War on Blackness the War,

War on Blackness

The war, as almost all wars are, was premised on economic reasons. For over a century, between1800 to beyond the 1900s, as the U.S.A. And Western countries entered the industrialized era and demanded more products from Latin America, the price of these products, correspondingly, swelled and the value of these exports almost quintupled from $344 billion in 1870 to $1.6 billion in 1912. This state of affairs was beneficial for the Mexican nation since it introduced a period of stability and contentment to the country. Politically, too, stronger measures were taken to impose central authority and to quell anarchic segments. The workers and the country were content.

Unfortunately, this closer union between the U.S.A. And western countries also had its negative ramification since the U.S.A., at this time, was experiencing sharp internal racist discrimination. The Jim Crow lines were in full swing in the South and to be White and American was the order of the day.

Some of these issues and ways of thinking began to rub off on the Mexican individual.

These racists ideas then, imported from countries such as America, are what the war of blackness is all about.

The War on Blackness

In the 19th century, Mexico was experiencing a period of unremitting prosperity and growth. Part of this development and political quietude was connected to their friendly and prosperous trading with America and Western nations. Unfortunately, Mexico picked up the virus of racist discrimination that was existent in the U.S.A. Of those times, particularly towards Blacks. "In order to become civilized," it was said, "Latin America would have to become White"(118). In response, Latin America attempted to transform themselves from a racially mixed society to one that would be primarily Caucasian representing and disseminating the Westernized manners and cultural milieu.

Revolutions included tearing down slums of the poor and displacing countless poor in order to remodel huge parts of Cuba and Mexico and refashion them into the Western style of architecture.

The government too tried to influence the cultural fashion such as music and dance as well as other folklore and ethnic entertainment, but there they were less successful and only instigated reaction.

Popular music and dance insisted in remaining African based and Bazillion and Cuban ethnicities similarly opposed any attempt to change their African-based culture to that of the alleged European elite.

The government suppression of 'black primitiveness' also extended to religion where they tried to suppress any religious emotion that sourced from African roots. The municipality, for instance, tried time and again to upend or regulate Carnaval, the annual festival "of the flesh'; that precedes lent and that had deep African roots. The city's Chief of police, on another occasion, stated that "None has the right to discredit the setting in which they live by reviving African customs" (124).

The Black middle class were complicit in this War on Blackness since they were seeking to escape their slave past and become accepted into White society,. They only way they could do so, they felt, was by assimilation. In this way, they joined forces by mocking and attempting to eradicate all African-sourced customs. The Afro-Uruguay newspaper, la Conservacion, for instance, railed against African religion and celled for abolishment of all African-based customs. Many of these rich Black middle class became the powerful politicians and political leaders of the Mexico of that age shaping the politics and views of the country.

Echoing the spirit of the time, one poet remarked that:

They take no notice of whiteness, those who are white and fine,

Whilst he whose blood is impure,

Seeking whiteness, goes out of his mind" (184).

Workers and the 'so-called lower class, meanwhile, remained untouched by the atmosphere of prejudice and racist oppression, bridging connections across the races and continuing to work together in peace, as they did throughtou the centuries. The War on color impacted them but swept over them, since they refused to tag either themselves or others aaccording to color or race. They persisted in working together, socializing with one anotehr, and establishing unions to protect their rights.