Cuba Says It Has Solved Racism. Obama Isn't So Sure.

Cuba Says It Has Solved Racism. Obama Isn't So Sure.
By DAMIEN CAVEMARCH 23, 2016

HAVANA — President Obama spoke of his Kenyan heritage. He talked about
how both the United States and Cuba were built on the backs of slaves
from Africa. He mentioned that not very long ago, his parents' marriage
would have been illegal in America, and he urged Cubans to respect the
power of protest to bring about equality.

"We want our engagement to help lift up Cubans who are of African
descent," he said, "who have proven there's nothing they cannot achieve
when given the chance."

Mr. Obama's speech on Tuesday, in an ornate Spanish colonial-style hall
in Havana, was not only strikingly personal. It was also an unusually
direct engagement with race, a critical and unresolved issue in Cuban
society that the revolution was supposed to have erased.

For many Cubans, Mr. Obama's comments were striking for their
acknowledgment of racism in both countries. His remarks served as a
reminder that their particular kinship with him — as reflected in dozens
of conversations and responses to his history-making three-day visit
this week — involves not just policy, but also identity.

"It's a revolution," said Alberto González, 44, a baker who was one of
the few Afro-Cubans to attend a discussion with the president about
entrepreneurship on Monday. "It's a revolution for everyone with a
background descended from Africa."

Defensiveness has long hovered over the subject of race, in part because
Fidel Castro said shortly after the revolution that racism had been
solved, making the subject taboo.

The discomfort, in part, came from pride: Some of the revolution's most
visible achievements involved ending institutionalized segregation, at
beach clubs, at schools and in neighborhoods where the homes of wealthy
white Cubans who fled were often given to Cubans of color.

Socialized medicine and education also helped create a society more
deeply shaped by interracial interactions and marriages than the United
States.

And yet, Cuba is no more postracial than anywhere else. Many Afro-Cubans
in Cuba and abroad have been quick to point out that the presence of Mr.
Obama, the first black president of the United States, only highlights
that the Cuban government does not reflect the demographics of their
country.

On an island that is around two-thirds black and mixed race, according
to a 2007 study by the Cuban economist Esteban Morales Domínguez, the
civil and public leadership is about 70 percent white. He also found
that most scientists, technicians and university professors, up to 80
percent in some fields, were white.

"The images of the meetings, the agreements, they're all shameful for
many black Cubans — I'm including myself in this — because it's
difficult to feel represented," said Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, an
associate professor of Latin American and Carribean literatures and
cultures at the University of Connecticut and a scholar at Harvard
University.

She added that elements of Mr. Obama's trip reflected some of the same
dynamics: The Cuban-Americans traveling with the president were nearly
all white, as were the Cuban officials who interacted with him on the
island. Indeed, much of the audience for his speech on Tuesday was white.

In that context, the president — along with his wife, daughters and
mother-in-law, who joined him on the trip — offers a clear contrast.

"What you see is confirmation of black empowerment, which has generally
been denied in Cuban society," Ms. Casamayor-Cisneros said. "For black
Cubans, the mere existence of Obama is unusual and overwhelmingly symbolic."

Some Afro-Cubans, like the hip-hop artist known as Soandry, linked the
president to "what can be achieved in a capitalist system."

Other Cubans brought up race more directly, without prompting, arguing
that because Mr. Obama is African-American, he understands their country.

Mr. González, whose bakery counter is adorned with photographs of the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, said it was not just the
president whom people admire. "Look at that family," he said, smiling
broadly. "Can you imagine? Have you ever seen a more beautiful family?"

The challenge, Mr. González and other Cubans said, is turning that
inspiration into something more substantial, starting with a more open
conversation about race.

"There is definitely still racism here," said Mr. González, who lived in
Italy for more than a decade before returning to open a business. "I see
it often, in how people look at me and treat me."

Among Cubans of all races, there is growing concern about a widening
economic divide in Cuba that is also racial.

Many Cuban scholars have noted that old forces are again at work. As
tourism has grown and become more lucrative — a day's tips can surpass a
month's pay from the government — the staffs of hotels and restaurants
have become less representative. President Raúl Castro's minor economic
opening, allowing for small businesses in Cuba, has also tended to favor
those who already have links to power in government, or relatives abroad
— a growing elite that is disproportionately white.

At times, the racism has been explicit. Yusimí Rodríguez López, an
Afro-Cuban independent journalist, said there are job listings on
Revolico — sometimes called Cuba's underground Craigslist — "where they
say they only want whites."

What is frustrating, she added, is that Cuban officials have little
interest in discussing the issue, or listening. "If you silence the idea
that there's racism," she said, "you silence every conversation about
the problem."

That is what made Mr. Obama's comments stand out. By emphasizing that
people who challenged the government changed the United States — "When I
first started school, we were still struggling to desegregate schools
across the American South," he said — Mr. Obama's comments, and
sincerity, instilled in many Cubans a new hope and offered a knowing
vote of confidence.

Before he arrived, race was increasingly on Cuban minds. Before he
departed, new boundaries were already being pushed, among Afro-Cuban
intellectuals in Cuba, among business owners and even at the so-called
Esquina Caliente, or hot corner, a shady spot in a crowded Havana park
where men gather every day, all day, to talk sports.

"They talk a lot here about discrimination against blacks in the United
States. What about here?" said Manuel Valier Figueroa, 50, an actor, who
was in the park on Monday. "If there's a dance competition, they're
going to chose the woman who is fair-skinned with light, good hair. If
there's a tourism job, the same."

He added: "Why are there no blacks managing hotels? You don't see any
blacks working as chefs in hotels, but you see them as janitors and
porters. They get the inferior jobs."

Mr. Valier, who is black, insisted that he and the others did not care
anymore if anyone from the government was listening to them talk
critically about their society.

"The first black president showed that a black person can lead," he
said. "Here, blacks need to see that the same thing can happen."

Frances Robles and Hannah Berkeley Cohen contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/world/americas/obamaurges-raised-voices-incubas-husheddiscussions-ofrace.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2