Latin America is often referred to as among the most unequal regions in the world, but how inequality presents itself is complicated and dynamic. One of the factors that impacts inequality in the Americas is the persistence of inequalities due to ethno–racial identity and gender. This International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March 2024) comes at a complicated moment in race relations across the Americas. This year marks the end of the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent—a decade that saw both important advances for and challenges to racial equity.
While many countries—most notably the United States—were forced to reckonwith race relations, there have been numerous countries where progress on racial equity has been met with stiff opposition—from former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro campaigning to eliminate the country’s affirmative action program to efforts in states across the United States to ban Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. As the decade comes to a close, understanding how racial inequalities persist in the Americas and what mechanisms and best practices address these inequalities is critical. Only when all citizens of the Americas are able to attain their full potential will the hemisphere be able to thrive to its fullest.
Racial inequalities in the Americas
The Americas have a fraught history of race relations. Countries across the region have long sought to ignore the racial inequalities, even as racial discrimination has persisted across the region. For instance, Brazil claimed to have achieved a “racial democracy” while others noted their lack of formally institutionalized racial hierarchies as with the Jim Crow South in the United States. Indeed, poverty rates are higher and returns to education lower for Afro–descendants across most of the region. Even where countries have claimed that they have eliminated racial differentiation by becoming mestizo societies, data by skin tone reveals that racial discrimination persists across the region.
Racial inequality in poverty rates, 2021
Countries across the region have recognized these racial inequalities in recent decades and taken important steps—domestically, regionally, and internationally—to address racial inequalities in society. However, more can be done to ensure laws and policies are in place to promote racial equality in every country across the region.
Legal framework and racial equity
At both the international and regional levels, important mechanisms have been developed to promote the elimination of racial discrimination. These include the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), ILO 111, and the Inter–American Convention Against Racism, Racial Discrimination & Related Forms of Intolerance.
Within the Americas, nearly every country has ratified the international mechanisms—with the notable exception of the United States, who is not a party to ILO 111—but fewer have joined the more recent regional mechanism that provides stronger rights for Afro–descendents. In fact, only six countries have ratified the Inter–American Convention while seven more have signed, but not yet ratified. In addition to the mechanisms that specifically look at race, additional regional and international mechanisms for indigenous peoples exist, which provide them even greater protections and specific rights.
Regional ratifiers of international and regional racial equity measures
Despite gains on the international and regional stage, progress toward racial equity in the Americas has been slow. At the domestic level, these conventions have not necessarily been translated into domestic law. This process has been slow and requires both diplomatic and domestic political pressure to ensure that the rights of Afro–descendants in the region are protected while also creating space for policies aimed at eliminating racial inequalities.
Promoting improved policies for racial equity
Addressing racial inequalities in the Americas will require more than just laws on the books or statements that nominally support racial equity. Instead, policies that directly address racial inequalities and seek to eliminate them are required. Designing these policies can be difficult as these policies must be effectively targeted and often face political backlash. However, key lessons can be drawn from how different countries in the Americas have designed and implemented programs to address racial inequalities.
While using color–blind criteria to address racial inequalities by targeting the poor may seem like a panacea to racial inequalities, this is also not the case. Studies of the impacts of fiscal policy on ethno–racial inequality show that despite being nominally colorblind, these programs often prioritize the poor who aren’t facing ethno–racial discrimination. As such, programs must include a racial targeting mechanism or close monitoring to ensure that beneficiaries do not continue to face exclusion based on their ethno–racial identity.
Conversely, policies that specifically focus on specific—such as affirmative action—may face political backlash or be derided as anti-meritocratic. However, as Brazil’s affirmative action experience shows, these policies can leverage both racial and socio-economic characteristics in identifying recipients, and these recipients have gone on to outperform university students who did not enter through the affirmative action program.
Regional organizations like the Inter–American Development Bank and the Organization of American States’ Inter–American Network of High Authorities on Policies for Afro–descendant Populations (RIAFRO) play an important role in both supporting the implementation of these policies and sharing best practices across national borders.
As the International Decade for People of African Descent comes to a close, racial inequalities remain evident across the Americas. While international days and decades come and go, the inequalities that they seek to bring attention to remain. If the Americas are to address the original sins of slavery and genocide, every nation in the region must continue to develop policies to address the racial inequalities persistent in their societies.
