Escenas de racismo: reflexiones para pensar los (no tan) nuevos discursos racistas en el noroeste de Chubut

Abstract

Not many years ago, the national and provincial media have incorporated the “Mapuche conflict in Patagonia” into their agendas and, in general, they do so to justify the growing criminalization of the collective actions that the communities carried out to make visible. . their legitimate territorial claims. It is common to find headlines in the media that use terms such as “land seizures”, “usurpers” or “terrorism” to refer to the Mapuche People, which contributes to sowing hatred and perpetuating ignorance about their realities. These speeches not only enabled violent actions against indigenous peoples, but also once again used racism as a strategy to promote various economic interests. The production of racism goes through a long history of expropriation of indigenous territories.

Below we highlight three events or scenes from that history that took place in the northwest of the province of Chubut and that, having occurred at different times, share a common denominator: racism. We ask ourselves: What are the effects of these racist discourses on the concrete practices of stigmatized communities? What is the tangible reality of these racist discourses?