Freedom as a Process

For this week’s lecture video and readings, a great emphasis is placed on a subjective and fairly contentious topic-that of citizenship and rights. As we have been exploring the nature of Latin America, both as a geographical set of nations and as an abstract idea, we have looked into its conception and maturation, as it has happened over the centuries. In exploring what the historical Latin American experience has been, as a means of acquiring a greater understanding of the modern-day Latin American experience, we have been able to take note of how colonization, independence, and the process of nation-making have generated cumulative effects now present in many Latin American nations.

In this week’s lecture video, it is mentioned that racial inequality continues until this very day. Although we do not see it in a form identical to that of the horrendous past, much of the racial violence and oppression that many early African slaves and indigenous people of Latin American encountered remains, through the existence of consequences on contemporary Latin American societies. There are still stereotypes, still stigmas, that exist, and this is not only true for Latin America but for North America as well. For example, the idea of the “one-drop rule” as mentioned in this week’s video, exists as further evidence of modern-day consequences for historical instances of racial inequality. All in all, this consideration sheds some light on the question of how a history of slavery shapes modern-day North and South America.

Much like independence, emancipation (that is, freedom from being considered a human slave) was more of an extended process, rather than a single-day event. As it was made clear for this week’s learning, the abolition of slavery did not occur for all nations at the same time, nor was it a system that was quit cold-turkey. There were gaps in the span of years, between nations abolishing slavery, and it is even noted that there were still instances in which slavers gained slaves through underground, illegal means after the abolition of the system itself.

This brings me to a question that I have yet to find a solid answer to. It was one expressed in the lecture video for this week, and it is one I continue to struggle with, as I find I am unable to find a satisfactory answer to it myself. It is the question related to the success of freedom movements of the racially oppressed, specifically, how much of this success do we ascribe to the efforts of privileged allies, and how much of it do we ascribe to that of the personally invested?