resistances and bureaucratic obstacles were erected against such a project . Along with the demobilization of the critic voices from the alternative ( underground ) urban culture , two incidents stand out : the media lynching of activist and essayist Roberto Zurbano , because of his article “ The country that is coming : And my black Cuba ?” ( The New York Times , March 23 , 2013 ), and the offensive and humiliating action against the US President Barack Obama — because of his visit to Cuba — by journalist Elias Argudín with his article : “ Negro , are you Swedish ?” ( Tribuna de La Habana , March 24 , 2016 ). There were no public sanction and the other official media chose to remain silent . On June 11 , 2016 , the autobiographical book Without looking back ( Art and Literature , 2016 ), by famous Cuban dancer and choreographer Carlos Acosta , was censored . In another book , the valuable contribution to the studies on racial issues Black Presence in the Cuban Culture ( Ediciones Sensemayá , 2016 ), frontline writers and essayists as Roberto Zurbano and Alberto Abreu were excluded , as well as the African feminists Sandra Alvarez , Sandra del Valle , Yulexis Almeida , Inés María Martiatu , Leyda Oquendo , Maria Ileana Faguaga and Odette Casamayor . Contemporary pioneers like Charles Moore and Juan Benemelis , sentenced to ideological exile and civil death , and new figures like Julio Moracem and Pedro Alexander Cuba , completed the black list . The current Cuban pedagogy hardly draws , with its immense pencil , the culture of the Other . There is no dialogue on racial issues among the political , cultural and anthropological enclaves . The anti-racism pedagogy is a real absent in the curricula . In the classroom , the teachers do not have tools to address the conflicts of racism and discrimination . The challenge of CIR and other citizens ’ platforms is not only cultural , educational and civic . It is also political . Our institution advocates the post-racial society that necessarily requires the vindication of political space . It was built from the racial imagination to face the internal colonialism exerted by the powers that be and instituted by Article 5 of the Constitution . The social articulation is intended from the State on the basis of Marxism-Leninism . Such expression of cultural racism blocks the project of reconstruction of the Cuban civic society and the cultural completion of the nation . That ’ s why the CIR is actively involved in the Civic Platform # Otro18 and committed to its candidacy for elective offices . Its candidates of African descent will expressly defend not only their origin , but also the diversity democratically built on the citizens ’ autonomy and aimed to reconstruct the power structures from the plurality . The empowerment of political leadership by women and men of African descent amid the struggle against racism and discrimination must be considered aloud and permanently activated with actions and advocacy strategies . Moral responses are needed , because our communities are trapped in a scenario of so many inequalities .
* Paper prepared for the dossier " International Campaign Against Racism in Cuba " ( ISLAS , Year 5 , No . 14 , January 2010 , pp . 31-38 ) on the occasion of Dr . Darsi Ferrer ´ s imprisonment .
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