Note from BBT: Whenever I read news reports that discuss the first black man, black woman or something that features a team of all black people doing something for first time, it always strikes me two ways. These two reactions should be obvious. On the one hand, it’s great to see black people advancing in careers and areas that they have been traditionally excluded from in one way or another. We’ve been seeing this quite a bit in numerous areas throughout Brazilian society for the past few decades, but specifically in the last decade or so.
On the other hand, coming across the phrase ‘’the first black_________’’ always reminds us just how long persons of African descent have been treated as second class citizens, inferior or incapable or carrying out the same functions as non-black people. In terms of two black anchors hosting a news program for the first, we saw a story similar to this back in 2018.
This point is always all the more frustrating when you read this sort of thing coming out of states such as Bahia, located in Brazil’s northeast. The state has always been known for having a large black population and being perhaps the most important state in terms of the influence of black and African culture in the country. When you take a deeper look into what has been long called ‘’Bahian apartheid’’, you understand why it that in the 21st century, we still have so many ‘’first black’’ stories becoming public knowledge.
For the first time two black people will present a news program together at Rede Bahia
By Italo Oliveira
For the first time since its debut, in 1997, two black hosts will lead “Bahia Meio Dia (BMD)”, a news broadcast by Rede Bahia, an affiliate of Globo TV, Brazil’s top television network. The journalists from Bahia, Vanderson Nascimento and Luana Assiz, will present the program, which will be aired this Saturday (2) at 11:45am.
Luana and Vanderson have already worked together presenting the program “Conversa Preta”, meaning ‘black talk’, also on Rede Bahia. Luana Assiz has a degree in Economics and Journalism from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), and her curriculum includes experiences at Bahia State TV (TVE) and CBN Radio Salvador, both as host and reporter. She was hired by Rede Bahia in February 2019.
Vanderson Nascimento, in turn, has a master’s degree in Communication from the University of Coimbra (Portugal), and has already worked at the channel “TV do Estado”, where he was on the journal “TVE Notícias”, and also at the Band Bahia broadcasting station, where he was a reporter. At Rede Bahia, the network he has been at since 2016, he worked as a reporter and in February 2021 he took over, along with Jessica Senra, the presentation of the BMD journal from Monday to Saturday, when the program went through a reformulation. With this he was in charge of the “Blog do emprego”, meaning “Job Blog”, “Talentos da Comunidade” e “Parceiros do BMD”.
The importance of this edition of BMD is historical, according to Bruna Rocha, journalism student and participant of the “Parceiros do BMD” segment, which aims to give visibility to journalists in training. The students are in charge of the whole production process of the report that is aired weekly during the transmission of the program.
In an interview, she revealed how moved she was to see the call from the hosts on social media and the representation for young blacks. “As a journalism student, black woman and activist, my heart throbs, because the great feeling is of belonging and for a black person this is very important. After all, we are great, we are powerful, and the racists should get out of the way because we are occupying everything,” said Bruna Rocha.
Source: Notícia Preta
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