Ramon Colas, ContributorIN AN important CARICOM meeting which started on Thursday in Havana, the region's foreign ministers were expected to follow a pre-arranged agenda that is unlikely to address issues that might cause discomfort among their hosts.
Meanwhile, an unconscionable scene plays out in which black Cubans are daily marginalised, victims of a subtle but tangible racism that is cruel and inhumane. Cuban government statistics, always taken with a grain of salt, nonetheless confirm that Cubans who happen to be black are those with the least access to hard currency, an instrument of basic survival in today's Cuba.
NO SURPRISE
This should be no surprise: you will find virtually no black hotel maids or waiters, jobs that are attractive because they provide access to dollars and euros. Indeed, tourism and dollarisation's silent victims have been Cuba's black population, now transformed into a social nuisance.
To be sure, the Cuban authorities would much rather blacks stay far away from investors and joint venture companies. This, in turn, brings about a situation in which investors (largely white) absorb these same attitudes and become complicit in an evil that affects millions of non-white Cubans. In the political realm discrimination is no less pervasive. Within Cuba's power structure, few blacks share the privilege of leading. Of the National Assembly's 600 deputees, only 18 per cent are black. A similar situation exists at the provincial and local levels. The executive is worse yet. When Cuba's leaders travel abroad, they could pass off as a Northern European delegation save for the black faces carrying the luggage or guarding the entourage. Unfortunately, the military is no different. That institution's leadership is made up of white officers. The three chiefs of the army are white; so are the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the police, the navy, and the air force. Similarly, the military's control over economic activities is all channelled through non-black officers. Only the low-ranking black soldiers remind us that Cuba is, after all, in the Caribbean.
It is easy to forget that Cuba's black and mixed populations make up the overwhelming majority! The fact that for over four decades a black leadership has not emerged demonstrates that blacks have not been taken into account.
I myself was victim to this racial discrimination every time I was detained in my country. No interrogation passed in which state security officers did not allude to my condition of being a black Cuban. For them, as for the hierarchy of the Politburo, someone of my colour must unconditionally support the regime and blindly obey its authority. I cannot here repeat the epithets they would proffer.
This disheartening reality must be overcome through reason and moral responsibility. It will be attainable only when there exists in Cuba a system based on real opportunities, equally distributed without regard to race. Only then will black and white, white and black, that is to say Cubans, join together for the good of their nation.
MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
CARICOM's foreign ministers meeting in Havana should take advantage of their opportunity to venture beyond pristine hotel lobbies and orchestrated cultural events. If they do, they will puncture the myths artfully promoted through deliberate media campaigns. They will touch the real Cuba: a place where discrimination is widespread, and hope non-existent. They would do well to visit with the leaders of Cubas opposition movement. There they will find what the regimes ranks has not been able to produce in 45 years a black leadership. They will also find the clearest indication that a black leadership will be inevitable in a future democractic Cuba.
Ramon Colas is the founder of the Independent Libraries of Cuba, a grassroots civil society movement that promotes reading free from censorship and the free exchange of ideas.
