Buscador
Inequalities of Racism
Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased after the pandemic. The recent global economic turmoil has impacted almost a third (29%) of the Latin American and Caribbean population, while extreme poverty reaches 11%. My interest here is the internal composition of this poverty indicator. OXFAM's EconoNuestra Regional Inequality Report contrasts “the Afro-descendant population (24.3% impoverished) and the indigenous population (43.1% impoverished) with the non-indigenous or Afro-descendant population (19.4% impoverished).” These data highlight developmental processes that produce biased results against indigenous and Afro-descendant populations, indicating a situation of structural racism—a well-known diagnosis. The figures cited express economic relations, but at the same time refer to processes of inequality of a non-economic nature. As I point out in my book “Racism and Power in Bolivia” (OXFAM/FES, 2021), in our societies, people who are born indigenous (which is a social, not an economic fact) are more likely to be poor — as we have seen, twice as likely — than those who are not. They are also more probable to receive less education, live in poorer housing, have a shorter life expectancy, suffer more alcoholism and other preventable diseases, work hard and alienating jobs that begin in childhood, etc. The Report notes these inequalities as...
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