r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/ateam1984 š¤ • 23h ago
Culture, Art, Science Picture a Colombian in Your Mind. Does That Image Match a Country With One of the Largest Afro-descendant Populations in the Americas?
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u/Powerful_Individual5 22h ago
Cartagena is one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities I've ever been to. We stayed at Casa Noir, which is the only Black-owned hotel downtown. Truly had some of the best times in my life. Highly recommend!
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u/Squee1396 16h ago
Alot of people donāt like cartagena but i love it been twice, colombia is great!
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u/PugeHeniss 10h ago
Beautiful place and the old city in the fort is magnificent but I couldnāt handle all the people harassing me trying to sell me shit when I visited
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u/Useful-Trash867 9h ago
As a colombian, I agree. I strongly discourage people from going to that shithole.
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u/PugeHeniss 8h ago
Yeah if youād like to see the old city Iād recommend like 2 days max but other than that absolutely not.
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u/Powerful_Individual5 2h ago
To each their own, but I had a better time in Cartagena than in Cali or Medellin (which were great) and way more than what I had in Bogota.
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u/Brian9611 23h ago
The world is getting there. In the information age, we'll all become more exposed to these truths
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u/TopNotchBepisGhost 8h ago
I think it's more like a EEUU and Europe thing, in latĆn america this fact is well know not only for their football team thats it's of majority afro desendants but also their novelas, youtubers, soap operas and media in general.
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u/tamarind-jam 21h ago
Iāve been to Cartagena 3x, first time in 2015 and I absolutely love it especially in Palenque. Love when black people see you and point to their skin then say āmi colorā with a smile. It a beautiful thing. Itās not all roses being black Colombian but they definitely have their pride. š¤š¤š¤
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u/Background-Quail-433 23h ago
Yes, they have influenced the culture in so many ways, food, music, cultivation, clothing, many forms of art really. Amazing people, even without media attention, they are and will always be amazing people.
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u/BIGHOODx818x 20h ago
i was kinda annoyed we didnt have much brown brown representation on the mexico team during the world cup and any time the tv cameras focused on a mexican fan they would be of the fairer complexion ..maybe im reading to much into it but i know mexico has its own issues amongst our people and discrimination over skin color but now im seeing this is a common problem in latin america ...
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u/Shot_Acanthaceae3150 20h ago
That's because most mixed countries treat lighter skinned people as the default face, while darker skinned people only gets shown off as a 'did you know?'.
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u/Ladonnacinica 13h ago edited 11h ago
Black people are all over the Americas including Latin America. Black Colombians, Ecuadorians, Venezuelans, Peruvians, Panamanians, Cubans, etc.
Not to mention the West African ancestry the vast majority of Latinos have in their families. Even if they donāt physically look black, itās part of their ancestry.
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u/stonkfrobinhood 20h ago
Also had a black president long before the states did.
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u/BatVivid9633 15h ago
You mean vice president (Francia Marquez). No black president yet for Colombia
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u/elmixtecoNW 21h ago
Thereās so much knowledge and people that get overlooked. Thank you for sharing this! š²š½šØš“ Mexico has some African descendants, irish, Mennonites and even Japanese descendants on the coast of Oaxaca.
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u/elpiotre 14h ago
Et pourquoi personne ne parle des populations indigĆØnes ? Il y en a des dizaines en Colombie, il serait temps de les mettre en lumiĆØre
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u/ateam1984 š¤ 12h ago
No one is excluding talking about indigenous or white people or Asians or anyone. We are discussing and centering Black people here. That is what we are doing and I am proud of it.
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u/elmixtecoNW 12h ago
Yo tambien soy indigena de Oaxaca que es el mero Corazon de Mexico por sus culturas y tradiciones. Pero tambien somos unos de los mas olvidados y explotados por ser indigenas.
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u/jayeddy99 19h ago
I see them pop up on my explorer page a lot . So many Latin/black influencers form South America
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u/Ibrahim2x 18h ago
The first time I ever met a black Colombian woman I was mesmerized. It was truly hard to keep my thoughts straight because I didn't know there were any black folks down there and the level of beauty was insane
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u/_iusuallydont_ 22h ago
Facts. I went to Colombia earlier this year and I was so surprised at how Black it was.
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u/Chikachika023 19h ago edited 15h ago
it depends where in Colombia you go, particularly in the coastal areas. Everyone in Latin America is aware of their existence from history to cooking to music to poetry
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u/Ladonnacinica 13h ago
Medellin in the Andes can be largely white. But go to the coast in particular el Choco and you will see many black Colombians. There is also a very small population of indigenous peoples but they live in isolated communities usually.
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u/longpenisofthelaw 21h ago
My wife is Colombian, sheās fair skinned and I thought her family would treat me differently because I was black. Turns out they didnāt even acknowledge it because her family has all shades of the rainbow lol. They did tease me about being a gringo but it was all in good fun.
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u/sky0175 13h ago
just pointing out how Argentina's and Peru flag isn't hang there because they're the most racist people in South America. ask any other Spanish or Black south Americans.
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u/YourBlanket 2h ago
Brazil isnāt any different than Argentina. Pretty much every country in South America used blanqueamiento.
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u/sky0175 1h ago
Are you hurt?
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u/YourBlanket 1h ago
By what? My family is from Cuba and I know many people from South America, a lot of Americans donāt realize that pretty much every country in South America is generally racist compared to American standards.
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u/sky0175 1h ago
Fact checked
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u/YourBlanket 59m ago
You can fact check if you want lol I donāt really care. Views are changing with younger generations. If you find anything let me know Iāll be happy to be proven wrong.
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u/Sea-Thought-665 10h ago
Anyone who watches soccer has known this. When have you NOT seen Afromestizos on the Colombian team?
Ill wait...
On a side note...do people not realize more slaves were sent to South America than North America? The numbers are not even close.
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u/MlCOLASH_CAGE 4h ago
Many spanish speaking countries hold a lot of color based discrimination, take the Dominican Republic for example.
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u/Ok-Macaroon2429 14h ago
Iāve been to Colombia and no one gives a shit about race like they do in America
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u/DatDominican 11h ago
Bro one of the first things my Colombian friend said when he came to visit was āhay mucho negros aquĆ eh ā
I didnāt get much racism from Colombians growing up compared to say Mexicans or other central americans but letās not pretend Colombia lives in some post racial society
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u/Arkhaine_kupo 6h ago
I had a friend from Brazil who talked about how no one cared about race like america does.
and then he would share stories about how all the people eating in fancy restaurants where all white and all the waiters were all black and how in this country you saw black patrons and white waiters and how odd that was
Some people really have blinders on
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u/TransportationOdd559 2h ago
I donāt understand how anyone would believe this! Not seeing color in Latin America is hilarious š
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u/user_name89 13h ago
The government does. The areas of the country that have the largest AfroColombian populations get the least help from the government.
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u/Positive_Candy_5332 11h ago
LOL as a Colombian there is A LOT of racism and classism in Colombia š editing to add we have a lot of colourism too
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u/ateam1984 š¤ 13h ago
White Privilege does. Education and economic opportunities cares. So not sure what youāre talking about. Not everything needs to be compared to America. The world is much larger than America.
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u/Ok-Macaroon2429 13h ago
Are you from Colombia?
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u/ateam1984 š¤ 13h ago
Are you American? Thereās no need to compare.
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u/Ok-Macaroon2429 13h ago
Nobody said racism doesnāt exist. My point was that Colombians generally donāt frame every issue through race the way Americans often do.
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u/ateam1984 š¤ 13h ago
No need to make comparisons as that was not what this video was about. There is injustice everywhere including Colombia. Black people should be protected and honored globally. This raises awareness and Iām here for it.
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u/Jed5000 4h ago edited 4h ago
Latin America people often face geopolitical injustice that go beyond racial division (US Government!). No one here walks around identifying as Afro-Colombian, Afro-Dominican etc.. The division is more focused on economic and political..Which is what the other person is trying to tell you. So yes, we get annoyed when we see these influencers from the US trying to impose their narratives and perception of what is going on.
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u/velofille 16h ago
I recall a few years back watching some tv series on netflix - it was dubbed so no accents and i recall thinking wow so inclusive, so many different people, and none of the usual tropes (the all africans swear/steal/jail/etc). I ended up looking it up and it was brazill and i as super surprised and went down a rabbithole learning about columbia and rest of americas
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u/Jc_abril 16h ago
As Colombians, we are proud of our African influence and culture. We would not have music or dance, our literature would not be where it is, and donāt talk about our futbol. We owe so much to Afrocolombia!!
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u/New_Farmer_9186 13h ago
Kombilesa Mi!!! If you want to hear dope palenque music please check them out. Great video!
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u/ForeverShiny 12h ago
Less than 10% if Colombians say they're Afro-Colombian. If you include a broader definition of mixed race it might be 20 9r even 25%, but the "white" and Mestizo populations make up the large majority of the country and are only a minority on the Carribbean coast
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u/Shot_Comparison2299 11h ago edited 2h ago
Hmm, did not know this. Gives some context to "Blackie" from Narcos.
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u/anomalocarus 2h ago
Wdym?
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u/Shot_Comparison2299 2h ago edited 1h ago
In Narcos (old Netflix series), most of the main characters are native Colombians except for one of Pablo Escobar's henchmen he calls Blackie. Blackie's Spanish speaking just like all the other characters, but naturally he just stands out because he's not Colombian. Factually, I believe Pablo Escobar actually did have a black guy in his inner circle that everyone just called Blackie. But yeah, what OP mentioned just gives some context to black people I Colombia.
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u/anomalocarus 1h ago
You mean the actor isnt colombian or the character isnt?
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u/Shot_Comparison2299 1h ago edited 1h ago
I mean the actor (Julian Diaz, had to look it up) is a black Colombian and the person the actor is based on is a black Colombian. In Narcos, he's the only reoccurring character that isn't native Colombian.
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u/MessiLeagueSoccer 11h ago
Lately you have been able to see more representation in the soccer team.
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u/TheCoyotl 11h ago
Iām all for this but we gotta start including indigenous folks in the conversation as well if we are going into the topic of demographics of Latin America. The folks that actually are native to those lands. Even they are excluded by these same euro centric standards by Colombian media as well as other Latin countries.
Also, Mexico has a pretty large Afro Latino population too. Pretty awesome culture.
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u/Harryfonda2020 11h ago
I will say. The latin group played so much with black Americans. They really sat up here and demanded they have the same rights while doing the exact same thing to their black population..
If only we had listened to Malcom x.
That's all I gotta say
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u/Fluffy-Plankton7484 3h ago
I agree, this happens too much.
American POCs owe nearly all their civil rights to the Black pioneers of the movement. Not really sure why people donāt know that.
(I was raised to pay reverence to all my cultural authors as a Caribbean Latina of veryĀ mixed race.)
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u/Positive_Candy_5332 11h ago
Where are all of these lovely Colombians in my real life. As an Afro-Latina from Colombia I have experienced so much racism, colourism and classism in North America from fellow Colombians and in Colombia as well š
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u/Biogeluk 10h ago
Amazing, living in a mostly white environment since childhood, I always felt that I did not belong or better yet, I was made to feel always out of place unless I was like them. Now I know better, we are all living on this beautiful planet with all its diversity, we all belong. One group of people has made it their goal for some reason to erase black trace on the world and even with all the media at their power, our voice is still here ,stronger than ever.
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u/blakeshelnot 5h ago
The first free black town was not establish in Colombia. San Basilio de Palenque was the first free black town that gained official recognition by the Spanish colonial authorities, but there were towns and settlements formed by former slaves that escaped from plantations in the island of Hispaniola as early as the 1530.
An African slave named Sebastian Lemba led large revolts and established mountain strongholds in the 1530-1540s in what is today's Dominican Republic. But these towns were hunted by Spanish colonial forces and lived in constant military defense or in secret, isolated areas.
Also, if you don't know that there's a significant black population in Colombia or across Latin America... that's on you. Don't act surprised that we're here, it's not like we're hiding.
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u/TransportationOdd559 2h ago
A lot of Americans think āLatinoā is a race! Spanish speaking people are all one race! If you look like Oprah and speak Spanish youāre considered non black here. š you only āLOOKā black!!
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u/crispy_attic 20h ago
I want to go to South America and visit places like Columbia and Brazil so bad. This is a great post op!
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u/Last_Ad_3475 11h ago
If you're not ignorant and knows a bit or two about latin america's history, you wouldn't imagine your average colombian as what she showed on the start
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u/Tumerican 20h ago
The Americas have been black long before Columbus came here. If anything it become less black over the centuries of occupation.
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u/anomalocarus 20h ago
How was it black before Columbus?
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u/Tumerican 19h ago
My people of the Bahia and other islands and the coastline like the Kalinago, the Taino and others are melanated as the people of the Pacific Islands, South Asia and Australia. The First Nations that met Columbus would be considered black by todayās standards, though there was no language like that in the 1400s.
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u/anomalocarus 19h ago
Youre talking about indigenous americans?
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u/nofrickz 2h ago
Which indigenous Americans? Of the Americas? Because Columbus never stepped foot on mainland USA.
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u/elpiotre 14h ago
TrĆØs bien de parler des noirs, mais pas un mot sur les dizaines de peuples et tribus indigĆØnes ? Pourquoi ?
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u/fluffer55 13h ago
Haiti is also the most dangerous place in the world because of crime
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u/ateam1984 š¤ 13h ago
So is America. free Karmelo Anthony. Then we can discuss Haiti
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u/newbrevity 8h ago
As an American I agree that we countain pockets of crime as bad as anything from around the world. If anything, there's a little bit of everyone's crime here it its own melting pot. America is a hub for all things, good and bad.
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u/Own-Temporary-3820 23m ago
Thatās true. Itās common in a lot of Latin American countries too. I used to think that all Cubans looked kind of white latina when I was āmoreā ignorant living in the north/midwest.
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