Politics of Race in Argentina Today

The section Politics of Race in Argentina in colonial times and the nineteenth century has shown how deeply intertwined and highly complex the systems of race and social class are in Argentina. In his Article “Negros y Blancos” en Buenos Aires: Repensando nuestras categorías raciales (“Blacks and Whites” in Buenos Aires: Rethinking our racial categories), Frigerio draws attention to how little research has been done on the politics of race in Argentina in the twenty-first century (1). An extensive part of the available research has been conducted by Alejandro Frigerio himself.

As already mentioned in the introduction to this section, concepts of race are always subject to change. They develop over time and change as society changes. Opinions about along what lines Argentine society today is divided racially are highly differing. While the census conducted in 2010 carefully bases African descent on self-identification with one's own ancestry, and Andrews suggests that racial categories have turned towards a more North American perception of race dividing society into simply the two categories of “black” and “white” (Andrews 200), Frigerio suggests racial categorization in Argentina to be more complex and subject to change depending on socio-economic situations, individual self-identification, and the respective situation individuals find themselves in while being categorized or asked to categorize himself/herself racially (Frigerio, “’Blancos’ y ‘Negros’” 4). In Argentina the one-drop rule can be considered to rule inversely to North America. While in the United States of America “one drop” of black ancestry classifies someone as black the same can be considered to account in Argentina for white ancestry, where “one drop” of white blood lets someone classify as white (4f.).

During the twentieth century, parameters for blackness in Argentina changed tremendously. The characteristics determining blackness were more and more narrowed, until mixed, white and black heritage would in most cases not be considered black anymore (4). The term pardo got lost over time and with it also the possibility to acknowledge a mixed racial ancestry (4). This reduction in attributes determining blackness ultimately led to a decrease of people belonging to the black racial category during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (9f.). Other terms emerged, claiming a more socio-economic than racial meaning. Frigerio argues though that this explanation probably served to hide on one hand the racial prejudice anchored within porteño society and on the other the fact that there were still “racial others” within white porteño society, contrary to the official myth of a white Argentina (11f.).

Later the term negro (black) would come to substitute for these terms as reference to a certain social strata (11f.). George Reid Andrews states “the awkward fact remains that there is an extremely strong correlation between skin color and social class, and that dark-skinned Argentines are exposed to racial epithets never directed toward their white compatriots“ (Andrews 215). This ultimately means that although people are not as easily referred to as negro because they might not fit the phenotypical expectations of la raza negra (the black race) they might still be referred to as negro, because of their social or economic standing within porteño society. Lea Geler, throughout her article Afrolatinoamericanas … una experiencia de subversión estereotípica en el Museo de la Mujer de Buenos Aires exemplifies this nicely, constantly using the term socialmente negra (socially black) when referring to black women.

This socio-economic dimension of Argentine racial categorization seems to be the reason for Argentines to think that there is no racism or racial discrimination in Argentina. According to Andrews, “Some Argentines admit that there is prejudice against Argentines of darker skin, but assert that this prejudice is of class nature, not of a racial nature” (215) based on the “Argentine belief that the country does not suffer from any type of racism at all” (214).

In contrast to this, the Instituto Nacional contra la discriminación la Xenophobia y el Racismo (INADI) (National Institute against Discrimination) published an official study on discrimination in Argentina in 2013, conducted by universities in different regions of the country. Interestingly it states

La discriminación es una problemática que adquiere diversas expresiones que al mismo tiempo se entrecruzan, configurando una especificidad de la desigualdad social. Como se mencionó a lo largo del estudio, se destaca que los primeros motivos de discriminación experimentados por la población (Nivel socioeconómico, Nacionalidad o ser Migrante y Color de Piel) pueden identificarse con un tipo de racismo structural .

[Discrimination is a problem that has diverse expressions, which ultimately intertwine and build a specific form of social inequality. As mentioned throughout the study, the main reasoning for discrimination experienced by the population (socioeconomic status, nationality, being a migrant, and skin color) can be identified as a type of structural racism](Mapa Nacional De La Discriminación 2013 61)

Besides this very interesting study, there is no official information readily available investigating specifically what kinds of racism Afro-descendants are facing in Argentina. Considering the standing Africans and Afro-descendants have historically had in Argentina and knowing that this still was the case at least until the early nineteenth century, we are assuming that even today many Afro-Argentines belong to the lower strata of society. Please keep in mind that this is only our personal assumption based on the information available to us. Our thesis, however, is further confirmed in interviews with members of Afro-Argentine organizations conducted by Estefanía Luraschi for her extensive research on Afro-Argentine activism. The interviewees report that Afro-Argentines today occupy lower category employment positions, are still facing institutionalized discrimination, and have limited access to public resources such as health care and education (Luraschi 112f.).

Another form of discrimination that Afro-descendants are facing in Argentina is the denial of their existence in the country, and therefore the denial of their identity as Argentines. One of the major reasons for this is the porteño narrative of whiteness, which is mirrored in many aspects of the porteño society (historically and contemporarily), and the city of Buenos Aires itself. Andrews highlights that “Race pride has come to form part of the very core of the Argentine identity, and especially of the porteño identity” (Andrews 108). The resulting narrative limits porteño identity as well as Argentine identity in general to whiteness. Desarée Williams states “non-whites, particularly blacks, are not considered Argentine. Therefore, in this understanding, blacks will never achieve Argentinidad [the concept of Argentine identity] even if their ancestral link to Argentina is socially affirmed” (Williams 64).

Ultimately all of these three categories mentioned in the state report could refer to Afro-descendants, because of their skin color, the myth that there are no black people in Argentina, and because the social hierarchy originally established by the Spanish Crown almost five hundred years ago still persists.

Afro-Argentine organization to combat discrimination, silence, and statistical invisibility, has only recently begun during the last three decades. Today Afro-Argentines unite against being written out of history and society, self-identifying as a group under the term afrodescendiente (Afro-descendant) (“Raíces Afro” 19).