Hey, {{first_name | Fam}}!

Today’s newsletter is going to be a bit longer than usual, because I have THOUGHTS.

I'm sure you've been hearing a lot of talk about Argentina in the news lately. Some of it is about the World Cup and how, to the dismay of many, the country's made it to the final game. But a lot of the talk is also about something I've been hearing for years:

How disgustingly racist the country is.

The first time I’d learned about how they move in Argentina was when a Black friend of mine studied there more than 10 years ago and told me about how people started shouting lyrics to Shakira's "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" at her in a club in Buenos Aires.

I was still dealing with the aftermath of my own terribly racist experience on the other side of the Atlantic, so I was like… "yeah, I'm good off that country."

A few years later, I learned about "blanqueamiento," or "whitening." This is a system through which Argentina systematically erased Black people from its population through tactics like encouraging European immigration and intermarriage between Black women and non-Black men and enlisting Black men in the military as expendables. Now, some historians will argue about how much of this was deliberate versus just a natural result of war and disease, but either way, this isn't just an Argentina problem. A lot of Latin America is guilty of attempts at blanqueamiento, or mejorar la raza (“bettering the race”).

And because Argentina isn't the only country guilty of racism, a lot of the defense from its citizens has been, "Well, other countries are racist too!" As if racism can't exist in more than one place at a time, or the presence of racism elsewhere absolves their society of guilt.

I've also seen this excuse a lot: "Argentina never had segregation!"

The U.S. undoubtedly has major issues with racism. That’s not in dispute. But comparing one's country to the United States is in the Racist Country Deflection Handbook, page 1.

Here's the thing about a lot of people in Latin American countries who think this way and try to pass off guilt or shame by thinking the lack of segregation means better progress: you can't have a blanqueamiento or mejorar la raza if you segregate.

The reason is that the former seeks to eradicate Black people from society or mix the races so much that fully Afro-descended people begin to disappear. The latter keeps the Black population intact and might even leave room for it to flourish (unless, of course, all progress is burned to the ground).

The systemic oppression the United States attempted through segregation is quite similar to what was attempted through the "encouraged" integration we see in Argentina and other parts of Latin America. But in LATAM, some hide behind the concept of "mestizaje," a term that refers to the racial and cultural mix found throughout the region, as a badge of honor that, for some, means the country can’t be racist.

So next time someone from Latin America tries to brush off racism by saying "we're all mixed race," ask them if they know why that is.

Thoughtfully,

Nicole

P.S. If you have any thoughts on this or any of my emails, feel free to reply. (I promise I actually read replies and I respond when I can.)