DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Why Race Became Such an Issue in the United States

**jesyflowers** · 03-20-2012, 11:38 AM

Race is as big of an issue in Latin America as it is in the United States. It's probably even a bigger issue. They had slavery too, and people over there discriminate against people because of the way they look and the color of their skin. actually, the discrimination over there is way worse than anything that goes on in America.

The difference between the two colonial experiences lies in the fact that in the Latin American scenario, the concept of race is more mobile. For example, the fact that Juana Mendez was a slave didn't mean that her sons with the local magnate would "inherit" her slave condition, cuz' the Spanish laws specifically commanded the magnate in question to free his mulatto offspring once he/she was baptized at the local Church. Furthermore, if the magnate in question failed to produce children in his "legitimate" (as in, white) marriage, he could make his mulatto offspring inherit ALL his wealth without any problems. Whereas in the Anglo scenario, the liberty (or continued enslaved status) of the mulatto child depended on the pangs of conscience of the master in question. Furthermore, there were a lot of barriers against people of color in the property department, while in the Spanish/Portuguese/French colonies, seeing extremely wealthy colored people wasn't such a strange ocurrence.

Here's an historical example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Raimond

03-20-2012, 11:38 AM	#11
jesyflowers Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 409 Senior Member	Race is as big of an issue in Latin America as it is in the United States. It's probably even a bigger issue. They had slavery too, and people over there discriminate against people because of the way they look and the color of their skin. actually, the discrimination over there is way worse than anything that goes on in America. The difference between the two colonial experiences lies in the fact that in the Latin American scenario, the concept of race is more mobile. For example, the fact that Juana Mendez was a slave didn't mean that her sons with the local magnate would "inherit" her slave condition, cuz' the Spanish laws specifically commanded the magnate in question to free his mulatto offspring once he/she was baptized at the local Church. Furthermore, if the magnate in question failed to produce children in his "legitimate" (as in, white) marriage, he could make his mulatto offspring inherit ALL his wealth without any problems. Whereas in the Anglo scenario, the liberty (or continued enslaved status) of the mulatto child depended on the pangs of conscience of the master in question. Furthermore, there were a lot of barriers against people of color in the property department, while in the Spanish/Portuguese/French colonies, seeing extremely wealthy colored people wasn't such a strange ocurrence. Here's an historical example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Raimond
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