Afro Peruvians and the media: images, representations, and social effects

Despite the ethnic and cultural diversity that exists in Peru, racial discrimination and racial
prejudice are still very present in society, and they have been manifested in multiple ways,
altering the social dynamics between ethnic groups. One of these groups is the Afro-Peruvian
population, considered to be one of the vulnerable groups that experience racism at a higher
level.
One of the most visible ways in which racism can manifest itself is through the portrayal of
negative images, the reproduction of negative stereotypes, and the justification of racist attitudes
in the national media. These stereotypes are not limited to beauty ideals related to physical
appearance, but that have also been extended to configure stereotypes associated with their
abilities, competences and social attitudes.
Adjectives associated with the common stereotypes by which Afro-Peruvians are identified have
been displayed repeatedly by written and audiovisual media: there has been a systematic
discrimination in the roles afro Peruvians are related to, mainly in the way they are represented
in comedy programs of the national media, where even the use of blackface is accepted and
their physical characteristics are exaggerated in the name of humor.
This paper will focus on analyzing the impacts of media representations of Afro-Peruvians in
the construction and transformation of their identities, the effects of these representations in the
construction of stereotypes and socially accepted conceptions; and the efforts to resignify and
reconstruct afroperuanidad in this scenario.