Journalism or activism? Black journalists’ collaboration with the Brazilian Observatory of Racial Discrimination in Football in the Brazilian sports media’

Brazilian football still struggles with racial prejudice. Considered for decades a space where Black and mixed-race players could thrive, the sport is still plagued with reports of racial abuse and other kinds of discrimination. The coverage of these issues by the media, however, has changed since 2015, when the Observatório da Discriminação Racial no Futebol (Brazilian Observatory of Racial Discrimination in Football) was founded. The organization catalogs dozens of discriminatory incidents in Brazilian sports every year. These efforts have helped change the perception of Brazil’s sports media, composed mainly of white, heterosexual men, who had long treated these episodes as “isolated cases.“ Now, there is a newfound understanding of discrimination as a structural issue in Brazilian sports culture. This paper looks at the relationship between Black and mixed-race journalists in the sports media and their personal and professional support for the Observatory’s work, as well as the impact the lack of diversity in Brazilian newsrooms has on the fight against discrimination. My goal is to learn from the lived experiences of these journalists, as well as the founder of the Observatory, to understand how we can optimize this relationship and amplify the impact of the Observatory’s work in Brazilian sports.