Adjusting to Equity: The Contradictions of Neoliberalism and the Search for Racial Equality in Peru

Abstract

This article traces the development of race equity initiatives in Peru in the context of economic “liberalisation” and Western cultural hegemony. Drawing on interviews with Peruvian antiracist educators, we argue that the development of race equity programmes is being shaped by contradictory sociopolitical pressures. On the one hand, these initiatives reflect the forces of neoliberal intervention and reorganisation. On the other, they are the products of the challenges presented to conservative and antiegalitarian traditions by those committed to social justice. The paper also examines how the “new” equity paradigms associated with neoliberalism are acting to obscure the existence of other antidiscrimination traditions within Peru.