Between Dark Black and Light Brown. Discourses and Ethnic Identities among Afrodescendant Boys and Girls in School Context in Bogotá

There is a felt need to understand the way ethnic identities are constructed by Afrodescendant boys and girls aged 6-12 in school contextsin Bogota as there is little research in such specific context and topic in Colombia. This research report proposes a discourse analysis andsocial psychology approach to tackle such problem. Thus this paper seeks to identify the discursive mechanisms that allow us to know howidentity processes emerge from the acceptance or denial of ethnicity; mechanisms that may lead or have an effect on discursive adaptation,resistance or negotiation. Findings suggest that children begin early their ethnic self-identification from the color of the skin, whereby theydifferentiate a wide color range, tending towards whitening. Children have different degrees of ethnic appraisal that go from pride to rejection.In inter-ethnic relations, they tend to deny or minimize the conflict, and there is a tendency to avoid speaking about it. Children identify thecause of the problem as a quantitative issue, as they are minority in Bogota. In inter-ethnic dynamics, some children accept the stereotypesassigned to them, others reject them, and others scoff at them.