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Myth: Most of the New World's slaves came to the U.S. |
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Most Americans believe slavery was a burden of shame borne almost exclusively by the United States. Ironically, only one in twenty Africans brought to the New World in chains arrived in North America. Few North Americans realize that 95% of all Africans pressed into bondage in the Western Hemisphere arrived in the Caribbean and South America. |
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| Even today, while African-Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population, in Latin America people of African descent comprise 18% of the populace. Still, the image most mainstream Americans conjure of a Hispanic is seldom someone of African descent in spite of celebrities like the late Afro-Cuban singing legend Celia Cruz pictured here. Although underrepresented in the United States, the nation’s 1.7 million Afro-Latinos account for just over 4% of the nation’s roughly 40 million Hispanics. |  |
The overwhelming majority of Black people in this hemisphere speak Spanish or Portuguese rather than English. |
| Afro-Latinos and African-Americans: both are victims of prejudice |
| Prejudice toward Afro-Latinos has come from all quarters. The mainstream media finds their existence inconvenient. Black Latinos complicate the casting for marketing campaigns and programming directed at Hispanics. Perhaps even more distressing, Afro-Latinos are conspicuously absent from most Spanish-language TV programming in the U.S. |
| "In essence, white Latinos discriminate against black Latinos just like [white Americans] may do here," says Harry C. Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. In order to effect change, Alford believes, "The 40 million blacks in this country need to start communicating better with the 135 million blacks in the Caribbean and South America. |
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