full meaning.” 18 Although Cuban journalists and officials who attacked the U. S. President should know that Obama became president with the popular vote in a country that they have been demonizing for decades, they could not hide their surprise when Obama stood for the essential American values. Somehow they were expecting from him the same devotion they expect from the black population on the island, because the revolutionary racism— like any other one— consists in liking the skin color with certain attitude. In this case, they expected at least some complicity of Obama on behalf of the alleged advantages granted by the Revolution to the black race. Both the stupor and the viciousness of the attacks in the official Cuban press went beyond the mere political antagonism. They denote a poorly controlled rage toward a phenomenon that is not fully understood, because it was never understood: that blacks were not grateful for the sleepless efforts done by the Revolution to turn them into human beings. This revolutionary racism patronizes those rendering obedience and brutally represses those who do not. Such racism should not be a surprise for anyone, because it was always there. It always relied, like any other variant of racism, on failing to recognize a particular group on an equal footing. We do not notice it better now because the aged revolutionary avant-garde altered the standard. What has changed is actually the world around it in almost six decades of Castroit power. Nothing like the presence of the first black American president in Havana accentuated the contrast and the absurd anachronism represented by octogenarians still pretending to be liberators. Now the revolutionary racism must take a step forward in its evolution facing the new challenges without losing their own notion of essential superiority. For example, it could adapt the old phrase by Martí: " The imperialist enemy is more than white, more than mulatto, more than black.” 19 Thusly the revolutionary racism could remind us that, beyond its atavism and superstition, the " revolutionary " variant of racism is primarily part of a system of domination over the entire society. Notes: 1-Thomas, Hugh. Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998, 1120. 2-Castro, Fidel. " Speech delivered on 22. March. 1959 ". http:// www. cuba. cu / gobierno / discursos / 1959 / esp / f220359e. html 3-Castro, Fidel. " Second Declaration of Havana ". http:// www. cuba. cu / gobierno / discursos / 1962 / esp / f040262e. html 4- The scholar Alejandro de la Fuente asserts in a fundamental text on racial issues in Cuba: " The initial campaign against discrimination declined after 1962, leading to a growing public silence around the issue except to highlight the success of Cuba in this area." Cf.: Fuente, Alejandro de la. A nation for all. Race, inequality and politics in Cuba. 1900-2000. Madrid: Editorial Hummingbird, 2000, 383. 5-Ibidem 6-See " Report by the UNEAC and the AHS to the intellectuals and artists in the. world "( http:// mesaredonda. cubadebate. cu / notic ias / 2010 / 03 / 16 / a-los-intelectuales-yartistas-del-mundo-pronunciamiento-dela-uneac-y-la-ahs /) or the article " For whom death is useful?", by Enrique Ubieta( http:// www. cubadebate. cu / opinion / 201 0 / 02 / 26 / orlando-zapata-tamayo-lamuerte-util-de-lacontrarrevolucion /#. VxpGTDArIdU) 7-Valls, Jorge. Twenty and forty days. Madrid:. Encuentro,. 1988,. 51. 8- " The press released by Fidel on April 16. and. 17,. 1961 ": https:// verbiclara. wordpress. com / 2009 / 0
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