Draft

Latin America is a region filled with many different races and cultures.There’s a large amount of mixed people living in Latin America due to the high concentration of so many different races and culture in just one region which can cause a lot of problems, especially if the people aren’t able to understand and accept cultural differences. Many people  in Latin America believe that race had and still has a great impact on Latin American society, economy and government,meanwhile others believe race has no significant effect on the region.

Race in Latin America plays a big role among the people who live in the region. Many Latin Americans suffer from a lack of racial identity. They deny certain races and cultures that exist in their bloodline because those races are seen in a negative way. We see an example of this in Hispaniola where there is a history of Haitians being murdered by Dominicans simply because they identified as Haitian. Gates in his video tells us about the massacre that took place in Hispaniola and was brought upon by the dominicans targetting Haitians. Trujillo the Dominican leader who initiated the massacre claimed the Haitians were “Encroaching on the so called ourite of the dominican motherland (Henry Gates Jr)” so he had them killed. Dominicans with Haitian blood weren’t safe either. Although people aren’t being murdered anymore there are still challenges for people of certain races in Latin America. “In stark contrast to the promise of ethnic inclusion, however, indigenous groups and people of African descent remained economically disadvantaged and politically marginalized well into the twentieth century. (Even today, black and indigenous populations lag behind their white counterparts) (Deborah J. Yashar).”  it cannot be denied that race had a great effect on the people of Latin America whether it be socially or economically in the past and it still does till today regardless of the effort to address the problems.

Although many people believe that race had a negative impact on the history of Latin America and even the present many people deny that there ever was a problem with race at all. “ One view is that race is not important: there is little racism and little sense of racial identity for most people. Indigenous people may have their particular ethnic identities, based on local cultures, and people in general may recognize phenotypical differences that are linked to skin color and other typically “racial” features, but none of this creates a society in which racial identities are the basis for significant social divisions and exclusions (Peter Wade).” Peter also says “Latin America has a history of the denial or minimisation of race, saying either that it doesn’t exist or it’s not really a big problem.” People are denying the fact that there is a problem when it comes to race in Latin America. They deny it because they see it as normal especially when compared to the race issues in the U.S. as repeated by Wade several times in his book. Those who aren’t negatives affected don’t see the problem.

In conclusion race in Latin America an extremely racially and culturally diverse is viewed differently by many people. Certain deny aspects of their heritage due to its past and the way it’s seen by other races which had impacts on the societies of many different races and how they were viewed by other nations in the region.. Many people believe that race had an effect in the region in the past and still does today while others believe that race doesn’t have any major or negative effects in the region.

 

Works Cited:

• Haitian Beats Makak,  “Black In Latin America (Episode 1) Haiti and The Dominican Republic- The Roots of Division,” Youtube, narrated by henry louis Gates Jr, 24 June, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlG4b3LV9o
• Wade, Peter. Race and sex in Latin America, 2009
• Yashar Deborah, “Does Race Matter in Latin America?” Foreign Affairs , March/April 2015,https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/south-america/2015-02-16/does-race-matter-latin-america%3Famp

 

 

 

Critical Response

Racism in Brazil?

African slaves started being imported to Brazil in the early 16th century and this continued late into the 19th century when slavery was abolished in 1888. The slave trade was what brought Africans to Brazil. After slavery was abolished it was revealed that about four million slaves had been imported to Brazil from Arica. That’s 40 percent of all the slaves that had been brought to the America were delivered to Brazil. Throughout the years the African population mixed with the European and Native population which is why Brazil is seen as a country with a diverse population. Due to the mix of the different cultures many people believe that racism does not exist in Brazil because there is too much diversity for one group to be seen as better than another which led to the idea of a racial democracy, however racism is actually a big issue in Brazil because blacks aren’t given the same opportunities granted to the whites.

Many people believe that racism doesn’t exist in Brazil due to the fact the society is so diverse and mixed no one race is superior to the other. This established the idea of a racial democracy in Brazil. Brazil also has the highest population of blacks in Latin America but the second highest in the world. An article on The Economist states “Such racial mixing encouraged Brazil’s largely white elite to nourish a myth that their country had overcome the legacy of slavery and become a ‘racial democracy.” The fact that Brazilians had become more diverse and had accepted the culture of the blacks and the Natives that live in the country made them

believe that racism didn’t exist in Brazil anymore. The belief that there is no racism in Brazil is held by many Brazilians, mostly the elites and those with power don’t see it because the ones who experience it can’t reach such a level. Jair Bolsonaro, a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil who is also a presidential candidate in front of 1,500 people blatantly says “Here in Brazil there is no such thing as racism.” Peter Wade says “but many saw race as much less significant than in the U.S.and becoming more insignificant. It was widely argued that class was the key division in Brazil” (182).No one wants to believe that racism is a problem in Brazil so they blame the division and the lack of success in specific racial groups on class instead.

While many people believe that there is no racism in Brazil many others believe that although racism isn’t as publicly displayed as it was in the past it is present in the lives of many. In Brazil it is harder for blacks to get jobs than it is for the white Brazilians and the jobs they get pay them way less than the whites. Carinhanha says in her article “ Black Brazilians earn, on average 57 percent less than white Brazilians.” An article from Financial Times  says “ A 2016 study by the Instituto Ethos and the Inter-American Development Bank showed that black people, despite comprising the majority of the population, occupy only 6.3 percent of management positions and 4.7 percent of executive posts in Brazil’s 500 largest companies.” These stats show us that regardless of the fact that Brazilians may be more diverse and accepting of its black culture there is still a form of racism which makes it harder for blacks to reach the same level of success as the whites. Wade also says “ Statistical evidence for Brazil shows that racial inequalities do exist which are not just the legacy of slavery or an effect of the fact that many dark-skinned people are in the lower classes and tend to remain there through “normal” processes of class stratification”(183). Wade is saying that regardless of what the Brazilians believe there is some type of racism present in the country which prevents blacks

Brazilians from moving up from the lower classes. The racism doesn’t only exist in the economy it also exists in Brazilian society. It’s dangerous to be a black person in Brazil and this can be seen in the rate at which blacks are being killed compared to the whites. Vanessa Barbara in her New York Times article says “black Brazilians ages 12 to 18 are almost three times more likely to get killed than their white counterparts, and a survey by the Brazilian Forum on Public Security found that black Brazilians accounted for 68 percent of all homicide victims.” She also says “They are also more likely to be victims of police killings; a study by the University of São Carlos showed that 58 percent of all people killed in the state of São Paulo by the military police were black. They make up 62 percent of all people incarcerated nationwide.” Blacks are being killed at a higher rate than any other in Brazil which shows us that there is some type of racial bias going on in Brazil which oppresses blacks. They’re even being killed by those who are supposed to protect them.  

In conclusion there are many who accept the fact that racism is an issue in Brazil that needs to be acknowledged and there are many who deny it. It is clear that although Brazil is a country with a very diverse population there is still discrimination towards those of darker skin color simply because of their skin color and not their “class” which people believe is the reason why a majority of people from a specific race are so poor and others so rich.

 

Works Cited:

The Conversation, “Assassination in Brazil unmasks the deadly racism of a country that would rather ignore it,” 13 April 2018

Ana Míria dos Santos Carvalho Carinhanha

http://theconversation.com/profiles/ana-miria-dos-santos-carvalho-carinhanha-457104

 

Financial TImes, “Racial Diversity in Brazil Turns to a New Page,” 14 May 2018

https://www.ft.com/content/abe60816-3cc9-11e8-bcc8-cebcb81f1f90

 

The New York Times, “In denial over Racism in Brazil” 23 March 2013

Vanessa Barbara

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/opinion/vanessa-barbara-in-denial-over-racism-in-brazil.html

The Economist, “Brazil’s Unfinished Battle With Racial Democracy,” 20 April 2000

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2000/04/20/brazils-unfinished-battle-for-racial-democracy

 

Wade, Peter. Race and sex in Latin America, 2009