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

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, in order to understand the detrimental economic, political, and social consequences of race and racism in these societies.
Although the origins of race and racializing groups of people are the same, the outcomes have been different across Latin American countries.

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

(Lecture2).
Latin America seems to have a more complex and ambiguous racalizing process, that varies from country to country. According to Burdick and Dixon (2012), “White’s ideas about blacks in Latin America vary according to the political circumstances of each country-the balance of power between blacks and whites, how fearful whites feel about losing their power, and the extent to which whites can fit people of African descent into their nation-building projects and ideologies” (Burdick and Dixon, 2012, p. 7). These kinds of discrepancies can have significant effects on the political and economic circumstances that surround blacks in a country; however, as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti has been the most affected by white fear.
When slaves in Haiti successfully gained their freedom through revolution they simultaneously became a threat to the U.S. and other Latin American countries. Many former slaves took refuge in other Latin American countries like Cuba and Puerto Rico. In Cuba, “free black conspirators (several of them Afro-Dominican veterans of the Haitian Revolution) managed to coordinate uprisings of plantation slaves in the provinces of Havana, Puerto Principe, Bayamo, and Holguin” (Andrews, 2004, p. 68). As the fear of “Haitianization” spread the U.S, Latin American countries and their imperial powers, continued to ostracize Haiti and their revolutionaries. Countries imposed a ban on Black Migration, limits on African born slaves and the slave trade, and the management of black demands for rights and freedom. Examples of these bans include the 1792 Ban on French slaves from Haiti, the 1807 British Ban on slave trade, and the 1808 U.S. Ban on the slave trade (Lecture 3).
Treating Haiti like a cancer further subordinated and racialized black Haitians throughout Latin America. While anti-black sentiments persist throughout these countries, anti-Haitian sentiments have developed throughout Latin America, especially the Dominican Republic. “Being a Haitian in the Dominican Republic means being a foreign pariah, easily identified by your foreign-sounding name, by your accent, and, more often than your black skin” (Burdick and Dixon, 2012, p.324). In the case of the Dominican Republic, the only thing worse than being black is being Haitian and black.
While many political and social factors led to the racialization of Haitians in the Dominican Republican, this stratification has resulted in economic marginalization.

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

deported.
It is critical to consider the case of Haiti when talking about race and racism, as it is no mistake that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. When it comes to human development, poor Haitians are often illiterate, resource less, and powerless (Burdick and Dixon, 2012). These are only some of the long-lasting effects of colonialism and those who were able to fight against it. Since the revolution, race and racism against Haitians have gone from anti-black to anti-Haitian. This goes to show how race is what society makes of it. Unfortunately, for Haitians, this “evolution” of race and racism has transgressed into the type of discrimination and subordination that keeps a country in poverty.