Essentialist discourse about race in Colombia and social implications

Abstract

Psychological essentialism is a lay theory about the communalities between members of the same social category which understands surface characteristics of members as an expression of their underlying nature. It can be seen as a rhetorical tool of ideological nature that can be used in different ways in different contexts thanks to its wide domain. The aim of this study was to examine the use of essentialist arguments in the discourse about Black people in Colombia. The identification of latent contents embedded in the social categorization process of Afrocolombian people was performed through a content-analysis suggesting that indeed, an essentialist approach to racial/ ethnic groups may prove to have important implications for intergroup relationships. Findings are discussed on the basis of available literature in this topic.