{"id":46170,"date":"2016-03-23T17:52:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T17:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46170"},"modified":"2016-03-23T17:52:26","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T17:52:26","slug":"cuba-says-it-has-solved-racism-obama-isnt-so-sure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46170","title":{"rendered":"Cuba Says It Has Solved Racism. Obama Isn\u2019t So Sure."},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuba Says It Has Solved Racism. Obama Isn\u2019t So Sure.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2016-03-23<\/p>\n

Damien Cave<\/strong><\/a>, Deputy Editor for Digital<\/p>\n

HAVANA<\/a> \u2014 President Obama<\/a> spoke of his Kenyan heritage. He talked about how both the United States<\/a> and Cuba<\/a> were built on the backs of slaves from Africa. He mentioned that not very long ago, his parents\u2019 marriage would have been illegal in America, and he urged Cubans to respect the power of protest to bring about equality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our engagement to help lift up Cubans who are of African descent,\u201d he said, \u201cwho have proven there\u2019s nothing they cannot achieve when given the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

For many Cubans, Mr. Obama\u2019s comments were striking for their acknowledgment of racism in both countries. His remarks served as a reminder that their particular kinship with him \u2014 as reflected in dozens of conversations and responses to his history-making three-day visit this week \u2014 involves not just policy, but also identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a revolution,\u201d said Alberto Gonz\u00e1lez, 44, a baker who was one of the few Afro-Cubans to attend a discussion with the president about entrepreneurship on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s a revolution for everyone with a background descended from Africa.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…Socialized medicine and education also helped create a society more deeply shaped by interracial interactions and marriages than the United States.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On an island that is around two-thirds black and mixed race, according to a 2007 study<\/a> by the Cuban economist Esteban Morales Dom\u00ednguez<\/a>, 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…<\/p>\n

…Some Afro-Cubans, like the hip-hop artist known as Soandry<\/a>, linked the president to \u201cwhat can be achieved in a capitalist system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Mr. Gonz\u00e1lez, whose bakery counter is adorned with photographs of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a> and Malcolm X<\/a>, said it was not just the president whom people admire. \u201cLook at that family,\u201d he said, smiling broadly. \u201cCan you imagine? Have you ever seen a more beautiful family?\u201d…<\/p>\n

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

Cuba Says It Has Solved Racism. Obama Isn\u2019t So Sure. The New York Times 2016-03-23 Damien Cave, Deputy Editor for Digital HAVANA \u2014 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,21,8,26],"tags":[23292,673,23291,20709,2640,23293,2327],"class_list":["post-46170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-latincarib","category-media-archive","category-politics","tag-alberto-gonzalez","tag-cuba","tag-damien-cave","tag-esteban-morales-dominguez","tag-new-york-times","tag-soandry","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46170","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=46170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46171,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46170\/revisions\/46171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}