Since 2005, Colombian tourism and economic development sectors have spearheaded an intensive image-building campaign called “Colombia Is Passion.” This campaign brands and markets Bogotá as a cosmopolitan city “as diverse as the country.” However, urban practices of racial exclusion contradict this image. The experience of six black young people who were barred from entering nightclubs in Bogotá’s Zona Rosa serves as an example of the limited access of racialized people to the cosmopolitan city and, by extension, to the state’s multicultural ideals. It also highlights the reinforcement of racial hierarchies by white elites’ locating racism outside their immediate social worlds.
Desde el 2005, el turismo colombiano y sectores de desarrollo económico han encabezado una campaña de construcción de imagen intensiva llamada “Colombia es pasión.” Esta campaña marca y comercializa a la ciudad de Bogotá como una ciudad cosmopolita “tan diversa como el país.” Sin embargo las practicas urbanas de exclusión racial contradicen esta imagen. La experiencia de seis jóvenes negros a quienes se les negó entrada en los clubes nocturnos de la Zona Rosa de Bogotá sirve como ejemplo del acceso limitado que se les otorga a la gente racializada en la ciudad cosmopolita, y, por extensión, a los ideales multiculturales del estado. También sale en relieve el refuerzo de jerarquías raciales localizadas fuera de su mundo social inmediato de parte de las elites blancas.
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