Viri Ríos: academic shares research on racism and the tunden

The name of journalist Viri Ríos became a trend on social media because she shared an investigation into the skin color of political candidates in Mexico.

Because of this information, users created #ViriRacista, because they assured that the information provided by the fellow professor at Harvard University was not “transcendental” for the electoral process, since it was only related to an alleged search for votes.

Around noon, Viri Ríos published an image, made by Raymundo Campos, a researcher at the Colegio de México, in which you can see the different political parties and the skin tones of their candidates for different federal, state and municipal positions.

“These are the skin tones of the candidates per party. The ones from #Morena aren't the sweetest. The ones from #PRIAN are atypically white. Follow the great @rmcamposvazquez for more research on the subject!” , the journalist wrote on her Twitter account.

However, this information did not go unnoticed by netizens, who hours later generated the discussion about racism and assured that graphics were not relevant, because, they mentioned, skin tone did not matter since that discourse only generated more division in Mexican society.

“It seems to me an exercise that instead of contributing to a better understanding among Mexicans, regardless of the color of their skin, it invites resentment and violence. It is in the public domain that those who have predominantly white skin in Mx are the ones with the highest levels,” shared a user identified as @akibsiM.

“Arguments such as skin color, religion, or sex are as stupid as they are discriminatory. When neurons do not give for more, the resentment and complexion of the human being comes out,” wrote a netizen named @Alejandralrago2

The one who also dismissed the study on the skin color of the candidates was the youtuber Chumel Torres, who said from his Twitter account: “Thank you for your research that helps my mothers”.

Some other people highlighted that Viri Ríos lives “complexed” by her skin tone and the social conditions that are fostered by the discrimination that several people, because of their complexion, suffer every day due to internalized racism among Mexicans.

For this reason, they attacked the academic for “putting filters” on her photos, which managed to make her feel “less inferior”, as they gave her a different image than reality.

In response to all the reactions, Ríos responded with a tweet, in which he said that there is a research agenda specifically on skin color at COLMEX, since it is an important issue to uncover the racism that exists in Mexicans

“And what do you think? That there is a whole research agenda on skin color in @elcolmex!! Why? Because it matters. Because it is so racist that your skin color influences your income level, type of work and even whether you win an election. Here —> http://colordepiel.colmex.mx”

In a second message, he retweeted a comment by Raymundo Campos, who reported that the study of skin color among candidates from different political parties is important to determine whether there is discrimination when electing them and creating a feeling of representativeness among voters.

“Studying the skin tone of politicians is important. 1. As in a company, it is important to study whether parties discriminate against potential candidates; and 2. Feeling represented is fundamental in democracy, and one variable among many is skin tone,” he said.

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