Perception of racism among undergraduate students of the National Pedagogical University-Ajusco

Abstract

Despite the fact that racism in the educational system in Mexico has been a widely studied topic in the field of social sciences, studies about its social perception and experiences on a daily basis among students have been relatively limited. Therefore, this article presents findings from an exploratory study on perception and experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination among undergraduate students of the five in-campus majors in the National Pedagogical University-Ajusco in Mexico City. The empirical basis of this study consisted of mixed methodology: in-depth interviews with the students and a survey (N=233) applied to the student population to identify and describe their perception and experiences of racism and other forms of discrimination inside and outside the university campus. Although experiences of ethnic-racial discrimination have decreased in everyday experiences within the university campus, we concluded that these are still present, together with other forms of discrimination. Furthermore, among the student population there are latent tensions linked to the divide between the indigenous and the non-indigenous whichare expressed through implicit and indirect discriminatory acts.