Posted: Tue 08 Aug 2006 01:04 Post subject: Cuban Racial Equality a Myth?
Because of our discussion of Mariane Pearl and Cuba, I found this article on the Web.
(Note: The article was written by a reporter from the Washington Times, a hard Right publication. So, read with a critical eye.)
Cuban Racial Equality a Myth?
by Tom Carter
The Washington Times
Official Cuba might as well have a sign on the doors of power saying “Whites Only.”
Cuba’s Communist revolution, far from being a model of racial tolerance and inclusion, is run by “old white men” and is racist at its core, say academics, Cuban dissidents and even some supporters of President Fidel Castro.
Forty years after Mr. Castro overthrew Fulgen-cio Batista -- a mulatto military dictator backed by the United States -- Cuba remains racially divided between the white haves and the black and mixed-race have-nots.
Years of racial intermarrying has turned the Cuban population into a spectrum of shades, and at the street level, Cuba has far less racial tension than virtually anywhere in the United States. But official Cuba might as well have a sign on the doors of power saying “Whites only.”
Cuba’s blacks and mulattos make up more than 60 percent of the island’s population but hold less than 20 percent of the leadership positions in government. By one estimate, less than 10 percent of the top leadership in the Politburo is nonwhite.
“Most Cuban blacks will say that there have been gains in the revolution in health care and education, but there is much more to do. . . . Blacks end up playing second fiddle in Cuba,” said Wayne Smith, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba who hosted a forum on Cuban racism last year.
“Need Affirmative Action”
Mr. Smith said the overwhelming number of officials working at the highest levels of the Cuban government and military are white. By his count, just three of the 36 leaders of Cuban communism are nonwhites.
“They really need an affirmative action program in the Cuban Politburo,” he said.
The Cuban Interests Section, which handles Cuban diplomatic issues in Washington, said there were no racial problems in Cuba.
“We don’t have any racial problems in Cuba, nothing like in the United States,” said Luis Fernandez, spokesman for the Cuban government in Washington. “We have a lot of African Cubans in important positions. How many African-Americans are in important positions in the United States?”
Castro critics charge that blacks in the United States, who helped end apartheid in South Africa, are woefully uninformed about race in Cuba, preferring to believe the myth that their country is a racial paradise.
Members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus - sometimes called “Fidel’s amen corner” - have been vocal in supporting the Cuban revolution and opposing the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba but remain almost silent on racial inequities there.
In September, Mr. Castro went to Harlem and spent nearly five hours before an ecstatic crowd of mostly black supporters, ripping the United States for a litany of wrongs, including racism. During the speech, Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat and Black Caucus member, sat at his feet in rapt attention.
Rangel Sees Issue
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat and Black Caucus leader who has worked vigorously to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, said racial inequality in Cuba is a legitimate issue. “. . . I have raised the issue of racism in Cuba with Fidel Castro and others on many occasions . . . Everything is not all right in Cuba.”
Representative Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat and a Black Caucus leader who has worked vigorously to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, said racial inequality in Cuba is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted. He agrees that while Cuba is overwhelmingly black or mulatto, only a few have broken through the revolutionary glass ceiling.
“It is a legitimate issue. It is a legitimate observation. I have raised the issue of racism in Cuba with Fidel Castro and others on many occasions,” Mr. Rangel said. “Everything is not all right in Cuba.”
He said his inquiries regarding Cuban racism may have embarrassed the Cuban government into posting a few black diplomats to Washington. “I asked, ‘Where are the black faces?’ Maybe that’s why Felix Wilson Hernandez, a black Cuban and Havana’s second-ranking diplomat in Washington is here now,” the congressman said.
Mr. Rangel said that ordinary Cuban blacks he speaks with are similar to American blacks during the civil rights movement in that they support their government in general, but find themselves fighting it for racial equality.
He said there are plenty of Cuban blacks in baseball and boxing -- as in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s -- but few in positions of power.
White Dissidents Released
There is additional concern that blacks and mulattos may be overrepresented in Cuba’s prison population, Mr. Rangel added. He said that when foreign delegations visit Cuba and succeed in getting dissidents released from prison, they are invariably white dissidents.
“Who is in Cuba’s prisons? Are people of color getting a fair shake?” he asked.
Though statistics are hard to come by, the picture is said to be equally bleak in Cuba’s top military posts.
Cuba’s racial disparities are not only about power, they are also a matter of adequate food and housing.
Black Cubans are facing increasing economic hardship as white Cubans get preference in the high-paying tourism industry. White Cubans live in the best neighborhoods of Vedado, Miramar and Varadero, while blacks and mulattos are relegated to the working-class enclaves of Guanabacoa and Luyano.
White Cubans receive more than $500 million each year in remittances from relatives in the United States, but with just 7 percent of the Cuban-exile population black or mulatto, nonwhite families left behind on the island get little offshore help.
Whites Get “Dollar Jobs”
“It is country run by old white men,” said Juan Carlos Espinosa, director of the Cuban Studies Center at St. Thomas University in Miami.
“In the 1950s, the bellboys, the chauffeurs and maids were black jobs. Today, they are white jobs, because that is where the dollars are. Sixty percent of the population is left out of the prosperity of tourism.”
“The Island of Dr. Castro” - a book by Denis Rousseau, former bureau chief of Agence France-Presse in Havana, and Liberation correspondent Corrine Cumerlato, recently published in France - reports growing fear in Cuba’s government over the large number of blacks and mulattos joining the dissident movement.
According to Mr. Espinosa at St. Thomas University, Cuban dissident groups are far more racially representative of Cuban society than the elites, and many of the country’s better-known dissidents are black or mulatto.
Oscar Elias Biscet and Vladimir Roca (the son of the founder of Cuba’s Communist Party) are two of Cuba’s better-known mulatto dissidents, both serving time in the Cuban gulag for opposing the regime. Felix Bonne, a black dissident, was recently released.
Manuel Questa Morua, a black dissident who was able to come to the United States this summer to speak against the U.S. embargo on Cuba, agrees that the Cuban government is racist. “In the military, all the top generals are white. In the Central Committee of the Communist Party, most of the people are from the white elite,” said Mr. Questa Morua.
He complained that the Cuban government uses the revolution to stifle black dissent.
“The Cuban government always reminds us that ‘We gave you this revolution.’ Behind this is racism. At the top of power, almost no one is black,” he said.
Omar Lopez Montenegro, a black dissident who fled Cuba in 1992, now lives in Miami and publishes monographs on racism in Cuba. The Cuban government forced him into exile by hauling him to jail so often that he finally left in desperation.
“The government is a closed street. You cannot vote. The country is ruled by one party, and it is mostly white,” said Mr. Lopez. “It is a simple truth that the white elite control the whole country. They do not want to see a black person in power.”
He said Cuba’s Communist Party is not interested in black people. “I do not know how people cannot see that. I do not think that the black population supports the revolution,” he said. “The country is ruled by fear and repressive forces.”
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Tue 08 Aug 2006 15:08 Post subject: Re: Cuban Racial Equality a Myth?
triguy wrote:
Because of our discussion of Mariane Pearl and Cuba, I found this article on the Web.
(Note: The article was written by a reporter from the Washington Times, a hard Right publication. So, read with a critical eye.)
Cuban Racial Equality a Myth?
by Tom Carter
The Washington Times
Official Cuba might as well have a sign on the doors of power saying “Whites Only.”
Cuba’s Communist revolution, far from being a model of racial tolerance and inclusion, is run by “old white men” and is racist at its core, say academics, Cuban dissidents and even some supporters of President Fidel Castro.
Forty years after Mr. Castro overthrew Fulgen-cio Batista -- a mulatto military dictator backed by the United States -- Cuba remains racially divided between the white haves and the black and mixed-race have-nots.
Years of racial intermarrying has turned the Cuban population into a spectrum of shades, and at the street level, Cuba has far less racial tension than virtually anywhere in the United States. But official Cuba might as well have a sign on the doors of power saying “Whites only.”
Cuba’s blacks and mulattos make up more than 60 percent of the island’s population but hold less than 20 percent of the leadership positions in government. By one estimate, less than 10 percent of the top leadership in the Politburo is nonwhite.
“Most Cuban blacks will say that there have been gains in the revolution in health care and education, but there is much more to do. . . . Blacks end up playing second fiddle in Cuba,” said Wayne Smith, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba who hosted a forum on Cuban racism last year.
“Need Affirmative Action”
Mr. Smith said the overwhelming number of officials working at the highest levels of the Cuban government and military are white. By his count, just three of the 36 leaders of Cuban communism are nonwhites.
“They really need an affirmative action program in the Cuban Politburo,” he said.
The Cuban Interests Section, which handles Cuban diplomatic issues in Washington, said there were no racial problems in Cuba.
“We don’t have any racial problems in Cuba, nothing like in the United States,” said Luis Fernandez, spokesman for the Cuban government in Washington. “We have a lot of African Cubans in important positions. How many African-Americans are in important positions in the United States?”
Castro critics charge that blacks in the United States, who helped end apartheid in South Africa, are woefully uninformed about race in Cuba, preferring to believe the myth that their country is a racial paradise.
Members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus - sometimes called “Fidel’s amen corner” - have been vocal in supporting the Cuban revolution and opposing the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba but remain almost silent on racial inequities there.
In September, Mr. Castro went to Harlem and spent nearly five hours before an ecstatic crowd of mostly black supporters, ripping the United States for a litany of wrongs, including racism. During the speech, Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat and Black Caucus member, sat at his feet in rapt attention.
Rangel Sees Issue
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat and Black Caucus leader who has worked vigorously to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, said racial inequality in Cuba is a legitimate issue. “. . . I have raised the issue of racism in Cuba with Fidel Castro and others on many occasions . . . Everything is not all right in Cuba.”
Representative Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat and a Black Caucus leader who has worked vigorously to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, said racial inequality in Cuba is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted. He agrees that while Cuba is overwhelmingly black or mulatto, only a few have broken through the revolutionary glass ceiling.
“It is a legitimate issue. It is a legitimate observation. I have raised the issue of racism in Cuba with Fidel Castro and others on many occasions,” Mr. Rangel said. “Everything is not all right in Cuba.”
He said his inquiries regarding Cuban racism may have embarrassed the Cuban government into posting a few black diplomats to Washington. “I asked, ‘Where are the black faces?’ Maybe that’s why Felix Wilson Hernandez, a black Cuban and Havana’s second-ranking diplomat in Washington is here now,” the congressman said.
Mr. Rangel said that ordinary Cuban blacks he speaks with are similar to American blacks during the civil rights movement in that they support their government in general, but find themselves fighting it for racial equality.
He said there are plenty of Cuban blacks in baseball and boxing -- as in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s -- but few in positions of power.
White Dissidents Released
There is additional concern that blacks and mulattos may be overrepresented in Cuba’s prison population, Mr. Rangel added. He said that when foreign delegations visit Cuba and succeed in getting dissidents released from prison, they are invariably white dissidents.
“Who is in Cuba’s prisons? Are people of color getting a fair shake?” he asked.
Though statistics are hard to come by, the picture is said to be equally bleak in Cuba’s top military posts.
Cuba’s racial disparities are not only about power, they are also a matter of adequate food and housing.
Black Cubans are facing increasing economic hardship as white Cubans get preference in the high-paying tourism industry. White Cubans live in the best neighborhoods of Vedado, Miramar and Varadero, while blacks and mulattos are relegated to the working-class enclaves of Guanabacoa and Luyano.
White Cubans receive more than $500 million each year in remittances from relatives in the United States, but with just 7 percent of the Cuban-exile population black or mulatto, nonwhite families left behind on the island get little offshore help.
Whites Get “Dollar Jobs”
“It is country run by old white men,” said Juan Carlos Espinosa, director of the Cuban Studies Center at St. Thomas University in Miami.
“In the 1950s, the bellboys, the chauffeurs and maids were black jobs. Today, they are white jobs, because that is where the dollars are. Sixty percent of the population is left out of the prosperity of tourism.”
“The Island of Dr. Castro” - a book by Denis Rousseau, former bureau chief of Agence France-Presse in Havana, and Liberation correspondent Corrine Cumerlato, recently published in France - reports growing fear in Cuba’s government over the large number of blacks and mulattos joining the dissident movement.
According to Mr. Espinosa at St. Thomas University, Cuban dissident groups are far more racially representative of Cuban society than the elites, and many of the country’s better-known dissidents are black or mulatto.
Oscar Elias Biscet and Vladimir Roca (the son of the founder of Cuba’s Communist Party) are two of Cuba’s better-known mulatto dissidents, both serving time in the Cuban gulag for opposing the regime. Felix Bonne, a black dissident, was recently released.
Manuel Questa Morua, a black dissident who was able to come to the United States this summer to speak against the U.S. embargo on Cuba, agrees that the Cuban government is racist. “In the military, all the top generals are white. In the Central Committee of the Communist Party, most of the people are from the white elite,” said Mr. Questa Morua.
He complained that the Cuban government uses the revolution to stifle black dissent.
“The Cuban government always reminds us that ‘We gave you this revolution.’ Behind this is racism. At the top of power, almost no one is black,” he said.
Omar Lopez Montenegro, a black dissident who fled Cuba in 1992, now lives in Miami and publishes monographs on racism in Cuba. The Cuban government forced him into exile by hauling him to jail so often that he finally left in desperation.
“The government is a closed street. You cannot vote. The country is ruled by one party, and it is mostly white,” said Mr. Lopez. “It is a simple truth that the white elite control the whole country. They do not want to see a black person in power.”
He said Cuba’s Communist Party is not interested in black people. “I do not know how people cannot see that. I do not think that the black population supports the revolution,” he said. “The country is ruled by fear and repressive forces.”
The above is an old panflet of the CIAt. Nobody likes poor "greatdaddy" Castro
I don't think that this is a pamphlet by the CIA. Charles Rangel would never be a tool for CIA. Cuba has had a problem with race pre- and post- revolution.
Joined: 04 May 2005 {Posts: 2021 } Location: santiago, chile
Posted: Wed 09 Aug 2006 01:48 Post subject: Panflet
triguy wrote:
I don't think that this is a pamphlet by the CIA. Charles Rangel would never be a tool for CIA. Cuba has had a problem with race pre- and post- revolution.
Well, in that case it seems the panflet it was prepared for another organization. Don't you think?
And about Blacks in Jail, like the article says, I bet Castro will be very happy to send them free to the U.S.A.. After all, that's exactly what Castro did during the Marielitos crisis.
I know of lots doctors that are Blacks and Mulatto in Cuba as well. Do they count?
I don't say more because people could think I deffend Castro, and I don't.
'
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