wide array of topics. The database is based on 25 years of articles published by Raça Magazine, and may be updated with new publications. It is dynamic and allows anyone from the Black community to include and suggest new content for use.

"Racism works by devaluing Black narratives, silencing stories that permeate the country's political, social, and cultural foundations, and keeping these stories from being shared in an equalitarian basis," says Maurício Pestana, one of Brazil’s leading Black activists.  

“This doesn't happen for lack of references, but a lack of space within public opinion,” he says. “And that's why ‘Black Characters’ becomes even more relevant. We need to increase the visibility and mitigate the erasure that is forced upon the Black population."