The Power of Naming Brazilian Feminist Antiracist Intellectuals in Digital Platforms

Abstract

This article examines the practice of naming antiracist women intellectuals as a form of feminist digital activism in Brazil. It analyses tweets referencing Carolina Maria de Jesus and Lélia González, studying their transnational circulation, the appearance and relevance of hashtags, the users that are most frequently mentioned and the different topics they mobilize in social networks. It combines the tools of a feminist decolonial digital humanities, intellectual history and what has been called “distant reading”, through which it seeks to study naming Latin American feminist antiracist intellectuals as techno-discursive practices. The main conclusion is that digital practices of naming Brazilian antiracist feminist intellectuals on Twitter are powerful forms of creating and mobilizing social meanings: 1) they subvert global and intellectual canons and hierarchies; 2) they take advantage of the technical possibilities of digital platforms, but instead of privileging advertising and self-promotion, they stress an egalitarian logic. 3) the form and maintain collective identities and solidify counterpublics