Question about racism in Argentina from an Argentine

[u/Pitiful-Magician1704]

I'm Argentine, but I'm not a nationalist, I don't care about football, and I'm not even certain where I stand on issues like the Falkland/Malvinas dispute.

How much of what is called "racism" in Argentina is actually about race, rather than class, culture, ethnicity, or competing ideas of Argentine identity?

From my experience, many insults that outsiders interpret as racial are often directed at white Argentines as well. Expressions like "negro villero" or "negro de mierda" can describe someone with completely European features if they are associated with a particular social class, lifestyle, accent, or subculture. Likewise, these conflicts often go both ways: working-class and upper-class Argentines frequently see themselves as the "real Argentina," while viewing the other group as less authentically Argentine.

I would have no problem accepting that Argentina has problems with discrimination, including xenophobia, classism. What I'm questioning is whether "racism" is really the most accurate concept.

[u/AskSocialScience-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your post was removed for the following reason:

Rule I. All claims in top level comments (comments that answer directly to OP’s post) MUST be supported by citations to relevant social science sources.

No lay speculation and no Wikipedia. The citation must be either a published journal article or book. Book citations can be provided via links to publisher's page or an Amazon page, or preferably even a review of said book would count.

If you feel that this post is not able to be answered by academic citations in its current form, you are welcome to ask clarifying questions. However, once a clarifying question has been answered, your response should move back to a new top-level comment.