In Latin America and the Caribbean, racism is focused above all against blacks, even more so than against indigenous people.
Mexican President Vicente Fox sparked an uproar when he stated that Mexicans living in the United States take jobs that "not even blacks want." In Mexico itself, the Afro-descendant population accounts for less than two percent of the country's people. A survey published in the Mexico City newspaper El Universal revealed that 56.6 percent of respondents believed that there was racism in Mexico, while 61.1 percent said that there was discrimination based on the color of people's skin.
In Ecuador, the government sponsored the First National Survey on Racism and Racial Discrimination. Of the 37,500 people interviewed, 65 percent believed there was racism in their country, and 88 percent said that blacks suffered the worst discrimination.
Studies conducted by the Ministry of Education in Brazil - the country with the largest number of Afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean - show that a mere 2.2 percent of university students are black, 18 percent are of mixed-race heritage, and the vast majority, 80 percent, are white. The illiteracy rate in Brazil is 2.5 times higher among people of African descent than in other racial groups.
Source: Inter Press Service News Agency