This week I learnt that living in post-independence Latin America was not actually that bad, that is, of course, unless you were black, a woman, poor or native to Latin America. This week showed us the struggle for rights by various groups including people of African descent, Indigenous and even Mestizo’s and Mulatto’s. Republics were ruled and controlled by rich people from European descent, who were more or less the only people who were entitled to influence change and even contribute to the newly written constitutions. This was due to many reasons, including scientific beliefs that a certain race was superior to and responsible for ruling over other races. I saw this as something very dangerous, for if this is believed, the immorality and guilt of injustice is removed.

I was also shocked by the level of the integration of racism in Latin American societies, it was almost like a state of mind, as if racial superiority was a fact that went without saying. This is illustrated by Dawson when he discusses how even after the abolishment of slavery in Brazil in 1888, the elites of Brazil attempted to decrease the job opportunities available to emancipated slaves by supporting and even spending large sums of money to subsidize European immigration to Brazil so jobs could be occupied by whites. I realized that this was not so long ago and decided to do some research out of curiosity. I discovered that today unemployment is 50% higher amongst Brazilians of African descent than that of Brazilians of European descent, and those employed earn less than half of what whites earn. 78% of African Brazilians are poor and to me this is no coincidence. I realized that even 150 years is not enough to fully eliminate the aftermaths of racial segregation and slavery.

This week was truly an epiphany for me. In my first blog post I discussed how I was so intrigued by the coexistence and wellbeing of Latin Americans irrespective of their race. I learnt this week that I may have been wrong.