The downfall of the black man’s ethnicity is a phenomenon that is part of universal history. In the Americas this ethnic downfall arose when the African stopped being called African but Negro, as a result of the slave trade.
Taboos against blacks and mestizos emerged precisely from the loss of ethnic origins, which implies a constant discrimination that is constantly being recreated.
Cuba is, perhaps, symbol of a failed abolition. Afro-Cubans are still suffering the consequences of slavery and racism. In Cuba, the vice of Socialism and its policies to turn the individual into a mass, lead to the abolition of all rights and to the constant whitening the individual’s mentality.
If an ideological concept is assiduously systematized, as happens in Cuba, and it is never separated from the social context, regardless of the real aspirations of the citizens, it is clear that we are witnessing an exclusionary political context that exclusively responds to the interests of the only party.
Cuban socialism is founded on political and ideological exclusions. It establishes differences between men because of their ways of thinking, and it makes these differences stand out offensively. Cuban socialism emphasizes not only political differences, but also differences based on skin color.
This phenomenon of branding each other has existed, and it continues to exist, within all structures of totalitarian power, where the weakest ones are exposed to submissiveness, physical and mental abuse.
A society that truly fights prejudices and racism of all kinds is a society that gives its citizens the opportunity to stand up for themselves and be protagonists for change, without discriminating against its citizens because of their skin colors or their ethnicities.
As long as this continues to happen, it will always be a stigma for our nation and psychological shock with the individual human person. It will always be the oppression of one over each other. It will provoke hatred and fear towards differences. The country will be nothing more than a mere reference.
Man must have the right to what he aspires, without having to take any differences into account, but the fulfillment of his demands and respect for his freedoms.
Translated by Chabeli
28 June 2012
