User:Rgshistory/Racism in Puerto Rico

Discrimination

The term "white Puerto Rican", as well as that of "colored Puerto Rican", was coined by the United States Department of Defense in the first decade of the 20th century in order to handle their own North American problem with nonwhite people whom they were drafting and had its basis on the American one-drop rule. The one-drop rule stated that if you had just one drop of Black blood in you, you were Black, not white; that is, if you are not 100% white, then no matter what shade of lightness you are, you are Black. The white upper class made deals with U.S. industrialists and supported U.S. policies in Puerto Rico at the expense of Afro-Puerto Rican civil rights. Puerto Rico passed the Civil Rights Act of Puerto Rico in 1943. Revolutionary leaders, including Pedro Albizu Campos in the 1950s, fought to eliminate the "racial" discrimination heightened by U.S. imperialism and to place Afro–Puerto Ricans in political positions of power.

DISCRIMINATION OF PUERTO RICAN WOMEN

'''Puerto Rican women, along with other women in marginalized groups, have a long history of being subjected to forced sterilization practices (Patel, 2017). During the early 20th century, many laws were passed allowing for the involuntary sterilization of individuals deemed “unfit” for reproduction (Patel, 2017).'''