Composition: History & Theory: 1990 - 1999
Villanueva, Victor. “On the Rhetoric and Precedents of Racism.” (1996)
Description
Villanueva’s “On the Rhetoric and Precedents of Racism” discusses race in academia and its connection to the colonial mindset still resonating in the United States. To demonstrate the connection between colonialism and racism, Villanueva begins his discussion by recounting separate Incan and Aztecan rhetorical responses to colonialism. In “Algunas Ideas” Villanueva suggests that our insecurities in writing and/or reading about race emerge from our misunderstanding of the term ethnicity, which was originally of Darwinian origination and connected to the ideologies of class and colonialism; it was not until its revival in the 1960s that ethnicity became associated with race (833), which lends itself to multiculturalism. Villanueva argues that despite the presence of apparent multiculturalism in schools, low numbers of minorities in our universities and journals reinforce racism (835) and that the best correction for this problem is for people of color to “write about what matters to those students of color” (836). In the section entitled “Cuentos,” (translating to stories) Villanueva notes several instances of racism in universities and mainstream culture. Later in “On Breaking Precedents” Villanueva demonstrates the colonial nature of the United States by citing Lars Schoultz, who compares general assumptions about Latin America (specifically Peru) to those of France; Villanueva suggests that because of the American notion of colonialism, general assumptions of France are typically more positive than those of Peru, thus initiating racism. He concludes by challenging Americans to study the scholars and scholarship of the Western Hemisphere without ignoring “the concepts that come from ex-colonies of Europe” (844).
Author
Samantha Mudd
Date of Upload
11/03/09