Expressions of racism in a sample of university students in Mexico

Abstract

Our purpose is to explore the terms that students from three intercultural universities use to refer to indigenous peoples, as a sign of racist expressions. We analyze how racism adopts new expressions in modern times, as reflected in both subtle and simulated discriminatory practices. Empirical research conducted in Spain and different Latin American countries was reviewed that revealed different forms in which racism materializes. In addition, this work documents the presence of racism in Mexico as a product of miscegenation and how the historical and cultural legacy of native peoples has been ignored due to integration policies. A word association instrument was developed for carryingout empirical research. This instrument was applied to 168 students using thesemantic networks technique, under which three analytical categories wereconstructed for purposes of interpretation: acceptance, stigmatization and denunciation.Results showed that the term indigenous conveys high levels of acceptance and that young people used different terms to express pride for their cultural wealth and inherited millennial traditions. Nonetheless, other expressions of non-acceptance and rejection, with negative connotations, also appeared that, although not representative, must be pointed out as evidence of the persistence of racist expressions among university students.