movimientoninnegron

By: MovimientoÑinNegrón Translated by MÑN. Edited by Deborah Santana Berman

“Racism, racial discrimination including the xenophobic beliefs, are a social, cultural and political phenomenon, these are not inherent traits of human beings; these are the offspring of wars, military conquest, slavery and the individual or collective exploitation of human beings.” Fidel Castro Ruz

Puerto Rico is a U.S. colony. The institutions that sustain and legitimate White Supremacy -and its tool of oppression, racism are embedded in imperialism and the colonial-capitalistic regime imposed over Puerto Rico. Therefore, the struggle to dismantle the structures that sustain white supremacy and racism in Puerto Rico must be anti-colonial, anti-capitalistic, and anti-imperialist. The possibility of creating an independent and free nation based on the pillars of dignity, and justice for all, is inextricably linked to an anti-oppression agenda that will dismantle not only the imperial and colonial regime in our nation, but also the ideology of white supremacy in our society.

The history of racist violence in Puerto Rico dates back to the imperialistic-colonial regime imposed by the Spanish in the XV century. This racist violence continued after the invasion and occupation by the USA at the end of the XIX century, and exists today.

The violent colonization history of appropriation of our national land by the Spaniards, with their destructive agenda of pillage and plunder, created a colonial ideology where white supremacy justified the genocide perpetrated against the Indigenous Nations that existed and exist in the nations that formed Our America. (The term “America” is used here to refer to North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean; this is the correct significance of “America”, not only  USA.)

Racism was used to justify the right of the “superior race” to plunder and rob the lands already occupied by the indigenous people, to enslave them, to rape  women, in short, to wage war against an “uncivilized race.”

The ideology of white supremacy and its racist institutions were utilized to justify the implementation of slavery as an institution. Millions of our brothers and sisters from Africa were kidnapped and forcefully brought to America as slaves by European Nations, in one of the most profitable enterprises of the emergent capitalism.  The institution was spread in our America. It was sustained by racist actions attached to the economic structures that were fundamental to colonial extractivist  practices and exploitation of our nations’ natural wealth.

Imperialist colonial capitalism uses racism and the ideology of White Supremacy to dehumanize our people, to spread the lie of our inherent mental, physical and spiritual inferiority, to argue that it is necessary for the “superior civilized nations” to rule and guide us out of “barbaric ways.” Any violence, repression, and assassinations are then justified because we are “unworthy and less” than human beings.

According to the  colonizers’ “white supremacist” narrative stealing the “inferior” peoples’ lands,  their wealth, robbing and degrading their natural resources, enslaving them, killing them (and in the case of Puerto Ricans their efforts  to destroy our cultural and social networks, the experiments especially against women; the destruction of our economy, the killing of our indigenous nations, the political, economic and social violence inflicted against our people), are justified and legitimate, according to their perspective of being the «superior» race. These are some of the consequences of civilizing “inferior races.”

White supremacy ideology and racism were used to justify the creation of the slavery system that allowed for the generation of an incredible amount of wealth; that allowed the appropriation of natural resources that was instrumental for the economic development of Europe and the USA and the establishment of capitalism.

Racism was and is utilized to legitimate the economic and political violence that sustains the extractivist system and capitalistic exploitation of our nations.  The White Supremacy Ideology is the pillar over which the US is built.   Through their tools of oppression (racism-classism-heterosexism, male chauvinism; imposed through the economic, political, military, legal, social, and cultural institutions) are used to validate the “race hierarchy”. All of this is meant to vindicate the violence and oppression that the USA inflicts globally and against our Nation.

We can find evidence of racist attitudes toward Puerto Rico, for example, in statements made by Congress members that reflect their dismissive feelings against our people. For example: “Puerto Ricans are sons of colonialism and are mainly mix race people of a bloodthirsty evolution rejects”; “Their diet consists of mainly bananas”; “Puerto Rican children are mainly blacks, are mainly naked, shoeless and eat if they can beat the pig in a race to the food leftovers.”These deeply racist statements were made enunciated on the Congressional floor, with their colleagues laughing.  These are clear examples of the ingrained nature of racism in the minds of those who decide colonial and imperial policies over Puerto Rico.

Another example of racism is their narrative normalizing the lie that Puerto Ricans are: “incapable”, “uncivilized”; “corrupts”, “lazy”, and  “undisciplined”. This narrative then supports the argument that Puerto Rico will need indefinitely the tutelage of the great “USA civilization”.

These lies hide the military-judicial-law enforcement violence that supports the social and economic violence of a capitalistic-imperial system. The destruction of our economy, using usury, bribery, and theft of our wealth are hidden by this colonial discourse. This narrative also hides the assassinations, the experiments inflicted on our people in general and specifically over women, and destruction of our social, cultural, and environmental ecosystems.  This required policies designed to erase our identity as Puerto Ricans, because erasing our identity would mean loss of control of our land and our people forever.

Another dimension of the use of racism is that many Puerto Ricans internalize the racist discourse of the empire. This provides a false notion that justifies the mirage of our “inferiority”, creating a false narrative that our “inferiority” is not related to the violence of the colonial-imperial regime.

Dissemination and reinforcement of the narrative  supports the domination of our Nation by the US, because it divides our people and sustains the idea of US “superiority”, versus the “inferiority” of our people and thus our “incapacity” to be independent. When Puerto Rican states: “We are lazy”, “We are undisciplined”; “We are corrupt” – generalizing about Puerto Ricans for the actions of a minority that is a lackey of the empire, ­they normalize and spread the racist arguments that are indispensable to imperial and colonial rule over our nation.

Any denunciation of racism and White Supremacy must be connected to with the struggle against the colonial-imperial regime that the US imposes over Puerto Rico. This requirement is not for convenience, but is necessary to real achievement of liberation.  In a colony, radical (go to the root) anti-racist struggle needs to be a struggle for dismantling capitalism and colonialism, and dismantling and confronting white supremacy ideology.

If we practice“anti-racism” devoid of combating colonialism and capitalism, then we are complicit in the imperial-colonial agenda of domination and exploitation of our people, of Puerto Rico. We would be complicit in a racist agenda that sustain imperialism and colonialism, here in Puerto Rico and globally.

Colonialism is racism.

To be a militant combatant for the Independence of Puerto Rico requires combating racism. To be a militant combatant against racism we must be anti-capitalistic combatants.   The struggle against US imperialism must be inherently an anti-racist struggle and antiracist struggle must be inherently anti-imperialistic. In Puerto Rico, a truly anti-racist warrior must fight not only against discrimination and prejudice based on the social construction that is race, but must also be a committed soldier dedicated to achieving the decolonization and National Independence of Puerto Rico.