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Introduction
Ecuador is home to people of every skin color that can be found in the world. Despite this
racial diversity, racism is a prevalent problem in the country. This problem is so deeply rooted in
society that many Ecuadorians are unaware of it. The purpose of this paper is to explain the
reasons that racism is still present in Ecuador, to show that there is a lack of awareness about this
issue, and to demonstrate how different regions are dividing the country into separate races.
Basic Definition
In order to analyze the problem of racism in Ecuador, it is important to understand the
meaning of racism, both historically and at the present time. In “The End of Racism” Souza
explains the concept that the Europeans had of the meaning of black before they had any
interaction with the Africans. At this time the Oxford English Dictionary defined blackness as
“deeply stained with dirt, soiled, dirty, foul, malignant, deadly, baneful, disastrous, sinister,
iniquitous, atrocious, horrible and wicked” (Souza 1996, 60). Even though hundreds of years
have passed since this definition was widely accepted in Europe, the idea that people with black
skin embody the aforementioned characteristics lives on in the minds of many Ecuadorians.
The current definition of racism, according to the Webster’s New World Dictionary, is a
“doctrine or teaching… that claims to find racial differences in character and intelligence, that
asserts the superiority of one race over another, that seeks to maintain the supposed purity of a
race” (Souza 1996, 8).
Reasons for Racism in Ecuador
Out of all of these ethnic groups in Ecuador, whites and mestizos are seen as the preferred
and dominant races. According to the CIA facts, 65% of the population is Mestizo, 25% are
Indian, 7% are European, and 3% are Black. However, for many years the Whites and Mestizos
have oppressed the Blacks and Indians. According to De la Torre, “the discriminatory actions of
white and mestizo Ecuadoreans clearly illustrate how they have constructed their racial selves.
Given that only a few Ecuadoreans can be certain of their European descent, each act of
aggression against the Indian and black ‘Other’ is a form of denial and hatred of the mestizo
self” (De la Torre 1999, 93).
There has never been a segregation law in Ecuador, but “because Indians are seen as
‘inferior’, they have to go to the back of the bus in order not to inconvenience their white and
mestizo ‘superiors’” (Bourdieu 1977, 20). Racist thoughts and attitudes are reinforced through
actions such as this, which make these experiences seem so common and natural that
Ecuadorians do not recognize them as products of racism. Bourdieu continues by saying that “the
dominant and the sub-altern sectors have been habituated in the use of racially structured spaces,
so much so that they reproduce existing racial structures almost subconsciously in their day-to-
day interactions” (Bourdieu 1977, 20).
A significant racial issue in Ecuador society is the desire to become whiter or to improve
the race. De la Torre explains that one of the main concerns for a family when a baby is born is
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