Is Race Still an Issue?

In class recently, we have been learning about the Latin American Revolutions. In doing this, we were given the question, “Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in the Latin American revolutions evidence of this social imperative?”. The first step to answering this question was making a pie chart, showing all of the different races in Latin America (peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, Mulattoes and free blacks, Indian peoples and slaves), with the percent of the population that the race consisted of. In addition to this chart, we made another chart that showed the races based on their social class. With this background information, the class split into three large groups, and each group chose a revolution to focus on. The choices were the revolutions of Mexico, Brazil and Gran Colombia. With an article about the information, each group made a timeline of important events that occurred during the revolution. After the timelines were completed, each of the larger groups split up into four smaller groups, with each smaller group containing at least one “representative” from one of the larger groups. In these smaller groups, the representatives presented the information they had gathered with the members of other timeline groups. The last thing each group did was find two similarities and two differences between the three revolutions.

A timeline of the Mexican Revolution

One commonality between the three revolutions is that all three were fought in order to be independent of European nations. Brazil revolted against Portuguese rule while both Gran Colombia and Mexico revolted against Spanish rule. Another similarity shared by all three revolutions is the fact that they all occurred in a close proximity to one another, in the early 1800’s. One difference between the revolutions is the level of violence employed. Brazil was very peaceful, Gran Colombia was very violent and closer to war, and Mexico was somewhere between the two with both physical rebellion and verbal negotiation. Another difference is what kind of government the independent nations used. Gran Colombia became a republic, and both Brazil and Mexico became constitutional monarchies (soon after, Mexico also became a republic). Despite all of the commonalities and differences of the revolutions, they all boil down to one issue: race. In Mexico, mestizos and slaves fought alongside Miguel Higaldo y Costilla for racial equality. Brazilians of different races were displeased when their ruler Pedro, a peninsular, would only have cabinet members who were also penisulares. Lastly, Gran Columbia’s revolution involved Simon Bolivar, a creole, fighting for races that were low on the social chart.

Sadly, the issue of race still exists in society today, and there are many controversial occurrences based on race that happen each day. A high profile example of such an occurrence was in Ferguson, Missouri, where police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager. A grand jury recently decided not to indict Wilson, which resulted in outrage from many across the country. Riots have erupted not just in Ferguson, but in many cities spanning the country; even so, there are outspoken supporters on both sides. It is important to consider the issue of race in our lives today, as the world will never be fully rid of racism.