Colorism: A Race Dimension in Peru

By Enrique Delgado Ramos

I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss in this space the specific characteristics of colorism in a multicultural and multiracial south American country such as Peru. Racism in Peru includes what has been called colorism but in an inseparable relationship with other phenotypic traits, as well as cultural and economic characteristics.  As Dixon and Telles (2017, p.406) have reported, in Latin America racism and colorism are overlapped unlike, for example, the research in USA where “colorism has developed as a concept separate from racism”.

Generally speaking, in Peru racism includes three interrelated dimensions: cultural, economic and phenotypic. The phenotypic dimension includes color of skin, color and shape of hair (wavy or Lazio), the shape of the nose (the aquiline nose is characteristic of indigenous traits) among other aspects. The phenotypic characteristics of the white population are the most valued even if they are in the minority population. In the same vein, the cultural manifestations associated with the western culture are those that have higher status. Traditionally, white people have had greater purchasing power, even though this has changed in the last decades.

It is important to note that these dimensions are relational. Hence, the same person may be considered more white, brown or black not only by skin color but also based on customs, ways of talking, ways of dressing, signs of wealth, educational degree, among other aspects.  Hence, colorism may function as within-group discrimination but also as inter group discrimination and may be influenced by the cultural and economics characteristics. The least “brown” of a group can treat other members in a derogatory way. In the same way, the least "cholo" (social category that refers to a person with Andean physical and cultural traits) can discriminate others because of their physical traits or their customs. But this person will be in turn discriminated by others “less cholos”.

So, in Peru the hierarchy put on the top white and not indigenous. In this vein, the sociologist Portocarrero said “what the Peruvian population admires as ideal and desirable is white and blond” (2013, p. 166).   What has been called “aspirational advertising” shows this. Curiously, “aspirational advertising” may eventually present, as a Benetton advertisement, people of different races, but not people with indigenous phenotypes traits (e.g. aquiline nose, slanted eyes), except brown or black color—even when indigenous phenotypes traits are widely disseminated in the Peruvian population.

The interrelation of culture, economic and phenotypical traits (including color) is illustrated by common expressions used in Peru like: “money whitens”, “white meat even if it is man's”, “door color people”, “browning”, “cooper race”. This will also be illustrated from the social discussion raised by the ethnic identification categories in the recent national census of 2017. Hence, following Zavala and Back (2017, p. 32), we can understand that race (and color as a part of it) is not about what a person “is” but with the way it is located in a time and space based on power relations. So, it is important to note that moral and civic education must address these issues, although currently there is very little that is done about it.

References

Dixon, A.& Telles, E. (2017). Skin color and colorism: global research, concepts and measurement. Annual Review of Sociology, 43: 405-424.

Portocarrero, G. (2013). La utopía del blanqueamiento y la lucha por el mestizaje. In Grimson, A. & Bidaseca, K. (coords.). Hegemonía cultural y políticas de la diferencia (pp. 165-2000). Buenos Aires: CLACSO.

Zavala, V. & Back, M. (2017). Introducción. In  Zavala, V. & Back, M (eds). Racismo y lenguaje (pp.11-38). Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial.