Music that produces racial inequality? The impact of racist ideas on the conditions of existence of Afro-diasporic musicians in Peru

Racism permeates the everyday musical practices of Afro-Peruvian musicians, impacting their living conditions across class, gender, and phenotype.

Informed by a colonial racist framework, Peruvian musicians, scholars, and aficionados have historically conceptualized Afro-Peruvian musical practices in terms of essentialist connections with Africa and black bodies; racial prejudices; and colonial social hierarchies.

Such racialization of Afro-Peruvian musical practices entails that its practitioners must routinely address racist expectations and stereotypes, and the way they do so has material and emotional consequences for them.RACISMUS analyzes how racist ideas about Afro-Peruvian musical practices affect the living conditions of its practitioners, as well as the strategies they employ to resist or mitigate such impacts.

Drawing on scholarship in ethnomusicology, historical musicology, and critical race theory, RACISMUS objectives are to produce empirical knowledge about: (a) the historical foundations of racist ideas that currently shape the artistic practice of Afro-Peruvian music; (b) how, in shaping their practice, those racist ideas impact the conditions of existence Afro-Peruvian music practitioners across class, gender, and color in a context of racial inequality and mestizaje; and (c) the agency of Afro-Peruvian music practitioners in addressing those racist ideas and their impact in their practice, including their decision-making processes, strategies, and resources.