Slaving Our Own

                                                                            Slaving Our Own
 
  this article will discuss the historical background of "Race" as a concept of discrimination in Latin America 

countries as will as the variables that aided and strengthened the practice of racism against dark color

people. By taking a quick glance  at the arrival of European to the new world in 1924 and the landing of

Columbus on the shore of small island "Bahamas" , a proportional relationship could be drawn between the

present of white European and the explosion of slavery as a global norm. Although slavery was practiced

even by Africans,yet Africans had different approach to the concept of slavery. In clear term slavery in

Africa was neither attached to skin color nor inherited.  Slaves in Africa were usually ware captives who

were able to work their way up to freedom and be fully integrated into the society without staining taboo. In

contrast the arrival of Europeans to the new world restricted the slavery term to specific type of people who

happened to be colored-unchristian Africans. Such prejudges inflected on the black African and brown

American was anchored,nourished,and deeply rooted in the Latin American countries because of three

major reasons which would be discussed analytically through out the article

Religion :  European use religion as an excuse to rationalize slavery and to keep voyages to the new world

funded. The idea of pure-white christian willing to rescue the lost souls colored people played major rules in

inflaming slavery in Latin America.For example,the Spanish invented the "encomienda" in which  group of

indigenous people worked for Spanish for free,or pay him some a  tribute. In return the holder of the

encomienda was to teach them Christianity. In fact, European were able to suspend the morals and the

ethical values of the Christian faith,and used it as a conquering tool to boost their economical gain.

Economy:  Yet religion was used by European, economy was the most single important reasons that cause

European to conquer, slave, and massacred people around the globe. During that time Europe suffered a

great lack of material goods such as sugar,salt,coffee,and other basic necessity considered to be luxuries in

Europe. The effect of economy on the Latin American countries was so great great in fact it shaped the

Latin American societies according to the economical needs of the invaders Europeans. The native

population was decimated by being exposed to European's disease and massacres. As a result, Europeans 

turned to Africa to meet the high demand for labor forces in their new colonies. The different in society 

formation between Brazil and Mexico is great example of the influence economy has on the Latin 

American countries. While the Mexican colonial society was built around mines, the Brazilian society was 

built around sugar cane plantations. Such different information dictated the social-relationship within 

each society.  The sedentary inhibitors around mines created an urban cities with mix race population 

society;in contrast, the Brazilian's sugar plantation created more segregated society.

 





Hegemony: the last element contribute to the formation and growing of racism in the Latin American 

countries is the hegemonic -power relation between the assumed "superior" colonialist and the "inferior 

natives. Ironically, the mixed population that created by the interaction between 

Europeans,Indigenous,and  Africans which established the most existing countries adapted to the motion 

of race and white supremacy. Even hegemony did not motivated racism directly,it kept it a live. In fact, 

hegemony was the DNA segment of racism that inherited from generation to generation.  For example in 

Peru the racial discrimination against black African is continuous trend  " The government said racially-

motivated harassment still hindered the social and professional development of many African-Peruvians."
    
  To sum up, as a concept slavery was existed  before the arrival of European  to the new world;however, 

the motion of racism and white supremacy was inflated due to the economical needs of the Europeans 

invaders.On the other hand Christianity and hegemonic power aided and nourished racism and changed 

from organization associated to colonial power to inherited culture.   


Source
 
vivirlatino.com/.../pointing-the-racism-finger-at-latin-america-and-ou