In the text “The Social Construction of Race”, by Ian F. Haney López, I think there are some important statements that deconstruct the social (or hegemonic, in terms of Gramsci, we might say) common ideas about “race”. For instance, he says: “[T]he confounding problem of race is that few people seem to know what race is” (966). Of course, these few people aren’t owners of a truth. He also says this important statement: “Race is neither an essence nor an illusion, but rather an ongoing, contradictory, self-reinforcing, plastic process subject to the macro forces of social an political struggle and the micro effects of daily decisions” (966). Finally, in the section “Biological Race”, he puts over the table the most convincing argument against the believe of the existence of races: “Rather, the notion that humankind can be divided along White, Black, and Yellow lines reveals the social rather than the scientific origin of race” (967).
I’ve lived in a country (Perú) for 25 years where these ideas are very far for being part of the social and political discourse. The roots of racism in Perú could be traced since pre-Hispanic times. The last Empire before the arrive of the Spaniards, the Quechuas (miscalled Inkas; the Inka was the Emperor, only him has that title; the society were the Quechuas) subjected other cultures to theirs, forcing them to move from their territories, to change their language, religion, etc. Then, the Spaniards came and did the same and worst. They made a distinction from them and the “Indians”. But then, emerged the “criollos” (the descendants of Spaniards borned in Perú); the “mestizos” (descendants of Spaniards and “Indians”); etc, etc. In the XVIII century the mixture provoked, that the viceroy of that time, Manuel de Amat y Juniet (famous for his romance with the popular actress called the “Perricholi”) entrusted a “scientific” work to determine the “races” in Perú.
Unfortunately, in Perú the “racial” (and “classist”) discourse is still present. “Whites” (most of them in Lima) against “mestizos” (contemptuously called “cholos”) and “indios” (from the Andes and the Amazonia) and vice versa; “whites against “blacks” or “mulatos” and vice versa; “blacks and “mulatos” against “mestizos” and “indios” and vice versa; etc. That is why some people say that in Perú there is no nation, but a mixture of nations in constant conflict. A terrible example of this is the “rule” that some “exclusive” discos have in Lima: “Se reserva el derecho de admisión” [“The right of admission is reserved”]. It means, only “white” people could enter. If one is not white, then have to pay a huge amount of money or simply received a stupid excuse such as that there is a private party or something like that. Many of these cases have been denounced and the owners of the discos still doing the same (they pay the fine and they continue). Some comments are made, but in a few days everything continues to be the same.
The text of Gloria Anzaldua (I like it very much), also reminds me another type of discrimination in Perú: the linguistic. People who come from the Andes to the coast and whose native language is the Quechua or other than Spanish, are discriminated: “they don’t speak well, they are ignorant”. But also among native Spanish speakers exists discrimination. Some people, for instance, say “dijistes” (you said) instead of “dijiste”, which is the rule. Then, when someone says that word, is consider also an ignorant for not speak in an “adequate” Spanish.
So, with all these I want to emphasize that even it is already known that races a social construction, societies (or some of them) still practice racism. Why? Maybe because we still have some prehistoric elements or simply because we feel a terrible fear of the other.
Just to finish with an irony of a connoted Political Scientist in Perú: “I am privileged in this country [Perú]: I am white in a racist society; I am of the middle-class in a classist society; I am heterosexual in a homophobic society”.
Here a recent and very interesting documental about racism in Perú with English subtitles: