Vol. 73/No. 50 December 28, 2009
The recent declaration by some Afro-Americans supposedly supporting the struggle for civil rights in our country manipulates and magnifies these problems, trying to make it seem that the racial problem in Cuba is similar to any other country in the hemisphere, which is not true.
This is the point of view of Dr. Esteban Morales, political scientist and essayist, signer of the message sent by Cuban intellectuals to their Afro-American colleagues, in which they reflect on the truth of this controversial subject.
“The fundamental weakness of their declaration is that their criticism is based on the same pillars that, historically, the U.S. government has used, arguing that there is a totalitarian dictatorship here, that we are a country without human rights, no democracy for blacks, and blaming the problems on the government and political leadership.
“The humanitarian policies of the Revolution have helped overcome this obstacle. Institutional racism does not exist. It is a phenomenon that was dragged along and reproduced during a relatively long period, during which we were not paying attention. In 1962 we idealistically proclaimed that racism was resolved, but what it did was hide itself, and it re-emerged in the midst of the economic crisis.
“As opposed to what they suggest, it is Fidel Castro himself, who, in March 1959, in a number of speeches, recognized the existence of racism and discrimination and the necessity of doing away with them and seeing them as a social defect.
“He himself returned to this theme during the special period1 at Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba congresses and at meetings on teaching. And his arguments are still valid.”
Why do these symptoms persist?
Professor Morales accepts that “we have made mistakes. The first: the idealist conception that the Revolution’s policies would cause racism to slowly disappear like other scourges from the past that we inherited.
“Cuba may be the country that has advanced the most in its eradication, especially the inequality and injustice that goes hand in hand with it, but fifty years of revolution, as radical as it may have been, are not enough to end a problem of 450 years of colonialism.
“All of us Cubans must continue struggling against this deformation, in education, in culture, in the media. To make people conscious that the problem exists and must be solved.
“It is not possible to speak of a general, unified culture if this is not resolved, but the Cuban reality is quite far from, for example, that of the United States, which is the most racist society the world has ever known, despite having elected a Black president.
“In our country we have many shortcomings in the teaching of history. The multicoloredness doesn’t get into the books the way it should, the racial question is not mentioned or explained, and the near-complete absence of Africa, Asia, the Mideast, makes it difficult for kids to leave school with a deep sense of the roots of Cuban culture. The difficulties are being discussed in National Commissions created to deal with this.
“The second error was to not take into account variations in skin color, which is an index of social differentiation, and is the starting point for the racial groups that shaped our country.
“The Spanish came here of their own volition, the blacks were brought over in slave ships, caught on the west coast of Africa or sold by their own tribes. They became the slaves, which in this part of the world was based on color. In classical slavery, the slave could be blonde or blue-eyed. Here it was the Indian or the black.” From the mixing of these and others came the Cuban color.
“Walk the streets of Havana today and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Despite the fact that there are many young blacks working at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, in our barrios you’ll find many marginalized people, who don’t succeed in taking advantage of, or reaching, all the benefits the Revolution has provided.
“And they don’t because their starting points were different. You can see this in many parameters of daily life: housing, quality of employment, institutional support, access to jobs in the public and private sectors, above all in the so-called new economy.
“The level of democracy and civil rights we have achieved is the same for all racial groups. The extent to which we have to improve is the same for everyone. Some will take better advantage than others because they are in a better position to do so.
“The racial question in our country is not simply economic. It has to do with everything, and, politically, the topic should be on the agenda of all the organizations and discussed.”
So, another attack on the Revolution?
Going back to the declaration of the Afro-Americans, Professor Morales stated categorically that “these people grab on to our difficulties to attack the Revolution. However, Cuba is the only country in the world in which blacks and mestizos have the state and the government as their ally. If there had not been a revolution, the blacks would have had to make one in order to reach the level which more than a few of us have achieved.
“I am convinced that some of the signers did not know what they were signing. They were manipulated, and one person asked to have her name taken off because she realized that there were distortions, that they were trying to twist reality, to inject themselves into an internal debate and turn it into something to do with ‘dissidents.’”
Cuban aid to African nations: Proof that the Cuban Revolution is not racist?
“It is a piece of evidence. The fact that Cuban doctors, teachers, and medical technicians—white and black—go to the most remote places in the world to help those who need help, is evidence, but it is ‘practical’ evidence. We need theory, because at the same time we are doing that, we are not dealing with the racial problem openly, completely, and profoundly as we must do internally.
“This is a contradiction, it would appear to be demagogy. We dealt very well with it on the outside, we’re friends of the blacks, the Indians, and the wretched of the earth, but here there was a certain atmosphere of social repression, where to speak of racism could get you called racist and divisive. We used to think that it wasn’t necessary to talk about it, that it was going to be resolved simply through the unfolding of profoundly humanistic policies. It’s proven that even after capitalism ends, racism remains in the consciousness, in the institutions, in people’s way of life.
There are experts who say that this declaration could affect the Obama government. What do you think?
“We cannot know exactly what effects it will cause. Obama has always tried to keep away from the racial question, including not being able to present himself as a Black candidate. He tried to sidestep it, and he did.
“But Obama has once again revived the restrictions and charges against Cuba and this declaration goes in the same direction. The document these people signed is being discredited as witnessed by the fact that ours is gaining signers and theirs is losing them.
“In the United States there is a great deal of sensitivity to this problem.”
At times there have been quotas for blacks in our organizations in order to guarantee representation. Is this an example of racism?
“It was a failed attempt, a mistake as to the form which we believed could solve the problem of representation. But the problem is more complex.
“We have a lot of people who, although they are black, don’t think of themselves that way.
“There is the phenomenon of whitening, and if you as a black don’t come out and say what you are, it’s a demagogic posture, it’s not ethical. In Cuban culture it is absolutely necessary that people come to terms with and be what they are. The challenge is to create a consciousness without racial prejudice, stereotypes, and racism.
“It is necessary to create all the conditions for educating girls and boys in this process and we need others in the area of culture, of empowerment and economic equality. Between you and me there could be economic equality but not social equality, there could be legal equality but not social equality. Social equality is something much more complex.
“The fact that we were all born in the same hospital, that we go to the same recreation centers, to the same schools, has no fixed meaning. From the social point of view it is deeper, a phenomenon that passes from generation to generation, which implies being conscious that equality is the goal. The difference is what we run up against every day.
“Social equality is an integrated system in which individuals have to deal with their identity. I’m Cuban, an intellectual, a Party militant, and black, that’s who I am.” All mixed together.