Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 18

The recently begun program of the Primera Jornada Cubana contra el Racismo and la Discriminación [First Cuban Conference against Racism
and Discrimination] (November 2014), sponsored by ARAAC, lacks courageous approaches
to the enormous problems and challenges brought
about by the traumas and inequalities we still endure. This confirms that this platform is still not
ready to generate an adequate dynamic in debates
and proposals connected to the dangers and needs
that afflict us.
In “Cinco minutos de reflexón contra el racismo”
[Five Minutes of Reflection Against Racism],
Zurbano tried to go from lament to proposal via a
very disappointing presentation of half-truths,
omissions and contradictions:
“Cuba’s black population is the inheritor of a history in which slavery, marginalization and racism
were permanent realities till 1959. The Revolution brought with it a great change for Cubans of
any race, class or social condition. For blacks in
particular, it ushered in a qualitatively better period, which is recognized both within and outside
Cuba. The scarce acknowledgement of racism’s
historical weight and the historical disadvantages
that have been endured by blacks in Cuban society still need to be studied from a perspective that
does not defer its impact on today’s challenges.
The current economic dynamic in Cuba is generating profound social inequalities that are
strongly impacting strata and limited resources
throughout the island. Among the affected
groups, a large part of our black population,
which has inherited old socio-economic disadvantages, suffers both economic and social marginalization today. It has to face old and new
forms of racism.”
The first thing we can see in Zurbano’s illustrative paragraph validates the traditional, supremacist pattern of situating Cuban Afro-descendants
as defenseless victims of their misfortunes, without acknowledging the wealth, culture, blood,
sacrifice and commitment Africans and their descendants gave to the nation’s creation and its
very development. What is clear is that if all such
history - which Zurbano is once again denying were acknowledged, his hackneyed, tendentious
and racist argument about the revolution making
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Cuban blacks and mestizos into people would fall
apart. Zurbano is absolute about the supposed
benefits of the revolution and once again hides the
ugly part of history under the cover of distorted
omissions. He does not take into account that despite whatever positive transformations might
have taken place, as he says, far too large is the
negative impact of turning individuals who were
socio-political subjects into objects to be controlled and manipulate B'