The Right to Difference: Explaining Colombia’s Shift from Color Blindness to the Law of Black Communities

Abstract

Drawing on archival analysis and in-depth interviews, this article examines Colombia’s adoption of policies for black Colombians in 1993. It argues that Afro-Colombian activists were able to seize upon changes in global policy norms around multiculturalism and state disequilibrium both by deploying traditional social movement strategies and by framing their demands in terms of ethnic difference. This case extends our understanding of how social movements make strategic use of political openings and also illustrates the circumstances under which an ethnic difference framing can be a more effective political strategy for achieving rights for black populations than a racial equality framing.

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