Racism in Puerto Rico

Before the first major influx of West Africans into Puerto Rico in the 16th century, Spanish colonizers forced the Taíno natives "into slavery, exploiting their labor in the gold mines and on plantations."[1] After nearly a century of exploitation, enslavement, murder, and decline of the Taíno people, Spanish colonizers looked to a new source of slave labor. In 1598 they signed their first contract to bring a large number of West Africans to Puerto Rico.[3] Gold mines, ginger plantations and sugar plantations heavily relied on the slave work from the Taíno and West Africans. Since the majority of the European and African colonizers and enslaved laborers arrived without women, intermarriage often occurred with the remaining Taíno women.[4] The offspring from these interracial relationships created a population of Mulattos and Mestizos.

When the gold mines were declared depleted in 1570 and mining came to an end in Puerto Rico, the vast majority of the white Spanish settlers left the island to seek their fortunes in the richer colonies, such as Mexico, and the island became a Spanish garrison. The majority of those who stayed behind were either black or mulatto. The next major wave of West African slaves into Puerto Rico came after The Royal Decree of Graces of 1789, which allowed Spanish subjects in the Caribbean to participate in the business of slave trade and labor, particular importing slaves from the Gold Coast.[4]

By the time Spain reestablished her commercial ties with Puerto Rico, the island had a large multiracial population. Those demographics, though, changed during the 19th century when the Spanish Crown issued the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 which also resulted in "whitening" Puerto Rico's population from its offering of land, agricultural, and labor incentives to non-Hispanic white Europeans. The new arrivals continued to intermarry with the native islanders.[5] "The Royal census of Puerto Rico in 1834 established that the island's population as 42,000 enslaved Africans, 25,000 colored freemen, 189,000 people who identified themselves as whites and 101,000 who were described as being of mixed ethnicity."[4] A number of slave uprisings in plantations took place between 1820 and 1868. Puerto Rico abolished slavery in 1873.

During colonization, racial hierarchy was determined by the amount of "white blood" an individual had. According to the hierarchy, "one drop of white blood meant you were white and better than your Black compatriot."[3] The upper classes were composed of white people and their descendants while the lower classes were composed of African slaves and their mulatto offspring.

The U.S. invasion in 1898 perpetuated the racial hierarchy and intensified anti Afro-Puerto Rican sentiment. The white upper class made deals with U.S. industrialists and supported U.S. policies in Puerto Rico at the expense of Afro-Puerto Rican civil rights.[3][6] Despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act of Puerto Rico in 1943,[7] a reporter writing in 1945 on race relations in Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands stated,[8]

...none but white people or the fairest-skinned among the colored are employed by banks, sugar corporations, airlines and shipping companies, and the large department stores.

Discrimination is common in all the better hotels and restaurants. A few years ago a well-known restaurant in San Juan, then under non-local management, refused to serve people of color. The issue was taken to the District Court, where a decision in favor of the management was given. The Supreme Court upheld the verdict, and the practice continued until the establishment passed into Puerto Rican hands. In the leading hotel in Puerto Rico the patronage is almost wholly composed of whites from the United States. Colored people are never seen in the dining room or at the bar unless they are foreigners traveling on government missions. The outstanding hotel in St. Thomas, government-owned, and leased on a contract which specifically prohibited racial discrimination, refused to admit colored people until recently, when it was turned over to a new manager who is colored. There is, however, another hotel which still refuses to serve colored people, on the plea that it is reserved for service men. Clubs in Puerto Rico are customarily classified as "first class" and "second class." Whites belong to both types of club, but Negroes belong only to "second class" ones.

Revolutionary leaders, including Pedro Albizu Campos, have fought to eliminate the racial discrimination heightened by U.S. imperialism and to place Afro-Puerto Ricans in political positions of power.

In 2019, José Pichy Torres Zamora, a Puerto Rican politician was taken to task for making a racist comment regarding the black people of Loíza.[9]

In June 2020, amid the worldwide protests against racism after the Killing of George Floyd, people of the Municipality of Loíza joined in[10] and Juan Dalmau Ramírez, a high-ranking member of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, put forth the need to educate Puerto Rico's children on human rights, and ending racism and xenophobia.[11] The University of Puerto Rico held an online forum on racism and discrimination.[12] During this time as well, a Black family in Canóvanas, filed a cease-and-desist complaint against an 82-year old woman neighbor for alleged Black racial slurs, playing loud music 24x7 directed at their new home, and harassing them with the posting of homemade drawings that included degrading comments about Black people. The woman received a citation from the police for playing loud music and was summoned to Court to answer to the other complaints.[13] People also protested in front of the governor's mansion in San Juan.[14]