“Part of what angered elites so much when Chavez came to power was that he was a person who didn’t look like he was ‘fit’ to govern,” said George Ciccariello-Maher, an assistant professor of political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, is the author of We Created Chávez: A Peoples History of the Venezuelan Revolution Opponents frequently referred to Chavez as ese mono, or, “that monkey,” and political cartoons played up his dark features—the most overtly racist portrayed him as an ape. But Acosta-Alzuru says it was Chavez who brought racism to the table.... Ciccariello-Maher strongly disagrees. “That’s premised on the idea that there wasn’t a problem, he said. There was. It just wasn’t being dealt with. It wasn’t being discussed. It was being concealed.” “And so bringing it to light—once again, it was not Chavez opportunistically playing the race card; it was a movement demanding that race be taken seriously, and finally, belatedly, Chavez embracing that,” he said.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 21:06:43 +0000
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