Conclusions and possible solutions

Reporting and going back to the results of our survey we can conclude the following:

1. People in general are not interested at all in the problem that racial discrimination represents to the country.
2. Even though many people consider this a problem in our society, they are not willing to do anything to improve the situation.
3. People do recognize that we need to improve, but do nothing about it although the five brown people said that somewhere somehow they had been discriminated, are not doing anything.
4. Most of the interviewed think that government is doing nothing to change the situation.
5. They don't see themselves as important factors for change to happen.

Based on this results, we can say that there is a generalized apathy in the interviewed population and the problem is so common that we don't care about it.
There is a huge paradox because even though many recognize that racial discrimination is a problem, they are not willing to do nothing to change.
Based on our previous research and on the results of this survey, we can say that this problem has historical roots that has been transmitted from generation to generation and has originated a huge antipathy  in the population.

According to this the possible solutions would be:
The establishment of a set of laws that protect the indigenous people's rights.
This set of laws would include:
It wil be penalized any institution or company that decides not to hire an employee because of its physical appearance or ethic group.
The incorporation of their traditions to the society.

Sadly, none of us is able to change the law but there's something so much powerful that we can change and that can have a huge impact in the people around us: our mindset. If we testify to love, if we show others with our example that we are all human beings and that such condition gives us the right to be treated in the best of the ways, if we can understand and transmite that, we will have done our part in the resolution of the problem. We know it is hard, but we have to look deep inside to see it is absolutely worthy.

Our survey

The writers of this blog, study in one of the most westernized universities of Mexico, that's why we felt the necessity to research about the point of view of some of our partners about this topic. These were the questions and the results.

What would you do if you see someone discriminating a person?

1. Say that person that what he/she is doing is not good (3 people)

2. Probably accuse them with the law (4 people)

3. Get mad about how the world is running in this time, and probably hit that person.

4. Nothing, what can I do, they can’t change their minds.

5. Help that person to understand that what he/she is doing is hurting other people.

Would you work in a place where  people are discriminated?

1. No

2. No

3. No

4. No

5. No

6. Maybe

7. I don’t care about what people think of me

8. No

9. Depending on the salary

10. No

What kind of discrimination do you think is the most common?

1. Skin color

2. Homophoby

3. Religion

4. Skin color

5. Gays

6. Religion

7. Religion

8. Gender discrimination

9. Skin color

10. Skin color

Do you think that racial discrimination is a huge problem in mexican society?

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. No

5. Yes

6. Yes

7. Yes

8. Yes

9. I don't care

10. Yes

Do you think that the government is doing something  to improve this situation?

1. No

2. No

3. No

4. No

5. No

6. No

7. I haven’t been in touch with that.

8. I’m not sure.

9. Yes

10. No

Personally, what are you doing to improve this situation?

1. Nothing.

2. I’m not interested about it.

3. I haven’t thought about it.

4. I don’t think that is a problem.

5. I only wear mexican clothes and I don’t undermine people because of their physical appearance.

6. I think that our culture is wonderful, I prefer mexican food and I wear mexican clothes.

7. Nothing, I’d like to but my  life is too westernized already.

8. I know it’s a problem but I don’t have the time to solve it.

9. Nothing.

10. Nothing.

Have you ever been discriminated because of your color of skin? *

1.No

2.No

3. No

4. Yes

5. No

6.Yes

7.Yes

8.Yes

9. Yes

10.Yes

This question was asked to 5 white people and 5 brown people.

Do you think that people can change their minds?

1.Yes

2. Yes

3. No

4. Mabye

5. Yes

6. Yes

7. Everything’s possible as long as we want to do it.

8. No

9. Yes

10. No

What do you think about the thinking of the children?

*I think its wrong because you can see that the society is invading their minds with wrong ideas.

*It’s  wrong because we are all the same.

* I think those are wrong ideas and the society should change that because we are the same.

*That is not cool at all but it’s the reality because parents are planting ideas of dicrimination in the children.

*It is wrong because children should be educated not to discriminate.

*It’s frustrating to see that even black children say that the black doll is the mean and bad one.

*Nowadays we have a discriminatory society and we are doing nothing to change it.

*I don’t like the idea of children  choosing the withe one if they are black.

*It’s a great experiment and we can notice the ideology the society seeds in children. (2 people).

 Would you be willing to spend two hours of your day to try to solve this situation?

1. Sorry, too bussy already.

2.Two hours is too much time.

3. To be honest, I wouldn’t.

4. Yes, sure.

5. It depends on what I have to do. (2 people).

6. It sounds good, maybe.

7. I have to think it over.

8. Absolutely.

9. My family is more important.

A review of racial discrimination in Mexico

First of all, we have to understand what racial discrimination is. To do that we will quote a definition from CONAPRED’s official web site, in which it explains that: 

Any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on motives of race, lineage, national or ethnical origin that aims at or is the result of the decrease of recognition, enjoyment or exercising under equal conditions of the human rights in the political, economical, social, cultural or any other sphere belonging to the public life is considered racial discrimination. (CONAPRED, 2011: 51)

As we were explaining in the introduction, this exclusion has been rather evident in Mexico due to all our past of colonialism and represion. Here we are going to show you some stadistics about what indiginous people consider the main problem they have to face nowadays:

This is just ridiculous, 20% of the indigenous population feels discriminated because of being  indigenous! And they consider that one of the main problems is their native language! Insane! All those indigenous languages are part of mexican culture and we the “Westerns” have made them feel that that’s a problem. The situtation here is that knowing a native dialect is a disadvantage in this country full of lots of people who speak one! They are not being part of the society, this is terrible and unacceptable. We cannot let our own culture and people die just because of indiference and ignorance. Not a lot of countries can presume being bearer of one of the most diverse cultures in the world and we undermine that. All this problem has led to all the problems we can see reflected in the survey: the lack of benefits from the goverment, the unemployment, the porverty, the violation of their rights, etc. All of these, are consequences of the miserable western system we have adopted. We haven’t been smart enough to establish a balance and incorporate all these people to the society because we don’t valorate our own culture. Even worse, if an indigenous people wants to migrate to the city and look for a job or something to feed his family, he will have to leave his traditions and manners which thing is terrible because this means losing part of his identity.

Once that we are talking about opportunities, we’ll show another graph in which indigenous people answered a question about if being part of an ethnic group gave some kind of disadvantage:

The results are not lying, we are not being fair. There is a huge crisis of fairness. justice, equality and dignity.

Bibliography

CONAPRED. (2011). National Survey on Discrimination in Mexico. February 1st, 2013, from CONAPRED’S Official Web Site. Web site: http://www.conapred.org.mx/userfiles/files/ENADIS-2010-Eng-OverallResults-NoAccss.pdf

Black Doll - White Doll

This is a very famous video about an experiment made in the United States of America in which they ask a group of children some questions related to being Black or White, and the 80% of them identified the white people as superior or better.

The problem of discrimination in Mexico: a brief introduction.

Before the Spanish people came to Mexico and conquered all the preponderant cultures that existed all over the national territory, the indigenous people had a quite organized political system which was based on tribute and religious freedom. When these Spanish people came, the way the did everything, I mean the Conquest and  imposition of all their ideas, started developing  in the minds of our people, the basic notions of what we know today as discrimination. This absurd idea has not been equally expanded which has caused a polarized society.

The main problem of being the conquered, has been that the general mexican society has adopted throughout its history the belief that all of that that is not native or properly said mexican is better.

We are aware of this problem, that's why we've decided to take part of it and make some efforts to try to revert it. This is a situation that didn't begin overnight but it's been the result of a long process of domestication and it's us and no others the ones that can stop it.

We belong to a campaign to abolish discrimination in Mexico because of ethnic or race motives.

Here we go, you'll find some statistics and interesting data, hope you enjoy it.