The Double Bind: The Politics of Racial & Class Inequalities in the Americas, Executive Summary

The main goal of the task force, under the leadership of APSA President Rodney Hero, was to investigate the relationship between race and class in producing material, political, and social inequalities in the nations of the Americas. The task force also examined how the political systems in these countries work to foment and/or ameliorate inequalities that track with ethnic and racial identities and socioeconomic status.The work of the task force unfolded in a period in which political science has begun to pay greater attention to the causes and consequences of various forms of inequality. To some extent, political science has lagged behind cognate fields of history, economics, and sociology in terms of scholarly attentiveness to inequality. The recent literature on inequality in political science, however, has focused almost exclusively on rising income inequality and how it affects political representation. The long-standing gaps in the life chances of whites and communities of color in the nations of the Americas have been largely unexplored. At the same time, in Latin America, which had long denied the existence of a relationship between race and ethnicity and class disparities, there has been an explosion in data-gathering on race and ethnicity and in particular on the relationship between race and inequality. The task force members have explicitly sought to grapple with both the problem of rising socioeconomic inequality and the multifaceted racial gaps that exist throughout the Americas. Moreover, they examined the ways in which race and class inequalities are epiphenomena of politics. Thus, their work was organized around several core concepts and theoretical insights that animate research programs in political science—e.g., the role of institutions, the mobilizing power of group memberships, party politics, and social movements. They find that ethnoracial minorities, even in countries in which they represent a large percentage of the population and participate actively in elections, are hampered in translating their demographic potential and civic participation into meaningful socioeconomic gains by their low socioeconomic status and the incentives of the party system

Inclusão indígena e exclusão dos afro-descendentes na América Latina

Este artigo analisa as causas da disparidade nos direitos coletivos conquistados por grupos afro-latinos durante as recentes iniciativas de reformas relacionadas à cidadania multicultural na América Latina. Em vez de atribuir o maior êxito dos índios na conquista desses direitos a diferenças no tamanho da população e a níveis mais elevados de identidade de grupo ou de organização dos movimentos indígenas, a autora sustenta que a principal causa da disparidade está no fato de os direitos serem atribuídos levando em conta uma identidade de grupo distinta, definida por meio de critérios étnicos ou culturais. Os índios estão, em geral, melhor posicionados do que a maioria dos afro-latinos para reivindicar uma identidade de grupo étnico, distinta da cultural nacional, e por isso foram mais bem-sucedidos na conquista dos direitos coletivos. A autora sugere ainda que uma das conseqüências potencialmente negativas da vinculação dos direitos coletivos à diferença cultural é que isso pode levar os grupos indígenas e afro-latinos a privilegiar, como fundamento para a mobilização política, temas relacionados ao reconhecimento cultural, em detrimento dos temas centrados na discriminação racial.The author analyses the causes of the disparity in collective rights gained by indigenous and Afro-Latin groups in recent rounds of multicultural citizenship reform in Latin America. Instead of attributing the greater success of indians in winning collective rights to differences in population size, higher levels of indigenous group identity or higher levels of organisation of the indigenous movement, it is argued that the main cause of the disparity is the fact that collective rights are granted on the basis of possessing a distinct group identity defined in cultural or ethnic terms. Indians are generally better positioned than most Afro-Latinos to claim ethnic group identities separate from the national culture and have therefore been more successful in winning collective rights. One of the potentially negative consequences of basing group rights on the assertion of cultural difference is that it might lead indigenous groups and Afro-Latinos to privilege issues of cultural recognition over questions of racial discrimination as bases for political mobilisation in the era of multicultural politics

Negociando “Negritude” em um Estado Multicultural: Política Creole e Identidade na Nicarágua

Esse artigo examina como os Creoles afrodescendentes estão atualmente reconfigurando suas identidades coletivas no âmbito do multiculturalismo nicaraguense. São examinadas questões como: o que significa ser atualmente Creole, negro ou afrodescendente na Nicarágua, um Estado que se proclama Multicultural? Como a negritude é negociada e vivenciada em um Estado onde o multiculturalismo se tornou uma política oficial, mas onde, historicamente, hierarquia racial e racismo não foram reconhecidos? Como essas identidades são negociadas e reconfiguradas em um contexto de lutas por justiça e igualdade? Hoje na Nicarágua, nação historicamente retratada como sendo majoritariamente mestiça ou indo-hispânica, muitos creoles anglófonos estão afirmando uma forte identidade negra racial, imaginada em termos de conexões transnacionais com a diáspora africana, incluindo com o passado africano e a ancestralidade afro-caribenha. Eu argumento no artigo que a atual ênfase na negritude, enquanto identidade creole, está conectada às mudanças do modelo de multiculturalismo nicaraguense, sobretudo a implementação de políticas específicas de combate ao racismo e a discriminação racial, uma dinâmica que ilustra a relação dialética entre direitos e identidades.---Negotiating "Blackness" on a Multicultural State: Politics and Creole Identity in NicaraguaThis article examines how Afro-descendant Creoles are currently reimagining their collective identities in Nicaragua in the context of multiculturalism. It examines questions such as: what does it means to be Creole, and/or black or Afro-descendant in Nicaragua today in the context of a self-proclaimed multicultural state? How is blackness negotiated and lived in a state where multiculturalism has become official state policy, but where, historically, racial hierarchy and racism have not been recognized? How are these identities negotiated and remade in the context of struggles for justice and equality? In the context a Nicaraguan nation that has historically been portrayed as overwhelmingly mestizo or Indo- Hispanic, many English-speaking Creoles today are asserting a strong black racial group identity imagined in terms of transnational connections to the African diaspora, including to an African past and Afro-Caribbean ancestry. I argue that the current emphasis on blackness in conceptions of Creole identity are connected to changes to Nicaragua’s model of multiculturalism, specifically the implementation of specific policies to combat racism and racial discrimination, a dynamic that illustrates the dialectical relationship between rights and identities.keywords: blackness, nicaragua, creole communities

Amados Enemigos

This article analyzes the persistence of an official discourse of mestizo nationalism in Nicaragua in spite of the adoption of multicultural citizenship rights for black and indigenous costeños in 1986. These reforms appeared to directly contradict key premises of previously dominant nationalist ideologies, particularly the idea that Nicaragua was a uniformly mestizo nation. Instead of a radical break with the past, however, what we find in contemporary Nicaragua is a continuous process of negotiation and contestation among three variants of official mestizo nationalism: vanguardismo, sandinismo, and “mestizo multiculturalism” that emerged in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1990s respectively. This article traces the continuities among these disparate but intimately related accounts of national history and identity and the way they all operate to limit the political inclusion of black and indigenous costeños as such.Este artículo analiza la persistencia de un discurso oficial de nacionalismo mestizo en Nicaragua a pesar de la adopción de derechos de ciudadanía multicultural para los costeños afrodescendientes e indígenas en 1986. Estas reformas parecían contradecir directamente las premisas claves de las anteriores ideologías nacionalistas dominantes, particularmente la idea que Nicaragua era una nación uniformemente mestiza. Sin embargo, en lugar de una ruptura radical con el pasado, lo que encontramos en Nicaragua es un proceso continuo de negociación y pugna entre tres variantes del nacionalismo oficial mestizo: el vanguardismo, el sandinismo y el "multiculturalismo mestizo" surgidos en las décadas 1930, 1960 y 1990, respectivamente. Este artículo traza las continuidades entre estos relatos dispares, pero íntimamente relacionados, de la historia y la identidad nacional y la forma en que todos operan para limitar la inclusión política de los costeños afrodescendientes e indígenas como tales

The Double Bind: The Politics of Racial & Class Inequalities in the Americas

The main goal of the task force, under the leadership of APSA President Rodney Hero, was to investigate the relationship between race and class in producing material, political, and social inequalities in the nations of the Americas. The task force also examined how the political systems in these countries work to foment and/or ameliorate inequalities that track with ethnic and racial identities and socioeconomic status.The work of the task force unfolded in a period in which political science has begun to pay greater attention to the causes and consequences of various forms of inequality. To some extent, political science has lagged behind cognate fields of history, economics, and sociology in terms of scholarly attentiveness to inequality. The recent literature on inequality in political science, however, has focused almost exclusively on rising income inequality and how it affects political representation. The long-standing gaps in the life chances of whites and communities of color in the nations of the Americas have been largely unexplored. At the same time, in Latin America, which had long denied the existence of a relationship between race and ethnicity and class disparities, there has been an explosion in data-gathering on race and ethnicity and in particular on the relationship between race and inequality. The task force members have explicitly sought to grapple with both the problem of rising socioeconomic inequality and the multifaceted racial gaps that exist throughout the Americas. Moreover, they examined the ways in which race and class inequalities are epiphenomena of politics. Thus, their work was organized around several core concepts and theoretical insights that animate research programs in political science—e.g., the role of institutions, the mobilizing power of group memberships, party politics, and social movements. They find that ethnoracial minorities, even in countries in which they represent a large percentage of the population and participate actively in elections, are hampered in translating their demographic potential and civic participation into meaningful socioeconomic gains by their low socioeconomic status and the incentives of the party system

“BELOVED ENEMIES”: Race and Official Mestizo Nationalism in Nicaragua

Latin American Studie

Las luchas por los derechos colectivos de los afrodescendientes en América Latina

Durante los últimos años, en varios países latinoamericanos los movimientos sociales de afrodescendientes obtuvieron el reconocimiento de importantes derechos colectivos y obligaron a sus Estados y a la opinión pública a aceptar la persistencia del racismo en sus respectivas sociedades. Asimismo han librado luchas cada vez más visibles y exitosas por la obtención de diversos tipos de derechos colectivos, con el fin de superar la discriminación racial y la exclusión social y política a la que ..

Negociando “Negritude” em um Estado Multicultural: Política Creole e Identidade na Nicarágua

Esse artigo examina como os Creoles afrodescendentes estão atualmente reconfigurando suas identidades coletivas no âmbito do multiculturalismo nicaraguense. São examinadas questões como: o que significa ser atualmente Creole, negro ou afrodescendente na Nicarágua, um Estado que se proclama Multicultural? Como a negritude é negociada e vivenciada em um Estado onde o multiculturalismo se tornou uma política oficial, mas onde, historicamente, hierarquia racial e racismo não foram reconhecidos? Como essas identidades são negociadas e reconfiguradas em um contexto de lutas por justiça e igualdade? Hoje na Nicarágua, nação historicamente retratada como sendo majoritariamente mestiça ou indo-hispânica, muitos creoles anglófonos estão afirmando uma forte identidade negra racial, imaginada em termos de conexões transnacionais com a diáspora africana, incluindo com o passado africano e a ancestralidade afro-caribenha. Eu argumento no artigo que a atual ênfase na negritude, enquanto identidade creole, está conectada às mudanças do modelo de multiculturalismo nicaraguense, sobretudo a implementação de políticas específicas de combate ao racismo e a discriminação racial, uma dinâmica que ilustra a relação dialética entre direitos e identidades.---Negotiating "Blackness" on a Multicultural State: Politics and Creole Identity in NicaraguaThis article examines how Afro-descendant Creoles are currently reimagining their collective identities in Nicaragua in the context of multiculturalism. It examines questions such as: what does it means to be Creole, and/or black or Afro-descendant in Nicaragua today in the context of a self-proclaimed multicultural state? How is blackness negotiated and lived in a state where multiculturalism has become official state policy, but where, historically, racial hierarchy and racism have not been recognized? How are these identities negotiated and remade in the context of struggles for justice and equality? In the context a Nicaraguan nation that has historically been portrayed as overwhelmingly mestizo or Indo- Hispanic, many English-speaking Creoles today are asserting a strong black racial group identity imagined in terms of transnational connections to the African diaspora, including to an African past and Afro-Caribbean ancestry. I argue that the current emphasis on blackness in conceptions of Creole identity are connected to changes to Nicaragua’s model of multiculturalism, specifically the implementation of specific policies to combat racism and racial discrimination, a dynamic that illustrates the dialectical relationship between rights and identities.keywords: blackness, nicaragua, creole communities

Indigenous Inclusion/Black Exclusion: Race, Ethnicity and Multicultural Citizenship in Latin America

Latin American Studie