Racism In Latin America

It has been centuries since slavery ended across Latin America yet racial issues continue to plague these countries. Since manumission, the concept of race has evolved through the meaning societies have given it. Countries have used and continue to use the idea of race as a way to stratify their societies through racial hierarchies. Each country has taken on its own definition of race in terms of blackness, whiteness, and everything in between. These types of labels perpetuate racism and subject People of Color to discrimination, marginalization, and inequalities across society. It is crucial to identify the origins of race and racism, how the term has evolved, and the role race plays in societies across the Latin American countries, especially

To begin with, “race is a social, political, and economic construct. It is not biological. There is no existence of race in the Western world outside of the practices of colonialism, conquest, and the transatlantic slave trade” (Lecture 1). While the origins of race are centered around distinctions of humans based on presumed physical, ancestral or cultural differences, race is merely a floating signifier and therefore only has meaning, but that we give it (Lecture 1 and 2). This floating signifier has taken on different meanings in the U.S. and Latin America. For example, in the U.S., the one-drop rule is enough to deem someone black. On the other hand, Latin America considers pigmentocracy and uses Mulatto categories based on appearance and color

Like in many other countries, Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic are treated as second-class citizens. Haitian migrants often take on the toughest jobs in indispensable sectors, yet are quickly blamed and looked down upon when the economy goes sour (Burdick and Dixon, 2012). Furthermore, Haitians in the Dominican Republic, are often exploited by their employers to work for lower wages, denied labor benefits, harassed by authorities, physically and sexually abused, and ultimately deported (Burdick and Dixon, 2012). This anti-Haitian sentiment is further supported by Dominican Republic institutions. The Dominican Republic uses identification cards that describe citizens as Indio (light, dark), Moreno, and the racially charged term Negro, which is almost exclusive to Haitians (Burdick and Dixon, 2012). This system has not only institutionalized anti-Haitian sentiment and racism, but it has also failed to protect Dominicans as Afro-Dominicans are often mistaken for Haitians and then