UNESCO Says Mexico a 'Profoundly Racist' Country Fernando Camacho Servin - La Jornada
go to original March 25, 2013

Although no one admits it, Mexico is a "profoundly racist" country, where discrimination is exercised across all class lines. Those who feel marginalized by a people from a higher socioeconomic status, in turn marginalize those who, in theory, are below them, said Dora Garcia, Director of the UNESCO Chair on Human Rights and Ethics.

"In this country no one admits it, but in practice people are profoundly racist, and unfortunately, it seems to go in circles, because those who discriminate against the indigenous or other persons on grounds of gender, homophobia or for being poor, feel discriminated against by more powerful groups," said the academic from Monterrey Tech's Mexico City Campus.

According to the specialist, this logic is played out at all levels and in all directions.

"Many people cannot understand that this is an ethical issue, and so the logic is repeated: 'as they discriminate against me, I discriminate against others.'"

One of the reasons why Mexicans racism has been an "invisible" phenomenon is because it is part of the cultural and structural violence that people assume to be "normal", which prevents full awareness of the seriousness of the matter.

By failing to identify and combat exclusion and racism, the academic emphasized, social injustice continues to deepen and acts of symbolic violence can lead to actual physical violence.

"In the depths of people and institutions, structural violence, as defined by Pierre Bourdieu, is still present, but it can be managed. But when racism begins to manifest itself without further thought, then it is very likely that the violence will go out of control," she warned.

This social dynamic so ingrained, Garcia said, that it can only be eradicated through an educational process of humanization and raising of awareness, which is carried out by the official state school system, but also by the media.

See Spanish original

Posted by Reed Brundage at Mexico Voices

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