{"id":42264,"date":"2015-08-16T21:58:21","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T21:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42264"},"modified":"2016-03-20T21:13:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T21:13:24","slug":"amid-sweeping-changes-in-us-relations-cubas-race-problem-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42264","title":{"rendered":"Amid sweeping changes in US relations, Cuba\u2019s race problem persists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid sweeping changes in US relations, Cuba\u2019s race problem persists<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Al Jazeera America<\/a>
\n2015-08-13<\/p>\n

Julia Cooke<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1959, Fidel Castro<\/a> said he would work to erase racial discrimination, but inequality is still widespread<\/em><\/p>\n

Official Cuban<\/a> census figures say black and mixed-heritage people are about 35 percent of the island\u2019s population, but a quick stroll around any Cuban town will provide visual confirmation of just how many Cubans of color deem themselves \u201cwhite\u201d when the government is asking. That may not be surprising, given that race is not an objective scientific category, but rather an organizing principle of political power \u2014 both before and after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro<\/a> to power.<\/p>\n

The black and mixed-heritage share of Cuba\u2019s population is closer to a two-thirds majority, according to other sources, including the U.S. State Department (which puts the figure at 62 percent), the University of Miami\u2019s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies<\/a> (also 62 percent) and Cuban economist and political scientist Esteban Morales Dom\u00ednguez<\/a> (who says it may be as high 72 percent). Most of these assessments break down the population into roughly equal blocs of white, black and mixed.<\/p>\n

Even the dominant Cuban terminology signals the issue\u2019s knotty intricacy: the decidedly un-PC<\/a> term mulatto<\/em><\/a> is used tenderly in conversation, defiantly on official documents, and derisively by the concerned neighbor who asks what color skin a robber had.<\/p>\n

Now, as the country enters a new era of fast and sweeping change, a long-taboo political conversation about race is on the table as never before in art, music, film, and writing; in both official and dissident narratives; and in diverse circles across the socio-economic strata…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid sweeping changes in US relations, Cuba\u2019s race problem persists Al Jazeera America 2015-08-13 Julia Cooke In 1959, Fidel Castro said he would work to erase racial discrimination, but inequality is still widespread Official Cuban census figures say black and mixed-heritage people are about 35 percent of the island\u2019s population, but a quick stroll around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,33,8,394],"tags":[15078,11582,673,20709,17839,20710,20711],"class_list":["post-42264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-latincarib","category-census","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","tag-al-jazeera-america","tag-alejandro-de-la-fuente","tag-cuba","tag-esteban-morales-dominguez","tag-fidel-castro","tag-julia-cooke","tag-morales-dominguez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42267,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42264\/revisions\/42267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}