This week’s lecture discussed slavery within the Latin Americas and how although we tend to think of slavery as something within the distant past, in reality we are only separated from it by a few generations. What I found interesting was the different dates mentioned where slavery was abolished; and how even the word emancipation has positive connotations as our modern perspectives immediately associate it with the end of slavery. And while I am in no way trying to take away any value from the ‘official’ abolishment of slavery, it is worth noting that the abolishment of slavery did not have some magical effect in the long held attitudes and stereotypes of society in that time. Furthermore, the illegal slave trade continued for many years after emancipation, proving that legislature was only the first step towards eliminating slavery.
Another thing that intrigued me within this week’s material was the concept that no rights are ever “self-evident”. I hadn’t really given much thought to this notion before, and I found it an extremely interesting proposition. I agree with this idea, because the way in which we think of rights are very different today than in the past. As mentioned in the text, even if rights are universal, the people who are entitled to such aforementioned rights have generally been an extremely niche group – separated distinctly from the rest by gender, race, and class (though there were always exceptions as well as other factors at play). This concept of the nonexistence of self-evident rights is also interesting for me because it is still very relevant to the world we live in, whether it be the issue of the gender pay gap, the stigma attached to mental health concerns, the recent rescinding of DACA, issues pertaining to accessibility in public spaces for the handicapped, or universal healthcare, the list goes on and on. Just as race and all the different categories of castes within Latin America are merely social constructions, the same logic applies to the notion of rights – these are nothing but abstract convictions about what people should or shouldn’t have according to the values of a particular group of people within a particular society.
A question that I would like to pose for this week’s discussion is how the concept of rights have shown the values of society in both the past and the present and whether that reflects or influences the mindsets of the people in said societies.
Thank you for reading!
Your question is very interesting, as it encourages us to consider different perspectives that different groups have to take in relation to their rights. I would answer your question thinking about Latin America and how rights developed differently in each country given that their demographic compositions were different. For example, in places such as Guatemala and Peru, which have large indigenous populations, many of their rights were suppressed until years later. In some Caribbean countries the former slave and black populations had to be considered. This also had to do with the economic activities of each country and how they were using the available labor and for what purpose. At least in the case of Latin America, it seems that the concept of rights was influenced by the groups that were in power who were also trying to control the economy.
I completely agree; emancipation was a long process and just because it was put on paper it doesn’t mean that its effects, the discriminatory attitudes and stereotypes were stopped altogether. Also, rights have never been “self-evident” but I believe that they do reflect our values and attitudes and I would very much like to have a deeper conversation about that in class. I found your analysis to be very thoughtful.