Perceptions of Racism in Puerto Rico

154 CENTRO JOURNAL volume xxix • number iii • fall 2017 Racismo en Puerto Rico: Surveying Perceptions of Racism HILDA LLORÉNS, CARLOS G. GARCÍA-QUIJANO AND ISAR P. GODREAU ABSTRACT This study engaged the relatively new method of on-line survey methodology to address a few key questions about perceptions of racism in Puerto Rico. The questions addressed whether Puerto Ricans perceive anti-black racism to exist; whether they have experienced it personally, or observed racist behaviors and practices; and in what realms of social life they perceive racism to exist. The article correlates these findings with the way respondents described themselves racially. Thus, this article reports on three distinct areas: (1) the use of on-line survey methodology to address questions of race and racism; (2) quantitative response patterns about racism in PR and among Puerto Ricans and their relationship to how people selfdescribed racially; and (3) to how, when, and where racism is manifested according to respondents. [Key words: Puerto Rico, racism, race, skin color, on-line surveys] Hilda Lloréns (hilda_llorens@uri.edu) is the author of Imaging the Great Puerto Rican Family: Framing Nation, Race and Gender during the American Century (Lexington Books, 2014), and co-author of Arrancando mitos de raíz: guía para una enseñanza antirracista de la herencia africana en Puerto Rico (Editora Educación Emergente, 2014). Her research centers on race, racisms, and gender in the Caribbean and among Latinas/os in the U.S., and she teaches anthropology at the University of Rhode Island. Carlos G. García-Quijano (cgarciaquijano@uri.edu) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Marine Afairs at the University of Rhode Island. His research and scholarly interests include Ecological Anthropology, Cognitive Anthropology, and the use of mixed ethnographic methods to understand complex sociocultural categories and their efects on people’s lives. Isar P. Godreau Santiago (isar.godreau@upr.edu) works at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, where she directs various institutionwide level research initiatives and her own research projects. She is the author of Scripts of Blackness: Race, Cultural Nationalism and Colonialism in Puerto Rico (University of Illinois Press, 2015) and principal author of Arrancando mitos de raíz: guía para una enseñanza antirracista de la herencia africana en Puerto Rico (Editora Educación Emergente, 2014). Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau 155 This research study, which asks participants “Does racism exist in Puerto Rico?,” emerged as a result of observations made by the authors about the lack of quantitative evidence to support the many qualitative studies that have long documented racism, racist practices, and racial discrimination against black and/or dark skin individuals in Puerto Rico.1 Additionally, conversations with colleagues, cultural workers, and activists about the need to systematically document the effects and consequences of racism in Puerto Rico made apparent the need for gathering quantitative data about race and racism. Our goal was to engage the relatively new method of on-line survey methodology to address a few basic, yet important questions about perceptions of racism in Puerto Rico. We understand that perceptions of “race” and of racism are culturally and historically informed. To the extent that perceptions are normative, they are also shared among the individuals who comprise a given cultural group. In their everyday lives individuals tend to deploy perceptive categories without much thought. In other words, normative categories can be so naturalized within culture that individuals might use them completely outside of conscious awareness (Hoetink 1967; Mintz 2005). Yet even when the agreed upon racial categories are naturalized, it is worth noting that they nevertheless offer insight into “socially relevant distinctions” (Mintz 2005, 39). Each of the racial/color categories used by respondents in our survey point to specific perceptual distinctions and/or “scripts” about racial and social standing vis-à-vis other individuals and the society at large. Our operational definition of perceptions of racism comprises three dimensions: (1) whether Puerto Ricans perceive racism to exist; (2) whether they have experienced it personally, or have observed racist behaviors and practices; and (3) in what realms of social life they perceive racism to exist. We also wanted to find out if answers varied depending on how respondent’s identified racially and if we could detect significant differences in self-reported racism between those who identified as “black” and those who did not. Thus, this article reports on three distinct areas: (1) the use of on-line survey methodology to address questions of race and racism; (2) quantitative response patterns about racism in Puerto Rico and among Puerto Ricans and their relationship to how people self-described racially; and (3) to how, when, and where racism is manifested according to respondents. The ideology of racial democracy Status quo definitions of the contemporary Puerto Rican person, is that she is a mixture of three ancestral “races”: Indigenous, European (Spanish), and African (González 1980; Flores 1993; Dávila 1997; Guerra 1998; Duany 2002; and others). Historically, Puerto Rico’s government espouses the view that, as a result of this mixture, Puerto Rico is a “racial democracy” especially when compared to the U.S. (Blanco 1942). According to this view, mixture equals racial tolerance, and variation in appearance neither aids nor hinders a person’s position or possibilities in life in a significant 156 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 way. Consequently, the local government in Puerto Rico does not systematically collect data on race. In fact, it requested the US federal government to eliminate the race question from the census questionnaire from 1960 until 1990. The rationale was that Puerto Rico was as a “Great Family,” made up of various racial mixtures, whose racial tolerance made it distinct from the US. Accordingly, the issue of race was not considered to be a matter of public policy that needed to be documented or addressed (Godreau, Lloréns and Vargas-Ramos 2010). The official discourse, which can also be espoused by individuals, is that racial discrimination is a minor problem, confined to the actions of a few ill-mannered, hateful people or isolated interpersonal incidents that don’t amount to systemic consequences (Canabal et al. 2015). Yet there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. There is ample scholarship documenting racial discrimination in Puerto Rico against black persons in areas such as national ideologies, literature, cultural politics, census, and health outcomes, employment, the criminal justice system, education, housing patterns, the media, in art and popular culture, and in language usage, to name just a few (Seda Bonilla 1969; Zenón Cruz 1974; Costas et al. 1981; Santiago-Valles 1996; Torres 1998; Rivera Ortiz and Lind 2001; Hernández, 2002; Duany 2002; Vargas Ramos 2005; Rivero 2005; Gravlee et al. 2005a, 2005b; Borell et al. 2007; Loveman 2008; Godreau et al., 2008, 2013; Lloréns 2008, 2014; Franco Ortiz et al. 2009; Dinzey-Flores 2013; and others). Furthermore, studies have explored processes of racialization against black communities and their residents in Puerto Rico, emphasizing how their unique life experiences are silenced, cast as exotic or located at the margins of a national imaginary that privileges whitening (Hernández Hiraldo 2006; Géliga Vargas 2007; Lloréns 2014; Godreau 2015). However, the majority of these studies are either qualitative or based on small population samples, lacking statistically sound demographic data to support their findings. Since most of these works are based on qualitative data and analysis, evidence against the myth of racial democracy has been difficult to document statistically or quantitatively. Problems associated with obtaining quantitative data on race and racism are further exacerbated by the fact that when such data are collected, the methods are not appropriate. Latinos, and especially Puerto Ricans, do not identify with the racial and ethnic categories used in most surveys and demographic studies in the US, which are the categories approved by the Office of Management of Budget (OMB) (e.g., White, Black, Native American, Asian). When faced with such categories, the tendency among Latinos and Puerto Ricans is to indicate their ethnicity as Hispanic, according to OMB protocol, and then to identify their race as “White” or as “Other” in the United States (US) Census and national surveys (Frank et al. 2010). The first tendency (choosing White) is best illustrated by the 2000 and 2010 census results for Puerto Rico, where an overwhelming majority, 80.5 percent of Puerto Ricans (in 2000), and 74 percent (in 2010), self-identified as “White” only in the census. This is a striking number considering that the self-identified white population in the US 2010 census was 75 percent. and most people would agree the U.S. population Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau 157 is whiter than the Puerto Rican population (U.S. Census 2010). Scholars explain that this tendency of Puerto Ricans choosing “white” is stimulated by people’s awareness of the privilege conferred to whiteness in general and to U.S. authority in the island (Rivera Batiz 1999; Duany 2005; Loveman 2008). Scholars explain that this tendency of Puerto Ricans choosing “white” is stimulated by people’s awareness of the privilege conferred to whiteness in general and to U.S. authority in the island. A second trend, common among Puerto Ricans and Latinos living in the U.S., is to choose “Other.” For example, nearly 42 percent of those who identified as being “Hispanic” in the Hispanic origin 2010 census question (question 5) reported that they were of “some other race” in the next race question (question 6). In fact, 97 percent of all those who selected “some other race” in the 2010 census were Latinos (U.S. Census 2010). Scholars explain this tendency is due to the fact that many Latinos consider themselves to be a blend of European, Native American and/or African descent and do not identify with the common conceptualization of race as Black, White or Native American, thus making the race question difficult to answer (Brown et al. 1998; Rodríguez 2000; Gómez 2000; Roth 2012). The impact of skin color and racial appearance This notion of mixture, however, does not mean that racial inequalities are inconsequential. Color differences among Latinos and Puerto Ricans shape life chances as measured by income, employment, residential segregation, and health status. For instance, Haney López (2005) found that in 2000 the unemployment rate for white Hispanics was to 8 percent in comparison to 12.3 percent for black Hispanics, a figure that exceeded the black unemployment rate of 11 percent. Studies of other disparities among minority groups also point to differences where light skin color correlates to privilege and dark skin to disadvantage (Glenn 2009; Espino and Franz 2002; Gómez 2000; Darity et al. 2005; Goldsmith et al. 2006; Bodenhorn 2006; Hersch 2006, 2008). In Puerto Rico, an overt bias in favor of whiteness and European esthetics as opposed to blackness has been well documented in both personal and institutional practices (Alegría Ortega 2007; Franco Ortiz 2009; Géliga Vargas 2007; Godreau et al. 2008; Lloréns 2013; Santiago Valles 1996; Rivero 2005; Zenón Cruz 1974, and others). Furthermore, race has been shown to have an impact on health outcomes, with black or darker-skinned Puerto Ricans exhibiting differential (worse) morbidity rates from light skin counterparts (Landale and Oropesa 2005; Gravlee et al. 2005; Borrell et al. 2007; Costas et al. 1981). However, with so many Puerto Ricans selecting “white” or “other,” in a society where race/color impacts their life chances so powerfully, new survey methods are 158 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 needed to track the effects of racism and color discrimination. More importantly, to the extent that there is an official discourse promoting an ideology of racial democracy, the development of such alternative methods will be slow to come by, presenting a serious obstacle for civil rights protections. Ascertaining whether people share this belief and whether they are aware of the prevalence of racism in Puerto Rican society is thus a first important step to tackle this challenge. Establishing whether people’s racial identification impacts their responses about racism is also important, since the effects of racism disproportionately affect those with visibly black features. By detecting such response patterns, we can also debunk the notion that all people are treated equally regardless of color or racial appearance. On-line Survey Methodology In order to test how widespread or popular the official egalitarian view of race in Puerto Rico is, we utilized an on-line survey methodology. The survey titled “Racismo en Puerto Rico/Racism in Puerto Rico,” a 10-item questionnaire (see appendix A) was conducted entirely on-line using SurveyMonkey. This service offered efficient and easy access to the site, to the construction and editing of the survey, and to the results at a cost-effective rate. It also provided the researchers with unique web links to both the Spanish and English surveys, and these could be emailed to potential respondents. Before turning to Facebook’s paid promotion feature, the researchers emailed the survey’s web links to personal networks and contacts but did not achieve much success in the number of completed surveys. To recruit survey respondents, the researchers created a Page on Facebook2 and named it Racismo en Puerto Rico/Racism in Puerto Rico (see Figure 1). Using SurveyMonkey’s web links, we were able to post these links directly onto the Racismo en Puerto Rico Facebook Page, thus giving visitors the opportunity to access the survey (see Figure 1). The survey opened on August 3, 2015, and closed on August 19, 2015. The promotion feature of Facebook offers a reach that is wide and far and is much more diverse than those offered by personal networks. We designed the paid promotion services to specifically target respondents in geographic locations with large populations of Puerto Rican people (e.g., Puerto Rico, New York, Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Texas, California, North Carolina, Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland), and whose interests included the category “Puerto Rico.”3 The decision to include Diasporic-Puerto Ricans in the sample was largely due to our interest in measuring racism among Puerto Ricans. Additionally, a survey on the relevant literature revealed that even when Latinos are aware of the U.S. white/black binary, they are more likely to resort to the “continuum” racial schema commonly used in Latin America to classify their own and others’ racial appearance (Rodríguez 2000; Gómez, 2000; Duany 2002; Roth 2012). Upon analysis, our data showed that the use of racial nomenclature did not vary widely between Puerto Ricans residing on the mainland and those residing in Puerto Rico (see results below). Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau 159 The decision to include Diasporic-Puerto Ricans in the sample was largely due to our interest in measuring racism among Puerto Ricans. Two versions of the survey were used, one in Spanish and the other in English, so as to reach Puerto Ricans both in the island and in the mainland (where for some of them English might be the language they felt most comfortable reading and writing). Using both SurveyMonkey and Facebook allowed the researchers to keep track of the trends in the data. For instance, we noticed that we received a higher volume of responses on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, with the lowest volume-taking place on Tuesdays. People tended to access the Page and to respond to surveys at night or in the early morning. Another interesting trend that emerged was that the Page received many more “Likes” (N=1,149) than total completed surveys (N=159). Poirier writes that from a marketing perspective, Facebook “Likes,” which are enacted with a simple click, “add to the viral nature of social networking” because “Every time someone ‘Likes’ your page… he exposes it to all his friends, who then have the opportunity to expose it to their friends” (n.d.). Thus the “Likes” button is a marketing tool that both validates the usefulness of a Page (i.e., cause, organization, product, etc.), and allows Facebook to “target” the page to the “Friends” list of each person who “Likes” the Page. In this way, the Page is targeted to established personal networks. Although people tended to fill out the survey at night or early morning, “Likes” appeared throughout the day. On average, it took survey respondents four minutes and fifty seconds to complete the survey. The number of “Likes” (N=1,149), as opposed to surveys completed (N=159), may also point to other trends, such as that people increasingly access Facebook from their mobile phone devices but do not own a computer where they could complete the survey. For instance, in an ethnographic work, conducted by Lloréns and Garcia-Quijano (2012) with Latina adolescents in New England, girls were asked, “How many a hours a week do you spend on-line?” The majority answered, “24 hours a day.” When asked how this is possible, the youth reported that this is because they accessed the Internet “on my phone.” Similar to findings about youth connectivity, we found that the majority of girls in our study reported not using their telephones for web surfing, but rather as a tool to access and participate on social media sites (Ritchel 2010; Anderson and Rainie 2012; among others). Furthermore, many of the girls reported not owning a computer at home. These Latinas girls relatedly reported that they only really need a computer station when they had school projects and in that case they use computer stations at school, at the houses of friends and/or relatives, or at the public library. Similarly, we have observed that older, working-class, and economically disadvantaged Puerto Ricans tend to use their phones to access Facebook because computers and Internet access are comparatively difficult to afford. This may explain in part the disproportionate higher number of likes rather than completed surveys. 160 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 Figure 1. Screen-shot: Facebook Page Racismo en Puerto Rico/Racism in Puerto Rico Research Study Figure 2. Screen-shot: Facebook Page Promotion for Racismo en Puerto Rico/ Racism in Puerto Rico Research Study Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau 161 Another factor may be a lack of knowledge about how Internet links work (the survey was displayed as a web link). Other factors include discomfort filling out surveys, not knowing how to do so, and/or not wanting to participate altogether because for many Puerto Ricans race and racism remains a sensitive topic. An important aspect of conducting on-line survey research is that the researcher(s) must maintain an active “presence” on-line. In other words, it is not as simple as posting the research links once and then waiting for the survey responses to accumulate. Rather, the researcher(s) must continuously post to the Page and send out “flyers” in order to generate interest and awareness about the research study. The Racism in Puerto Rico/Racismo en Puerto Rico Facebook Page offered visitors the opportunity to posts comments to the page. Nine people posted the following comments in Spanish: “This [racism] is not new.” “Yes, racism exists in Puerto Rico and even more in the United States. And it is Puertoricans against their own people. It has happened to me many times!!!” “We are all Puerto Rican that stupidity [sic] can’t exist.” “Racism exists everywhere in the world since the beginning of the world.” “Racism exists everywhere but nowadays people act like it is a pastime.” “Of course racism exists in Puerto Rico.” “It does not exist.” “I think Puertoricans only know how to be a loving people.” “It depends from which point of view it is seen because the Puerto Rican is of mixed race. We are not one race, we are mutts and in Puerto Rico we don’t call it racism we call it abuse of power… but yes, there is racism in Puerto Rico.” Pros and cons of on-line surveys On-line surveying offers a cost-effective medium with which to reach a large informant pool in diverse places. This method also allows researchers to conduct preliminary analyses on collected data while waiting for the desired number of responses to accumulate (Wright 2006; Ilieva et al. 2002). Researchers were able to spot trends in data early on (i.e., whether the Facebook promotion was reaching desired target population, as well as days/times informants were more likely to respond to the survey). Some of the cons include that respondents are “free” to interpret context and that by virtue of being on-line, the survey is targeted at those with access to a computer, as well as to people who tend to have higher literacy rates. As we have already mentioned, on-line surveys are limited to those who can access the Internet (i.e., our data show relatively high education of our informants), as well as to people who have higher literacy (which may also help to explain the higher number of “Likes” versus filled surveys discussed earlier). All in all, we consider our sample to be representative of Puerto Ricans with access to on-line social networks and with reasonably good command of computer applications. In our analysis of this online survey data, we sought to explore several issues related to our respondents’ perceptions of race and racism in Puerto Rico, including whether they consider racism to occur in Puerto Rico, their experiences with racism, when and where do they perceive racism to occur, their self-descriptions of skin color, as well as the relationships between these variables and socioeconomic/ 162 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 demographic characteristics of the respondents. Because the methods used to explore these issues and tests these relationships are quite varied, in this paper they are discussed in different sections of the study results. Results The total number of respondents on which these results are based is N=159; 83 (52.2 percent) were female and 76 (47.8 percent) male. The mean age of the respondents was 39.61 years old (ST. Dev. 15.16), with a minimum of 13 and maximum of 73 years old. Seventy respondents (44 percent) had completed university studies; 54 (34 percent), post-graduated studies; 15 (9.4 percent) had technical courses; 10 (11.3 percent) had completed high school; and 1 (.6 percent) had only completed middle school. Our sample was relatively highly educated, which is likely a factor in all on-line methodology. Thus this survey reflects the view of an educated segment of the Puerto Rican population.4 A similar pattern can be seen in the reported incomelevel of respondents: 43.4 percent (69) made $40,000 or more per year; 26.4 percent (32) made between $20,000 and $39,999; and the remaining 29.6 percent (47) made $19,999 or less.5 In terms of geographic representation, 50 (31.4 percent) of respondents reported residing in the San Juan, Puerto Rico, metropolitan area; 73 (45.9 percent) were from towns outside the Metropolitan Area; and 35 (22 percent) reported residing in the United States Mainland (Other, 1 (.6 percent)). As mentioned, the use of skin color nomenclature did not vary significantly between Puerto Ricans residing on the mainland and those residing in Puerto Rico. There was no significant difference between island and U.S. mainland residents in our sample in whether they used “black” or “white” (U.S. binary racial schema) versus intermediate skin color terms (i.e., continuum racial schema) to describe their skin color (phi= -.072; P=0.363). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in their reports of whether or not they had personally experienced racism (phi= -.025; p=.752). Table 1. Respondent Demographics Total number of respondents 159 Females 83 (51.9%) Males 76 (47.5%) Respondents who resided in San Juan Metropolitan area 50 (31.4%) Respondents who resided outside of Metropolitan Area 73 (45.6%) Respondents who resided in U.S. mainland 35 (21.9%) Respondents who resided elsewhere 1 (0.6%) 163 Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau Does racism exist in Puerto Rico? One hundred forty eight (148) respondents or 93.1 percent of the sample answered: “Yes, racism exists in Puerto Rico,” and 11 respondents or 6.9 percent of the sample answered: “No, racism does not exist in Puerto Rico.” Ten (10) or 6.2 percent of respondents answered that they had not experienced racism personally and had not observed racism being directed at others. One hundred forty nine (149) or 93.8 percent of respondents reported that they had either experienced racism personally or had observed racism being directed at others. Sixty-one (61) or 38 percent of the sample said that they had experienced racism personally; while 98 people or 67 percent of the sample said that they had not experienced racism personally. One hundred twenty (120) people or 75.5 percent reported having observed racism being directed at others, and 39 or 24.5 percent said they had never observed racism being directed at others. Hence, based on these survey results, the official “racial democracy” belief is not widely supported by respondents. Furthermore, the acknowledgement of racism as a problem in Puerto Rico does not seem to depend on the respondent‘s personal experience with racism or with him or her witnessing instances of racism directed at others. Table 2. Results (N-159) Does racism exist in Puerto Rico? YES = 148 or 93.1 percent NO = 11 or 6.9 percent Have you experienced racism in general? (Personally or observed racism directed at others)? YES = 149 or 93.8 percent NO = 10 or 6.2 percent Have you personally experienced racism? YES = 61 or 38 percent NO = 98 or 67 percent Have you observed racism directed at others? YES = 120 or 75 percent NO = 39 or 24.5 percent Skin Color, Coding and Testing Hypotheses We explored the relationship between self-description of skin color (or emic racial categories) and respondents’ reported experiences of racism. Emic cultural categories of skin color refer to the folk categories shared within a group, whereas etic racial categories refer to external (or outside) categories not necessarily shared or agreed upon by the group. For instance, it is widely recognized that the U.S. Census imposes etic racial categories in Puerto Rico at the expense of the emic or internal categories used by individuals on the island (Vargas-Ramos 2005; Godreau, Lloréns, Vargas-Ramos 2010). In this study, respondents provided twenty-nine (29) different emic categories (or culturally shared and understood terms) to describe their skin 164 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 color. This multiplicity of racial/color ascriptions is a common phenomenon that has also been documented in other Latin American and Caribbean countries (See Table 5) (Santos et al. 2009; Alexander 1977; Harris 1970; Wright 1990).6 In order to use the actual “emic” (Pike 1954) terms used by respondents to describe their skin tone and avoid imposing other terms that might not reflect their cultural understanding of these categories, we decided to ask the respondents to describe their skin color in their own terms, and rely on coding for our analysis of results. We wanted to test whether there is a relationship between the respondents’ self description of skin color and their reports of having experienced racism. We chose to use emic categories over more official standard racial categories. Using racial categories as a variable is methodologically challenging for various reasons, including that skin color labels do not accurately describe just skin color but may be influenced by other phenotypic characteristics as well and that category distinctions can simultaneously be made along varying dimensions and levels such as the black versus white binary, or using a spectrum of intermediate color terms, both primary (e.g. brown), and secondary/metonymic (e.g. caramel). There can also be a high degree of overlap between color terms or a person’s self description of skin color can be at odds with how others would describe them. Further, different people can use different skin color terms to refer to the same person, and this can vary with environmental factors (such as recent sun exposure), social context, or intimacy among speakers (see Godreau 2008). Due to factors such as these the racial/skin color categories in the U.S. Census have been critiqued as highly inappropriate for Latino and Puerto Ricans populations specifically (Rodríguez 2000; Duany 2002; Vargas-Ramos 2005; Godreau, Lloréns and Vargas-Ramos 2010; Roth 2012). With these, we wanted to see whether their having experienced racism was related to being “dark-skin” vs. “light-skin”, or “black” vs. “white” (i.e., whether there was a difference between self-reporting being black or being a “dark skin” Puerto Rican in terms of reporting personal experiences of racism), and whether, in general, darker-skin respondents were more likely to have personally experienced racism in their lives. Our online-survey data methodology precluded us from relying on interviewers’ perception of respondents’ skin color, but allowed us to ask respondents about their self-perceptions of skin color. Although these challenges are not completely solved when using emic, culturally meaningful categories, relying on respondents’ selfdescriptions allowed us the opportunity to rely on triangulation of coding schemes and statistical comparisons to attempt to replicate the ways and dimensions in which skin-racial categories are enacted in Puerto Rican life. We used four (4) different coding schemes for the respondents’ descriptions of skin color, which are explained below. Then, we ran tests looking at respondents’ reports of having experienced Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau 165 racism personally, while grouping the respondents in several ways according to self-described skin color. With these, we wanted to see whether their having experienced racism was related to being “dark-skin” vs. “light-skin”, or “black” vs. “white” (i.e., whether there was a difference between self-reporting being black or being a “dark skin” Puerto Rican in terms of reporting personal experiences of racism), and whether, in general, darker-skin respondents were more likely to have personally experienced racism in their lives. In each case, after agreeing on skin color terms for the coding scheme, two authors coded skin color descriptions separately and then met to compare coding results and adjudicate any difference in coding results. This supported the reliability of our coding results. In the first scheme, we coded the responses depending on whether they used terms that we know are used in Puerto Rico to refer to “dark skinned” (e.g. black, trigueño, dark) vs. “light skinned” (e.g. white, light, crema/cream, etc.) and grouped respondents based on whether they reported their skin color to be dark or light skinned. Grouped in this way, we found that dark skinned Puerto Ricans were significantly more likely to report personal experiences of racism than light skinned Puerto Ricans (Phi 0.239, P-Value: 0.0026). Correspondingly, 50.7 percent of dark-skinned respondents reported having experienced racism compared to only 27.4 percent of people who self-reported as light-skinned. Also, 72.4 percent of “light-skinned” respondents did not report having personally experienced racism. Second, we tested whether people who self-described their skin color unequivocally as “black” (Negro) experienced significantly more racism than those who described their skin color using any other term than black. People who described themselves as black were significantly more likely to report having experienced racism personally (Phi 0.330, P-value 0.000032). Seventy-one percent (71 percent) of those who self-described to be black reported to have experienced racism personally; in contrast, the other 29 percent who self-described as black reported they had not personally experienced racism. Of those who did not self-described as black, 30.5 percent said that they had experienced racism; while 69.5 percent said they had not. Third, we compared whether people who self-described their skin color as unequivocally “white” experienced significantly less racism than those who described their skin color using any other term than white (Phi 0.178, P-Value: 0.025). Only 27.1 percent of the self-described white respondents reported having experienced racism. Of those who used terms other than white (including lightskinned terms such as claro/light, tan, crema/cream, etc.), 45 percent reported having experienced racism. Other respondent characteristics asked about in the survey did not have an effect on whether people experienced racism, and these included: age (T-test P-value: .659); income (T-test P-value .445); and, education (T-test P value .867). However, the results show that gender was significant at the 10 percent level: 44.6 percent of females say that they have experienced racism versus 31.6 percent of males (nominal by nominal Phi 0.134, P-value= 0.092). 166 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 Table 3. Reported experiences of racism N=159 Coding Scheme I II (light/dark) (black/not black) percent of darkerskinned group reported experiencing racism percent of lighterskinned group reported experiencing racism Phi nominal test P-value III (white/not white) 50.7 71.0 45.0 27.4 30.5 27.1 0.239 0.330 0.178 0.0026 .000032 .025 Finally, in order to test these differences using a non-binary, more gradual coding scheme, we coded the respondents self-descriptions of skin color using a four4-point ordinal scale from “White” to “Black,” computed as follows: (1) described their skin color as “White”; (2) used intermediate skin color descriptor that indicates relatively light-skin (e.g., “light,” “beige,” “light tan”); (3) used intermediate skin color descriptor that indicates relatively dark-skin (e.g. “brown,” “dark,” “cinnamon”); and (4) described skin color as “Black.”, Using the four-point scale, we ran Binomial Logistic Regression multivariate model tests of the effect of self-described skin color, as well as other independent variables such as Gender, Age, Education, and Income, on the likelihood that the respondent had reported experiencing racism personally. The results of these tests support that there was a significant positive relationship between reporting darker skin color and having experienced racism and are shown on Table 4. For each test, skin color was the only significant (at the p<.05 level) positive coefficient in the model with moderate to large effect sizes. Gender was also significant at the p<.10 level (P=0.07 to P=0.08) in all tests, with females being more likely to report personally experiencing racism, while the other variables were not statistically significant (see Table 4). Our cumulative results, using various skin-color coding strategies, clearly point to a positive relationship between darker self-reported skin color and reported experiences of racism. In summary, we found that, as expected in a society with racism related to skin color, in all, “dark-skinned” and “black” Puerto Ricans personally experienced significantly more racism than lighter-skinned respondents. Gender appears as a borderline significant category in the different analyses. This result points to the significance of the intersecting (i.e., race and gender) dimensions of identity, and in our opinion warrants further study. 167 Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau Table 4. Binomial Logistic Regression (BLR) model comparing the effect of five independent variables on whether they reported to have experienced racism personally. The independent variables were: ( a) respondents’ self-description of skin color, b) Gender, c) Education attained, d) Income, and d) Age. Selfdescriptions of “skin color” were coded in a four-point ordinal scale : (1) “White”; (2) Intermediate term denoting light-skinned color; (3) Intermediate term denoting dark-skinned color; (4) “Black.” Analysis performed in SPSS version 24. Respondent has personally experienced racism BLR Model 1 2 3 4 5 Variable Coefficients SKIN (4-point skin color scale) Gender 0.537** 0.537** 0.549** 0.561** 0.542** 0.635* 0.629* 0.627* 0.646* X Education Level -0.075 -0.085 -0.014 X X Income Level 0.06 0.055 X X X Age -0.002 X X X X 17.006** 17.02** 18.138** 14.656** Model Statistics Chi square 17.031** Cox/Nell R square 0.103 0.103 0.102 0.108 0.088 Nagelkerke R square 0.14 0.14 0.139 0.146 0.12 Df 5 4 3 2 1 percent correct 66.2 66.9 69 69.2 69.8 *=p<.10 **=p<.05 X=variable excluded in model In your opinion, where does racism occur most frequently? Now that we have established that there is a pattern of racism based on respondents’ self-reported skin color, we wanted to determine if people associated racism to specific social context or locations. Based on our knowledge of the ethnographic context and analysis of the relevant literature (Rivera Ortiz and Lind 2001; Hernández 2002; Rivero 2005; Godreau et al. 2008; 2013; Lloréns 2008; Franco Ortiz et al. 2009; Dinzey-Flores 2013), we derived a list of 19 social and physical contexts where racism might occur. The respondents reported that racism occurs, on average, of 8.5 of the 19 places we provided on the list (max. = 19, mean = 0, std. dev. = 6.1). 168 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 Table 6. Response to Q9-Where does racism occur? (locations listed in the survey) In employment 105 In the media 95 At school 94 In stores 93 In the street 88 In government offices 83 In the justice system 79 In dealing with the police 79 In the family 77 In the university 71 In the classroom 71 In restaurant 66 In the health care system 66 In hospitals 59 In places of entertainment 59 In cultural events 54 At the park 41 At the beach 39 In natural resources and/or the environment 34 We then asked respondents to rank the top five places (from the list we provided) where, in their opinion, racism occurs most frequently (Q10; See Table 7). School was ranked as the number one place where racism is believed to occur most frequently, with N=34 total answers in rank number one; moreover, it was ranked in the top five locations where racism is believed to occur (a total of N=77 times). Although employment only received N=17 mentions at rank number one, it received N=79 total answers in the top five locations where racism is believed to occur most often. Media (television, radio, newspapers and magazines) received N=16 total answers at rank number one, and a grand total of N=61 mentions (see Table 7). 169 Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau Table 5. Coding for skin color self-descriptors for binary comparisons. Coding Categories in Coding Schemes Emic descriptor used by informants In coding scheme I In coding scheme II White (blanco) light-skinned not black In coding scheme III White Black (negro) dark-skinned Black not white Trigueño dark-skinned not black not white Light (Claro) light-skinned not black not white Dark (Oscuro) dark-skinned not black not white Tan light-skinned not black not white Cream (Crema/cremita) light-skinned not black not white Bronzed (bronceado) light-skinned not black not white Bronzed and cream (bronceado con crema) light-skinned not black not white Coffee with milk (café con leche) light-skinned not black not white Moreno dark-skinned not black not white Mestizo light-skinned not black not white Golden (dorado) light-skinned not black not white Cinnamon (canela) dark-skinned not black not white Mediterranean (mediterraneo) light-skinned not black not white Olive white (blanco olive) light-skinned not black not white Brown (marron) dark-skinned not black not white Caramel (caramel) dark-skinned not black not white Mixed (mixto) dark-skinned not black not white Neither black or white (ni negro ni blanco) light-skinned not black not white Beige light-skinned not black not white African descendant dark-skinned not black not white Light skinned light-skinned not black not white Dark cinnamon (canela oscuro) dark-skinned not black not white Mulato dark-skinned not black not white Coffee (café) dark-skinned not black not white Yellow light-skinned not black not white White Boricua (blanco Boricua) light-skinned not black White White Latina (blanca latina) light-skinned not black White 170 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 Table 7. Q10-Reported frequency: top five locations/social spaces where racism occurs most often Places # of times ranked ranked ranked ranked ranked mentioned 1 2 3 4 5 in top 5 in school 34 14 11 11 7 77 at work 17 16 19 19 8 79 in the family 17 10 5 11 7 50 in the media 16 13 11 7 14 61 in government offices 10 8 11 9 7 45 in the justice system 9 15 12 4 5 45 in the street 8 11 13 6 16 54 in stores 7 11 8 10 15 51 in dealing with the police 6 11 8 9 5 39 in cultural events 3 1 1 4 5 14 in the health care system 3 2 4 3 4 16 in places of entertainment 2 4 6 8 4 24 in the classroom 1 1 4 3 0 9 at the beach 1 1 0 0 4 6 at the park 1 3 3 1 2 10 at restaurants 1 4 5 5 9 24 in the university in natural resources and/ or the environment in hospitals 0 3 4 4 2 13 0 2 0 2 0 4 0 2 4 6 7 19 This ranking exercise (Q10, Table 7) correlates to the findings to question 9 (see Table 6), which asked “Where does racism occur most often?” To that question informants answered, in order of importance that it occurs at work (N=105), in the media (N=95), and at school (N=94). Qualitative results (See Table 8) offer a similar correlation; informants wrote in their own words that racism occurs “everywhere” (N=30), at work (N=24), and at school (N=15), in the family (N=16), in the streets/in public (N=12), followed by the media (N=9). In terms of the relationship between the spatial dimension of racism and racial identification, we found that there was no significant relationship among the two. People know about racism and about the places where it occurs in roughly similar proportions whether they describe themselves as black or as non-black. There was Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau 171 also no significant correlation between self-described skin color and number of spaces in which racism is experienced. There is a moderate positive significant correlation (Kendall’s tau_b = .130, P = .032, N=158) between the respondent’s income and the number of spaces where they report racism to occur. This might be related to the fact that people with higher income have access to different social spaces and thus are able to observe racism in a variety of social locations. We wanted to test whether there was a relationship between self-described black skin color and answering “Yes, racism occurs” to each of the specific spaces listed. Out of the 19 social spaces, we only found significant positive correlations in four contexts (health system, media, natural resources use, and government offices). It is important to underscore that these four locations are public spaces, removed from close-in personal life such as within the family, among friends, and other options available in the survey. Qualitative Results Question number eight (Q8) asked participants to answer whether they had personally experienced racism or whether they had observed racism being directed at others. In question number nine (Q9), participants were asked to choose from a list of places where, in their opinion, racism occurs most often, and to that question they could also write-in other locations in a blank space labeled “Other” (see appendix A). When the qualitative (or write-in) portions of Q8 and Q9 were combined, they yielded a total of one hundred and twenty-three (N=123) “write-in” responses, in which respondents identified a total of thirty-four (N=34) places/locations where they believe racism occurs. Respondents would often provide multiple locations in their answers (see Table 8). The majority of respondents mentioned that racism exists everywhere, in everyday life, and/or in society at large. “It exists everywhere,” (en todos lados) was an oft-repeated statement. Work emerged as a significant “hot spot” for racism, and respondents wrote that “At work,” “In screening of job applications,” and “At job interviews.” School and family were mentioned repeatedly by informants who wrote that: “at school,” “at my private school they referred to blacks as ‘el prieto/la prieta’ and to male private parts as ‘morcillas’ (blood sausage), but people did not speak like this about the whites at school.” Similarly, respondents wrote: “I experience racism in my family,” or “in family situations.” Public spaces were also mentioned as a place where racism was experienced or observed: “I often hear racist comments in public spaces.” Both print and television media were mentioned as a source of racist stereotypes, bias, and prejudice, a respondent reported: “My greatest criticism goes to the media which perpetrates racist images and stereotypes that propagate racial discrimination.” The mall, the shopping center, and the store were also reported as racist places, and informants simply wrote “at the mall,” “at stores.” 172 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 One respondents wrote: “I have two daughters and they have skin that is darker than mine, their dad is Puerto Rican like me, but people often ask me if they are my daughters.” Racist language, speech, and jokes were mentioned. One informant wrote “Blackness is a joke for Puerto Ricans, blacks make them laugh (le damos pavera). It is as if the darker we are the funnier we are.” Some people mentioned “social circles” as a source of racism writing simply “among my social circles.” Others mentioned that they had experienced racism as part of life in a mixed-race couple. One respondent wrote: “I have two daughters and they have skin that is darker than mine, their dad is Puerto Rican like me, but people often ask me if they are my daughters.” And another commented, “My husband was black and I am white and everyone stared at us.” The entry detailing the experience of a self-reported white respondent who married a “mulatto” man at the Centro Judicial in San Juan is worth quoting at length: Particularly striking at government agencies such as Centro Judicial where I was married to my mulatto Dominican husband. The official form required that we identify our race. The only choices were White or Black. When I attempted to express my concern not only for the question but for the lack of choices (given we were signing the form under statement that we indicate above is truthful) the official on duty looked me in the eye and told me my mulatto husband was White. When I tried to insist that that was not true she looked at me again, more sternly and said “He is WHITE.” My husband never has nor would he ever describe himself or self-identify as white. Thus, as the above statement shows there is a powerful attachment to a social narrative in which individuals who can be “wiggled” out of blackness are discursively distanced from, and placed in, another (non-black) racial category. In the case of this particular informant, the State provided choices deemed inappropriate by the couple and when they spoke up, in effect “breaking” the “docile citizen” script, they were promptly put in their place when his racial label was chosen on his behalf. Another significant category that emerged (with five responses or more) was xenophobia; respondents wrote that: “Many Puerto Ricans do not like other Caribbean-islanders because they are black. Puerto Ricans will not hang out or even pass through black neighborhoods or where there are ‘too many Dominicans.’” Another respondent wrote that: “Some Puerto Ricans believe they are better than African-Americans and they say racist things about them.” Conclusion: Racism exists in Puerto Rico These findings make evident that people are aware of the existence of racism in Puerto Rico and among Puerto Ricans, and that it is an important social problem 173 Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau Table 8. Qualitative answers filled in by informants to Q8 and Q9 (includes respondentidentified locations other than the 19 offered in the quantitative portion of the survey). Place/Location # of times mentioned Everywhere/in everyday life/in society at large 30 At work 24 At school 15 Family 16 In the street/in public 12 Media (print & TV) 9 Mall, stores, shopping centers 8 In language use/speech 6 Socially/among social circles 8 As part of mixed-raced couples 6 Xenophobia 5 In Puerto Rico 4 In United States 4 Hospital/ Healthcare 4 Political parties/politics 3 Government (public) agencies/offices 2 Private agencies/offices 2 At church 2 In beauty standards 2 Opinions about black hair/skin 2 Among friends 2 Restaurants 1 Banks 1 Public transportation 1 Social networks (on-line) 1 Police 1 Beauty Salons 1 Perceptions of blacks as criminals 1 Elevators 1 White privilege as part and parcel of PR society 1 Classism rather than racism 1 Fraternities and private clubs 1 Construction work 1 Neighborhood 1 174 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 which the majority of respondents, whether black, white, or other, recognize. The ideology of racial democracy was not upheld by respondents of our survey, pointing to an evident disconnect between the official state-sponsored discourse and what respondents perceive to be the reality. The results of our various analyses with experiences of racism unanimously also show that, the darker the self-reported skin color, the more likely respondents were to report experiencing racism. This pattern is consistent with what would be expected in a society where racial ethnicity is not determined via a rule of hypodescent, but where racism nevertheless affects those with darker or most evident black phenotypes. In other words, defining racial/color categories along a continuum does not preclude people from experiencing racism. Specially concerning is that, time and time again, employment was mentioned among the top three most salient places where racism occurs. Hernández’s research about the utilization of Puerto Rico’s Law 100 of the Labor Code, enacted in 1959, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, social or national origin is revealing (2002, 1145-46). Hernández explains that after conducting an “electronic database search of reported cases involving Law 100 since its enactment,” she found “a paltry four cases alleging race or color discrimination” (2002, 1145-46). These findings led Hernández to conclude that the underuse of juridical tools to prosecute racial discrimination in employment results from Puerto Rico’s racial democracy ideology, from race being a tabooed subject, and because it would be counterintuitive for victims to identify with a denigrated social class (i.e., blacks) (2002, 1149–50). The repercussions of this for the overall well-being as well as the economic and career opportunities of black persons is significant given that in Puerto Rico racism has not been sufficiently correlated to poverty, unemployment, school drop-out rates, incarceration rates, and to the overall chances of leading a healthy, successful, and meaningful life. This indicates that racist practices in employment is a social issue in need of immediate social policies that both educate employers about racist practices and at the same time, that empower black individuals to identify the issue, to report it, and to combat it. Given that the juridical structure to prosecute racism in employment has long been in place, the problem remains a social one. In other words, policies have to be aimed at changing minds about the injustices of racism and racist practices in everyday life. This suggests that in Puerto Rico racism is both experienced externally, in the society at large, and internally, within the private sphere of the home. Schools were also identified as a common “hot spot” where racism occurs. These findings also support those from previous action-oriented research by Godreau and colleagues (2008; 2013) and Franco-Ortiz and associates (2009). That research project led to the production of a curricular guide aimed at teachers, social workers, school personnel and parents, and has been widely circulated in Puerto Rico. Said project has also led Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau 175 to a grass-roots campaign aimed at combating racism in schools and to some individual teachers revising the curricular material taught to students in their classrooms. Yet the government has yet to acknowledge the problem and/or implement any wide-ranging policies aiming to combat the racism experienced by black students in classrooms. The media also emerged as an important source of racist practices. Rivero’s (2005) qualitative study aptly documented racism in Puerto Rican television and in print magazines. Yet, to our knowledge, there has been little research done on the ways in which people perceive this to be the case or on the TV viewer’s awareness of the problem. Further research is also needed on the role of disc jockeys, important public figures in the Puerto Rican airwaves who can perpetuate racist language, jokes and ideas. Public places such as stores, malls, restaurants, parks and the street also emerged as important locations of racism. This was followed closely by government agencies, the judicial system and in dealings with the police. According to these respondents, the “public domain,” arguably constituted by all the locations outside of the home, is fraught with racism and racist practices. Finally, the family unit emerged as a focus of racism and racist behavior. This suggests that in Puerto Rico racism is both experienced externally, in the society at large, and internally, within the private sphere of the home. This internal-external assault on black- and/or dark-skinned individuals paints a grave picture in which individuals experience little to no respite from racism because it is ubiquitous. The problem of racism is certainly multi-faceted, and our findings only scratch the surface. More research, with larger, more diverse samples in terms of education, economic class and residential patterns is sorely needed in order to confirm our initial findings. Further ethnographic, as well as longitudinal, research can also document the progress of black individuals across the lifespan, in order to more fully understand the strategies this population uses to deflect the encompassing racism they experience throughout their lives. Our findings, nevertheless, represent a significant initial advance into quantitative research about perceptions of racism and racist practices and provide clues for areas of social intervention. Overall, our results question the official discourse of racial democracy and racial harmony that has hindered the systematic collection of demographic data about the effects of racial discrimination in Puerto Rico and the implementation of public measures to address it. They suggest that, rather than popular disbelief, it is the lack of an “official” acknowledgement by the government that racism in Puerto Rico is indeed a social problem—a problem that presents an obstacle for civil rights protections. Certainly, lack of official acknowledgment is not the only aggravating factor at work. However, an official statement and plan to confront the problem would buttress community based-efforts to combat racism already in-motion by individuals and grass-roots civic organizations. Such commitment and acknowledgement—as supported by this and future research—would help advance the anti-racism cause in Puerto Rico and give credence to the problem of racism as a real social ill rather than one that is made up and felt only by a few disgruntled members of society. 176 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 AC K N OW L E D G E M E N TS We’d like to thank survey respondents for their participation in the on-line research study Racism in Puerto Rico/Racismo en Puerto Rico. We’d also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for the helpful suggestions. We are also grateful to Dr. John Poggie who read an early draft and offered useful suggestions. Any errors contained herein are the sole responsibility of the authors. N OT E S Our study refers to “dark skin individuals” or “black individuals” in Puerto Rico because we mean to be inclusive of the distinct populations such as Afro-Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Haitians, other Caribbean islanders, Africans, African-Americans, among others, who reside or visit Puerto Rico. 2 Because Facebook Pages are unique to businesses, causes, or organizations, rather than associated with a person’s profile, we felt this was the appropriate option for advertising study. Facebook Pages have “followers” or “fans,” rather than “friends.” 3 Researchers were able to specify geographic locations and categories of interests in the promotion site. The total cost of “Page” promotion services was $100.67. 4 Our on-line sample leaves out blue-collar and marginal populations. In efforts to reach a larger, even more representative sample, the researchers plan to conduct the same survey in the near future in person and on the ground in Puerto Rico at various locations throughout the island. 5 It is important to note that salary scales may vary drastically between Puerto Rico and the mainland and within particular states. 6 In his “Major Folk Racial Terms Used in Puerto Rico” (2002, 238), Duany offers 19 racial/ color categories of ascriptions; in this study, our informants offered 29 categories. When we put the categories from this study side by side with Duany’s, we found that our respondents only coincided with the “Major Folk Racial Terms” in their use of (1) Blanco(a); (2) Trigueño(a); (3) Moreno(a); (4) Mulato(a); (5) Café con Leche; (6) Canela; and (7) Negro. It is worth noting that Duany’s taxonomy combines perceptual categories that individuals tend to use to both “selfdescribe” (i.e., blanco, negro, mulato) and to describe others (i.e. jincho, cano, prieto, grifo). Some of the categories used to describe others such as grifo (which is largely out of use), jincho, and prieto, for example, are often used in derogatory ways to describe an individual and are thus unlikely to be used to self-describe skin color. This also exemplifies the ways in which “perceptual ascriptions” of racial/color categories possess important information about “relevant social distinctions.” In other words, when a person describes another as “jincho” or “grifo,” for instance, they also signal their own biases, antipathy, anger, or even humor, while at the same time “placing” the individual in a specific social location vis-à-vis their race/color. 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If you are interested in the results of this survey, please send an email to its author and principal investigator with the subject line "results" to hilda_llorens@uri.edu and we will gladly send you a summary of results when they become available. **Please cite the summary of results appropriately in subsequent publications. * 1. Where do you live? 1. In Puerto Rico, please name your town. 2. In the United States mainland, please name your city or state. 3. If elsewhere, please name the place. * 2. How old are you? 3. What is your gender/sex? 1 182 CENTRO JOURNAL • VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER III • 2017 APPENDIX A 4. What is your level of education? Primary School Middle School High School Diploma Technical Course University Courses Associate's Degree Bachelor's Degree Postgraduate Education None Other (please specify): 5. What is your approximate income? Less than $5,000 Between $5,000 y $9,999 Between $10,000 y $19,999 Between $20,000 y $29,999 Between $30,000 y $39,999 $40,000 or more Other (please specify): * 6. Please name/describe your skin color. 7. Does racism exist in Puerto Rico? Yes No 2 183 Racismo en Puerto Rico • Hilda Lloréns, Carlos García-Quijano and Isar Godreau APPENDIX A 8. If you answered YES, please answer the following: I have personally experienced racism I have observed racism being directed at others Where have you observed or experienced racism? 9. Please check the boxes below to indicate the places in which in your opinion racism occurs in Puerto Rico: In school In the health care system In the street In the university In dealing with the police In the classroom In the media (radio, television, newspapers, magazines) In natural resources and/or the environment In the family At the beach In the hospital At the park In government offices At work In the stores when shopping In cultural events In the justice system In places of entertainment At restaurants Other (please list). 10. Using the list from question #9, indicate the five (5) places from that list where racism occurs with greater frequency. Please list in order of importance (#1=most significant place in which racism occurs): #1: #2: #3: #4: #5: 3