By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Sep 7 (IPS) - Intellectuals and artists concerned about
continued racial discrimination in Cuba are attempting to revive the
Cofradía de la Negritud (CONEG), a "brotherhood" or association of black
people aimed at raising awareness of the problem.
The email message announcing the revival of CONEG says no progress can
be made against "the growing problem" of racial inequality in Cuba
without the implementation of "a social policy that takes into account
the historical disadvantages faced by the black population."
The aim of CONEG is to generate awareness among officials and civil
society, and "ensure that effective attention is paid to defending
respect for the rights of black people in Cuba."
The letter that was recently recirculated by email carries its original
date, July 1998, when CONEG was first launched by engineer Norberto Mesa
Carbonell, as the first "cófrade" or member of the "brotherhood." The
updated version of the letter also carries the signatures of "cófrades"
Tomás Fernández and Tato Quiñones – academic researchers whose expertise
is the question of racial discrimination.
"There is an explicit desire to revitalise the Cofradía and make it
visible, this time on the part of intellectuals and artists, myself
included," Quiñones told IPS. He said the group includes "veterans of
the struggle for the elimination of racism in Cuba and younger people
who are just now joining in."
He said that while CONEG does not take part in political activity as
such, he is aware of the complexity and implications of the effort that
it means to undertake, "which could at times make some of its actions
appear to be somewhat political."
The document underscores "the great deal that the Cuban revolution has
done to eliminate racial inequality."
However, "reality shows that there is still a long way to go, because
the underlying issues have not really changed."
The letter says the accumulation of disadvantages historically faced by
blacks in Cuba was aggravated by the severe economic crisis of the
1990s, as seen in social life in general and in the daily lives of Cubans.
Several studies on the question show that the economic recession that
followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and East European socialist
bloc - Cuba's main aid and trade partners - widened the gap between
those who were already socially disadvantaged and the rest of the
population.
The recession "reproduced and accentuated social, and in consequence,
racial inequalities, given the links that have historically existed
between race and class," says a study by University of Havana researcher
María del Carmen Caño published in 1996 by Temas magazine.
"As I see it, these last 20 years have been devastating for the nation
in all spheres of social life," said Quiñones.
He also said there was "subliminal racism" among most of Cuba's 11.2
million people.
In his view, racism in Cuba is seen as "embarrassing," and people do not
admit to their racial prejudice.
But at the same time, he said, racial discrimination is getting more and
more blatant, in the form of exclusion and segregation.
Quiñones agrees that it will be impossible to fight racial
discrimination "unless national awareness about the problem is fomented,
by means of a range of actions targeting the racial prejudice held by a
large part of the Cuban population."
The latest census, from 2002, indicates that out of the 11.18 million
Cuban nationals living in the country at that time, 7.2 million were
classified as white, 1.13 million as black, and 2.78 as mixed-race,
based on self-identification.
However, scholars estimate that the Cuban population is actually around
60 to 70 percent black or mixed-race.
After Fidel Castro took power in the 1959 revolution, discrimination on
the basis of race, sex or place of origin was prohibited and made
punishable by law. Article 41 of the constitution establishes that "the
institutions of the state educate everyone, from the earliest years, in
the principle of equality."
"It took us a while to discover…that marginalisation, and along with it
racial discrimination, is in fact something that cannot be suppressed by
law or by 10 laws, and even in 40 years we have not been able to totally
suppress it," Castro himself admitted in a September 2000 speech in
Harlem, New York.
Quiñones said Castro's remarks were "in and of themselves" a major
stride "in the long and probably tortuous road that the Cuban nation
must still traverse to finally eliminate this complex problem."
"It must be understood that in Cuba, the question of racism was
considered taboo for decades, because public exposure of it could give
rise to 'fissures' in the sense of unity that was indispensable for
facing the aggression from outside," said the academic, who specialises
in Afro-Cuban culture and religion.
He also said that until the mid-1980s, a theoretical concept – which in
the long-term proved "erroneous" - prevailed: that once social classes
had disappeared and the people had built a "new society," the process
would automatically do away with racial prejudice and discrimination.
But Quiñones said that in recent years there have been significant
changes with respect to efforts to acknowledge the problem. He pointed
out that the issue of racism was discussed in 1998 at a congress of the
Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), and a year later at a
meeting of UNEAC's National Board.
More recently, committees have been set up by UNEAC and the National
Library to study the question, the issue is present in the work of Cuban
hip hop artists, and the government Anthropology Institute carried out a
study on the current state of things.
Among other actions, a group of intellectuals and artists have begun to
hold screenings of a documentary called "Raza" (Race) by young Cuban
filmmaker Eric Corvalán in Havana and Santa Clara, a city in central
Cuba, with discussions after the film, which "addresses the problem in a
lucid, bold and coherent manner," according to Quiñones.
"In the face of this phenomenon, we can't sit back with our arms
crossed. Some voices of alert are being heard. Because 'the problem of
blacks,' it has been said wisely, is actually a 'problem of the
whites'," said the academic. (END/2009)
CUBA: Raising Awareness about Racial Discrimination - IPS ipsnews.net (7
September 2009)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48358
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