Whoever has seen a Negro whipped, can they not consider themselves forever in his debt? I have seen it when I was a boy and my cheeks continue to burn with shame… I saw it and I swore myself since then to his defense.
Jose Marti
Anyone who has followed closely the discussions held by the First Conference of the only party, the Communist Party of Cuba, may have noticed the lack of interest shown when the problem of racial discrimination within Cuban society was debated — if a dozen words spoken on the fly can be called debate.
It was not of prime importance, not even secondary, the issue of discrimination against blacks and mestizos in Cuba, which deserved, given the impact of racial exclusion of this segment of society, a separate chapter to take the bull by the horns and fully state the truths that the race issue warrants for the real improvement of the Cuban society.
But to seek a remedy from the same source that gives rise to the disease, as Jose Antonio Saco said, referring to vagrancy in Cuba, pushes, in a certain way at those Afro-Cubans still dependent on laws and rulings that have in practice proved their incompetence. The fight against racism requires comprehensive minds and thoughtful ideas, truly inclusive, of sensible men who must feel part of the problem to then be part of the solution.
Home, family and training through oral transmission from parents to children is a phenomenon that in Cuba has always functioned as a barrier of isolation and denial of rights against blacks and mestizos.
Racism is not eliminated with speeches. This situation in Cuba, as elsewhere in the world, needs a cleaning of the mind, whose final result is to provide ideas capable of resulting in its final exile from the national soil.
We must keep in mind that the influence of white racists politicians and officials now in Cuba, has worked effectively and smoothly, as an exclusion barrier against blacks and mestizos.
A phenomenon is born and branches out through an ideology, as has, without a doubt, racism, where the silent complicity, the political neglect and opportunism are factors that inevitably in turn are linked to corruption, and with logical repercussions that in the law of severity in the abuse and disregard for other people to justify the denial of their rights, requiring forced affirmative action to protect and defend the rights of this population segment.
Disappointing to those who fill their bellies, steal and think themselves gods on obtaining unearned privileges as the cost of the suffering of others, when hey speak of men and women who do not have the right to protest without life sentences in prison hanging over them, or an “accidental” death.
February 16, 2012
