Applying Latina/o Critical Communication Theory Anti-Blackness MARI CASTAEDA Latinalo Critical Communication Theory | Afro-Latinos | Spanish...

Transcribed Image Text:

Applying Latina/o Critical Communication Theory Anti-Blackness MARI CASTAEDA Latinalo Critical Communication Theory | Afro-Latinos | Spanish language media The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has helped to call attention long-standing racist attitudes and policing practices, using the tools of digital communication. While we often focus on its impact in the United States, this movement has extended across the Americas in its call to fight anti-Blackness. Within North American Latinx communities, it has specifically provided a rallying point for Afro-Latinx individuals and communities who have long faced discrimination and racism, par- icalarly within media. For instance, we saw a historic change in Latinx media in 2017 when Ilia Caldern was selected to replace Maria Elena Salinas after thirty-six years of co-anchoring the national news program Noticiero Univision on the fifth-largest network in the United States (Univision 2017). Univision's hiring of Caldern was significant because she became the first Afro-Latina journalist to ever co-anchor a national evening news program on U.S. Spanish-language television, and the first person from Choco, Colombia, to achieve such prominence in North American Latinx media. Choc is a coastal region in Colombia that is historically and dominantly Black, and an area that the rest of Colombia has generally treated with racist attitudes and stereotypes. In my own travels throughout Colombia in 2015, many individuals Lencountered made racialized and problematic comments about resi- dents of Choc even though many people from Choc were now re- siding in major metropolitan cities such as Medelln, Cali, and Bogot. From the perspective of residents from Choc, the presence of Black citizens in major global cities meant that their issues could no longer be 102 MARI CASTAEDA ignored and inclusion was necessary for addressing the systemic racism they had endured over the years not only in Colombia, but across the United States and beyond. The last decade had inspired various social and contributions of Black communities (Afro-descendientes) in Latin movements rooted in the acknowledgment that the lived experiences the emerging movements recognizing Afro-Latinidades were reinforced America and the Caribbean were valuable and important. Additionally, by the emergence of Black Lives Matter in the United States and the need to call into question the racist attitudes and policing practices across the Americas in state politics and mass media. According to Yesenia Bar- ragan, the growing political strikes by Afro-Colombians in recent years are also the result of communities fighting for more economic and so. cial justice in the face of ongoing systemic exclusion. She quotes Saidiya Hartman, who notes, "Black lives are still imperiled and devalued. This is the afterlife of slavery-skewed life chances, limited access to health and education, premature death, incarceration, and impoverish- ment" (Barragan 2016). The fight to recognize the deep impact that Black exclusion has had on the Americas also extends beyond the social and political economy of everyday life. Movements oriented toward Afro-Latinidades have also in- cluded demands for mass media and digital communications to be more reflective of current demographics and racialized histories (see Romn and Flores 2010). Newscasts, telenovelas, and everything in between are now being reexamined more closely for the ways problematic and questionable racialized narratives are perpetuated, and how Afro-Latinx individuals in particular are not being granted opportunities to showcase their talents and skills as key members of society and prominent voices in the pub. lic sphere (Rivero 2014; Torres-Saillant 2008). The considerable growth of Afro-Latinx as sports figures and global entertainers also demonstrated that Blackness was becoming mainstream in Latinx popular culture but continually marginalized in social-political contexts (Burgos 2009). Consequently, the selection of Ilia Caldern as the new co-anchor at Univision, and as a person who views her own racial identity as a strength and values the multiracial context of her family (her partner identifies as Korean American and they have a daughter), demonstrates that perhaps (slowly) forthcoming changes to the racialized framework that have been historically promoted on Latinx media are underway LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY 103 in ways that deeply matter to the ethno-racial future of Latinx com- reimagining the racialization of Latinx populations in the United States munities across the Americas. In this context, Latinx media are key in and possibly challenging the limited understanding of race with regard to Latinx communities. As Littlefield notes (2008), "The media serve as a tool that people use to define, measure, and understand American society. For that reason, the media serve as a system of racialization in that they have historically been used to perpetuate the dominant cul- ture's perspective and create a public forum that defines and shapes ideas concerning race and ethnicity. Additionally, these ideas about racial economic, and political contexts, which in turn affect the processes of categories are not static or frozen in time, but influenced by historical, becoming racialized beings and transforming how racial identities are constructed and experienced through social relations. Understanding how this occurs is important because it can powerfully challenge our preconceived and problematic notions of race and racism. This is an important shift since Spanish-language media have struggled with this issue and have emphasized Whiteness historically, politically, and culturally. Yet as more Latinx communities across the United States as well as Latin America mobilize, organize, and address the lived expe- riences and media representation of Indigeneity and Afro-Latinidades, we must understand how Latinx media are making limited spaces for these identities as well. This chapter will discuss how Latinx media have historically participated in the racialization of U.S. Latinx and how con- temporary social movements and the ongoing challenges to the histori- cally racist treatment of Afro-descendent and Indigenous communities, including the success of Black Lives Matter, have called into question the reproduction of White supremacy as well as activated action against rac- ist tropes in Latinx media. In an effort to conduct this analysis, the chap- ter will discuss and apply the Latina/o Critical Communication Theory (LatCritComm) as a pathway for better understanding the current shifts occurring in Latinx media as well as assess what the future may hold. Latina/o Critical Communication Theory According to Claudia Anguiano and Mari Castaeda (2014), there is much to gain by applying critical race theory and Latino critical theory 104 MARI CASTAEDA to studies of communication, especially examinations of anti-Blackness as expressed through pervasive communicative forms. Most of the the oretical applications of critical race theory and Latino critical theory have occurred in studies of law and education, and have generated a rich body of scholarship that demonstrates the ways racism is institutional. ized and racialization systematized. Although examinations of race and media representation have proliferated in the last three decades, there is and the growing media landscape, particularly if we utilize a critical race still much to examine given the vast array of communication practices cation studies with the aforementioned theoretical lenses, Anguiano and and Latino critical lens. In an effort to bring together Latinx communi- Castaeda (2014) developed Latina/o Critical Communication Theory through a set of tenets that can be operationalized in order to critically examine communicative sites and practices in the context of Latinx lived experiences. The five tenets are as following: (1) centralize the Latinx experience; (2) deploy decolonizing methodologies; (3) acknowledge and address racism aimed at Latinx communities; (4) resist colorblind and postra- cial rhetoric; and (5) promote a social justice dimension. These tenets are based on the major findings promoted by critical race theorists and Latina/o critical studies theorists, and aim to provide a framework through which communicative investigations centered on a critique of racialization processes related to Latinx can take place. This is not to say that other theoretical frameworks focusing on race, communications, and Latinx are insufficient. On the contrary, LatCrit Comm Theory is an attempt to add another layer to the flourishing and ongoing scholarly conversations that are deepening our understanding of Latinx subjec tivities more specifically and communication realities more broadly, According to Anguiano and Castaeda (2014), LatCritComm Theory takes a holistic and social justice approach to analyses of communica- tion and cultural experiences of Latinx communities by centering the long history of struggle and resistance by communities of color. For in- stance, the theory values methodologies that emphasize non-Western modes of knowledge production and recognizes that methods such as counternarratives and autoethnography tell a different (racialization) story that can potentially disrupt historical and contemporary main- stream narratives. Furthermore, LatCritComm Theory "as an analytical MMUNICATION THEORY lens allows us to consider how White supremacy has shaped the con- tours of the audio-visual communications that Latina/o communities engage with on a daily basis" (Anguiano and Castaeda 2014, 115-16). This theoretical foundation thus creates a productive context in which to investigate the history of racialization that has occurred in U.S. Spanish- language media and the productive changes underway that are reimag- ining Latinx media as the voices and experiences of Afro-Latinx, for instance, become more visible and are given credence in the mainstream Latinx media landscape. the Latinx Experience Centralize The theory begins by centralizing the Latinx experience as an effort to understand how members of this community of color experience racial- ization in multiple way through their Spanish-language use, immigration status, and ethnic cultural practices-and how this is judged, often deri- sively, by largely White populations. It also aims to move away from race as a Black/White binary and recognize that Latinx lived experiences (and media representations) are rooted in transnationalism, postcolo- niality, colorism, and xenophobia. For instance, as a child growing up in Los Angeles, I watched Spanish-language television and listened to Spanish-language radio, and was always struck with how Blackness and Indigeneity were constantly dismissed and stereotyped. Even at a young age, this dismissiveness did not make any sense since I was growing up surrounded by a diverse community of people that included Black families, Mexicans, Indigenous people, Asians, and Latinx from differ- ent parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. Indeed, race and ethnicity were salient factors in our realities, but our largely positive interactions as kids seemed opposite from what was being promoted on mainstream and Latinx media. The near-invisibility of Black, Asian, and Indigenous people on Latinx media, except as stereotypical caricatures, reinforced a broader notion that these com- munities did not exist as part of the Latinx diaspora, when in fact they constitute millions of people. I remember how a high school friend who was perceived as only Japanese shocked people when she shared that she was Peruvian of Japanese descent. Another friend mentioned that she was actually Afro-Colombian although everyone assumed she was only African American, and another acquaintance who spoke Spanish noted that her parents were predominantly Quechua speakers because they were from onstrate that U.S. Latinx subjectivities are not largely White or mestizo an Indigenous community in Ecuador. These lived experiences dem. (ie, mixed race with Indigenous ancestry) but in fact embody a range of racialized positionalities that are often ignored and made invisible by media. Consequently, popular comprehension of what constitutes Latinx lived experiences remains largely limited. 106 MARI CASTAEDA The emergence of digital technologies can help to chip away at ig norance by providing a platform through which counternarratives of Latinidades are produced and distributed. One blog space that has chal- lenged the prevailing story of race in Latinx communities is Ain't I La tina? (aintilatina.com). In it, journalist Janel Martinez centers Blackness as another way to understand what it means to be Latina today. She questions the centrality of "Eurocentric beauty standards" and discusses how the stories of Afro-Latinas are often erased and silenced in Spanish- language and Latinx media. Another Afro-Latinx social media creator who has pointed to the absurdity of televisual invisibility when in reality Blackness is very prominent in Latinx cultural contexts is LeJuan James, His YouTube videos aim to show how Latinx can be understood from a variety of intersectional positionalities (mother, student, Caribbean, professional) and in doing so complicates what is often perceived as nor- mative Latinidad. Scholars in Latinx studies have also challenged normative ideas about race and identity in Latinx communities, media, and academia itself. In her essay "Too Black to Be Latina/o': Blackness and Blacks as Foreigners in Latino Studies," Tanya Kater Hernndez (2003) notes that although the privilege of Whiteness in Latinx media and popular culture is not surprising, the constant racialized treatment of Afro-Latinx identities as foreigner and foreign in local and the national Latinx imaginary is distressing, disheartening, and ultimately racist. She argues, "What is most disturbing about this multi-layered dynamic of Latino/as putting forth an image of enlightened racial thinking, by virtue of their racially mixed heritage... is the way in which the mindset obstructs any ability to effectively work through the complexity of the socioeconomic racial hierarchy." Ultimately, the historical refusal to acknowledge the impact LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY wy of White supremacy and undo racial prejudice in Latinx communities eign and disconnected from Latinidad and has also reinforced a Latinx has perpetuated the treatment of Blackness and even Asianness as for- munities as not belonging by characterizing them as foreign, alien, and imaginary that is raceless. Consequently, singling out Afro-Latinx.com- tion process that needs to be centered if we are to fully understand and suspicious for not matching what is considered the norm is a racializa- Since the publication of Hernndez's essay, other Latinx studies schol- ars have also explicated the meaning of race in the context of Latinidad and the factors that have impacted the racialization process for Latinx. Ginetta Candelario (2008) notes that "identity formations are responsive to local conditions and institutions and cultural and ideological con- texts; thus, race for Latinx communities is conditioned by a multiplicity of meanings and social relations. The gendered ethno-racial identities of Latinx are in many cases slippery and/or ambiguous, so any under- standing of Latinx media must take this into account. By centralizing the Latinx lived experience, LatCritComm Theory aims to show the dis- juncture between what is occurring in communities and what is being represented on Latinx media. The shift at Univision to include an Afro- Latina in the national newscast as a co-anchor, the immediate firing of a talk show entertainer who compared former first lady Michelle Obama to a primate animal, and other efforts by Latinx media to reassess how race is embodied throughout its various content products are demonstra- tions that the unrelenting work by scholars, progressive media producers, and activists to protest against the negative racialization of Black, Asian, and Indigenous Latinx communities is paying off. The issue that remains is the following: as communication offerings expand and race becomes an issue that is dealt with in more complex ways, it is not clear whether such engagement will translate into productive material realities and the equitable treatment of U.S. Latinx communities within the broader so- ciopolitical landscape. center Latinx experiences. Deploy Decolonizing Methodologies The second tenet of the LatCritComm theoretical framework calls for use of decolonizing methodologies that challenge the notion that MARI CASTANEDA research can be produced from an entirely objective orientation, and asks scholars to examine how their histories and social positions inform how they understand the multidimensional experience of Latinx. Applying feminist-inspired methods opens the possibility of creating collaborative knowledge production that is not researcher-centric but participant-focused and cognizant of the lingering effects that coloniza tion has had on Latinx communities. For example, the actual racialized that lacking in the broader literature in digital media and communication. Castaeda (2014b) notes that a Puerto Rican journalist residing in Mas sachusetts shared that in her past media work she was constantly made to feel that she was incapable of producing real journalism or media content that would be read or engaged with by non-Latinx audiences. Although she identified as a light-skinned Boricua, she was often made to feel that her Latina positionality diminished her journalistic skills, However, this Latina journalist was recently granted the opportunity to host a regional morning radio show, and through her weekly program, she has made many efforts to deploy a decolonizing method to her work as radio talk show host. She has done this by fostering multiracial col. laboration, embodying a feminist approach in her interviews, insisting that community voices and issues are centered in the discussion, and making every effort to point to the multidimensional contours of Latinx history, context, and agency. Similarly, before Ilia Caldern was asked to co-anchor Noticiero Univi sion, she conducted an interview with a KKK member in North Carolina that was televised as an evening program in August 2017. This interview was not only broadcast as a news special titled En la boca del lobo (In the mouth of the wolf), but it also became a viral video that demonstrated the degradation and potential danger Latinx media workers like Calde- rn often face when they are not perceived to be the "right kinds of people of color-meaning they are deemed not mestizo but only Black. Her steely performance in the face of a contemptuous interview with the KKK Grand Wizard Chris Barker, where he called her the n-word and a mongrel, ironically pushed further ongoing efforts to decolonize Latinx media spaces and dismantle the racist attitudes of Latinx view- ers. It was unfortunate, though, that such an eye-opening interaction placed a heavy emotional burden on Caldern. LatCritComm Theory's TION THEORY 10 emphasis on decolonizing methodologies not only turns research on its provides the context through which Latinx media can be reimagined bead by including the testimonios of Latinx lived experiences, but also asa decolonizing force. It's important to note, however, that Caldern regarded the interview as a harrowing experience, which points to the reality that decolonization is not without pain and suffering. Acknowledge and Address Racism Aimed at Latinx Communities The third precept aims to elucidate the varied personal and systemic aparities and racism that Latinx communities face consistently and the ways such hurtful treatment is reinforced by persistent xenopho- bi oppressions that occur at individual and structural levels. Racist micro- and macro-aggressions targeted at Latinx populations are often unrecognized because in mainstream discourse, inequities are perceived as being about citizenship status or language ability, for instance, but not race. By acknowledging and addressing the racism faced by Latinx peoples, we can better investigate how race is experienced in conflicting. detrimental, and intersectional liberatory ways. For example, Latinx media have traditionally operated as not only information and entertainment resources, but also advocates for those who have been mistreated and misunderstood. The anti-immigrant legislation and policies that have proliferated after the initial pro- immigration movements in the mid-2000s have in many ways trans- formed Latinx media into spaces that acknowledge and address the racism aimed at Latinx communities. Time and again they have covered stories that show the impact that anti-immigrant and anti-Latinx senti- ments have produced on the material realities of Latinx, including their mental health. National news journalist Jorge Ramos of Univision has been especially vocal about the treatment of Latinx in the United States. He has gone head-to-head with the forty-fifth president, and in turn is viewed as someone on Latinx media who is fighting the racism directed at Latinx people at a national level. It is important to note, however, that the commercial nature of most Latinx media has also set limits to the kinds of advocacy that can be produced through the airwaves. In this sense, digital communication technologies have created a platform through which critical analyses and criticism can take place 110 MARI CASTAEDA For instance, the websites Latino Rebels (latinorebels.com) and Re- without necessarily fearing repercussions, especially from advertisers. mezcla (remezcla.com) have become excellent examples of sites, where Latinx writers congregate on a digital media platform to expose and discuss racist policies and encounters that many Latinx communities face on a daily basis. In multiple online articles and audiovisual post- ings, contributors from Latino Rebels and Remezcla have argued that although Latinx-identified politicians, judges, celebrities, and artists may be recognized at a national level and in many ways accepted as le- gitimate voices in the public sphere, they themselves (including, for ex- ample, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor) have also experienced racism. The documentary film Latinos beyond Reel also makes this point es- pecially with regard to Sotomayor, who was characterized multiple times as a maid in news coverage during her congressional confirmation hear ings. Given the hate-filled vitriol aimed at Latinx, and most specifically at Mexican and Central American immigrants, acknowledging and ad dressing racism is increasingly a topic of concern for Latinx media. PBS Newshour senior correspondent Ray Suarez notes that "even as Latino trailblazers move into professions where they once were rare or that were even closed to them, they are still disproportionately represented in blue-collar work" and consistently racialized as unwelcomed "aliens" (2013, 225). Multiple scholars agree that fear is the factor that drives so much of the racism directed at Latinx communities: fear of their bi- cultural, bilingual, and multiracial positionalities and the impact these have on what it means to be "American" (K. Johnson 1996; Sanchez 1997; Galindo and Vigil 2006; Huber et al. 2008). Resist Colorblind and Postracial Rhetoric The fourth point of LatCritComm Theory builds on the previous principles by asserting that much of the discussion about race in the United States tends to follow a Black/White binary that erases the complex racial experiences of Latinx, Native American, Middle East- ern, and Asian American communities. Media and political attempts to characterize U.S. Latinx experiences as existing within color- blind and postracial frameworks fails to recognize the material and LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY rhetorical forms of exclusion that Latinx populations face on a daily basis. The assumption that because Latinx/Spanish-language media States, all Latinx people are accepted as full members in civil soci have a presence in the cultural and media landscape of the United and political equity. For instance, multiple mainstream newspapers and online venues published and posted articles this past summer ety is untrue and damaging to achieving real educational, economic, about the global success of the Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi, and Justin Bieber musical collaboration on the song "Despacito" as a demon- stration that Latinx cultural production, and by association Latinx overall, have somehow "arrived." Such media characterizations impart the notion that Latinx now embody a postracial status and any forms of racial discrimination they face is local and personal, rather than systemic and structural. In many ways, these efforts to create colorblind narratives about Latinx are attempts to homogenize and mainstream their location within the broader U.S. society. For Latinx celebrities and media outlets, colorblind and postracial discourses allow non-Latinx audiences to consume media products that are ordinarily deemed Latinx-oriented. Yet such broaden- ing and whitewashing of Latinx communications diminish the historical struggles that have shaped Latinx communities. They also diminish the ongoing battles to equitably access education, jobs, and political power. As the impact of Afro-descendent, Indigenous, Black Lives Matter, and immigrant movements become more evident in Latinx programming and content production (especially online), the need to resist colorblind narratives about Latinx becomes more important than ever. As long as Latinx immigrants and many Latinx communities are characterized in racist terms, then postracial characterizations of Latinx must be chal- lenged for how they pit seemingly good "White" Latinx people against the "bad hombres." Latinx media's efforts to highlight the Black, Asian, and Indigenous Latinx experiences as they connect with anti-immigration policies and police practices are some of the ways colorblind and post- racial narratives about Latinx are contested (although without a doubt, Whiteness still colors the audiovisual landscape). Speaking Spanish is in fact a primary way to push back against postracial and colorblind rheto- ric because it signifies, front and center, how difference, cultural con- nections, and historical dynamics continue to exist for Latinx; and it is a 112MARI CASTAEDA difference that is appreciated and beloved and cannot be erased even with the passage of English-only policies and practices. Promote a Social Justice Dimension to the study and praxis of Latinx media and race? In many ways, the The final tenet asks, How does one foster a social justice orientation approach requires the acknowledgment that gaining media access is a political project that requires an intersectional framework that is anti- racist, anti-capitalist, and always critically feminist. Promoting a social justice dimension means the need to examine how capitalism influ- ences much of the media production in the United States and the ways this confines the discussion of certain issues and lived realities. In addi tion to examining media with an anti-racist framework, the adoption of a critical feminist approach is also necessary for reimagining what Latinx media can be like if social justice was at the forefront of Latinx communications production. More commercial Spanish-language media are limited in their ability to publicly espouse a social justice dimension in their work, although news reporters have argued that in the current context of the forty-fifth president and his support of White supremacists, they are making a social justice intervention by simply existing (Navarrette 2017; Radtke 2017). They are also promoting social justice by covering and discussing the topics that the mainstream English-language media will not address on their broadcast news pro- grams and websites. Certainly, in some ways they are correct, but what they do is not enough. Therefore, online platforms that have adopted a clearly articulated social justice dimension have been key in pushing the discussion of what needs to be done to change the representation and treatment of Latinx on and off the media landscape. Education also has a big role to play in this regard, both in K-12 and in higher education. Latinx professors are working closely with students and community media organizations to produce media content that offers counternarratives about what it means to be Latinx in and across mul- tiple U.S. communities. Scores of these college graduates often become Latinx media workers who aim to create anti-racist, feminist stories about Latinx communities that acknowledge the challenges, beauty, and changes taking place on the ground locally. Thus, it is not enough LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY 13 to examine Latinx media and race; political action that also embodies a social justice element is needed more than ever. Moving Forward in Examining Latinx Media and Race Given the historical and ongoing anti-Latinx, anti-immigrant, and anti- Blackness offenses in the United States, it is crucial to understand the role that U.S. Latinx media are playing to address as well as reinscribe the historical and contemporary problematics of race and racism that Latinx communities are facing. The online brand Remezcla has cre- ated viral stories that highlight and celebrate Afro-Latinidad in articles History" (Simn 2016), but the reality is that a recognition of what Black- such as "#BlackLatinxHistory Highlights Afro-Latinos Who Changed ness means within Latinx communities is still deeply contested within the community as well as Black communities. During February's Black History Month, Twitter postings have argued back and forth whether Latinx communities recognize their Blackness and whether their Black- ness even counts since it is (wrongly) perceived to not have been affected by the racism African American populations have endured in the United States. The idea that Afro-Latinx experiences are not influenced by the racist attacks again Blackness fails to understand that anti-Black audio- visual and discursive narratives do not distinguish between ethnic, national, or linguistic backgrounds. Afro-Latinx and Latinx individuals who are Indigenous-looking with dark brown skin are also subjected to discrimination, animosity, and antipathy toward their contributions to broader economic and social relations. Vilna Bashi (2004) notes that we must actually understand "anti-black racism as a global immigration phenomenon (600). Thus, to do so allows us to better compare, con- trast, and complicate the treatment and experiences of Blackness, and race more broadly, within and across Latinidades. For instance, Latinx media have seen themselves as Latinx-oriented but not necessarily as a racialized entity. Yet their increasing relevance to U.S. electoral politics has forced Latinx media to face the racialization of their sector and the people who are both working in and consum- ing Latinx media. They are no longer outside discussions and construc- tions of race but very much operating as proxies for racialization and minoritization of Latinx and non-English-speaking communities. They MARI CASTAEDA have become a contradictory vehicle for both expressing and calling out xenophobia as demonstrated by U.S. politics and English-language mainstream media. In some ways, it is also causing Latinx entertain. ment media to reflect on the ways they have also reproduced oppression in other areas such as gender, class, and sexuality, although there is still much work to do As noted earlier, the inclusion of an Afro-Latina news anchor from Colombia on Noticiero Univision is viewed as a progressive sign for Latinx media in terms of race. It is being heralded as a turning point in Spanish-language media and a wide range of programming streams including entertainment. Historically, the issue of race on Spanish. language media was addressed only in stereotypical ways, with Black folks often represented as inferior. The Afro-descendiente/descendent movement has been ongoing for the past decade in an effort to address the ways colonialism has impacted the Americas and the Caribbean. The need to address race on Latin American media has made its way to U.S. Latinx media as well, and on the flip side, the social movements rooted in heralding Black Lives Matter in the United States have also impacted Latin American social politics and discussions about racialization in media within a transnational context. However, the issue of White su- premacy is still not entirely addressed and certain kinds of racialized exclusions still exist on Latinx media, such as the voices of Indigenous populations. One of the challenges of talking about racialization in Latinx media is the fact that in many ways, to be seen as Latinx is to be racialized in the United States, given the historical relationship between White political economic power and Latinx populations. Therefore, if a people are ra- cialized by virtue of being Latinx, then Latinx media are already racial- ized by virtue of being for, about, and by Latinx people. Indeed, Latinx media have always been racialized spaces (Castaeda 2017), and will continue to be so as long as speaking Spanish in U.S. Latinx communi- ties is viewed as foreign. This was evident during the 2016 presidential campaign when Jorge Ramos from Univision tried to be at the campaign stops and was kicked out, when the Republican presidential candidate made fun of him, and more importantly, when Univision and Spanish- language media more generally were delegitimized. Univision was seen as not a legitimate news source because of the Spanish-language use and BEORY 115 s oriented toward Latinx. Yet Spanish-language and the fact that it was c Latinx media do not always see themselves as being already racialized, and as a result, they often reproduce the same narratives and images of White supremacy that can reinforce systems of oppression. Radio, on the other hand, has been a broadcast space in which racism has been addressed and examined, and racialization contested (Casillas 2014). The discussions about ICE and immigration that are taking place on broadcast and digital media are not only ways for information about community issues to be dispersed and discussed, but also reminders of how Latinx are systematically, materially, and symbolically othered in the United States every single day. Conclusion The tenets of LatCritComm Theory were applied above with the inten- ton to demonstrate how the framework can potentially help us reimagine how we analyze, understand, and perhaps improve Latinx media by more fully addressing anti-Blackness and the systemic exclusion of Afro-Latinidades. If we examine some of the literature about audience responses and reception, we see that issues regarding race and ethnic- ity, in addition to sexuality, gender, and class, deeply impact how people see themselves and others. This has real consequences with regard to policies and the acceptance of difference in everyday life. It also impacts the ability to build connections and movements across difference that would allow for Latinx populations to see themselves as part of a larger (racialized) community. Online Latinx media are some of the spaces in which the boundaries and discussions surrounding race and racialization are being engaged with and challenged. Latinx media have historically regarded themselves as advocates for Latinx communities, but the impor- tance of pointing out the ways the communities are being targeted and racialized in negative ways is now at a crisis point given the Republi- can presidency and Trumpism. Race within Latinx media needs to be examined not only because of the number of people they reach, but also because these media are viewed as a voice and communicative space for Latinx lived experiences. Applying Latina/o Critical Communication Theory Anti-Blackness MARI CASTAEDA Latinalo Critical Communication Theory | Afro-Latinos | Spanish language media The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has helped to call attention long-standing racist attitudes and policing practices, using the tools of digital communication. While we often focus on its impact in the United States, this movement has extended across the Americas in its call to fight anti-Blackness. Within North American Latinx communities, it has specifically provided a rallying point for Afro-Latinx individuals and communities who have long faced discrimination and racism, par- icalarly within media. For instance, we saw a historic change in Latinx media in 2017 when Ilia Caldern was selected to replace Maria Elena Salinas after thirty-six years of co-anchoring the national news program Noticiero Univision on the fifth-largest network in the United States (Univision 2017). Univision's hiring of Caldern was significant because she became the first Afro-Latina journalist to ever co-anchor a national evening news program on U.S. Spanish-language television, and the first person from Choco, Colombia, to achieve such prominence in North American Latinx media. Choc is a coastal region in Colombia that is historically and dominantly Black, and an area that the rest of Colombia has generally treated with racist attitudes and stereotypes. In my own travels throughout Colombia in 2015, many individuals Lencountered made racialized and problematic comments about resi- dents of Choc even though many people from Choc were now re- siding in major metropolitan cities such as Medelln, Cali, and Bogot. From the perspective of residents from Choc, the presence of Black citizens in major global cities meant that their issues could no longer be 102 MARI CASTAEDA ignored and inclusion was necessary for addressing the systemic racism they had endured over the years not only in Colombia, but across the United States and beyond. The last decade had inspired various social and contributions of Black communities (Afro-descendientes) in Latin movements rooted in the acknowledgment that the lived experiences the emerging movements recognizing Afro-Latinidades were reinforced America and the Caribbean were valuable and important. Additionally, by the emergence of Black Lives Matter in the United States and the need to call into question the racist attitudes and policing practices across the Americas in state politics and mass media. According to Yesenia Bar- ragan, the growing political strikes by Afro-Colombians in recent years are also the result of communities fighting for more economic and so. cial justice in the face of ongoing systemic exclusion. She quotes Saidiya Hartman, who notes, "Black lives are still imperiled and devalued. This is the afterlife of slavery-skewed life chances, limited access to health and education, premature death, incarceration, and impoverish- ment" (Barragan 2016). The fight to recognize the deep impact that Black exclusion has had on the Americas also extends beyond the social and political economy of everyday life. Movements oriented toward Afro-Latinidades have also in- cluded demands for mass media and digital communications to be more reflective of current demographics and racialized histories (see Romn and Flores 2010). Newscasts, telenovelas, and everything in between are now being reexamined more closely for the ways problematic and questionable racialized narratives are perpetuated, and how Afro-Latinx individuals in particular are not being granted opportunities to showcase their talents and skills as key members of society and prominent voices in the pub. lic sphere (Rivero 2014; Torres-Saillant 2008). The considerable growth of Afro-Latinx as sports figures and global entertainers also demonstrated that Blackness was becoming mainstream in Latinx popular culture but continually marginalized in social-political contexts (Burgos 2009). Consequently, the selection of Ilia Caldern as the new co-anchor at Univision, and as a person who views her own racial identity as a strength and values the multiracial context of her family (her partner identifies as Korean American and they have a daughter), demonstrates that perhaps (slowly) forthcoming changes to the racialized framework that have been historically promoted on Latinx media are underway LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY 103 in ways that deeply matter to the ethno-racial future of Latinx com- reimagining the racialization of Latinx populations in the United States munities across the Americas. In this context, Latinx media are key in and possibly challenging the limited understanding of race with regard to Latinx communities. As Littlefield notes (2008), "The media serve as a tool that people use to define, measure, and understand American society. For that reason, the media serve as a system of racialization in that they have historically been used to perpetuate the dominant cul- ture's perspective and create a public forum that defines and shapes ideas concerning race and ethnicity. Additionally, these ideas about racial economic, and political contexts, which in turn affect the processes of categories are not static or frozen in time, but influenced by historical, becoming racialized beings and transforming how racial identities are constructed and experienced through social relations. Understanding how this occurs is important because it can powerfully challenge our preconceived and problematic notions of race and racism. This is an important shift since Spanish-language media have struggled with this issue and have emphasized Whiteness historically, politically, and culturally. Yet as more Latinx communities across the United States as well as Latin America mobilize, organize, and address the lived expe- riences and media representation of Indigeneity and Afro-Latinidades, we must understand how Latinx media are making limited spaces for these identities as well. This chapter will discuss how Latinx media have historically participated in the racialization of U.S. Latinx and how con- temporary social movements and the ongoing challenges to the histori- cally racist treatment of Afro-descendent and Indigenous communities, including the success of Black Lives Matter, have called into question the reproduction of White supremacy as well as activated action against rac- ist tropes in Latinx media. In an effort to conduct this analysis, the chap- ter will discuss and apply the Latina/o Critical Communication Theory (LatCritComm) as a pathway for better understanding the current shifts occurring in Latinx media as well as assess what the future may hold. Latina/o Critical Communication Theory According to Claudia Anguiano and Mari Castaeda (2014), there is much to gain by applying critical race theory and Latino critical theory 104 MARI CASTAEDA to studies of communication, especially examinations of anti-Blackness as expressed through pervasive communicative forms. Most of the the oretical applications of critical race theory and Latino critical theory have occurred in studies of law and education, and have generated a rich body of scholarship that demonstrates the ways racism is institutional. ized and racialization systematized. Although examinations of race and media representation have proliferated in the last three decades, there is and the growing media landscape, particularly if we utilize a critical race still much to examine given the vast array of communication practices cation studies with the aforementioned theoretical lenses, Anguiano and and Latino critical lens. In an effort to bring together Latinx communi- Castaeda (2014) developed Latina/o Critical Communication Theory through a set of tenets that can be operationalized in order to critically examine communicative sites and practices in the context of Latinx lived experiences. The five tenets are as following: (1) centralize the Latinx experience; (2) deploy decolonizing methodologies; (3) acknowledge and address racism aimed at Latinx communities; (4) resist colorblind and postra- cial rhetoric; and (5) promote a social justice dimension. These tenets are based on the major findings promoted by critical race theorists and Latina/o critical studies theorists, and aim to provide a framework through which communicative investigations centered on a critique of racialization processes related to Latinx can take place. This is not to say that other theoretical frameworks focusing on race, communications, and Latinx are insufficient. On the contrary, LatCrit Comm Theory is an attempt to add another layer to the flourishing and ongoing scholarly conversations that are deepening our understanding of Latinx subjec tivities more specifically and communication realities more broadly, According to Anguiano and Castaeda (2014), LatCritComm Theory takes a holistic and social justice approach to analyses of communica- tion and cultural experiences of Latinx communities by centering the long history of struggle and resistance by communities of color. For in- stance, the theory values methodologies that emphasize non-Western modes of knowledge production and recognizes that methods such as counternarratives and autoethnography tell a different (racialization) story that can potentially disrupt historical and contemporary main- stream narratives. Furthermore, LatCritComm Theory "as an analytical MMUNICATION THEORY lens allows us to consider how White supremacy has shaped the con- tours of the audio-visual communications that Latina/o communities engage with on a daily basis" (Anguiano and Castaeda 2014, 115-16). This theoretical foundation thus creates a productive context in which to investigate the history of racialization that has occurred in U.S. Spanish- language media and the productive changes underway that are reimag- ining Latinx media as the voices and experiences of Afro-Latinx, for instance, become more visible and are given credence in the mainstream Latinx media landscape. the Latinx Experience Centralize The theory begins by centralizing the Latinx experience as an effort to understand how members of this community of color experience racial- ization in multiple way through their Spanish-language use, immigration status, and ethnic cultural practices-and how this is judged, often deri- sively, by largely White populations. It also aims to move away from race as a Black/White binary and recognize that Latinx lived experiences (and media representations) are rooted in transnationalism, postcolo- niality, colorism, and xenophobia. For instance, as a child growing up in Los Angeles, I watched Spanish-language television and listened to Spanish-language radio, and was always struck with how Blackness and Indigeneity were constantly dismissed and stereotyped. Even at a young age, this dismissiveness did not make any sense since I was growing up surrounded by a diverse community of people that included Black families, Mexicans, Indigenous people, Asians, and Latinx from differ- ent parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. Indeed, race and ethnicity were salient factors in our realities, but our largely positive interactions as kids seemed opposite from what was being promoted on mainstream and Latinx media. The near-invisibility of Black, Asian, and Indigenous people on Latinx media, except as stereotypical caricatures, reinforced a broader notion that these com- munities did not exist as part of the Latinx diaspora, when in fact they constitute millions of people. I remember how a high school friend who was perceived as only Japanese shocked people when she shared that she was Peruvian of Japanese descent. Another friend mentioned that she was actually Afro-Colombian although everyone assumed she was only African American, and another acquaintance who spoke Spanish noted that her parents were predominantly Quechua speakers because they were from onstrate that U.S. Latinx subjectivities are not largely White or mestizo an Indigenous community in Ecuador. These lived experiences dem. (ie, mixed race with Indigenous ancestry) but in fact embody a range of racialized positionalities that are often ignored and made invisible by media. Consequently, popular comprehension of what constitutes Latinx lived experiences remains largely limited. 106 MARI CASTAEDA The emergence of digital technologies can help to chip away at ig norance by providing a platform through which counternarratives of Latinidades are produced and distributed. One blog space that has chal- lenged the prevailing story of race in Latinx communities is Ain't I La tina? (aintilatina.com). In it, journalist Janel Martinez centers Blackness as another way to understand what it means to be Latina today. She questions the centrality of "Eurocentric beauty standards" and discusses how the stories of Afro-Latinas are often erased and silenced in Spanish- language and Latinx media. Another Afro-Latinx social media creator who has pointed to the absurdity of televisual invisibility when in reality Blackness is very prominent in Latinx cultural contexts is LeJuan James, His YouTube videos aim to show how Latinx can be understood from a variety of intersectional positionalities (mother, student, Caribbean, professional) and in doing so complicates what is often perceived as nor- mative Latinidad. Scholars in Latinx studies have also challenged normative ideas about race and identity in Latinx communities, media, and academia itself. In her essay "Too Black to Be Latina/o': Blackness and Blacks as Foreigners in Latino Studies," Tanya Kater Hernndez (2003) notes that although the privilege of Whiteness in Latinx media and popular culture is not surprising, the constant racialized treatment of Afro-Latinx identities as foreigner and foreign in local and the national Latinx imaginary is distressing, disheartening, and ultimately racist. She argues, "What is most disturbing about this multi-layered dynamic of Latino/as putting forth an image of enlightened racial thinking, by virtue of their racially mixed heritage... is the way in which the mindset obstructs any ability to effectively work through the complexity of the socioeconomic racial hierarchy." Ultimately, the historical refusal to acknowledge the impact LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY wy of White supremacy and undo racial prejudice in Latinx communities eign and disconnected from Latinidad and has also reinforced a Latinx has perpetuated the treatment of Blackness and even Asianness as for- munities as not belonging by characterizing them as foreign, alien, and imaginary that is raceless. Consequently, singling out Afro-Latinx.com- tion process that needs to be centered if we are to fully understand and suspicious for not matching what is considered the norm is a racializa- Since the publication of Hernndez's essay, other Latinx studies schol- ars have also explicated the meaning of race in the context of Latinidad and the factors that have impacted the racialization process for Latinx. Ginetta Candelario (2008) notes that "identity formations are responsive to local conditions and institutions and cultural and ideological con- texts; thus, race for Latinx communities is conditioned by a multiplicity of meanings and social relations. The gendered ethno-racial identities of Latinx are in many cases slippery and/or ambiguous, so any under- standing of Latinx media must take this into account. By centralizing the Latinx lived experience, LatCritComm Theory aims to show the dis- juncture between what is occurring in communities and what is being represented on Latinx media. The shift at Univision to include an Afro- Latina in the national newscast as a co-anchor, the immediate firing of a talk show entertainer who compared former first lady Michelle Obama to a primate animal, and other efforts by Latinx media to reassess how race is embodied throughout its various content products are demonstra- tions that the unrelenting work by scholars, progressive media producers, and activists to protest against the negative racialization of Black, Asian, and Indigenous Latinx communities is paying off. The issue that remains is the following: as communication offerings expand and race becomes an issue that is dealt with in more complex ways, it is not clear whether such engagement will translate into productive material realities and the equitable treatment of U.S. Latinx communities within the broader so- ciopolitical landscape. center Latinx experiences. Deploy Decolonizing Methodologies The second tenet of the LatCritComm theoretical framework calls for use of decolonizing methodologies that challenge the notion that MARI CASTANEDA research can be produced from an entirely objective orientation, and asks scholars to examine how their histories and social positions inform how they understand the multidimensional experience of Latinx. Applying feminist-inspired methods opens the possibility of creating collaborative knowledge production that is not researcher-centric but participant-focused and cognizant of the lingering effects that coloniza tion has had on Latinx communities. For example, the actual racialized that lacking in the broader literature in digital media and communication. Castaeda (2014b) notes that a Puerto Rican journalist residing in Mas sachusetts shared that in her past media work she was constantly made to feel that she was incapable of producing real journalism or media content that would be read or engaged with by non-Latinx audiences. Although she identified as a light-skinned Boricua, she was often made to feel that her Latina positionality diminished her journalistic skills, However, this Latina journalist was recently granted the opportunity to host a regional morning radio show, and through her weekly program, she has made many efforts to deploy a decolonizing method to her work as radio talk show host. She has done this by fostering multiracial col. laboration, embodying a feminist approach in her interviews, insisting that community voices and issues are centered in the discussion, and making every effort to point to the multidimensional contours of Latinx history, context, and agency. Similarly, before Ilia Caldern was asked to co-anchor Noticiero Univi sion, she conducted an interview with a KKK member in North Carolina that was televised as an evening program in August 2017. This interview was not only broadcast as a news special titled En la boca del lobo (In the mouth of the wolf), but it also became a viral video that demonstrated the degradation and potential danger Latinx media workers like Calde- rn often face when they are not perceived to be the "right kinds of people of color-meaning they are deemed not mestizo but only Black. Her steely performance in the face of a contemptuous interview with the KKK Grand Wizard Chris Barker, where he called her the n-word and a mongrel, ironically pushed further ongoing efforts to decolonize Latinx media spaces and dismantle the racist attitudes of Latinx view- ers. It was unfortunate, though, that such an eye-opening interaction placed a heavy emotional burden on Caldern. LatCritComm Theory's TION THEORY 10 emphasis on decolonizing methodologies not only turns research on its provides the context through which Latinx media can be reimagined bead by including the testimonios of Latinx lived experiences, but also asa decolonizing force. It's important to note, however, that Caldern regarded the interview as a harrowing experience, which points to the reality that decolonization is not without pain and suffering. Acknowledge and Address Racism Aimed at Latinx Communities The third precept aims to elucidate the varied personal and systemic aparities and racism that Latinx communities face consistently and the ways such hurtful treatment is reinforced by persistent xenopho- bi oppressions that occur at individual and structural levels. Racist micro- and macro-aggressions targeted at Latinx populations are often unrecognized because in mainstream discourse, inequities are perceived as being about citizenship status or language ability, for instance, but not race. By acknowledging and addressing the racism faced by Latinx peoples, we can better investigate how race is experienced in conflicting. detrimental, and intersectional liberatory ways. For example, Latinx media have traditionally operated as not only information and entertainment resources, but also advocates for those who have been mistreated and misunderstood. The anti-immigrant legislation and policies that have proliferated after the initial pro- immigration movements in the mid-2000s have in many ways trans- formed Latinx media into spaces that acknowledge and address the racism aimed at Latinx communities. Time and again they have covered stories that show the impact that anti-immigrant and anti-Latinx senti- ments have produced on the material realities of Latinx, including their mental health. National news journalist Jorge Ramos of Univision has been especially vocal about the treatment of Latinx in the United States. He has gone head-to-head with the forty-fifth president, and in turn is viewed as someone on Latinx media who is fighting the racism directed at Latinx people at a national level. It is important to note, however, that the commercial nature of most Latinx media has also set limits to the kinds of advocacy that can be produced through the airwaves. In this sense, digital communication technologies have created a platform through which critical analyses and criticism can take place 110 MARI CASTAEDA For instance, the websites Latino Rebels (latinorebels.com) and Re- without necessarily fearing repercussions, especially from advertisers. mezcla (remezcla.com) have become excellent examples of sites, where Latinx writers congregate on a digital media platform to expose and discuss racist policies and encounters that many Latinx communities face on a daily basis. In multiple online articles and audiovisual post- ings, contributors from Latino Rebels and Remezcla have argued that although Latinx-identified politicians, judges, celebrities, and artists may be recognized at a national level and in many ways accepted as le- gitimate voices in the public sphere, they themselves (including, for ex- ample, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor) have also experienced racism. The documentary film Latinos beyond Reel also makes this point es- pecially with regard to Sotomayor, who was characterized multiple times as a maid in news coverage during her congressional confirmation hear ings. Given the hate-filled vitriol aimed at Latinx, and most specifically at Mexican and Central American immigrants, acknowledging and ad dressing racism is increasingly a topic of concern for Latinx media. PBS Newshour senior correspondent Ray Suarez notes that "even as Latino trailblazers move into professions where they once were rare or that were even closed to them, they are still disproportionately represented in blue-collar work" and consistently racialized as unwelcomed "aliens" (2013, 225). Multiple scholars agree that fear is the factor that drives so much of the racism directed at Latinx communities: fear of their bi- cultural, bilingual, and multiracial positionalities and the impact these have on what it means to be "American" (K. Johnson 1996; Sanchez 1997; Galindo and Vigil 2006; Huber et al. 2008). Resist Colorblind and Postracial Rhetoric The fourth point of LatCritComm Theory builds on the previous principles by asserting that much of the discussion about race in the United States tends to follow a Black/White binary that erases the complex racial experiences of Latinx, Native American, Middle East- ern, and Asian American communities. Media and political attempts to characterize U.S. Latinx experiences as existing within color- blind and postracial frameworks fails to recognize the material and LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY rhetorical forms of exclusion that Latinx populations face on a daily basis. The assumption that because Latinx/Spanish-language media States, all Latinx people are accepted as full members in civil soci have a presence in the cultural and media landscape of the United and political equity. For instance, multiple mainstream newspapers and online venues published and posted articles this past summer ety is untrue and damaging to achieving real educational, economic, about the global success of the Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi, and Justin Bieber musical collaboration on the song "Despacito" as a demon- stration that Latinx cultural production, and by association Latinx overall, have somehow "arrived." Such media characterizations impart the notion that Latinx now embody a postracial status and any forms of racial discrimination they face is local and personal, rather than systemic and structural. In many ways, these efforts to create colorblind narratives about Latinx are attempts to homogenize and mainstream their location within the broader U.S. society. For Latinx celebrities and media outlets, colorblind and postracial discourses allow non-Latinx audiences to consume media products that are ordinarily deemed Latinx-oriented. Yet such broaden- ing and whitewashing of Latinx communications diminish the historical struggles that have shaped Latinx communities. They also diminish the ongoing battles to equitably access education, jobs, and political power. As the impact of Afro-descendent, Indigenous, Black Lives Matter, and immigrant movements become more evident in Latinx programming and content production (especially online), the need to resist colorblind narratives about Latinx becomes more important than ever. As long as Latinx immigrants and many Latinx communities are characterized in racist terms, then postracial characterizations of Latinx must be chal- lenged for how they pit seemingly good "White" Latinx people against the "bad hombres." Latinx media's efforts to highlight the Black, Asian, and Indigenous Latinx experiences as they connect with anti-immigration policies and police practices are some of the ways colorblind and post- racial narratives about Latinx are contested (although without a doubt, Whiteness still colors the audiovisual landscape). Speaking Spanish is in fact a primary way to push back against postracial and colorblind rheto- ric because it signifies, front and center, how difference, cultural con- nections, and historical dynamics continue to exist for Latinx; and it is a 112MARI CASTAEDA difference that is appreciated and beloved and cannot be erased even with the passage of English-only policies and practices. Promote a Social Justice Dimension to the study and praxis of Latinx media and race? In many ways, the The final tenet asks, How does one foster a social justice orientation approach requires the acknowledgment that gaining media access is a political project that requires an intersectional framework that is anti- racist, anti-capitalist, and always critically feminist. Promoting a social justice dimension means the need to examine how capitalism influ- ences much of the media production in the United States and the ways this confines the discussion of certain issues and lived realities. In addi tion to examining media with an anti-racist framework, the adoption of a critical feminist approach is also necessary for reimagining what Latinx media can be like if social justice was at the forefront of Latinx communications production. More commercial Spanish-language media are limited in their ability to publicly espouse a social justice dimension in their work, although news reporters have argued that in the current context of the forty-fifth president and his support of White supremacists, they are making a social justice intervention by simply existing (Navarrette 2017; Radtke 2017). They are also promoting social justice by covering and discussing the topics that the mainstream English-language media will not address on their broadcast news pro- grams and websites. Certainly, in some ways they are correct, but what they do is not enough. Therefore, online platforms that have adopted a clearly articulated social justice dimension have been key in pushing the discussion of what needs to be done to change the representation and treatment of Latinx on and off the media landscape. Education also has a big role to play in this regard, both in K-12 and in higher education. Latinx professors are working closely with students and community media organizations to produce media content that offers counternarratives about what it means to be Latinx in and across mul- tiple U.S. communities. Scores of these college graduates often become Latinx media workers who aim to create anti-racist, feminist stories about Latinx communities that acknowledge the challenges, beauty, and changes taking place on the ground locally. Thus, it is not enough LATINA/O CRITICAL COMMUNICATION THEORY 13 to examine Latinx media and race; political action that also embodies a social justice element is needed more than ever. Moving Forward in Examining Latinx Media and Race Given the historical and ongoing anti-Latinx, anti-immigrant, and anti- Blackness offenses in the United States, it is crucial to understand the role that U.S. Latinx media are playing to address as well as reinscribe the historical and contemporary problematics of race and racism that Latinx communities are facing. The online brand Remezcla has cre- ated viral stories that highlight and celebrate Afro-Latinidad in articles History" (Simn 2016), but the reality is that a recognition of what Black- such as "#BlackLatinxHistory Highlights Afro-Latinos Who Changed ness means within Latinx communities is still deeply contested within the community as well as Black communities. During February's Black History Month, Twitter postings have argued back and forth whether Latinx communities recognize their Blackness and whether their Black- ness even counts since it is (wrongly) perceived to not have been affected by the racism African American populations have endured in the United States. The idea that Afro-Latinx experiences are not influenced by the racist attacks again Blackness fails to understand that anti-Black audio- visual and discursive narratives do not distinguish between ethnic, national, or linguistic backgrounds. Afro-Latinx and Latinx individuals who are Indigenous-looking with dark brown skin are also subjected to discrimination, animosity, and antipathy toward their contributions to broader economic and social relations. Vilna Bashi (2004) notes that we must actually understand "anti-black racism as a global immigration phenomenon (600). Thus, to do so allows us to better compare, con- trast, and complicate the treatment and experiences of Blackness, and race more broadly, within and across Latinidades. For instance, Latinx media have seen themselves as Latinx-oriented but not necessarily as a racialized entity. Yet their increasing relevance to U.S. electoral politics has forced Latinx media to face the racialization of their sector and the people who are both working in and consum- ing Latinx media. They are no longer outside discussions and construc- tions of race but very much operating as proxies for racialization and minoritization of Latinx and non-English-speaking communities. They MARI CASTAEDA have become a contradictory vehicle for both expressing and calling out xenophobia as demonstrated by U.S. politics and English-language mainstream media. In some ways, it is also causing Latinx entertain. ment media to reflect on the ways they have also reproduced oppression in other areas such as gender, class, and sexuality, although there is still much work to do As noted earlier, the inclusion of an Afro-Latina news anchor from Colombia on Noticiero Univision is viewed as a progressive sign for Latinx media in terms of race. It is being heralded as a turning point in Spanish-language media and a wide range of programming streams including entertainment. Historically, the issue of race on Spanish. language media was addressed only in stereotypical ways, with Black folks often represented as inferior. The Afro-descendiente/descendent movement has been ongoing for the past decade in an effort to address the ways colonialism has impacted the Americas and the Caribbean. The need to address race on Latin American media has made its way to U.S. Latinx media as well, and on the flip side, the social movements rooted in heralding Black Lives Matter in the United States have also impacted Latin American social politics and discussions about racialization in media within a transnational context. However, the issue of White su- premacy is still not entirely addressed and certain kinds of racialized exclusions still exist on Latinx media, such as the voices of Indigenous populations. One of the challenges of talking about racialization in Latinx media is the fact that in many ways, to be seen as Latinx is to be racialized in the United States, given the historical relationship between White political economic power and Latinx populations. Therefore, if a people are ra- cialized by virtue of being Latinx, then Latinx media are already racial- ized by virtue of being for, about, and by Latinx people. Indeed, Latinx media have always been racialized spaces (Castaeda 2017), and will continue to be so as long as speaking Spanish in U.S. Latinx communi- ties is viewed as foreign. This was evident during the 2016 presidential campaign when Jorge Ramos from Univision tried to be at the campaign stops and was kicked out, when the Republican presidential candidate made fun of him, and more importantly, when Univision and Spanish- language media more generally were delegitimized. Univision was seen as not a legitimate news source because of the Spanish-language use and BEORY 115 s oriented toward Latinx. Yet Spanish-language and the fact that it was c Latinx media do not always see themselves as being already racialized, and as a result, they often reproduce the same narratives and images of White supremacy that can reinforce systems of oppression. Radio, on the other hand, has been a broadcast space in which racism has been addressed and examined, and racialization contested (Casillas 2014). The discussions about ICE and immigration that are taking place on broadcast and digital media are not only ways for information about community issues to be dispersed and discussed, but also reminders of how Latinx are systematically, materially, and symbolically othered in the United States every single day. Conclusion The tenets of LatCritComm Theory were applied above with the inten- ton to demonstrate how the framework can potentially help us reimagine how we analyze, understand, and perhaps improve Latinx media by more fully addressing anti-Blackness and the systemic exclusion of Afro-Latinidades. If we examine some of the literature about audience responses and reception, we see that issues regarding race and ethnic- ity, in addition to sexuality, gender, and class, deeply impact how people see themselves and others. This has real consequences with regard to policies and the acceptance of difference in everyday life. It also impacts the ability to build connections and movements across difference that would allow for Latinx populations to see themselves as part of a larger (racialized) community. Online Latinx media are some of the spaces in which the boundaries and discussions surrounding race and racialization are being engaged with and challenged. Latinx media have historically regarded themselves as advocates for Latinx communities, but the impor- tance of pointing out the ways the communities are being targeted and racialized in negative ways is now at a crisis point given the Republi- can presidency and Trumpism. Race within Latinx media needs to be examined not only because of the number of people they reach, but also because these media are viewed as a voice and communicative space for Latinx lived experiences.