Identidades in English No 3, September 2014 | Page 10

An indisputable fact (one upon which these new
revolutionaries base their ideas) is that it would
be deceitful to confront racism and all its consequences without also seriously democratizing our
society, through models of political participation
in which each person could actually have a direct
influence on issues that concern him or her. It
would be very hard for blacks and mestizos in
Cuba to trust those who are proposing a new way
of finding solutions, given the centuries of socioeconomic stagnation they have endured and the
fact they had to accept and even defend hypotheses imposed on them by white hegemony, with its
vulgar airs and absolute and exclusionary power.
Yet, every day it is also possible to see that members of the political and peaceful opposition in
Cuba do not pronounce their essential thoughts
via classic, political rhetoric (they are not ever
permitted to publicly ventilate), but rather
through their complete conviction. They are also
risking their lives. It is no wonder there are so
many black and mestizo leaders among them, in
proportions equally unacknowledged in the history of our national independence movements.
Neither is their interest in demanding the right of
blacks to have pride or self-esteem, and have it
acknowledged unwarranted (which is relevant but
not sufficiently studied by analysts). It is the human group that was always marginalized, humiliated, relegated, and its particularities continue
being diluted within the generality of other
groups, as part of a manipulating strategy of political domination the fidelista regime has kept up
from its earliest days.
Today, it is the same blacks and mestizos, and not
white patriarchs playing benevolent gods, who
are trying to lift the spirits and morale of their socio-racial group. At the same time, they are also
attempting to open the eyes of many of their white
and black compatriots who have been conned and
anesthetized by the revolutionary dictatorship for
numerous decades. This is the reason they suffer
the manipulative practices and exploitation that

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dictatorship did not try to eradicate and are victims of its hypocritical rhetoric, which resorts to
forcefully imposing a very egotistical and impoverishing form of conservatism, and also insists on
hiding discrimination, class privileges, disdain
and abuse.
In general, members of the peaceful opposition to
the regime, whether black or white, have not
passed up one single opportunity to point out the
prejudices and discriminatory attitudes in the obstacles that prevent our progress not only towards
modernity, but towards plain old civility. It is well
known that these attitudes, racism and suspicious
attitudes espoused by whites towards blacks always occupied and still occupy an incredibly important place. These activists have managed consensus without divisions on the subject, something quite difficult to do in a society that has
been historically undermined by the evil of racism. They have also shown that they can preach
by example; blacks and whites together have
challenged the regime’s repressive machine, received the same beatings for it, and been victims
of the very same shaming while sharing the very
same, horrific cells in their prisons. They have
been treated equally by the same injustice and on
account of identical aspirations. Perhaps it is not
enough for us to be able to blindly embrace all
their ideas, but it is certainly enough for them to
be very favorably compared, not just to the tough,
dictatorial style of Fidel Castro and his inheritors,
but to the attitude of those who are still part of the
regime’s structures and pretend they are absolute
anti-racists when all the while they knowingly lie
when they say that no change in Cuba’s political
leadership today could benefit blacks.1
Note:
1-Morales, Esteban. “La Revolución cubana comenzó en 1959,” La Jiribilla 621 (March 30April 5, 2013).
.