Where are all the Black Argentines?

    

(Goñi 2021)

    Whenever Argentina comes up in conversation with my Dominican mom, she never fails to mention that they are racist. We laugh it off. Yet, the more I hear this stereotype, I become more curious as to why she would use the “R” word. Speaking with other members of the Latine community, racist is just one term out of the plethora of negative stereotypes describing Argentines: pretentious, Eurocentric, xenophobic. Known as the whitest country in Latin America, 97% of its population identifies as European descendants. This would make sense if Argentina did not participate in slavery, creating a mixed-race culture with African and Indigenous blood: Still, like the majority of Latin America during the 15th through 19th centuries, enslaved black and native people built Argentina's foundation. So, where are the black people in Argentina? Why is it that half of Argentina’s population was black in the 1700s, but as of 2019, it is less than 1%? Argentine history represents an active, conscious, and successful effort at erasing its African roots. Under Domingo Sarmiento’s presidency, the Afro-Argentine population began to decrease due to a “covert genocide:” the conscription of black Argentine men into the military and denying Afro-Argentines access to safe living during the 1871 yellow fever outbreak. There are significant meaning systems attached to Sarmiento and the country’s behavior, like white supremacy and eurocentrism. However, I will elaborate on the tangible actions influenced by these abstract ideas.

“In the United States… 4 million are black, and within 20 years will be 8 [million]…. What is [to be] done with such blacks, hated by the white race? Slavery is a parasite that the vegetation of English colonization has left attached to leafy tree of freedom.”

    In 1848, Sarmiento wrote this in his diary. Sarmiento viewed African people in Argentina as a problem that needed a resolution, essentially dehumanizing black Argentines to a pest. One solution idea Sarmiento acted upon was forcing Africans to join the military. By doing this, black lives were disproportionately lost during wars compared to their white counterparts. When not in combat but simply away from home, African women were subjected to relationships with white Argentine men and, consequently, created more European–preferable–people. Another attempt to fix this problem was keeping Afro-Argentines in communities where disease ran rampant. He segregated European and African Argentines into areas that differed significantly: In the cities where Afro-Argentines resided, there was a lack of sound infrastructure and healthcare. This fared tragically during the yellow fever epidemic while Sarmiento was in office. Therefore, black people were killed off as white Argentines lived. Black Argentines experienced a genocide, where Argentine’s population and culture diluted if not eradicated African influence.

    Unfortunately, Argentina mirrors America’s treatment of black and brown people. Black Argentines often face discrimination, violence, and police brutality: They make up most of the impoverished areas and prison population in Argentina. All the while, the education system ignores African impact on the culture. In fact, Argentine society lies to themselves by believing that Argentina is solely European-influenced. In June 2021, when president Alberto Fernandez met with Spain’s prime minister, he said, “Mexicans emerged from Indigenous people, Brazilians emerged from the jungle, but we Argentines arrived on boats. On boats from Europe.” This old saying perpetuates a history without Africans, which fuels the exclusion and violence Afro-Argentines face.

    Nonetheless, we must have hope for the acknowledgment and better treatment of Afro-Argentines. For one, 2013 marked the first year Argentina celebrated the National Day of Afro-Argentines and African Culture on November 8. Additionally, AfricaVive is an Argentine black empowerment group that brings attention to black Argentine history and culture. So, hopefully, in a couple of years, Argentina will be more representative of its history than now. And, my mom will be forced to stop saying they are racist.

Bibliography BBC. 2018. “What It’s like to Be Black and Argentine.” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-46641620 (March 7, 2022). Ghosh, Palash. 2013. “Blackout: How Argentina ‘Eliminated’ Africans from Its History and Conscience.” International Business Times. https://www.ibtimes.com/blackout-how-argentina-eliminated-africans-its-history-conscience-1289381. Goñi, Uki. 2021. The New York Review Black Argentine Men. https://images.app.goo.gl/NR4PyEhneveBTV2v5. Jr, Henry Louis Gates. 2014. “True or False: There Are No Black People in Argentina.” The Root. https://www.theroot.com/true-or-false-there-are-no-black-people-in-argentina-1790876367. Sciaudone, Christiana. 2021. “Argentine Movement Tries to Make Black Heritage More Visible.” AP NEWS. https://apnews.com/article/immigration-entertainment-discrimination-migration-race-and-ethnicity-0d18920b22e0eab19f28202c591ef0ea (March 7, 2022). Stewart, Beth, and Sidnee King. 2020. “Sí, Yo Soy Afro: What It’s like to Be Black in Argentina.” Medill Reports Chicago. https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/si-yo-soy-afro-what-its-like-to-be-black-in-argentina/.

Gender-Based Violence

          Gender-based violence is a serious issue during the present day that mainly affects women. It can be caused due to a person's sex, gender, sexual orientation, or even gender identity. It is proven that gender-based violence mainly occurs to women due to male dominance being a societal norm. Male dominance can be seen as an abuse of power since many men use their dominance to enact violence on women. Gender-based violence can be seen as a violation of a person's human rights and can also lead to life-threatening attacks being made towards a person.

        When a person has power, it can lead to violence towards an individual/s. People who have power tend to take advantage of their privilege and cause violence towards the less fortunate. Frequently within society, it is mainly seen that men are the people who have power because that is due to the patriarchal society and its norms. With patriarchy and societal norms existing in our society, this leads to an unjust world for women to live in. Men can force women into doing something they do not want to do or even abuse them. In society, not every man but multiple men feel as if they could use their power to get whatever they want, whether it is a clean house, food on the table, or even sexual pleasure.

        A man named Jackson Katz researches a lot on gender-based violence and even acknowledges that a lot of the gender-based violence that occurs is by men. In a documentary titled Tough Guys: Violence, Media, & the Crisis in Masculinity which can be found on Youtube, Katz goes into depth and explains why many males act the way they do. Katz mentions that society pressures men into being tough, independent, strong, and respected. If a man does not show these four strong traits, they will get called names and even get bullied for not presentitheir masculinity. This documentary was filmed back in 1999, and even though that was 23 years ago, not much has changed within society.

       Abusive relationships are a form of gender-based violence that strongly affects women. When it comes to relationships, men are always seen to be the dominant person. Some relationships can be seen as abusive, and that is because the man in the relationship is abusing their power. For many people, abusive relationships can only be seen within the closed doors of a person's relationship. The way a couple is seen in public can be different from how they act alone. In society, we see many women getting abused by their male partners. This happens simply because the societal norm is that dominance needs to exist within relationships, and some men take their dominance to a different level by being abusive in relationships. While it should not matter who is seen as dominant in a relationship, in society, the norm of a relationship is that a man should be dominant while the woman is deferential. This causes many men to be abusive within their relationships since women are seen as the people who obey what their husbands or boyfriend would tell them. If they do not obey, this leads to them getting mistreated by their male partner.

        Another form of gender based violence can be sexual harassment. In today's society, sexual harassment occurs and can be seen way too often. Sexual harassment can be seen in schools or work and is also something that is non-consensual. Consent is when a person agrees to engage with another person, but some men do not know how to respect no as an answer and would sexually harass women. Sexual harassment can also occur even if the harasser did not ask for consent; it can be seen as harmful and leave a person with life-long trauma. Sexual harassment can also cause psychological effects on a person, leading to dealing with anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, or even weight loss or gain. When it comes to sexual harassment, it is something that can heavily be seen within the workplace. Sexual harassment can happen to teenagers or even adults. There is no set age where a women could experience sexual harassment. For example, a person can decide to work at the age of 14 and experience sexual harassment, but a person who is 41 can also experience sexual harassment. Regardless of a person's age, in a sense, there is no escaping sexual harassment within the workplace for many women.

        In an article titled Working Women Share Stories of Sexual Harassment While On The Job by Keturah Gray, Jeff Schnieder, Lauren Effron, and Kelly McCarthy, this article talks about different women who have experienced sexual harassment within the workplace and them being able to share their stories. One of the women who shared her story is named Madison and she said "They would come up behind me and just rub up against me. No one would ever say anything since they were so sure of themselves. One of my two bosses asked me to run a personal errand with him before the shift started one day. When I got into his car, he loosened his pants and exposed himself." (Gray, Schnieder, Effron, and McCarthy, 2018). This quote shows how easy it is for women to get sexually harassed. Some men would go out of their way to sexually harass women without fear of being caught, while fear is being placed onto women. Many women can get manipulated into a sexual harassment occurrence. As seen in the quote, Madison revealed that her manager convinced her into running an errand with him but used that as a disguise to harass her sexually. It is also crucial to note that Madison was only 16 when this happened. Getting sexually harassed at such a young age in the place of work can be traumatizing for young women and would make them fear going to work for many years.

When it comes to gender-based violence, it constitutes the breakage to a person's fundamental rights to life, liberty, dignity, and physical and mental integrity. It can lead to women feeling like nothing since their voice may not be heard. Women can also deal with lifelong trauma, and be seen as objects to men. Gender-based violence is a traumatizing thing that occurs within society and should be taken into account more simply for the safety of  women. For a change to be made regarding this issue, it will take men to realize that they are abusing their power towards women. Men must recognize their wrongs for us to see a change happen in the near future regarding this issue. Society needs to teach men from an early age that it is okay to not be tough, independent, strong, and respected.

Citations:

GMA, “Working Women Share Stories of Sexual Harassment While on the Job,” ABC News (ABC News Network, April 20, 2018), https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/working-women-share-stories-sexual-harassment-job/story?id=54449605.

Jackson Katz, “Tough Guise: Violence, Media, & the Crisis ... - Youtube.com,” 1999, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Tbw9_eL_U.

Olympic Successes Underscore a Harsher Reality

         If you have at all paid attention to the recent Olympic games, you are most likely familiar with the impressive successes of Asian American athletes such as snowboarder Chloe Kim and freestyle skier Eileen Gu. The fame that these women have amassed has made them “It Girls,” serving as spokeswomen for the Olympic games. However, this apparent praise does a good job of masking the hate and scrutiny that female Asian American athletes face on a consistent basis. Asian American female athletes are required to achieve a substantially higher level of achievement than their white co-athletes in order to achieve the same level of respect. According to author and cultural critic Jeff Yang, “Asian American women are seen as worthy when they can deliver, and then disposed of otherwise.” They are in constant conflict with the illogical ideology that their ethnicity keeps them from being a “true American.” Based on the personal perspective of Sung Choimorrow, the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, “Asian American athletes are only all ‘American’ when it comes to winning medals for the country.” If Asian American athletes fall anywhere short of perfection, they are subject to becoming essentially disowned by their nation. However, oftentimes female Asian American athletes are not fully respected even if they do achieve remarkable feats. In the words of author and cultural critic Jeff Yang, “it’s like Asian American female athletes can’t win.”

Eileen Gu, waves to the crowd after competing in the freestyle big air finals of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The restricting stigmatism faced by female Asian American athletes causes many to struggle to feel fully embraced in America. Even athletes who win at the Olympic games are subject to brutal harassment and criticism both in the media and in person. For example, Eileen Gu, the accomplished daredevil freestyle skier was accused of “betraying her country” by Tucker Carlson of Fox News, referencing the fact that she switched from the U.S. team to the China team. On a similar note, figure skater Zhu Yi was widely mocked across the United States for falling during an event; likely influenced by the fact that she gave up her U.S. citizenship to compete for China instead. Not only are Asian American female athletes who compete for their ancestral nations frequently scrutinized, but Asian American female athletes who compete for the United States as well. Chloe Kim, who has taken home two gold medals in the halfpipe for the United States, has stated that she has been tormented online daily; leading her to fear for the safety of herself and her parents. No matter much female Asian American athletes may accomplish, they struggle to escape a suffocating historical prejudice. 

Suni Lee, Olympic gold medalist for the U.S. team.

This historical prejudice has been exasperated in recent years by the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Americans ignorantly attribute the beginnings of the pandemic to Asia, and, subsequently, Asian American individuals, who in reality have no connection to the origins of said pandemic. Americans use Asian Americans as scapegoats for the frustration they feel regarding the detrimental implications of the pandemic. This frustration frequently amounts to full-fledged hate, leading to an increase in the number of hate crimes directed towards Asian Americans in recent years. According to Stop AAPI Hate, “there have been more than 10,000 reported anti-Asian incidents between March 2020 and September 2021.”  The extent of this hate has no limits, as even accomplished Asian American Olympians have experienced horrific harassment and abuse. For example, gymnast Sunisa Lee was standing outside with a group of other Asian Americans while on a break from filming “Dancing with the Stars,” when a passing car peppered sprayed her and bombarded her with racial slurs. Additionally, Asian American golfer Danielle Kang has reflected on instances in which she has been told to “go back to China,” or has been asked if she eats “dogs for dinner,” solely based on her ethnicity. Kang stated that she has faced these illogical stereotypes for her entire life, and that they have often been coupled with violence such as physical fistfights. 

Devising solutions to combat increasing hate towards Asian Americans is a weighty endeavor. There is no simple way to combat the hate, especially when it is rooted in irrational reasoning. Once someone convinces themself that a certain individual/group of individuals is responsible for their own misfortunes, it is difficult to break this mindset. Despite these difficulties, there are steps that can be taken to gradually break down this widespread hate; including making Asia the host of multiple Olympics. In the words of Cynthia Choi, the leader of the Stop AAPI Hate coalition, “when we think about the Olympics, it’s really incredibly powerful to have taken place in Asia three times in a row … having Asian Americans and Asians representing the United States in these games is more than symbolic.” Having the Olympics games in Asia is a good start to promoting acceptance of the Asian community in the post-pandemic world; but it is only the beginning. The United States government needs to expand the crackdown on Asian hate crimes as a method of deterrence. As a society, we need to spread the reality that Asian American individuals are not at all responsible for the origins of the pandemic, and that acting otherwise is simply absurd. While this article focused on the scrutiny and discrimination faced by female Asian American athletes, it is symbolic of the hate faced by Asian American individuals as a whole (particularly in the post-pandemic world). As a nation, we need to do better in supporting our Asian American athletes, and ordinary individuals, alike.

Works Cited

Press, Associated. 2022. “For Asian American Women, Olympics Reveal a Harsh Duality .” U.S. News. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-02-12/for-asian-american-women-olympics-reveal-a-harsh-duality (February 15, 2022). 

Griffiths, Laurence. 2021. Town & Country Lee Poses with Her Olympic Gold Medal. Hearst Magazine Media. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/sporting/a37168432/sunisa-suni-lee-usa-gymnast-olympics/ (February 15, 2022). 

The Sex Trafficking Problem in Nigeria

Adaura’s Story

Adaura C., an 18 year old Nigerian woman was promised a job where she would earn 150,000 naira as a domestic worker in Libya. But when she arrived in Libya, she and her friend Jane V were immediately thrown into the underground world of sex work. The madam who betrayed them brought the two girls to various men and made them have unprotected sex with them. After a month of sexual exploitation, Adaura found out she was pregnant. When the madam found out she forced Adaura to have an abortion. She was later sold to a man in Libya who continued to sexually exploit her. After she extricated herself and moved in with the man she was supposed to marry, the extremist group ISIS abducted them, killed her boyfriend but spared Audara because she was pregnant. But she was forced into and underground prison where she had to marry a man who raped her. After three years as a pawn in the sex trafficking ring, Audara was saved by Libyan soldiers and returned back to Nigeria. She has been staying in a shelter and continues to suffer from physical and psychological health problems. She still lives a life where “her future is uncertain” (HRW 3). Adaura’s story is just one of the inhumane cases of sex trafficking.






The Problem of Sex Trafficking Facing Nigeria and Other African Countries

Thousands of women have been trafficked over recent years throughout Nigeria and other countries in Africa, also Europe. Most victims who have made their way to Europe are from Edo State, Nigeria, typically transferred through Libya. Nigerian women endure treacherous journeys through the Sahara Desert to make it to Libya where they can then be sold to other countries. In 2017 IOM reported a 600% increase in the total number of “potential sex traffic victims arriving to Italy by sea,” (HRW 4). Many forms of manipulation are used by traffickers to ensure the girls keep quiet about the operations they are running. These techniques include violence, threats and retaliation against their families. There have been stories of female traffickers, or madams, forcing victims to partake in juju rituals, as a form of oath-taking, which can include the use of human blood, hair and clothing. These rituals are to prevent workers from going to the authorities. These women do not receive proper care once they are abducted. They experience sexual assault, restrictions on movement and denial of medical care and food and many other human rights violations. The abortions conducted on them tend to take place in unsanitary conditions and the women are not given pain medication or antiobiotics.

Displacement is also a major problem facing the women and girls of Nigeria. Conflicts with insurgent group Boko Haram, along with clashes in five north central states, have negatively affected the women and girls and made them more vulnerable to trafficking. As a result of these clashes the economy depresses even more which decreases the availability of social services and support for families.

A lot of trafficking women say they were deceived by people they know into entering the trafficking world. They were made false promises of employment which would help out them and their families. Once they are deceived and abducted they are transported over national borders through life threatening conditions.In 2018 Nigerian trafficking victims were identified in 34 countries in four different regions.

The United Nations Trafficking Protocol defines trafficking as, “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payment or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

Nigeria is ranked 32 out of 167 countries on the Walk Free Foundation’s “Global Slavery Index” (2018).


Long Lasting Effects on Survivors

The long lasting effects of being a victim in the human trafficking world follow women and children once they make their ways back into society. Survivors suffer from “depression, anxiety, insomnia, flashbacks, aches and pains,” and other illnesses which poorly affect their ability to work effectively (HRW 7). Since they cannot hold long term jobs, they struggle to provide for their families financially. Food is scarce and access to healthcare is unlikely. Female victims are blamed for their exploitation by their families and are often pestered for coming home empty handed. If girls have nowhere to go after they escape they are detained in trafficking survivor shelters and are not allowed to leave. This limited movement and freedom is no better than the freedom they received with trafficking and this treatment makes the recovery for victims even harder to accomplish.


Nigerian Children At Risk

Next to women, children are the next biggest commodity in the sex trafficking world. Nigerian children are more subjectible to entering the sex trafficking ring because of lack of access to education. Violence against children is also occurring at alarming rates. Millions of children in Nigeria do not attend school which puts them at high risk of violence and exploitation. Many children lack birth registration and do not have access to healthcare or education. According to UNICEF, Nigeria has the largest number of children out of school and a striking 10 million, most of them being girls.

There is Hope

There are many different approaches to putting an end to the unlawful business of trafficking in Nigeria. They have started the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and have implemented anti trafficking laws. Nigeria has established shelters, provided medical care and created programs focused on skill training and economic support for trafficking survivors. Survivors have also been aided in shelter accommodation, identification and family tracing, rehabilitation and reintegration. There are still many steps that have to be taken in order for sex trafficking to end. Shelters have to change their policies and make sure survivors are not detained and denied free will. Reintegration services such as counseling and medical care, have to be guaranteed and long term and address mental and physical health needs. The Nigerian government should improve legal assistance for survivors seeking to press charges against their abductors. The government also has to support groups like NAPTIP so that more shelters can be built to house trafficking victims. Organizations, along with government aid, have to provide special services for child survivors to help them reintegrate back into society and reunite with their families.





So where does it end? When will a little girl in Nigeria be able to walk to school without fear of being taken away and never seeing her family again? When will a woman be able to apply for a job to help provide for her family without being deceived and losing the rights to her body? When will sufficient education be available to the children of Nigeria and other countries in Africa so they will be less vulnerable to becoming a commodity in the trafficking business? This is not a problem that is going to be easy to fix, but there are many ways governments and organizations can work to prevent another child from being abducted and forced into sex work.


Citation:

“‘You Pray for Death.’” Human Rights Watch, 27 May 2020, https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/08/27/you-pray-death/trafficking-women-and-girls-nigeria.

Hatred and Division: Is Social Media to Blame?

 Hatred and Division:  Is Social Media To Blame?

It is hard to watch the news lately without feeling a sense of despair or hopelessness. Headlines are filled with acts of violence, hatred and division across the world and within our own country. People who disagree on topics ranging from mask mandates to politics to women’s rights seem further apart and less willing to compromise (or even listen to a different viewpoint) more than ever before. Even more frightening, we can’t even seem to agree on basic truths or objective facts anymore (as illustrated by the term “fake news”), let alone figure out how to fix things. What has caused this growing intolerance and division?  

https://abcnews.go.com/US/ways-spot-disinformation-social-media-feeds/story?id=67784438

One contributing factor seems to be the spread of misinformation or highly biased information across social media platforms. A recent Facebook experiment demonstrates the power of social media algorithms and reveals that users are likely to be exposed to content that increases division and intolerance by reinforcing only one perspective/viewpoint. A researcher set up a Facebook account in India in order to understand how social media might affect perspectives about current events in that county. The researcher accepted all of Facebook’s recommendations for friends, groups and videos. The result was terrifying: “an inundation of hate speech, misinformation and celebrations of violence.” The researcher reported that his new feed became “a near constant barrage of polarizing nationalist content, misinformation, and violence and gore.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/23/technology/facebook-india-misinformation.html

Aside from presenting biased and one-sided information, social media is a common source of outright lies, conspiracy theories and other misinformation. In fact, the World Health Organization defined the term “infodemic” as “too much information including false information in digital and physical environments” which can lead to mistrust in health authorities and negative health consequences. https://www.who.int/health-topics/infodemic#tab=tab_1 Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all allow misinformation to be spread quickly across the globe, reaching thousands or even millions of users in a matter of hours. The consequences of this crisis are serious and widespread. There have been threats to our nation’s democracy based on false information about elections, threats to public health based on misinformation about events ranging from Covid and vaccine safety, to violent attacks based on conspiracies or propaganda circulated by extremist groups. One widely publicized example of this danger is the 2018 “pizzagate” incident in which a man fired a semi-automatic rifle in a Washington, D.C. pizza place based on his belief that it was the center of a pedophilia trafficking ring led by Hillary Clinton. This fake story was promoted by various extreme websites and then re-tweeted in countries across the world. https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/danger-social

There is no easy solution to this problem. Social media platforms are not going away and eliminating hate speech is unlikely. Companies should be required to take a more active role in regulating content or in changing the algorithms that control what users see on news feeds so that a more balanced flow of information is presented. 

In addition, since it would be impossible to regulate all content, it makes sense to focus regulation on topics that pose serious threats to human rights and health issues. For example, even though there may be misinformation about a wide range of topics currently circulating on Facebook, resources should focus on regulating content that contains scientific lies about vaccine safety and which therefore affect the pandemic crisis. Recent news reports illustrate that the vast majority of hospitalized Covid patients who had refused to get the vaccine based their decision on false information about infertility, government tracking or other unproven claims spread on Facebook https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faceoff-against-facebook-stopping-the-flow-of-misinformation/

At the very least, it is time for the general public to understand that what we read on social media is not necessarily objective neutral news reporting, but rather biased (and at times unreliable) information specifically targeted at users, based on algorithms created by corporations.