Racism the Latino Way

Is there racism; are Ecuadorians racist? I’ve been asked this question numerous times. I didn’t address this question yet as I thought I should first understand the country and its people deeper - looks can be deceiving. I can quote a number of reports and research papers that show people of Afrodescent [Afro Ecuadorians] and Indigenous groups face some form of discrimination or other. Historically these two groups have generally had little if any share of economic opportunities compared to the mainstream Eurodescent population.   Ecuadorians from these groups are the only ones who will admit that racism exists in their country. Now I can say and anecdotally illustrate that racism is widespread in Ecuador.  It appears that racism and classism play off each other, feeding on racial stereotypes.

At the beginning of this year, I found myself taking the same course with another Canadian. We got talking and started sharing about our experiences here. He has lived in Ecuador for five years and is fluent in Spanish. One day, our discussion led to skin colour. Then Terry leans to me and says, “Do you want to hear an unpleasant story about skin, as in skin colour?" I am always eager for a story so I told him to leave no detail out.

Terry, like lots of other people I know here has been robbed. Not once but twice, plus two attempts. One of the ‘successful’ robberies involved a large sharp knife. He told me the saddest part was being robbed in front of a military complex, where guards with sub-machine guns watched and did nothing. This is nothing new – generally, Ecuadorians don’t intervene or care to interrupt a robbery [I had to rant about that]. He told me that he was so pissed off he asked them why they didn’t help him and they had nothing to say. But they did lend him their phone to call the police.

After the police arrived, he went through the normal routine of recounting what happened and since it was still light outside, they decided to take him in their car and drive around the neighbourhood in the hope that he might identify his attackers. Eventually, they saw a guy just walking down the street and they stopped and asked Terry if that was the culprit. To which Terry answered no. This happened two more times and by this time, my friend was so mad he asked to be let off the vehicle right there. He had soon realised that the two policemen didn’t care for his description of the muggers. For those three stops, it had been when they saw black guys. My friend swears the police didn’t misunderstand him. He had sufficiently and clearly described the guys as Mestizos.

But between me and him, we wondered whether that was a common thing or they were just doing that for his benefit. Terry is what Ecuadorians call a ‘gringo’ and Ecuadorians are aware that racial profiling happens in North America, where they also believe racism lives.

The other times have to do with me:

I had some friends visit me from Canada; one is of Latin American descent while the other friend is Caucasian, blond hair blue eyes. They left the ‘urbanizacion’ [gated community] by taxi and decided to walk back. I hadn’t anticipated that and so the guards were not forewarned to expect them. The sad part is that while they walked in together, the guards only stopped and enquired about my Latino friend while they let the Caucasian one go through with a shouted greeting.  

Then recently, the ‘urbanizacion’ changed security companies. It’s a big community so of course I didn’t expect the guards to recognize all the residents yet.  As I walked outside the gate they stopped and questioned me. Afterwards, I hang around to see how many other people they stopped. None. This made me so furious I gave them a piece of my mind [in very broken Spanish]. But as we talked, it occured to me that they are just not used to and don't expect black people to be living in such communities.

But, that’s Ecuador for you, where people look at you and treat you differently, but attitudes change as soon as they realise I am an ‘extranjero’ [a foreigner], and not from Columbia or Cuba, where most foreign black people originate. They treat you differently when they realize you haven’t grown up in the system and you could be their equal or more in education, career, exposure, etc.

So, racism and discrimination are rife here; and classicism through prejudice is used to treat people differently.  This is no Kenya [where the determining discrimination factor is tribal]. It’s not Canada or South Africa either, where racism exits but shows up differently.  The fact is, like all these places, the victims of racism and discrimination are poor and have been poor for a very long time. Black people are assumed to be uneducated, and the only place they’re expected to shine is in ‘futbol’.  But, there is a bit of hope as the government, starting with the ministry of foreign affairs is catching up on affirmative action for the underprivileged groups.

This short 2009 report by Aljazeera illustrates the issue of racism against Afro Ecuadorians: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AE27JSZIJw