Racism in Cuba

Racism in Cuba refers to racial discrimination against Afro-Cuban or mulatto communities.

Background

The Cuban census reports that 65% of the population is white while foreign figures report an estimate of the number of whites at anywhere from 20 to 35 percent. The Economist states that, although the population is now mainly black or mulatto and young, its rulers form "a mainly white gerontocracy".

History

Esteban Morales Dominguez has pointed to institutionalized racism in his book "The Challenges of the Racial Problem in Cuba" (Fundación Fernando Ortiz). The book was banned in Cuba according to New America Media, but a report from AfroCubaWeb disputes this.

A survey showed that white Cubans believe that blacks are "less intelligent than whites" (58%) and "devoid of decency" (69%). Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba by Mark Q. Sawyer discusses the racial ideology prevalent in the country.

According to anthropologists dispatched by the European Union (EU), racism in Cuban is systemic and institutional. Black people are systematically excluded from positions in tourism-related jobs, where they could earn tips in hard currencies. According to the EU study, black people are relegated to poor housing, were excluded from managerial positions, received the lowest remittances from relatives abroad, and were five times more likely to be imprisoned. Blacks also complained of suffering the longest waits in healthcare.

Esteban Morales Domínguez, a professor in the University of Havana, believes that "the absence of the debate on the racial problem already threatens {...} the revolution's social project". Carlos Moore, who has written extensively on the issue, says that "there is an unstated threat, blacks in Cuba know that whenever you raise race in Cuba, you go to jail. Therefore the struggle in Cuba is different. There cannot be a civil rights movement. You will have instantly 10,000 black people dead". He says that a new generation of black Cubans are looking at politics in another way. Barack Obama's victory has raised disturbing questions about the institutional racism in Cuba. The Economist noted, "The danger starts with his example: after all, a young, black, progressive politician has no chance of reaching the highest office in Cuba, although a majority of the island’s people are black."

Jorge Luis García Pérez, who was imprisoned for 17 years, states that "the authorities in my country have never tolerated that a black person oppose the regime. During the trial, the color of my skin aggravated the situation. Later when I was mistreated in prison by guards, they always referred to me as being black".

As a black prisoner of conscience, Oscar Elias Biscet wrote to Coretta Scott King in January 1999, "They [black Cubans] have a very low political, economic, and judicial representation in contrast to the numerous prevailing black penal population. This situation is never publicly manifested by the government but is a component of Communism's subtle politics of segregation." Black Cubans such as Biscet and Jorge Luis Garcia Perez have been allegedly forcefully separated from their families for criticizing Fidel Castro.

Anti-discrimination laws

Cuba's leader Fidel Castro was quoted as saying: “One of the most just battles that must be fought, a battle that must be emphasized more and more, which I might call the fourth battle—the battle to end racial discrimination at work centers. I repeat: the battle to end racial discrimination at work centers. Of all the forms of racial discrimination the worst is the one that limits the colored Cuban's access to jobs.“ Castro pointed to the distinction between social segregation and employment, while placing great emphasis on correcting the latter.

In response to the large degree of racism in the job market, Castro issued anti-discrimination laws. In addition, he attempted to close the class gap between wealthy white Cubans and Afro-Cubans with a massive literacy campaign, among other egalitarian reforms in the early and mid 1960s. Two years after his 1959 speech at the Havana Labor Rally, Castro declared that the age of racism and discrimination was over. In a speech given at the Confederation of Cuban Workers in observance of May Day, Castro declared that the “just laws of the Revolution ended unemployment, put an end to villages without hospitals and schools, enacted laws which ended discrimination, control by monopolies, humiliation, and the suffering of the people.” Some sources consider the claim to be premature.

Prevalence

Research conducted by PhD researchers Yesilernis Peña, Jim Sidanius and Mark Sawyer in 2003 suggested that social discrimination was still prevalent, despite the low levels of economic discrimination. After considering the issue solved, the Cuban government moved beyond the issue of racism. His message marked a shift in Cuban society’s perception of racism that was triggered by the change in government focus.”

Many who argue that Cuba is not racist base their claims on the idea of Latin American Exceptionalism. According to this argument, a social history of intermarriage and mixing of the races is unique to Latin America. The large mestizo populations that result from high levels of interracial union common to the region are often linked to racial democracy. For many Cubans this translates into an argument of “racial harmony”, often referred to as racial democracy. According to Mark Q. Sawyer, in the case of Cuba, ideas of Latin American Exceptionalism have delayed the progress of true racial harmony.

Frommer's Cuba travel guidebook warns that black tourists can have a hard time entering hotels and restaurants because they are sometimes mistaken for Cuban prostitutes by the security forces (see also Tourist apartheid).

See also

• Human rights in Cuba
• Politics of Cuba

Books and papers

• "Race and Inequality in Cuba Today" (Raza y desigualdad en la Cuba actual) by Rodrigo Espina and Pablo Rodriguez Ruiz
• "The Challenges of the Racial Problem in Cuba" (Fundación Fernando Ortiz) by Esteban Morales Dominguez
• Sujatha Fernandes, Fear of a Black Nation: Local Rappers, Transnational Crossings, and State Power in Contemporary Cuba, Anthropological Quarterly, Volume 76, Number 4, Fall 2003, pp. 575-608, E-ISSN: 1534-1518 Print ISSN: 0003-5491