Charles - I really appreciate your blog and the insight it provides on Cuba and its historic stands, politics and internal matters. The recent piece was helpful, detailed and nuanced but I think it was missing some insight on some of the issues of race in Cuba. I have spent lots of time there and support the party and the Cuban state on all issues. But in talking to racialized youth in Havana they have the experience that racialized youth have in my town, Toronto do in terms of dealing with the state police. They experience a lack of equal treatment and I am not saying this as a "Leftist" but as someone on these issues who takes a few more steps to review this issue carefully within my union and other institutions I engage with, especially as a white man. You covered the issues of racism well in terms of equal treatment, representation and other matters but you and your observers may not have examined this issue as deeply as in required in terms of day-to-day policing. Solidarity David Kidd Toronto
David, thank you very much for your comment and for being a faithful reader of my column. My observations on the limitations of the movement of Afro-descendants in Cuba are based on analyses of the leaders and intellectuals of the movement itself, none of whom mention police behavior as an issue, as well as on the virtual invisibility of the issue during the constitutional debates and the current debates in the context of economic crisis. There are of course some Cuban youth who take a racialized position, either sincerely or for some motive, but the issue has not gained traction in Cuba, even though there is in Cuba a high level of awareness that it is an issue of debate in the United States and other nations of the North.
Charles - I really appreciate your blog and the insight it provides on Cuba and its historic stands, politics and internal matters. The recent piece was helpful, detailed and nuanced but I think it was missing some insight on some of the issues of race in Cuba. I have spent lots of time there and support the party and the Cuban state on all issues. But in talking to racialized youth in Havana they have the experience that racialized youth have in my town, Toronto do in terms of dealing with the state police. They experience a lack of equal treatment and I am not saying this as a "Leftist" but as someone on these issues who takes a few more steps to review this issue carefully within my union and other institutions I engage with, especially as a white man. You covered the issues of racism well in terms of equal treatment, representation and other matters but you and your observers may not have examined this issue as deeply as in required in terms of day-to-day policing. Solidarity David Kidd Toronto
David, thank you very much for your comment and for being a faithful reader of my column. My observations on the limitations of the movement of Afro-descendants in Cuba are based on analyses of the leaders and intellectuals of the movement itself, none of whom mention police behavior as an issue, as well as on the virtual invisibility of the issue during the constitutional debates and the current debates in the context of economic crisis. There are of course some Cuban youth who take a racialized position, either sincerely or for some motive, but the issue has not gained traction in Cuba, even though there is in Cuba a high level of awareness that it is an issue of debate in the United States and other nations of the North.