Cuba: The Raceless Nation

Abstract

This chapter examines the development and operation of racism in Cuba, and assesses the claim made by Castro that only ‘objective racism’ – in other words structural racial inequality – exists, with little everyday overt racial hostility or discrimination and no active state racism. Slavery was abolished late in Cuba – in 1886 – and Afro-Cuban men and women continued to live as apparently free labourers in extremely poor housing, with no schools, until the Cuban Revolution. They were also excluded from a variety of social spaces, including particular hotels, beaches, schools and jobs, in accordance with American and Hispanic segregationist racial codes. The Cuban revolutionary government’s decrees which emphasised ‘total and absolute equality’ and subsequent action dismantled most of these practices. But as Fidel Castro recently confirmed (Castro with Ramonet 2007) the regime has failed to eradicate racism, racial discrimination and racial inequality in Cuba despite 50 years of uninterrupted political commitment to this goal, in line with José Martí’s vision of a post-racial, raceless nation. Examining the nature of and explanations for this failure is a key focus of this chapter. The construction of domestic state policy and discourse with respect to race and racism by the Cuban regime is itself fundamentally flawed, denying for decades that any problem exists. This denial is still a strongly held belief amongst many holding positions of authority and power within the Cuban state.