Abstract

MORENO FIGUEROA, Mónica Gabriela. Between Confusions and Distractions: Mestizaje and Anti-black Racism in Mexico. Estud. sociol [online]. 2022, vol.40, n.spe, pp.87-118.  Epub Sep 22, 2023. ISSN 2448-6442.  https://doi.org/10.24201/es.2022v40nespecial.2084.

A crucial piece that maintains mestizaje as the Mexican racial project, and thus national identity, is anti-black racism. In this article I suggest that a permanent and necessary feature of mestizaje is a continuing aversion to ‘Blackness’ as an idea, and a persistent disadvantaging of the population racialized as Black. I unpack how mestizaje and anti-black racism are related to each other and explain what anti-black racism does and how it is linked to ideas of ‘race’, body and skin colour. A central question is: how does anti-Black racism keep stable the mestizo narrative of not talking about race, while sustaining the ease of noticing ‘race’ through skin colour?

Keywords : anti-black racism; mestizaje; skin colour; blackness; Mexico.