do you know the difference between institutionalized racism and racial prejudice....
yeah i do and its definitely correct that that the us legal code, unlike a lot of latin american codes, have been more explicit about race and also in latin america there has been more racial mixing so being explicit about race doesnt make as much sense as in the us and also the proportion of races is different
so it is definitely true that racism plays it differently in latin america than in the us
but let me ask you a question do you know what the word de-facto means
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/de facto
while the us had an explicitly racist legal code, latin america has a defacto jim crow type laws which plays out the same in the end and i object to you trying to differentiate
and i would strongly object to the notion that a lack of explicit legal codes would equate to lack of institutional racism, since you seem to have studied the issue, you would know that institutional racism does not require explicit legal codes and that in fact it stems from racial prejudice
so i smell something very devilish in trying to create a dichotomy between institutionalized racism and racial prejudice, those things go hand hand, one creates the other
and its also devilish and disingenuous to play down the defacto jim crow laws as somehow less pernicious when in the end they had the same effect
so i would definitely agree that in latin america its different, but less pernicious? no
because unless you can show and prove how there is a system in place in mexico that benefits the 9% white population and harms the mestizo, black and indigenous combined majority you're very clearly confused with the 2 terms. the fact that mexico had afro-mex and full indigenous presidents back in the 1800's is proof enough of this being non existent in mexico since the founding of the country.
all you have to do is look at the mexican congress, mexican tv and mexican elites to see that mexico has a system to benefit light skinned people and oppress the indigenous
but lets accept your assertion that mexico having non pure white presidents and lack of racist legal codes is a sign of less racism, using that standard then you would have to agree that the united states in 2012 is less racist then mexico, since it has a black president and a congress that is way more racially diverse than the mexican congress and a media that is much more racially diverse than mexico, would you not?
and you would also have to agree that the us does not have institutional racism since since it doesnt have any explicit racial legal codes
you do have a little bit of a point about latin american not having explicitly racist legal codes (they did have them but not as ubiquitous as the us), but there is another side to that, the other side is that a lot of latin american countries do not have any legal codes that expressly forbid racial discrimination, in other words the other side of that coin is that in a lot latin american countries discrimination based on race or sex is actually legal
which goes back to the point of de-facto institutional racism, and as an aside as to why its hard to confront racism in latin america, (its changing nowadays) but generally speaking racial discrimination is not actually illegal in latin america
for example what vincente fox said only sounds bad in the us, in mexico there is nothing wrong with what he said
in latin america people dont even acknowledge racism exists, and if they do they try to say its not as bad the US, kinda the same bs you are trying to say now
overall all you can say about racism in latin america is that its different than the us
an illegal mexican immigrant technically can't be racist towards you or anyone in the U.S. he can be prejudice, bigoted, racially insensitive or whatever else you want to call it, because there isnt a system in place that promotes him as a mexican being superior to you as a black person and thus gives disadvantages and obstacles towards upward mobility just because you're black and favors him because he's mexican.
racism in the U.S = laws, policies, and social constructs that are in place to subjugate you on the basis that white people are somehow superior to you and thus these things exist because you are inherently inferior to them.
racism is black people not being able to drink out of the same fountains, eat at the same restaurants or play in the same sports league on the basis of RACE.
nah thats mumbo jumbo, mexicans cant be racist toward me because im an educated person with a middle class job and i dont have any illegal mexicans in my chain of command, so its not important to me whether an illegal mexican is racist or not
but if i was not educated and living in an environment where mexicans are the majority and they have the power to decide if i got a job or where i live then they can be racist
so thats why im making the argument im making because a lot of black people may and are finding themselves in situations where mexicans can be racist against them as their numbers grow
so your example is not an example of what is being discussed, as mexican numbers grow they can become a racist force in america, and the evidence of places where mexican have become large in numbers shows a lot of racism
that is why the notion of them becoming the future has to be questioned
and i reject this notion of using an actual legal code as a sign of racism or institutional racism, racism and institutional racism can exit defacto without any legal codes and i dont see any reason for me to make any distinction between de facto and ex facto