Is Chile institutionally racist?

Racism has existed in Chile at least since the conquest of Chile in the 16th century. Several types of racism originating from different epochs are present in present day Chile. Mapuches, mestizos, blacks, East Asians, Muslims, Peruvians and Bolivians are among the subjects of racism and discrimination in Chile.

Racism againts blacks and indians

Conquistadores, colonial criollos and modern Chileans had different views on the native population ranging from admiration, views of them as barbarians, to proper self-conscious racism.[citation needed] Black people held during colonial times higher status than amerindians due to being so expensive, and were often majordomos. Mapuches on their part also made distinctions based on race and often denied meztisos being part of their society due to their blood bonds with the Spanish they were in conflict with. A person's status was measured by their racial make-up and if they were born in the colony or in Europe. The groups with major status were the Peninsulares, ethnic Spaniards born in Spain. Many conquistadores and criollos had humanistic views and view native Mapuches sometimes as noble savages due to their fierce resistance to Spanish rule in the War of Arauco.

Nationalism and Facist ideloguies

Nationalists and fascists nearly claimed electoral victories in the 1930s and early 1940s. The influence of these groups and Chile's large German colony made the country one of the last countries in Latin America to declare war on Nazi Germany. In recent years (early 2000s) Chile got into news reports as active in far-right and "skinhead" gangs with racial and anti-Semitic views, and the country has an image of low percentages of black Africans (less than 1 percent, lower than numbers of east Asians or Japanese-Chileans), but this came from a low need for slavery in colonial Chile, which explains the ethnographic trend.