IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 28

tional images of products. Whiteskinned people take the jobs with more
benefits in the hard currency market,
such as store-dependents, hotel receptionists or managers; they are also the
largest group among the owners of
private businesses, the hosts of TV or
radio shows, the officers in management
or administrative positions ... The darkskinned, in contrast, are mainly employed as clean-up workers, cookers,
teaching assistants, maids, caretakers…
In the town of Antilla there is a high
percentage of people of color working
in secondary positions of the sector of
public health, education, trade, textile
manufacturing, and others. The gap
between men and women in the economy is complemented with the differences in the political hierarchy. While
the stated policy is to have more young
people, between 35 and 48 years old, as
well as more blacks and women in
positions of political leadership, in
Antilla it’s not the case. The territory is
led by men and only 4 black people (3
men and 1 woman) are members of the
Municipal Party Committee. Among the
delegates to the Municipal Assembly of
the People's Power, over 85% are men
and only 15% are blacks. The men
surveyed admitted that the situation is
real and so they are actually the main
responsible of the social harms brought
by more than 50 years of Communist
rule. The Holguin province has more
than one million inhabitants. Women
outnumber men and white-skinned
people make up more than 70% of the
population. Since it is the area of highest rate of racism in the country, the
disdain prevails. What has the government done to solve this social problem?
Nothing. There are not campaigns to

fight for racial equality or to encourage
to report the cases of physical and
verbal violence suffered by darkskinned people, especially those of low
income and low level of education, who
even take the option of knocking on
doors or begging in the streets in order
to survive. Most of them are black, but
even people of color with some level of
economic welfare, because they could
overcome the circumstances and move
forward, are poorly served and even
abused as customer because of the color
of their skin and their class origin. The
features of racism are more pronounced
in women than in men. 70% of respondents manifested disparagingly about
blacks and refused to accept social lowincome people in their relationship
circle. There is also a huge disproportion of blacks in the prison population.
Another very controversial and complicated issue is the discrimination because
of political orientation. The campaigns
against dissenters generate a permanent
state of anxiety. Everyone fears that he
or she could be arrested at any time by
agents of the State Security. No wonder
many of the survey respondents were
against the socialist system and 100%
referred to the lack of freedoms of
expression and assembly. Some of them
argued that they have been discriminated, questioned