Cuba racism
Racism remains an issue in Cuba, officials say
Raul Castro's economic reforms may not help blacks as much as whites,
one of the officials indicates.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com
WASHINGTON The Cuban government will soon cast a media spotlight on the
issue of racism on the island, although some programs to improve the
lives of black Cubans had to be cut because of economic restraints, a
Havana official said Thursday.
Heriberto Feraudy, who heads the quasi-official Cuban Commission against
Racism, also said the popularity of Afro-Cuban religions is soaring and
indicated that Raúl Castro's economic reforms may not help blacks as
much as whites.
Feraudy, who served 15 years as ambassador to five African nations, and
Esteban Morales, a well-known Havana economist who writes often on race,
addressed a conference on the issue sponsored by the Center for
International Policy, a think tank.
Their unusually frank comments — for decades Cuba officially denied the
existence of discrimination on the island — seemed to reflect the
growing concern over race issues as the country drops some of its
socialist policies and embraces more private enterprise.
Feraudy and Morales — both black — argued that the Fidel and Raúl Castro
governments have done more for Cuban blacks since 1952 than any other
government in the previous centuries.
"The problem of a division in Cuba (due to racial issues) is not
possible," said Morales, who was reportedly suspended from the Communist
Party last year after he wrote a column complaining about the island's
burgeoning official corruption.
But both also agreed that racism persists on the island, and that the
issue needs to be discussed and confronted even though "many people" in
Cuba argue that the Castro revolution did away with racial discrimination.
Feraudy said some programs adopted under Fidel Castro to help blacks
"had to be terminated" because of a shortage of resources — he gave no
further details — but added that his commission is pushing for a broad
discussion of the race issue.
Cuban state television will soon launch a one-year run of programs on
Africa and its importance to the island, he said, and the parliamentary
National Assembly of People's Power has agreed to take up the issue in
one of its coming sessions.
Morales joked that some Cubans, "even at some levels of power," argue
that all race problems in Cuba disappeared after 1959 because the
revolutionary government outlawed discrimination "and we are very good
people."
Now racism is a "democratic issue that we must discuss in Cuba" with all
of civil society, he added. But the discussion must be handled carefully
to avoid simply raising concerns without providing answers.
Feraudy noted that Raúl Castro has called for an increase of blacks in
top positions and that the Central Committee of the ruling Communist
Party selected last month showed a 10 percent increased in the number of
black and mestizo members.
But he indicated that he agreed with widespread concerns that Castro's
proposals to boost the economy by allowing more private enterprise and
slashing government payrolls subsidies would hit blacks harder than whites.
Whites receive more remittances from abroad, which could be used to
start one the newly legalized businesses, because most exiles are white,
he noted.
Feraudy's committee was created two years ago by the
government-controlled Cuban Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) as
black dissidents began using the language of black U.S. activists to
attack the Castro governments.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/03/2248233/racism-remains-an-issue-in-cuba.html
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