Afro Americans in the Americas
Encyclopedia
Afro-American peoples of the Americas is used to refer to people born in the Americas
who have African ancestors. Most are descendants of people enslaved and transferred from the Sub-Saharan Africa
(the vast majority of the Gulf of Guinea
) to America by the Europeans to work in their colonies, mostly in mines and plantations as slaves, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. At present, they constitute about 18% of the population of the American continent with the largest concentrations by percentage of population are in Haiti
(95%), Jamaica
(91.2%), Barbados
(90%), Turks and Caicos
(90%), Dominica
(86.8%), The Bahamas
(85%), Saint Lucia
(82.5%), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
(66%), Trinidad and Tobago
(58%), Bermuda
(54.8%), Brazil
(50.7%), Venezuela
(40%), Cuba
(33.92%), Belize
(30%), Colombia
(25%), United States
(12.6%), Puerto Rico
(12.4%), Dominican Republic
(11%), Uruguay
(6%).
achieved independence, came the independence of Haiti
, a country populated almost entirely by Afro Americans, the second American colony to win its independence. After the process of independence, many countries have encouraged American immigration from Europe, thus reducing the proportion of black
and mulatto
population throughout the country: Brazil
, United States
, Dominican Republic
, etc.. In the Casta
system, imposed by the Spanish Empire
in their American colonies, the son of black and European
was called a mulatto
, and the son of black and Amerindian was called zambo
, among many other denominations for further mixes.
and the Caribbean
, Afro Americans have lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, more frequent and more widespread diseases, higher rates of illiteracy and lower income than Americans of different ethnic origin. Even in countries like Brazil, with 6.9% of phenotypically Black population and 43.8% of phenotypically 'Brown'
(Pardo category includes all mulattoes, zambos and the result of their intermixing with other groups, but it is independent of African descent, with most White Brazilians having at least one recent African ancestor and Pardos would being either Mestizos or westernized Amerindians; colourism in Brazil is not completely drawed on degree of African descent), poverty tend it. Women, also be the subject of gender discrimination, suffer worse living conditions.
With regard to disease, Afro Americans suffer more pathologies own impact in the western world such as is chemical heart disease or cancer
, especially prostate cancer
, their conveners of the same race, but living in Africa and even the white Americans. It is unknown the cause of this phenomenon, but is believed to be due to changes in Western lifestyle negatively affecting most other "races". Similar phenomenon occurs with the eastern (Chinese
and Japanese
) and Asian Americans with them.
On November 4, 2008, the first African-American president, Barack Obama
, won 52% of the vote, following positive results in states that had traditionally won by Republican presidents, such as Indiana
and Virginia
.
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
who have African ancestors. Most are descendants of people enslaved and transferred from the Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
(the vast majority of the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
) to America by the Europeans to work in their colonies, mostly in mines and plantations as slaves, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. At present, they constitute about 18% of the population of the American continent with the largest concentrations by percentage of population are in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
(95%), Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
(91.2%), Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
(90%), Turks and Caicos
Turks and Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union consisting of two groups of tropical islands in the Caribbean, the larger Caicos Islands and the smaller Turks Islands, known for tourism and as an offshore financial centre.The Turks and...
(90%), Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
(86.8%), The Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
(85%), Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...
(82.5%), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
(66%), Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
(58%), Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
(54.8%), Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(50.7%), Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
(40%), Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
(33.92%), Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
(30%), Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
(25%), United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(12.6%), Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
(12.4%), Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
(11%), Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
(6%).
Afro American History
After the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
achieved independence, came the independence of Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, a country populated almost entirely by Afro Americans, the second American colony to win its independence. After the process of independence, many countries have encouraged American immigration from Europe, thus reducing the proportion of black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
and mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
population throughout the country: Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, etc.. In the Casta
Casta
Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...
system, imposed by the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
in their American colonies, the son of black and European
European people
European people may refer to:*Ethnic groups in Europe*Demographics of Europe*people from Europe*people from the European Union*People outside of Europe of European descent** European African or White African**White American ***European American...
was called a mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
, and the son of black and Amerindian was called zambo
Zambo
Zambo or Cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry...
, among many other denominations for further mixes.
The Afro American population today
From 21 to November 25 of 1995 held the Continental Congress of Black Peoples of the Americas. Afro Americans still face discrimination in most parts of the continent. According to David DE Ferrari, vice president of the World Bank for the Region of Latin AmericaLatin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Afro Americans have lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, more frequent and more widespread diseases, higher rates of illiteracy and lower income than Americans of different ethnic origin. Even in countries like Brazil, with 6.9% of phenotypically Black population and 43.8% of phenotypically 'Brown'
Pardo
In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...
(Pardo category includes all mulattoes, zambos and the result of their intermixing with other groups, but it is independent of African descent, with most White Brazilians having at least one recent African ancestor and Pardos would being either Mestizos or westernized Amerindians; colourism in Brazil is not completely drawed on degree of African descent), poverty tend it. Women, also be the subject of gender discrimination, suffer worse living conditions.
With regard to disease, Afro Americans suffer more pathologies own impact in the western world such as is chemical heart disease or cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, especially prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
, their conveners of the same race, but living in Africa and even the white Americans. It is unknown the cause of this phenomenon, but is believed to be due to changes in Western lifestyle negatively affecting most other "races". Similar phenomenon occurs with the eastern (Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
and Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
) and Asian Americans with them.
On November 4, 2008, the first African-American president, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, won 52% of the vote, following positive results in states that had traditionally won by Republican presidents, such as Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Related Bibliography
- Ethnic domination and racist discourse in Spain and Latin America.Dijk, Teun A. van. van. Gedisa Editorial SA ISBN 84-7432-997-3
- Gender, class and race in Latin America: some contributions.Luna, Lola G. Ed PPU, SA ISBN 84-7665-959-8
- Gender, race and class "color" desensientes Latinas. Impoexports, Colombia, Yumbo