Racial Profiling in South America

(image courtesy of Christina Noriega)

By Carolina Rodriguez Mayo 

One of the biggest problems that Black Latinos encounter is addressing racism. Here in Colombia, this denial allows racism to happen publicly and on social media more often without much response. Racial profiling is entangled with how territories are racialized and the lack of information we have about them, leading to the people from these places being treated with stigma and prejudice without consequences.

The racialization of territories cannot be understood without knowing how and why Black communities have formed in South America. Segregation has never been as explicit here as it was in the United States. Still, Black Latinos find themselves more comfortable building Black communities. This is because it has always been a practical way of securing protection and growth. Also, housing prices and police enforcement drew a line between people based on their social condition, and race was always an essential factor in separating and ‘organizing’ a nation.

Racialized territories face state negligence and violence, which also comes with the hypervigilance of Black regions, towns, and neighborhoods. According to the findings of 2022 of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean:

“Afro-descendent youths run a higher risk of undergoing stop and frisk procedures while on the street due to the racial bias present in police control points (more commonly known as racial profiling) and suffer police violence and death by police action at a higher rate as well. Likewise, Afro-descendant men are more frequently detained, incarcerated, and imprisoned with far more severe sentences.”

An example of this occurred on the 5th of August of this year when a young Black man named José Manuel Arboleda was arrested and held down in the East of Cali, Colombia in the same exact position as George Floyd. The officer put his knee over his neck, even when José Manuel Arboleda was already in handcuffs. Cali is a neighborhood where Black people have reported being victims of police abuse many times. In addition, Cali is associated with crime and drugs. Still, the citizens are far from keeping themselves silenced. Since 2021, several Black social leaders from Llano Verde have announced that police bias of the territory is resulting in racial profiling and the persecution of their community. But, even with these leaders, we are not close to being as vocal as movements like Black Lives Matter just yet.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reports:

“It is essential that the region (Latin America and the Caribbean) can guarantee an investment in afro-descendant youths. The first step towards this is to break the yoke of statistical invisibility and to secure the existence of timely and quality information that will let us know the inequities that affect afro-descendant youths.”

Not being informed about how many people identify as Black and Afro-descendants makes understanding these acts of institutional abuse even more difficult. How can we target Police brutality as a racist issue when we can´t show concrete statics to prove it? Fortunately, the case of José Manuel won’t be ignored. Not only because it was recorded but also, because anti-racist leaders in Colombia took the topic to the press. Using social media to bring attention to Racial Justice, a collective of Black lawyers working in this type of case now have a lawsuit against the four suspended officers.

We hope the new administration can shed light on these problems. It's not possible to comprehend the abuse of the police if we don't identify the problem: racism. The new education vice minister, Aurora Vergara Figueroa, a female Black sociologist, once said:

"There's evidence that Colombian police has a discriminatory bias against the afro-descendant population of the country."

When she gave this declaration, she was not working for the government. Now she has the means to put this conversation on the appropriate national and international platforms. Changes are ahead of us, and we can start by correctly naming what is unfair to Black people.

Carolina Rodríguez Mayo is an avid traveler, educator, and writer. She has experience as a teacher, translator, editor and writer.