THIS TOO IS GUYHAL

Argentina didn't have a slave trade, mainly because Argentina did not exist when slaves were brought into the territory. It was the colonizers from Spain that brought them in, and the number of slaves they brought with them doesn't even come close to the MILLIONS of people colonizers from Portugal brought in as slaves into what would go on to become Brazil. We are talking thousands versus literal millions.

Most importantly, shortly after the declaration of independence, slavery was abolished in 1853 — a full 12 years before this happened in the USA, and many decades before it even happened in Brazil. Before this, in 1813 it had already been declared that anyone born in Argentina was born free (Libertad de Vientres).

Argentina never had segregation. There were no laws stopping people with different skin color from marrying each other, from sharing common spaces, etc. This doesn't mean there was no injustice, Argentina was and still is a deeply classist country. Most forms of discrimination, therefore, are rooted in social class rather than race.

Because everyone was allowed to marry anyone regardless of skin color, and because throughout history Argentina received more working class immigrants from Europe than they did from other countries, and because throughout the course of history there were several wars, the black population dwindled in numbers. No, they were not sent as "blood sacrifice" any more than any other poor young men from the provinces were. In every war, young men were sent to the front lines so that the rich ones could stay behind. Which is something that happened in every single war throughout history.

The fact is that there was a true "mix" of genes. I've seen some people online twisting this to say that "forced whitening" is evil and it's further proof that every single person from Argentina deserves to die. It wasn't forced whitening. Immigrants integrated into society and part of that integration involved getting, well, involved with others regardless of where they came from.

There are studies that estimate that around 15% to 20% of argentines have reported to have african genes. The percentage could potentially be higher since many might be completely unaware of it. Retracing your genealogy is a bit hard when for many of us our great grand parents, or great great grandparents, came into the country with fake names because they were escaping fascist regimes from different parts of the world, or because when they arrived the names on their papers were written with "approximation phonetics" (what the workers thought the names were written like according to spanish phonemes, even if the names themselves weren't in spanish).

The horrors, as usual, persist. Online leftists even find delight in the thought of children starving just because it's trendy to hate Argentina now.

Anyway,

I've lost decades long online friendships over this, because these people preferred to align themselves with a trend than to think critically for a moment. Many others are going through the same thing. Many are reporting that they are being kicked out of discord groups for being from Argentina after they tried to talk to mods about xenophobic comments and things done to them in said groups.

Online, celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson, Halsey, Zara Larsson, further push the anti-Argentina propaganda. There are multiple articles by USA media supporting the xenophobia and instigating it further.

In real life places, there are now multiple reports of Argentine women commenting they're being harassed while walking out and about wearing an Argentina t-shirt. A woman was physically assaulted when an Egypt fan kicked her. There are people calling ICE on Argentina fans. Around New York shops are not letting in people wearing the Argentina t-shirt.

The real life effect of racist, xenophobic propaganda is this. People are getting hurt. On TikTok, Twitter and Instagram online activists are basically asking for people to hurt Argentina fans and tourists with the constant hate and misinformation they keep posting.

One of my dearest professors who made the biggest impact on me was Argentinian. Her parents fled the Holocaust while pregnant with her and she was born and raised in Argentina.

She was one of the greatest unsung pioneers of our rehab field, and I genuinely believe xenophobia and anti-Semitism are the big reasons why.

My professor got me connected with the Jewish community in my city for the first time in my life. I went from feeling disconnected from this part of me, to teaching a community health class for seniors every week at the JCC, celebrating holidays and learning Hebrew songs from the elders.

It was an Argentinian woman who connected me back to my Jewish heritage, with elders who referred to me as a Jew!!— something I didn’t know would ever happen, and something that is so profoundly meaningful to me, something that heals a deep cultural hurt from generations of assimilation for survival in Germany and in Spain.

Argentina is a country with 45 million people, all of whom are human beings, many of whom are refugees, all of whom have no say in where they are born.

I've lost decades long online friendships over this, because these people preferred to align themselves with a trend than to think critically for a moment. Many others are going through the same thing. Many are reporting that they are being kicked out of discord groups for being from Argentina after they tried to talk to mods about xenophobic comments and things done to them in said groups.

Online, celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson, Halsey, Zara Larsson, further push the anti-Argentina propaganda. There are multiple articles by USA media supporting the xenophobia and instigating it further.

In real life places, there are now multiple reports of Argentine women commenting they're being harassed while walking out and about wearing an Argentina t-shirt. A woman was physically assaulted when an Egypt fan kicked her. There are people calling ICE on Argentina fans. Around New York shops are not letting in people wearing the Argentina t-shirt.

The real life effect of racist, xenophobic propaganda is this. People are getting hurt. On TikTok, Twitter and Instagram online activists are basically asking for people to hurt Argentina fans and tourists with the constant hate and misinformation they keep posting.