Brazil begins to break down TV color bar
Things are slowly changing for black actors
"Little blonde girls come up to me saying 'I love your hair,' " says the 27-year-old, adding that would have been unthinkable a few years ago when blonde tyke show host Xuxa was the kids' role model.
Brazil has the largest proportion by population of African descent outside Africa -- but African Brazilians are under-represented on TV and film with black actors mostly limited to rare supporting roles.
Things are slowly changing.
Araujo's performance in "Da cor do pecado" (Shades of Sin) in 2004 was a landmark. The only other TV Globo show starring black actors is "City of Men," a spinoff of helmer Fernando Meirelles' feature "City of God" and produced by Meirelles' O2 Filmes.
Black thesps Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha starred in four seasons of the series that ended last year and O2 Filmes is now producing a "City of Men" feature.
Things may be about to change, thanks to November's bow of the first black-owned and targeted channel, TV da Gente (Our TV).
TV da Gente broadcasts six hours a day on a UHF channel in Sao Paulo and Fortaleza, Brazil's largest cities.
Besides foreign programming, it airs a few shows made in the company's production center in Sao Paulo plus content from American cabler Black Family Channel and Trace TV.
It's the brainchild of TV talkshow host and media entrepreneur Jose de Paula Neto, known as Netinho.
"In general, black actors are limited to the roles of maids and other house servants. They are rarely depicted as part of a family with parents and kids. They come from nowhere, have no life history," Netinho says.
TV da Gente has start-up funds of 12 million reals ($5.5 million), 75% of this was provided by Netinho and local partners while a pool of entrepreneurs from Angola invested 25%.
Despite Netinho's ambitious plans, TV da Gente has had limited impact due to its low audience. The UHF frequency is not popular in Brazil.
Netinho is negotiating distribution with local pay TV operators.
He is a man on a mission: "I believe TV da Gente will change the market place, as far as the presence on screen of blacks and other minorities goes. We are a people of mixed race and the TV does not reflect the racial and cultural diversity of Brazilians."
Indeed, the presence of African Brazilians in TV shows and features is part of a larger picture.
Congress is discussing a bill to create quotas in universities favoring African Brazilians, which has prompted national debate.
Few disagree about the need for positive discrimination -- the question is how to determine the beneficiaries of such policies.
Brazil has had five centuries of interracial unions. A study by the Federal U. of Rio Grande do Sul based on DNA analysis showed 86% of Brazilians have more than 10% African heritage.
However, in the government's 2004 population survey in which people stated their own race, 51.4% declared themselves white, 42.1% mixed race, 5.9% black and 0.6% others.
In short, it is difficult to determine who is who in Brazil, but what is clear to Araujo is that Brazilians of dark skin continue to experience discrimination.
"The prejudice is right there. We had some progress, but it is slow," she says. "I do not foresee any prospects of another telenovela with a black actor playing the leading role soon. The attitude among producers is: 'We already had the telenovela starring Tais.' But it is acceptable for a white actress to lead in several productions," adds Araujo, who worked for Telemundo in the U.S. during in 1999 and 2000.
If the ratings are a guide, Araujo should get another shot. "Shades of Sin" reached an average share of 73%.
