No Way that the Cuban Revolution is Racist

They keep on ranting about the issue of racism in Cuba (II)

Elio Delgado Legon

HAVANA TIMES — Staying on the subject of racism, I’m forced to refer to a post published on Havana Times written by Yusimi Rodriguez, contesting everything I wrote about Guillermo Farinas’ many hunger strikes, who has been transformed from a common prisoner for having seriously injured an old man into a political prisoner, because the counter-revolution needed more prisoners for its propaganda and to get their hands on the scraps that the US government pays out to them for their actions against the Revolution, which has made and supports the Cuban people, black and white alike, together.

And Yusimi is right when she says that I’m going to argue that I have a lot of black friends. Not only do I have black friends, but my best friends have been black and my best friend of all who I love as if he were my brother is mestizo. Furthermore, my son-in-law in mestizo. I have never had racist or discriminatory sentiments in my head or in my heart, just like any true revolutionary shouldn’t.

I’m very surprised that somebody who should have a high level of education writes things like the Revolution benefited from improving the lives of “a large part of the Cuban population, including those of Afro-Descendants. However, the regime has taken advantage of these improvements in the same way that Carlos Manuel de Cespedes did when he freed his slaves, inviting them to join the war against Spain: thereby guaranteeing committed, indebted subordinates.”

Firstly, it reveals a complete moral and ethical devaluation of the Father of our Nation, by judging him as a mean-spirited man interested only in benefiting from the liberation of his slaves. She forgets that she is referring to a man who had a great fortune and who committed this fortune to our Homeland. He gave slaves the freedom to choose whether they wanted to fight for their Homeland or be “free” under colonial Spanish oppression.

She refers to the Revolution in the same way, as if it were a person or an organization distanced from the Cuban people; however, the Cuban Revolution belongs to everyone, irrespective of race.

Calling the Revolution “racist” displays her great ignorance about what the Revolution is, or she’s on the counter-revolution’s side, organized and funded by the US government, and is therefore a counter-revolutionary mercenary.

By the way, I have never said that those who write for Havana Times are mercenaries, like Yusimi claims in her article. Mercenaries are those people who receive money from a foreign enemy power, whatever it is they do. And the person who belongs to this counter-revolution, funded by the US, is nothing but a mercenary, even though he holds the Guinness world record for hunger strikes, which are only carried out to make propaganda against the Revolution.

Yusimi ignores, because of her age, what life for black Cubans were before the Revolution. If white Cubans were exploited and died of hunger and preventable and curable diseases, you can imagine what it was like for black Cubans, in a country which was just as racist as the US. I invite her to read and familiarize herself with this subject. And if she still insists on the idea that the Revolution is racist, at least it will no longer be out of ignorance.

One thing that caught my attention in Yusimi’s post was her mention of the film “City in Red” and [race car driver] Juan Manuel Fangio’s kidnapping. I’d like to clear up the fact that the bombs they made were to sabotage the economy of Batista’s tyranny, not to kill innocent people, and therefore it wasn’t terrorism, but sabotage, which are two very different things. And I don’t understand why she referred to Fangio’s kidnapping, as Fangio understood what was going on and cooperated, he wasn’t harmed in any way.

Finally, I want to refer to what Yusimi said about “we’ve been injected with the idea that if white people don’t have the right to oppose the regime, we black Cubans certainly don’t…”

Every Cuban of every color has the right to oppose the regime, however, they have to understand that they are opposing a revolution which belongs to the people and is for the people. Whoever opposes a revolution like ours is a counter-revolutionary and this person can’t be offended for being labeled as such, as it’s the path that has been drawn out, not by Fidel, like Yusimi said, but by the 97% of the people who can vote, which is a right our Constitution has given us. It is the path towards a prosperous and sustainable socialism which we have worked hard to build in spite of the US blockade and subversion plans that the government of this country pays for with taxpayers’ money.