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Claudia Márquez Linares, Grupo Decoro
HAVANA, December (www.cubanet.org) - The assertion of specialists from the
Center for Anthropology, an office of the Ministry of Science, Technology and
the Environment, that institutionalized racism existed in Cuba prior to 1959,
contrasts with the reality that involves the black population in Cuba today.
In a report published by the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald, the Cuban
investigators emphasize that after 1959, racism was eradicated from
institutions, a point of view that is contradicted by data which the same center
offers relative to the percentage of blacks working in the tourist industry
today. According to the Center for Anthropology, 80 percent of the personnel who
work in tourism are white, and just 5 percent are black.
How can we assess this situation when we know the sole employer in Cuba is
the government? Is the fact that white persons are preferentially hired in the
tourist sector perhaps on a par with another entity that isn’t the State?
The black population in Cuba, besides suffering limitations in getting
access to more profitable jobs and having access to dollars, suffers from
constant harassment by the police. It is well known that the immense majority of
people who are stopped on the streets for identification are blacks.
To this should be added the fact that 70 percent of the prison population is
black or mixed-race, groups representing 30 and 10 percent of the present
population respectively, according to figures from the same center. This piece
of information can vary according to the source, due to the variety of types
within each racial group.
It is worth pointing out that the prison population in Cuba varies from
between 60 and 70 thousand citizens - 0.7 to 1 percent of the Cuban population -
according to data compiled by the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National
Reconciliation.
In a survey of poor neighborhoods in the capital, it isn’t hard to
verify that the majority of residents are blacks or of mixed race, a situation
that exemplifies the low standard of living of a considerable part of the black
population in Cuba.
Another matter which demonstrates the economic disadvantage of blacks is the
fact that between 30 to 40 percent of whites receive remittances from abroad,
while only between 5 to 10 percent of blacks count on this help.
While no one doubts that the argument of many black Cubans who do not feel
discriminated rests on the fact that they have gone to college, we cannot deny
that discrimination has reached such subtle degrees that these are frequently
ignored and justified.
Versión original
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