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This guy Mark Wells makes good videos. He uses the incident from a few years back surrounding baseball player Torii Hunter to make some points about Afro Latinos.
So basically this guy is saying a shared history of oppression is enough of a reason for people of African descent to feel kinship with each other?
I don't agree. He even goes so far as to say that their shared history of oppression is the reason they are just as black as African Americans. That's hugely incorrect. They are just as "black" as African Americans because they also have West African ancestry, that's it. Black is not an experience. It is a race. Race is a meaningless concept in terms of grouping people. The concept of race is a subjective construct that varies wildly from country to country with some countries like the US having race denote culture. This is not the case in Latin America. Hence race (or calling themselves black) has little meaning to a Latino (of African descent or otherwise). And they are not running away from their blackness or in denial by feeling like that. Furthermore in Latino cultures multi racial is not a subset of black. It is mutually exclusive.
I am Caribbean black (I am considered black in my country but as I said race doesn't denote my culture where I live). If I migrated to the US and was called black yes I would have a problem with it if people assumed black is a culture and that my culture is African American. Simply because I'm not African American.
His point was that Torii Hunter needed to broaded his view of blackness to include other people of African descent in Latin America who are also struggling with racism in their home countries. Now does this mean that Afro-Brazilians and Afro-Colombians are the same as Black-Americans? No but all three groups seem to have to deal with their country's brand of racism towards them based on them all being of African descent it seems.
Along with indigenous peoples, Afro-Peruvians are among the poorest communities in Peru. Racial discrimination in Peru—based mainly on the color of one’s skin—remains prevalent, and many Afro-Peruvians feel discriminated against, particularly in the areas of housing, employment, and education. Despite an official apology by President Alan Garcia in 2009 for centuries of exclusion and discrimination by the state, the socio-economic and political needs of Afro-Peruvians continue to be ignored by successive national governments, and the political parties do not take Afro-Peruvians into account in their political agendas.
I don't agree. He even goes so far as to say that their shared history of oppression is the reason they are just as black as African Americans. That's hugely incorrect. They are just as "black" as African Americans because they also have West African ancestry, that's it.
Well you are just hugely wrong.
Africans weren't just brought to North American and the West Indies. There are some 50 million direct descendants of Africa in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru Uruguay, and Venezuela, in short every country in Latin America. They all descendants of slaves, the vast majority of whom were brought to Latin America and who have all suffered from one degree of racial discrimination or another. Their stories are not disimilar from the narrative of "African-Americans" or any others of the African Diaspora.
Skip Gates, unsurprisingly, did a wonderful series for PBS on the rise of Latin black consciousness movement that is sweeping through Latin America as Afro-Latinos assert their place within their societies by after reconnecting with their African roots.
Africans weren't just brought to North American and the West Indies. There are some 50 million direct descendants of Africa in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru Uruguay, and Venezuela, in short every country in Latin America. They all descendants of slaves, the vast majority of whom were brought to Latin America and who have all suffered from one degree of racial discrimination or another. Their stories are not disimilar from the narrative of "African-Americans" or any others of the African Diaspora.
Skip Gates, unsurprisingly, did a wonderful series for PBS on the rise of Latin black consciousness movement that is sweeping through Latin America as Afro-Latinos assert their place within their societies by after reconnecting with their African roots.
So basically this guy is saying a shared history of oppression is enough of a reason for people of African descent to feel kinship with each other?
I don't agree. He even goes so far as to say that their shared history of oppression is the reason they are just as black as African Americans. That's hugely incorrect. They are just as "black" as African Americans because they also have West African ancestry, that's it. Black is not an experience. It is a race. Race is a meaningless concept in terms of grouping people. The concept of race is a subjective construct that varies wildly from country to country with some countries like the US having race denote culture. This is not the case in Latin America. Hence race (or calling themselves black) has little meaning to a Latino (of African descent or otherwise). And they are not running away from their blackness or in denial by feeling like that. Furthermore in Latino cultures multi racial is not a subset of black. It is mutually exclusive.
I am Caribbean black (I am considered black in my country but as I said race doesn't denote my culture where I live). If I migrated to the US and was called black yes I would have a problem with it if people assumed black is a culture and that my culture is African American. Simply because I'm not African American.
The African diaspora has a series of differing and unique experiences. They are the same but they are also different.
I think Afro-Latinos are more culturally "African" than Afro-Americans. You can see it in their religious rituals.
While I get what you are saying I think it's a flawed way of looking at things. I mean can Africanness culturally be measured? Culture is a fluid thing. African culture since ancient times has mixed with other civilizations and groups like Arabs. Also African Americans are influenced by Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans. If looking at African influences and aspects, African Americans may show off their African influence differently. Also many traditions that are closer to African antecedents may not be practiced or are abandoned. This happened and continues to happen in Latin America as many people move to the cities or urban centers and don't have time to partake in traditions that they or their ancestors practiced more frequently, so some cultures and traditions are let go or sometimes modified. It's hard to pinpoint a starting point or ending point to a culture.
Just curious...
Would it not be better to drop the hyphen and the colonial monikers and just call yourselves Indigenous or Aboriginal? I always thought Africans were indigenous to the planet so no matter where they went, they were home. This is what I learned in school. Perhaps I had a world culture teacher who was a little more advanced than most of her ilk.
I'm not black, but I am always intrigued by how post-colonial racial group names stand the test of time or morph into names that make reference to past oppression and not to actual nationhood or ethnicity. Correct me if I am mistaken. Great topic btw.
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Names matter
