Cultural Aspects of Puerto Rico's Race Problem

Abstract

T Ii E 400-year record of race relations in Puerto Rico does not show the interracial violence often evident in other cultures. Puerto Ricans themselves frequently state, have no race prejudice here. For some, this assertion has become a protective device; it is intended to divert attention from what many believe causes race prejudice: the Negro blood they or fellow Puerto Ricans may possess. Others equate race violence with race prejudice; finding the first absent, they may claim the second absent also. We have shown elsewhere, however, that race prejudice in Puerto Rico is widespread.' In the present report, we will consider this prejudice as conditioned by the specific Puerto Rican cultural heritage. We will also examine new and external factors which have contributed to, and altered, Puerto Rico's prejudice pattern. Although relatively few Americans2 are familiar with either Puerto Rico or its race problems, the Puerto Rican has ample knowledge of race discrimination in the United States. Many Americans who come to Puerto Rico demonstrate behavior towards the islander which he correctly identifies as prejudical. Puerto Ricans who live in or have visited the U.S. often experience race discrimination directly. They also experience it in other U.S. possessions in the Caribbean to which many have emigrated in recent times.3 A. A. Campbell states in his study of St. Thomas (one of the U.S. Virgin Islands):

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