Carlos Moore an academic authority on race in Cuba who wrote the definitive: Castro, the Blacks, and Africa (Afro-American Culture and Society (1989) and who was also here in Miami for the Book Fair presenting his book Pichon: Race and Revolution in Castro's Cuba: A Memoir (Hardcover) with a forward by Maya Angelou.
Here is Carlos Moore on Fidel Castro's legacy on race:
"What I do blame Fidel Castro and his regime for is for having obstructed the actions of those who sincerely wanted to rid Cuba of that form of consciousness. Anti-racist black Cubans were destroyed by the regime -- imprisoned, sent to hard labor camps, to insane asylums, or driven to a life of exile and banishment from their country. It is untrue, and very simplistic, or convenient, to affirm or imply that Fidel Castro ''invented'' Cuba's racism. Cuban society was founded on black enslavement and racism. Racial slavery was the womb of Cuban idiosyncrasy and what is called ''Cuban culture.'' Cuban society was -- before Fidel Castro, and continues to be today -- a profoundly racist society. The problem I had with the revolutionary regime was that it pretended that this was not so, and that it declared, falsely, to the world that it had abolished racism in Cuba. Logically, all of those who said the contrary were simply denigrating the revolution and socialism and were ''agents of American imperialism.'' However, by denying the existence of racism in Cuba for 50 years, and by brutally preventing those who wanted to confront that reality from doing so, the revolutionary regime guaranteed a safe haven for the unfettered perpetuation and growth of a racist consciousness in Cuba. A great opportunity to at least disable that monstrosity of history was therefore lost. Fidel Castro did not invent racism; rather, his policies were a product of it."
http://www.drcarlosmoore.com/
-
- tags:
- Racism, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Barak Obama, 1 more + add
-
-
-
-
- freeforall2008
- added this
-
From the essay:
"A black American president whose moderate and humane views have garnered worldwide sympathy and support sharply undercuts the legitimacy of a 50-year old confrontational policy that relied heavily on mass black support. The unfreezing of American-Cuban relations, which President-elect Obama has also promised, may indeed prove threatening to a leadership that may be looking at the future through the barrel of its own gun. Suddenly, all of the claims the Castro regime has made over the years to buttress its resistance to change seem to be unraveling. A black man in the White House may predictably accelerate the ticking of Cuba's social reform clock. So, does Cuba have an Obama problem? The answer is a resounding yes—it does." - Carlos Moore
-
-
-
-
- freeforall2008
- 1 year ago
-
