Have You Experienced Prejudice Or Racism In Argentina?

[cruizes]

I think the people here are ridiculous. I live with a Filipino for 20+ years who is smarter than most of these people. When we meet people the majority will have nothing to do with my friend automatically thinking that he is "chino" WTF! Do Argentinos really belive that they are the superior race in the world? I THINK NOT. Who told them that Eva Peron or Cristina? When I confront them they say we have only starting seeing people of other races in the past 10 years. This is the 21st century. It's time that they finally enter our new century. Racism is "alive and well" and living in Buenos Aires. Pity!

 

[camberiu]

I think the people here are ridiculous. I live with a Filipino for 20+ years who is smarter than most of these people. When we meet people the majority will have nothing to do with my friend automatically thinking that he is "chino" WTF! Do Argentinos really belive that they are the superior race in the world? I THINK NOT. Who told them that Eva Peron or Cristina? When I confront them they say we have only starting seeing people of other races in the past 10 years. This is the 21st century. It's time that they finally enter our new century. Racism is "alive and well" and living in Buenos Aires. Pity!

You are mistaken, there is little or no racism in Argentina. You just need to be properly educated and lectured by one of the white, blue eyed, Europeans in this board about the realities of race relations here in Argentina. You just don't know any better.

 

[Crema Americana]

There's racism here - mostly based on ignorance and shallowness rather than hatred. Calling all Asians 'chinos' can be taken as a sign of disrespect towards individual cultures, but truth is most Argentines have no idea about the differences in culture so they simply don't care. It's not much different than when you hear Americans call any Spanish speaking person Mexican or assume they all eat tacos.

I'm actually a little annoyed at the Argentine obsession with light hair/skin. My sister in law had a baby last year and all the comments about her eye, hair, and skin color was irritating. They say she's 'blond' when she really has light brown hair and they fussed about her tan skin. I guess she wanted her to come out Swedish despite Criollo/Spanish genes.

Shallow and stupid pretty much sums up a lot of Argentines views on race.

Risu, I'm sorry about your daughter... usually blond and blue eyes is preferred here, so my guess is that the bullying stems from jealousy and general mean spiritedness. Kids can be cruel to anyone who is slightly different or shy. The culture in that school sounds awful.

I haven't really experienced racism because I look like a local (Spanish genes) but I do try to hide my accent when negotiating prices by letting my husband do the talking. I'd rather avoid the stereotype that Americans are made of money.

 

[nicoenarg]

I haven't experienced racism here in Argentina. Everyone has always treated me with respect and I have always given back the respect due them. I usually don't go around thinking, "was that racism?! OH NO!" either.

The only times I did experience racism was at the Argentine embassy in Abu Dhabi where on the visa form I wrote my skin color as "brown" and the lady, who herself was brown, looked all offended, scratched out "brown" and replaced it with "tan"...I mean, I was born with the brown skin, not like I was tanning in my mother's womb! But hey, no big deal...the lady's got problems. It doesn't matter to me. She wasn't even Argentine, by the way, she was Colombian. But even if she had been Argentine, it still wouldn't matter.

Racism exists, of course it does, it exists everywhere in the world. Some people here seem to be suggesting that it is a "white" folks' problem...well that statement in and of itself is a bigoted and racist statement against white people.

The most racist places I have ever lived in or been to have been Saudi Arabia, the UAE, India and Japan in Asia. And in Africa, South African blacks treated me better, while serving me at restaurants, than their black countrymen because I was lighter skinned. Nigerians target white people for kidnappings and murders.

Again, those are all generalizations. Not all Saudis, Emiratis, Indians, Japanese, South Africans and Nigerians are racist or kidnappers or what have you, its just that racism exists everywhere in the world in one form or another. Whether out of hatred or out of ignorance.

Its not just a white problem, or a black problem or (fill in the blank) problem. Anyone insinuating such ideas, like a couple of people on this thread, need to look at their own prejudices based on racial make up.

Coming back to Argentina though, like I said racism exists...but so what? If someone's racist, I don't sit there and think "OH MY GOD, He or she did not treat me like I should be/ or demand to be treated!!" If someone's stupid enough to dwell on race doesn't mean I should worry about it just as much and waste my energy doing so.

If I went to a business establishment and they treated me worse than a white person or a black person or whatever then I'd just walk out and never go back there again. Take my money somewhere else and enjoy my life while that person is forever going to be stewing on things related to race. I am not their father, its not my job to set them straight in the way they think.

At least I appreciate this here in Argentina that political correctness hasn't taken much of a hold in society so you know what people are thinking and how they think it.

I once saw a teenager yelling racial slurs at a black guy on Rivadavia because he ran into the teenager (it was a mistake of course). The black guy was yelling racial slurs back at the teenager. Both were bigots and they both yelled it out while everyone else shook their heads and went on their own way. Imagine the same scene somewhere in the West where one party feels like the other party SHOULDN'T have said something, feelings get hurt as if everyone is in kindergarten, police gets involved, laws get passed and soon everyone is scared of speaking their minds about anything because they don't know when something might end up offending someone.

Just my two cents.

 

[arlean]

Well I tell you I laugh a lot on this forum. I am sitting up in bed in Chile trying to find some threads that concerned me that I wanted to catch up on (but I don't know what happened to them so I give up). But there is absolutely NO DISCRIMINATION in Argentina. Argentines even love Chileanos and vice versa. No one around here would ever be prejudiced. Dontcha love it?

 

[ghost]

You need to get some sleep.

 

[johnw100]

As a British person who has lived in Argentina for 3 years (married to a local) i`ve only ever had 2 comments that were derogatory, not sure racist. One was from a woman we bought a car from and she said remarked after talking the British favourably said but, the British were the pirates of the world. She was from a spanish heritage. I smiled at the irony of that statement from her and jokingly remarked that the Spanish taught us everything we knew about piracy. She laughed and said perhaps.
The other time was a cable installer who jokingly said "ah the British, you like guns." Which again was kind of ironic as every day in Argentina I see a gun on the street, in the uk you have to visit the Queens palaces, or an airport to see a gun on display. Guess hes referring to the wars that our government gets us involved in.

But apart from that everyone has been very curious and interested about why we came and what we think of Argentina, and have often spent alot of time talking about British music ,football,etc. Some want to practice their English on me. Have had a couple of comments about Malvinas/Falklands but nothing bad. Mostly how it was a mistake to goto war over them. Probably behind my back its a different story.

I`ve lived outside BA for a couple of years, and foreigners are even rarer here. I have a 3 year old boy with blonde hair he stands out like a sore thumb . I did notice that quite a few strangers would just say "hola gringo" to him. Which at first I took as racist, but when I discovered that gringo is more foreigner than anything racist I was ok with it. Still a bit rude though. But most are fascinated and love that my kids talk in Spanish and English fluently.

The only real racism I have found is that from an indian friend who lives locally and also some paraguayans acquaintances have been treated quite badly by the locals because they are slightly darker skinned than most. They generally look down on people with darker skin.

But the one thing I do find commonly is that because I`m a foreigner and we have a nice house we pay more for plumbers,builders,painters,etc,etc. They see the house and then put the price up accordingly. Which happens everywhere I guess

 

[Robt424]

I rarely post on here, as I haven't lived in Argentina for a couple of years, but I still read the forum from time to time with nostalgia. I thought I'd come out of hiding and share my experiences as a black American who lived in Argentina for nearly three years.

Racism in Argentina DOES exist. However, a lot of it is pure ignorance rather than true bad intentions. Also, it's so over the top and in your face that it becomes almost a part of daily life and you get desensitized rather quickly.

On my very first day in Argentina back in 2008, I went to an asado with some friends of friends. One of the portenos was clearly drunk and kept saying to me that it was remarkable to meet a gay black man. He was convinced I was straight because he didn't believe that 'negros pueden ser putos'. I was a bit horrified by his comments, but over the years, I got used to hearing outrageous things like this on a weekly basis.

I used to always say that Argentines hated me by day and loved me by night. When I lived in Recoleta, my neighbours who lived in my building often would shut the door in my face if I followed them in the front door or at least make me show them a key to prove that I lived there. Walking down the streets of Recoleta was extremely uncomfortable, as everyone (men and women) would turn around, see that I was behind them and cross the street. It was very annoying if I were trying to get somewhere in a hurry, because if I walked fast down the street, I would literally terrify people as they thought I was going to rob them. I even stopped waiting in line at the ATM because people would literally cancel their transactions and flee if they noticed I was behind them. I do realise that the security situation is a bit sensitive in Buenos Aires, so this could happen to anyone, regardless of skin colour. I couldn't say because I'm not white. However, I did notice that when I walked down the street with my Argentine friends or other non-blacks, no one seemed to cross the street to avoid me or grabbed their bags out of fear of being robbed. Again, I think this has to do more with the fact of 'inseguridad', however I still consider it a bit of racism if people think that I'm more likely to cause harm to them because I have a different skin colour.

However, on the flip side, when I went out at night or participated in any social events, being black was a serious plus. I always stood out, people were genuinely interested in talking to me (although most called me 'el negro', which I grew to love and accept eventually), and I never had any trouble romancing Argentines. It was completely bizarre...during they day the average person wanted to stay as far away from me as possible but at night, they couldn't get enough.

I've been called 'negro de mierda' several times during fights with "close" friends, asked for my documentacion on occassion when walking in Retiro and/or Puerto Madero, been stopped by police a few times and once searched without explanation. However, the majority of the incidents are non-violent or hurtful, they come out of pure curiosity and ignorance. Several Argentines have asked me why the palms of my hand are white if the rest of my skin is black, if my semen is coloured (mostly for joking, but one person was DEAD serious), if my parents are black as well, and other silly things like that.

The most malicious thing anyone ever said to me was "go back to your country and wash your skin with bleach you filthy n*****", which came as a total surprise as the guy was trying to date me and only came out with those harsh comments once I had rejected him.

While I never found it hard to short-term romances with Argentines, I found it very difficult to sustain long-lasting, committed relationships. Most people would simply want to get me into bed just to try out a 'negro', I would literally have people come up to me in nightclubs and tell me 'nunca he estado con un negro, podes ser mi primero' (i've never been with a black guy, can you be my first). When I first moved to Argentina, this was AWESOME. However after a couple of years, it was VERY tiring as I was looking for a relationship and I found that most people saw me as something exotic, something to check off their to-do list and never try again.

It's a bit hard to put into words every experience I had over those years. I left with the general impression that everyone was very friendly and being black probably made my experience much more exciting, but deep down inside, most people were just a tad bit racist, even my friends. Even my friends would make comments such as "how funny, you've got a Paraguayan maid, she must really feel low class if she's cleaning a black guy's house", etc. Most people would wonder how I could tolerate these sorts of comments, but I never let them get to me. Most of them were joking as Argentines have a very bizarre sense of humour, but I attribute most of it to lack of exposure to other cultures and pure ignorance. However, hearing my friends and other Argentines openly talk about how awful the Paraguayans, Peruvians and Bolivians were made me wonder what they said behind my back.

Anyways, I'd do it all over again if I could. I mingled into Argentine society, had a couple of relationships, left with great friends who I still talk to today. I'm a person who is very capable of adapting to my surroundings and I try not to take things too seriously. If you're not thick-skinned, hate attention, or being the constant butt of the (friendly) joke, living in Argentina definitely isn't easy if you're black. You'll get laid though.

 

[BienTeVeo]

I'm not saying this is a representative sample, but I once had this exchange with a BA taxi-driver....

Taxi-Driver: "Hay mucho racismo en Estados Unidos."
Yanqui passenger: "Sin duda, como en todas partes."
Taxi-Driver: "En la Argentina el racismo no existe."
Yanqui passenger: "Ah no?"
Taxi-Driver: "Claro. Acá no hay negros. Entonces no hay racismo. Allá ustedes tienen muchos negros. Por eso son tan racistas."

And there it is.

 

[Gringoboy]

Rob, thanks for posting from the heart and you encapsulated your experiences very succinctly.
Although I'm not black and have not been at the butt of racism, I totally understand what you said.
Your attitude pulled you through.