Racism in Cuba
The Debate
The Debate
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[thumb\|A Cuban man of color teaching an Afro\-Cuban dance.](/wiki/File:Learning_Afro-Cuban_Dance.jpg "Learning Afro-Cuban Dance.jpg")
There is heavy debate today on how the 1959 revolution impacted race relations on the island. Overall, the debate of racism in Cuba typically takes one of two extremes. Either the revolution ended racism, or it exacerbated or even created racial tension on the island. 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 Revolution Ended Racism

Typically the proponents of the elimination of racism position are close to the revolutionary government, supportive of the revolution in total, and/or come from an older generation of Cubans that are more familiar with pre\-revolutionary racism. They argue that the dismantling of economic class through socialism destroyed the material perpetuation of racism. In 1966, Castro himself said that, “Discrimination disappeared when class privileges disappeared." Castro also often compared the anti\-racism of Cuba to the United States' segregation, and labeled Cuba as a "Afro\-Latin" nation when justifying anti\-imperial support to liberation fronts in Africa.
[thumb\|Graffiti in Havana, 2017\.](/wiki/File:Rasisma_grafitio_%28Playa%2C_Havano%29.jpg "Rasisma grafitio (Playa, Havano).jpg")

Many who argue that Cuba is not racist base their claims on the idea of Latin American exceptionalism. According to this argument, a social history of intermarriage and mixing of the races is unique to Latin America. The large [mestizo](/wiki/Mestizo "Mestizo") populations that result from high levels of interracial union common to the region are often linked to racial democracy. For many Cubans this translates into an argument of "racial harmony," often referred to as 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.Mark Sawyer. *Racial Politics in Post\-Revolutionary Cuba*.

### The Revolution Silenced Non\-white Cubans

While many opponents of the Revolution, such as Cuban emigrants, argue that Castro created race problems on the island, the most common claim for the exacerbation of racism is the revolution's inability to accept Afro\-Cubans who want to claim a black identity. After 1961, it was simply taboo to talk about race at all. 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.

Esteban Morales Domínguez, a professor in the [University of Havana](/wiki/University_of_Havana "University of Havana"), believes that "the absence of the debate on the racial problem already threatens {...} the revolution's social project." Carlos Moore, who has written extensively on the issue, says that "there is an unstated threat, blacks in Cuba know that whenever you raise race in Cuba, you go to jail. Therefore the struggle in Cuba is different. There cannot be a civil rights movement. You will have instantly 10,000 black people dead." He says that a new generation of black Cubans are looking at politics in another way. Cuban rap groups of today are fighting against this censorship; Hermanos de Causa explains the problem by saying, "Don’t you tell me that there isn’t any \[racism], because I have seen it / don’t tell me that it doesn’t exist, because I have lived it."


How does the Cuban government respond to criticisms about its handling of racial issues?