Afro-Descendants in Colombia: Anti-Racist Struggles and the Accomplishments and Limits of Multiculturalism

The CLACS Working Group on Racisms in Comparative Perspective presents, Afro-Descendants in Colombia: Anti-Racist Struggles and the Accomplishments and Limits of Multiculturalism, with Carlos Rosero, Eliana Rosero, Harrison Cuero, Charlie R. Hale , Amanda Hurtado. Moderated by Pamela Calla (CLACS-NYU).

This event will be held in Spanish, Translation to English will be available.

Sponsored by the Anti-Racist Research and Action Network in the Americas (RAIAR), Working Group on Racisms in Comparative Perspective (CLACS-NYU), Feminist Constellations (CLACS – NYU), Universidad De Los Andes, Colombia and the Observatorio De La Discriminación Racial En Colombia.

Event Description:

“Based on the chapter by the same title in the 2020 Book, Black and Indigenous Resistance in the Americas: From Multiculturalism to Racist Backlash (Lexington Books), some of the authors will gather to share insights on Anti-Racist struggles in Colombia, centering Afro-descendant experiences. Structural racism in Colombia has continued within the context of multiculturalism. Despite the recognition of rights through a 2011 anti-discrimination law (Law 1482), material conditions for Afro-descendants in Colombia and lived experience speak to continuing discrimination and racial inequality. Through experience as activists and researchers in the Atrato and North of Cauca regions, the panelists will engage in dialog around how political proposals from the margins, consistent with cultural and social needs, and against the dominant economic model, can shape anti-racist struggle.

The dialogue series is also an offering to the memory of Leith Mullings y Andres Calla, academic activists that made this book possible.

Participants:

Carlos Rosero, is one of the founding members of the Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN, or Black Communities Process) and a leading protagonist in the struggle for collective appropriation of traditional territories of the Pacific coastal rainforest by Afro-Colombian communities. The PCN has focused on the recognition of the cultural, ethnic and collective territorial rights of Afro-Colombians and seeks to challenge western modernization and development efforts in the vast rainforest region of the Colombian Pacific coast.

Eliana Rosero, holds a JD and PhD in law. She is currently a professor at the Universidad San Buenaventura de Cali. She was one of the co-funders of the Observatorio de Discriminación Racial de Colombia (ODR), which was a partnership between the Universidad de los Andes, Dejusticia, and the Proceso de Comunidades Negra (PCN).

Amanda Hurtado, Anthropologist from the Universidad del Cauca and Magister in Sociology from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences – FLACSO, Ecuador. Author of the book (in edition): Black anti-colonial republicanism: insurgent historical narratives on racial politics, land and citizenship of the black / Afro-descendant people in Colombia. She is currently Director of the Racial Discrimination Observatory of the Universidad de los Andes, De-Justicia and PCN. Researcher for the Ethnic Peoples Directorate of the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth of Colombia.

Harrinson Cuero, Activist of the Afro-Colombian black people, ecologist, specialist in environmental law, master’s degree in territorial planning and environmental management from the University of Barcelona and candidate for a doctorate in sustainability. Member of the Process of Black Communities in Colombia – PCN. International consultant on human rights, ethnic rights and protection mechanisms and self-protection and political advocacy. Consultant for local organizations, State entities and international organizations in regional planning with an ethnic territorial approach and human rights.

Charlie R. Hale, SAGE Sara Miller McCune Dean of Social Sciences as well as a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Global Studies. He is a leading social science scholar whose research bridges multiple disciplines, with a focus on race and ethnicity, racism, social movements and identity politics among Black and indigenous peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean.