Vol. 74/No. 6      February 15, 2010

Both the TV program itself and the less-biased-than-usual account of it are of interest. The January 21 "Round Table" was the first of its kind, discussing the unparalleled advances of the Cuban Revolution in eradicating the legacy of centuries of slavery, as well as the ground that remains to be taken in the fight against racist prejudices. That El Nuevo Herald, a paper not widely reputed to be a source of objective reporting on the Cuban Revolution, ran the AP account is worthy of note.

The importance of the discussion of these questions in Cuba today was underscored by Cuban president Raúl Castro in a December 2009 speech to the National Assembly in which he stated, “I will use all my influence to make sure these harmful prejudices keep giving ground until they are eliminated for good, and that women and blacks are promoted to leadership positions at all levels on account of their merits and professional training.” The translation into English is by the Militant.
 

BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ  
HAVANA (AP)—Cuban state television broke the taboo on the subject of racism and broadcast a program with experts who discussed the challenges still facing blacks in obtaining equality under the island’s communist system.

“To many it seemed impossible that a panel (on TV) could take place on this topic,” said writer Heriberto Feraudy during the program on Thursday, thanking the host as he was called on to speak.

This Thursday’s edition of the Round Table—one of the leading television programs where the island’s authorities explain their positions on political questions, directed by Randy Alonso—was titled “A Cuban Battle against Racism.” This time it was dedicated to this social question.

Almost half a dozen experts each made comments recognizing that there is cultural discrimination on the island, in spite of the revolution’s insistence for decades in denying its existence and in spite of the legal efforts to grant recognition for all.

“This is a theme of our reality,” said economist Esteban Morales, a researcher for the Center for the Study of the Hemisphere and United States. “Something that we thought was resolved (racism) came to the surface during the Special Period (the crisis of the previous decade) … equality is the plan, the desire; inequality is what we encounter every day.”

Morales explained that when the revolution triumphed, the measures taken in face of the need to overcome poverty treated people equally without differentiating between whites and blacks. But in the 1990s, when economic scarcity engulfed the island, whites and mestizos suffered less.

Also during those years “concealing” the problem was seen as preferable, explained Morales, in order to prevent this becoming a divisive factor during the island’s confrontation in defense of the communist system against attacks from its opponents, led by the U.S. government.

According to the National Office of Statistics, 65 percent of Cubans are white, 10 percent are black, and almost 25 percent describe themselves as mestizos.

Studies done at the beginning of the decade showed that in previous years whites and mestizos had more possibilities of acquiring dollars and foreign currency—therefore a higher standard of living—than blacks, who in general have a lower income.

According to sociologist Pablo Rodríguez even though there is coexistence and no incidents of racist physical violence have been reported, “there are verbal ones.”

“Racism (in Cuba) is on the defensive because there has been a discourse since the triumph of the revolution that stigmatizes” discrimination, he said.

Rodríguez, from the Center of Anthropological Studies, pointed to some of the research on the topic that showed that blacks on the island view their race with “negative” elements as opposed to “positive” ones for viewing whites.

At the end of last year, a document signed by public figures in the United States complained about racism in Cuba, but the criticism was rejected by their colleagues on the island who maintain that the revolution has done more for social equality for all racial groups than many governments in the world.
 
 
Related articles:
Women’s role in Cuba’s 1956-58 revolutionary war  
 
 
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