Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 20
It is important to divulge and discuss the advances, instruments, proposals, criticism and recommendations emerging from international
spaces and organisms like the UN Committee for
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD), whose binding treaty of which Cuba is
a signatory, yet the Cuban people know nothing
about. It is imperative to change the anti-racist
movement’s dimension, so that it can be totally
independent and focus on questioning the institutional agents of discrimination instead of continuing to cover up the government’s historical and
political responsibility with warm cloths, complicit obfuscation and half truths.
It is imperative that we pressure the authorities,
from within the citizenry. Heretofore, authorities
have shown neither the political commitment nor
will to spread the historical truth and debate that
should be taking place in schoolrooms and academic institutions, on screens, stages and neighborhoods in a transparent and objective way.
We must put into practice mechanisms for citizen
and economic empowerment so we can consistently attenuate the enormous inequality and disadvantage suffered by Cuban Afro-descendants
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until now; they have been victims of a social polarization and abandon that affect present and future socio-economic transformations.
Zurbano should clarify if this anti-racist movement he is proposing will be a new “official” position, one whose membership is limited to people
from that totalitarian “left” that has had more than
half a century of absolute, oppressive and racist
power. I can guarantee that no matter what is or
isn’t done, if there is no civil independence and
inclusive diversity, it will come to an early end in
failure, frustration and useless lamentations.
*Editor's Note: Afro-descendant writer and essayist Roberto Zurbano was Director of the Casa
de las Américas Book Collection and was fired
after the New York Times published his article
"For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolutions Hasn't Begun." According to the author, the original title
was "Para los negros en Cuba la Revolución no
ha terminado" [The Revolution is Not Over for
Blacks in Cuba].