Lo decimos con cariño? Articulating Blackness in Colombia

For all its well-publicised problems, Colombia, like several other countries in Latin America, is often presented as a ‘racial democracy’, a nation in which the very issue of race is largely irrelevant given the predominantly mixed nature of its population. The interesting question of whether Colombia can really be considered a democracy escapes the scope of this article, but the claims of those who would argue that the ‘problem of race’ has largely been resolved here would appear to be supported by recent legislation, most specifically the 1991 Constitution, that not only codifies the principle of multicultural nationhood, but also goes some way towards recognising the interests of certain Afro-Colombian and indigenous ethnic groups. 1 The constitution specifically mentions the ‘{itcomunidades negras}’ of the Pacific coast, who have been granted land concessions by subsequent legislation. It also concedes limited autonomy to indigenous communities, but in such a vague way that making decisions about conflicting jurisdictions has been something of a legal headache ever since. As Jaime Arocha puts it, ‘[t]he new Colombian constitution attempts to build the nation neither by integration nor by segregation but by pursuing unity through the preservation of ethnic diversity’. 2 Jaime Arocha, ‘Inclusion of Afro-Colombians: Unreachable National Goal?’, {itLatin Amencan Perspectives}, 25:3,1998, p. 71

Autonomy · Constitution · Democracy · Ethnic group · Indigenous · Latin Americans · Legislation · Multiculturalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Cultural and political discourse analysis · Gender Studies · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · History and Politics in Latin America · Law

• Imaginarios de blanquitud, imaginarios de paz

  Open Access•Sara Koopman•Cuadernos de Geografía Revista…•2023

  Add to list

• The 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement and Colonial Continuities

  Open Access•Kacper Przyborowski•Latin American Perspectives•2025

  Add to list

• Blackness and Race Mixture

  P Wade•Blackness and race mixture•1995

  Add to list

• Langage et pouvoir symbolique

  Pierre Bourdieu, John B Thompson•Langage et pouvoir symbolique•2001

  Add to list

• Reconstructing Race

  Marisol De La Cadena•NACLA Report on the Americas•2001

  Add to list

• Inclusion of Afro-Colombians

  Open Access•Jaime Arocha•Latin American Perspectives•1998

  Add to list