Colorism is an issue prevalent within Latin American society that affects many darker-skinned folk living in the region. Specifically, colorism is a prevalent issue within Indigenous communities. In efforts to deconstruct and solidify the definition or requirements of indigeneity, we must first define the impact of colonialism on anti-blackness in Indigenous communities. Societal systems in the Americas have been forced with anti-blackness mindsets since the implementation of extractive and settler colonialism types. As a group that had to give up their autonomy in order to exist, Indigenous peoples were also subject to such mindsets. To subject indigeneity as an exclusive group is to erase that identity to non-standard groups such as Black people. However, this raises the question about how indigeneity should be measured in order to remain authentic and legitimate.
In the chapter titled “Dangerous Decolonizing: Indians and Blacks and the Legacy of Jim Crow,” Brian Klopotek discusses the main points of reshaping the Indian methodologies that present indigeneity as a heterogenous group rather than an entity whose boundaries are blurred. Also, they argue that race must be included more broadly in Indian studies, as one legacy of white supremacy within the Indigenous premise is anti blackness and need to seperate themselves from other minorities, but especially any blackness.
The focus groups of this chapter was based on the Tunica-Biloxi group, the Choctaw Indians, and especially the Clifton-Choctaw who are the only group among the three that are not federally-recognized. In terms of the Clifton-Choctaw, the anti blackness is especially prevalent when discussing their modes of strategy for trying to get federal approval of their group legitimacy. This case is especially concerning when taking into account their geographical location, Louisiana, which is known to have a large Black population. Given that Indigenous groups had to constantly advocate for themselves to garner rights and some autonomy apart from being a minority, in context, it is not surprising that they tried to distance themselves as having any relationship to Black people.
As the Jim Crow Era made it so people had to abide by the clear and set distinction of Black and white people, it left other minorities, like the Indigenous communities, to adopt both silent and loud anti-blackness in order to be seperated from Black people and survive within white superiority. In order to send their children to better schools, be eligible for better jobs, and be taken seriously among their decolonization efforts, Indigenous people denied any blackness within their communities. Although a survival tactic, Indigenous people were complicit in the oppression of Black people, as they maintained the belief that being Black was being at the bottom.
In bringing forth the issue to the public, the writer hopes to decolonize the indian methodologies that try to seperate themselves from blackness. It is an attribute of indigeneity to be able to encompass multiple ethnicities, meaning Indigenous people may be light or dark and still identify through that native label. Therefore, indigeneity, although broad, is one step closer to defining itself once measuring their inclusion of Black people, or Black ancestry.
Written by the Government of Bolivia in 1900, “The Slow and Gradual Disappearance of the Indigenous Race” classifies four races and their attributes. The Bolivian government distinguishes the races as white, mestizo, black, and Indian. The white race is seen as the superior race, which the government includes Bolivians as part of this group. Therefore, true Bolivians are apparently white, while mestizos include those like cholos. The government states that cholos are still superior to Indigenous people, but below Bolivians due to their respectability. The Black race is then formed by former ancestral slaves or people from countries like Brazil who make up a very “insignificant” amount of the population and are in competition with mulattos. The system places mulattos above Black people, although both groups are on the bottom of the privilege scale. These chapter excerpts detail the labeling of race that Indigenous peoples were subject to and therefore had to navigate in order to obtain rights and better means of life. As the white race, or the civilians of that nation, compared Black people with Indigenous people, it was dangerous to them to accept such relationship because it would mean a permanent bottom order in society, which is what Black people have historically suffered. Although white supremacy and racism made it hard for Indigenous groups to navigate their way through a better societal order, one cannot deny their role in practicing and helping cement the belief that Black people are the bottom of society and therefore one must distinguish themselves from them and any blackness among them.
Similar because it shows a perspective of the elitist group trying to change the requirements to be labeled as Indigenous in order to erase their legitimacy, This threat has possibly made it so indians are more likely to hold their methodology of race consolidation more firmly to legitimize their group
https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-bolivia-reader
https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.carleton.edu/book/16159/
The Legacy of White Supremacy on Indigeneity
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