Raising a star: Black motherhood and the politics of whiteness in the Colombian telenovela, La mamá del 10

Abstract

This study explores the representation of Blackness in the telenovela La mamá del 10, revealing it as ambiguous but largely depoliticized. Herein, soccer presents a “sanitized” way of being Black when hard work and high-performance sports are used to frame nonwhite populations within white values that manage to save a young man from repeating his Black father's mistakes. In addition, the mall is examined in relation to racial democracy. La mamá del 10 emphasizes the importance of the mall as a place where Blackness meets social advancement at the expense of kinship and community.