The Mismeasure of Puerto Rico: Xenophobia and the Moral Bankruptcy of U.S. Colonialism

Authors

Ernesto Sagás
Ediberto Román

Abstract

This Article examines the racialization of Puerto Ricans within the legal context of the colonial relationship between the United States and its largest colony. The first section examines the first half century of U.S. rule (1898-1952) and how colonial administrators typically used arrogance and paternalism, the self-proclaimed white superiority of the ruling class, and the presumed inferiority of the subjects and their incapability to become full members of the United States, to justify colonial rule. The second section describes the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952, a legal fiction designed to instill in Puerto Ricans and the international community the idea that Puerto Ricans were now in charge of their own affairs and that their relationship with the United States was one among equals. Finally, the third section looks at contemporary developments in the colonial relationship as the passing of time has come to reveal the true nature of the Commonwealth: a new-age colonial super-structure where openly racist statements are avoided (though not completely), but coded depictions remain to justify the U.S. government’s ultimate say over Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans remain colonial subjects, inferior, racialized Others by virtue of their constructed race and non-American culture. We conclude that even though race has purportedly been debunked as an unscientific social construct, it remains a powerful lens through which the United States views Puerto Ricans and the colonial nature of its relationship with the territory.

Recommended Citation

Ernesto Sagás & Ediberto Román, The Mismeasure of Puerto Rico: Xenophobia and the Moral Bankruptcy of U.S. Colonialism, 32 J. L. & Pol'y 54 (2024).
Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp/vol32/iss2/2