Latin America is ridden with Racism? Would you agree or disagree? Why? And how do you know?

Question

I would like to hear from people who have lived or are from Latin America. Other answers valued as well, but prefer to hear from those with life experiences in Latin America.

Answer 1

I am an American who lived in Mexico City for a period of a couple of months and I have met many Spanish speakers in the States. One of the things that I learned while I was there was the incredible importance attached to skin color. I believe that American society is also racist, but Mexican culture is racist in a different way: for one thing, Mexicans are more open about their feelings about skin color, and they also see skin color in a gradient way.

I think if I could summarize racism in Mexico City, I would say "Lighter is better"; that is, people with lighter shades of skin are valued over people with darker shades of skin. Being white and being from the States, I found that people often treated me quite well, which sort of surprised me because as a young woman, in American culture, I am sometimes farther down in the social hierarchy. And since almost every Mexican person comes from a mixture of at least European descent and indigenous descent, there are a variety of skin colors available, and it really does seem that Mexicans see skin color in a gradient way rather than the "black and white" way that Americans often see it. My Venezuelan friend whose mother is Mexican told me that her Mexican family claims that they are pure blooded, straight to Aragon in Spain. When I told her I found that hard to believe, she agreed with me. But it goes to show that people WANT to be European.

However, I believe that this way of looking at Latin American racism only captures part of the story because it appears to me that there is also a counterforce in Mexican culture and other Latin American cultures that makes people proud of their brownness, as it were. I suppose this might be related to the fact that people are proud of their indigenous heritage as well as their European heritage. But it seems like the "lighter is better" force seems stronger.

In addition, though, these cultural pressures are coupled with the increased level of fatalism in Latin America. Fatalism is the attitude that each person should be happy with his/her place in society, and that we should simply accept whatever comes our way in life. American culture is quite non-fatalistic; we believe that a person can be socially mobile and if we work hard enough, we can get whatever we want. Mexican culture is much more fatalistic in that way. So in a way, if you are brown in Mexico, you might not be as upset about your lower place in the social hierarchy than a discriminated person in the United States. As an example, I'll give you a conversation I had with the woman I lived with in Mexico when I was there. She's a relatively young widow who has two kids, and I'm single, so she and I would sometimes talk about how we wanted to get married. She asked me once if I would ever marry a Latin man, and I said that I would. She seemed very surprised by that, and, as part of the conversation, told me that she thought I should marry a man like me, but that for herself she wanted to marry a "moreno". In other words, she had different ideas for ideal marriage partners for herself and me: she wants me to marry a white man because I'm white, but she (a morena) wants to marry a moreno. I see this as evidence that she sort of accepts her place in the skin-color hierarchy in Mexico and thinks that I should accept my place as well. She thought it was crazy sounding when I confirmed for her that it was true that people in the States go to tanning salons to purposely make their skin darker.

So, in summary, I would summarize Latin American racism as "Lighter is better, but if you're brown, you don't care as much as you would in American culture." As far as I can tell, the browner you are, the more indigenous blood you have, and it appears to be the association with Indians that people don't want.

Answer 2

I completely disagree because I'm black and married to a Latin woman, and Latin Americans still discriminate against us because we're together.

And you wanted to here from actual Latin Americans. Well my wife is sitting right hear writing the response with me.

Answer 3

Yeah there is, but not even close to the U.S or worse even Europe who beleive they are so sophisticated but is one of the most racist regions in the world. In Latin america theres racism in terms of people wanting to hire people who look more european or more of a spaniard look than indiginous, but that hapens everywhere.

Answer 4

Ask any Tarahumara, Mestizo, Cechuen etc etc native tribe latin American this question. The Spanish Blooded are the most racist pigs in the world.

Answer 5

Latina's can be racists. But it sometimes it is b/c they feel inferior to others within or outside of their own cultures.

And some also feel that they are better than the African American race.. I am not sure how they could feel that.

Basically we are all in THIS together. Let's learn to love. For it is the only thing that will get us closer to Heaven.. for those of us who are planning to go.

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad!