So far, Benson's text has made me think a great deal more about the connections between race and class. Of course, those connections are always there, yet this connection seems that much more important when discussing Cuban history in the 20th century, at least the narrative Benson constructs. I am still trying to put my finger on why that is exactly. So, maybe I will just put that out there as a question for people to respond to or a thread we may take up in class. Why are discussions of race and racial discrimination framed primarily as questions about economic opportunity or economic disadvantage in Cuba (almost regardless of political persuasion)?
Second, despite race being framed as a class issue in Cuba, it is clear that racism manifested itself in less (overtly) materialistic terms: separate social clubs, people having to walk on separate sides of the park, and residual racist characterizations (e.g., cartoons and advertisements) in popular and political culture even after the revolution in 1959. So, can racism (cast in purely caste terms) be addressed, ameliorated, or eliminated, if these less formal expressions of racism persist or are allowed to persist? I can't tell if these are deeply insightful questions or really naïve ones with obvious answers. But, maybe you all can tell me...
We see a lot of similarities of "anti-racism" in Cuba and in Brazil in which both countries preach to be a "raceless" society and yet perpetuate racist ideologies in images, cartoons and even educational materials. Figures like Jose Marti, who claims that Cuba is a raceless country that was not composed of black or whites but only Cubans, is a complete contradiction to the realities of what the country was really like.
What differences do you guys see in Cuba that we don't see in Brazil, and how does the United States play a part in that?
Kevin, I had a similar approach to this week's reading, and asked myself the same questions. One difference that I thought we might discuss is how instances of (state-sponsored) violence against people of color who demanded equality did not occur in Brazil, but certainly happened in Cuba; I couldn't really think of an equivalent to the 1912 massacre of members of the PIC in last week's text.
Perhaps the lack of an instance of a "race war" in Brazil can help us differentiate what makes Cuba's situation different?
I was thinking about the same exact comparison. I thought it was interesting to see that despite the push for "racelessness", the Afro-Cuban community was pushing for a black consciousness. Also I think quite contradictory was the use of race against enemies of Cuba, while they claim racelessness.
I agree that these two books seem to be telling a similar narrative. I also think that similarities extend further than merely the attempt to be a "raceless" society but also include how the countries' respective intellectuals tried to negotiate a space for themselves within these contexts.
This weeks reading really interested me as we have discussed a lot about post- independence Latin American countries. However, this book really focused on the Socialistic Revolution in Cuba. Similarly to the other countries ideals about independence and eliminating the older colonial racial hierarchy, Cuba's Socialistic revolution, also tried to pretend racial prejudice was not a problem. The only difference though is that Castro and his supporters claimed they were "fighting" against racial discrimination although obviously this wasn’t the case. The author discussed a lot of very interesting examples. He said, "Afro-Cuban outcries against public racism became more vocal following Castro's 1 January 1960 announcement to African American visitors that the 1959 revolution had eliminated racial discrimination. Cuban dailies printed denouements like Penalver's throughout the spring and summer as blacks and mulatos encountered racial discrimination in the very tourist hotels, restaurants, and recreational centers that the government promoted to African Americans." (155) This duality and hypocrisy is very much reminiscent of the other government policies and ideologies that we have discussed previously the only difference is that the government claims through a Marxist framework, that discrimination is gone, but clearly this isn’t true.
I noticed this too. By publicly admitting that there is no discrimination undercuts those who actually deal with it and protect those who discriminate against others from guilt. This a long with the difference in treatment between African Americans and Afro Cubans only add fuel to the fire of the hypocrisy you describe.
Picking up from some of the questions that we posed during class last week, Antiracism in Cuba explores the ways in which racial democracy, or equality, can exist alongside racialized ideologies and discrimination. Although I recognize that it’s a little reductive to ask, I’d like to invite comparison between what we saw in our reading of Brazil last week. It seemed to me that much of the same rhetoric we saw expressed last week--the “unfulfilled” promise of equality; de facto discrimination; the debate between access and attitude--were echoed this week’s reading, yet the results are very different: Cuban’s who claimed that racial discrimination persisted despite the three year campaign to end it were subject to censorship and retribution. Is this simply because a socialist government was in place? Does it have to do with international tensions and the need to present Cuba as a homogenized nation?
Finally, because a comparison to the United States is inevitable, I wanted to highlight Juan Rene Betancourt’s response to the revolutionaries government’s promise to tackle racial inequality in Cuba and ask if it’s true that “‘a friendly government can help [end inequality] but no government, from above, by way of laws or decrees can eliminate something that has its roots in the history and the economy [of a country]’” (72), and whether our various forays into Latin American race-making supports that claim.
I found that the typical trend of racial conception to be changing throughout Latin America and as the time period changes. The topic of "racelessness" still has my mind jumbled, probably because the term is just actually a charade employed by these governments to push agenda. Regardless. Seeing this development in Cuba was interesting. As I mentioned in my comment, the idea of contradiction in racial terms was very evident in Cuban society. This is especially seen when Cuba is visualized as a safe-haven from race, but is soon revealed to be a land of continued discrimination for most African individuals. The trend of "racial blindness" is being noticed in these reading, wondering how this idea started to become so popular among Latin American countries.
This week's reading focuses on Cuba's development after Castro took over. It presents this idea of race not existing, "Not Blacks but Citizens". This idea of an overarching national identity is something we've hit upon in several of the books but I keep going back to this idea that by erasing racism you take away the negative but also remove the struggles that Africans in Latin America faced and also remove the blame. Forgiveness is important forgetting leads to repeated mistakes and that is the danger with abandoning racism so suddenly.
Benson coincides nicely with other readings we have had this semester, as some others have pointed out, such as Terms of Inclusion: Black Intellectuals in Twentieth-Century Brazil and To Die This Way as I felt it echoed many of the sentiments I wrote about in last weeks reflection paper. From the introduction Benson addresses the question of agency of those of African descent in Cuba; “Cuban ideologies of raceless nationalism and promises of equality for all in the new republic handcuffed national debates about race in the early twentieth century by limiting how Afro-Cubans could challenge persistent discrimination.” For me this resonates with Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. Crenshaw is a legal scholar, but she coined the term “intersectionality” to show how African American women were left behind the protection of the 14th amendment because they would have to appeal as either African American or women, not both, therefore their experiences of repression were often ignored. This loophole also seems similar to that of Afro-Cubans in Benson’s work.
The discussion we had in class illuminated the contrast between Brazil and Cuba. While racial discrimination was addressed in Brazil through the black intellectual community, in post-revolutionary Cuba, the changes introduced by Castro’s regime did improve the notion of an egalitarian society, however, it did not diminish the existing ongoing racial discrimination. Despite a rather premature declaration that the “end” of racism was at hand in 1961, and the acceptance of a raceless ideology, “not blacks but citizens,” failed to dismantle racial prejudices (p.247). Castor’s regime would censor many Afro-Cuban artists/activists, like Sara Gomez, who made documentaries exposing the discriminatory attitudes that prevented the black community from escaping the inequality that continued. One of our better classes.
So far, Benson's text has made me think a great deal more about the connections between race and class. Of course, those connections are always there, yet this connection seems that much more important when discussing Cuban history in the 20th century, at least the narrative Benson constructs. I am still trying to put my finger on why that is exactly. So, maybe I will just put that out there as a question for people to respond to or a thread we may take up in class. Why are discussions of race and racial discrimination framed primarily as questions about economic opportunity or economic disadvantage in Cuba (almost regardless of political persuasion)?
ReplyDeleteSecond, despite race being framed as a class issue in Cuba, it is clear that racism manifested itself in less (overtly) materialistic terms: separate social clubs, people having to walk on separate sides of the park, and residual racist characterizations (e.g., cartoons and advertisements) in popular and political culture even after the revolution in 1959. So, can racism (cast in purely caste terms) be addressed, ameliorated, or eliminated, if these less formal expressions of racism persist or are allowed to persist? I can't tell if these are deeply insightful questions or really naïve ones with obvious answers. But, maybe you all can tell me...
We see a lot of similarities of "anti-racism" in Cuba and in Brazil in which both countries preach to be a "raceless" society and yet perpetuate racist ideologies in images, cartoons and even educational materials. Figures like Jose Marti, who claims that Cuba is a raceless country that was not composed of black or whites but only Cubans, is a complete contradiction to the realities of what the country was really like.
ReplyDeleteWhat differences do you guys see in Cuba that we don't see in Brazil, and how does the United States play a part in that?
I agree, both sort of deny the existence of a problem of racial discrimination even though that problem is a constant in those nations.
DeleteKevin,
DeleteI had a similar approach to this week's reading, and asked myself the same questions. One difference that I thought we might discuss is how instances of (state-sponsored) violence against people of color who demanded equality did not occur in Brazil, but certainly happened in Cuba; I couldn't really think of an equivalent to the 1912 massacre of members of the PIC in last week's text.
Perhaps the lack of an instance of a "race war" in Brazil can help us differentiate what makes Cuba's situation different?
I was thinking about the same exact comparison. I thought it was interesting to see that despite the push for "racelessness", the Afro-Cuban community was pushing for a black consciousness. Also I think quite contradictory was the use of race against enemies of Cuba, while they claim racelessness.
DeleteI agree that these two books seem to be telling a similar narrative. I also think that similarities extend further than merely the attempt to be a "raceless" society but also include how the countries' respective intellectuals tried to negotiate a space for themselves within these contexts.
DeleteThis weeks reading really interested me as we have discussed a lot about post- independence Latin American countries. However, this book really focused on the Socialistic Revolution in Cuba. Similarly to the other countries ideals about independence and eliminating the older colonial racial hierarchy, Cuba's Socialistic revolution, also tried to pretend racial prejudice was not a problem. The only difference though is that Castro and his supporters claimed they were "fighting" against racial discrimination although obviously this wasn’t the case. The author discussed a lot of very interesting examples. He said, "Afro-Cuban outcries against public racism became more vocal following Castro's 1 January 1960 announcement to African American visitors that the 1959 revolution had eliminated racial discrimination. Cuban dailies printed denouements like Penalver's throughout the spring and summer as blacks and mulatos encountered racial discrimination in the very tourist hotels, restaurants, and recreational centers that the government promoted to African Americans." (155) This duality and hypocrisy is very much reminiscent of the other government policies and ideologies that we have discussed previously the only difference is that the government claims through a Marxist framework, that discrimination is gone, but clearly this isn’t true.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this too. By publicly admitting that there is no discrimination undercuts those who actually deal with it and protect those who discriminate against others from guilt. This a long with the difference in treatment between African Americans and Afro Cubans only add fuel to the fire of the hypocrisy you describe.
DeleteHi all,
ReplyDeletePicking up from some of the questions that we posed during class last week, Antiracism in Cuba explores the ways in which racial democracy, or equality, can exist alongside racialized ideologies and discrimination. Although I recognize that it’s a little reductive to ask, I’d like to invite comparison between what we saw in our reading of Brazil last week. It seemed to me that much of the same rhetoric we saw expressed last week--the “unfulfilled” promise of equality; de facto discrimination; the debate between access and attitude--were echoed this week’s reading, yet the results are very different: Cuban’s who claimed that racial discrimination persisted despite the three year campaign to end it were subject to censorship and retribution. Is this simply because a socialist government was in place? Does it have to do with international tensions and the need to present Cuba as a homogenized nation?
Finally, because a comparison to the United States is inevitable, I wanted to highlight Juan Rene Betancourt’s response to the revolutionaries government’s promise to tackle racial inequality in Cuba and ask if it’s true that “‘a friendly government can help [end inequality] but no government, from above, by way of laws or decrees can eliminate something that has its roots in the history and the economy [of a country]’” (72), and whether our various forays into Latin American race-making supports that claim.
I found that the typical trend of racial conception to be changing throughout Latin America and as the time period changes. The topic of "racelessness" still has my mind jumbled, probably because the term is just actually a charade employed by these governments to push agenda. Regardless. Seeing this development in Cuba was interesting. As I mentioned in my comment, the idea of contradiction in racial terms was very evident in Cuban society. This is especially seen when Cuba is visualized as a safe-haven from race, but is soon revealed to be a land of continued discrimination for most African individuals. The trend of "racial blindness" is being noticed in these reading, wondering how this idea started to become so popular among Latin American countries.
ReplyDeleteThis week's reading focuses on Cuba's development after Castro took over. It presents this idea of race not existing, "Not Blacks but Citizens". This idea of an overarching national identity is something we've hit upon in several of the books but I keep going back to this idea that by erasing racism you take away the negative but also remove the struggles that Africans in Latin America faced and also remove the blame. Forgiveness is important forgetting leads to repeated mistakes and that is the danger with abandoning racism so suddenly.
ReplyDeleteBenson coincides nicely with other readings we have had this semester, as some others have pointed out, such as Terms of Inclusion: Black Intellectuals in Twentieth-Century Brazil and To Die This Way as I felt it echoed many of the sentiments I wrote about in last weeks reflection paper. From the introduction Benson addresses the question of agency of those of African descent in Cuba; “Cuban ideologies of raceless nationalism and promises of equality for all in the new republic handcuffed national debates about race in the early twentieth century by limiting how Afro-Cubans could challenge persistent discrimination.” For me this resonates with Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. Crenshaw is a legal scholar, but she coined the term “intersectionality” to show how African American women were left behind the protection of the 14th amendment because they would have to appeal as either African American or women, not both, therefore their experiences of repression were often ignored. This loophole also seems similar to that of Afro-Cubans in Benson’s work.
ReplyDeleteThe discussion we had in class illuminated the contrast between Brazil and Cuba. While racial discrimination was addressed in Brazil through the black intellectual community, in post-revolutionary Cuba, the changes introduced by Castro’s regime did improve the notion of an egalitarian society, however, it did not diminish the existing ongoing racial discrimination. Despite a rather premature declaration that the “end” of racism was at hand in 1961, and the acceptance of a raceless ideology, “not blacks but citizens,” failed to dismantle racial prejudices (p.247). Castor’s regime would censor many Afro-Cuban artists/activists, like Sara Gomez, who made documentaries exposing the discriminatory attitudes that prevented the black community from escaping the inequality that continued. One of our better classes.
ReplyDelete