Racism in Cuba

Race conceptions in Cuba are unique because of its long history of racial mixing and appeals to a "raceless" society.

Using the historic race-blind nationalism first established around the time of independence, Cuba has navigated the abolition of slavery, the suppression of black clubs and political parties, the revolution and its aftermath, and the special period.

On October 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a plantation owner, freed all of his slaves and asked them to join him in liberating Cuba from Spanish occupation.

Spanish propaganda convinced white Cubans that independence would only pave the way for a race war; That Afro-Cubans would take their revenge and conquer the island.

[5][6][7] This fear of a black revolt painted perceptions about racial justice and stalled progress in race relations for the next several decades, if not still prevalent today.

In order to refute this claim, anti-racism activists and politicians of the time created the image of the loyal black soldier who existed only to serve the independence movement.

This conception that painted Cubans of color as obedient, and single-mindedly in favor of independence was the opposite of the savage, sexually aggressive stereotype of Spanish propaganda.

It was in these years that the ideas of José Martí or the words of General Antonio Maceo, “no whites nor blacks, but only Cubans” took hold on the island.

In the aftermath of the Cuban war of independence, Afro-Cuban men, many of whom were veterans, expected a distinct shift in racial politics on the island after Spain was no longer in charge.

In the subsequent decades, Afro-Cubans watched as white citizens and immigrants enjoyed economic stability while the black population grew more dissatisfied.

In 1910, Senator Martín Morúa Delgado, mulatto himself, presented and helped pass a law to ban race-based political parties, effectively outlawing the PIC.

[12] Previously white only private pools, beaches, and schools were made public, free, and opened up to Cubans of all races and classes.

Because much of the Afro-Cuban population on the island was impoverished before the revolution, they benefited widely from the policies for affordable housing, the literacy program, universal free education in general, and healthcare.

Due to this, Castro refused to enact laws that directly addressed and condemned race-based persecution because he considered them unnecessary or even anti-Cuban.

The Cuban Revolution also employed the use of the loyal black soldier of the independence days in order to curb white resistance to the new policies.

[12] Scholars argue that raceless rhetoric left Cuba unprepared to address the deep-seated culture of racism on the island.

[19] With the reintroduction of capitalist practices to the island due to the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent economic depression in the late 80's and early 90's, Afro-Cubans have found themselves at a disadvantage.

"[12] The Afro-Cubans interviewed by Sawyer, even when they complained of racism and government policies, expressed their conviction that "things would be worse under the leadership of the Miami exile community or in the United States," and that "[t]he revolution has done so much for us."

[13] Many scholars of race in Cuba take a far more qualifying position that while the revolution helped Afro-Cubans, it also halted any further racial progress beyond institutionalization.

The large mestizo populations that result from high levels of interracial union common to the region are often linked to 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.

[12] Antiracist Cuban activists who rejected a raceless approach and wanted to show pride in their blackness such as Walterio Carbonell and Juan René Betancourt in the 1960s, were punished with exile or imprisonment.

[2][12] 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.