Authors
Danielle Pilar Clealand
Publication date
2011/8
Publisher
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Description
Racial ideology in Cuba, which negates the importance and effects of race and a racial hierarchy, gained significant legitimacy at the start of the Cuban Revolution due to increased levels of equality and the initial commitment by the Revolution to eradicate racism and racial discrimination. Racism was declared to be solved and race was subsequently erased from the public script two years after its triumph in 1959. This project determines 1) how the ideology of racial harmony and Cuban socialism join to create a racial ideology that often succeeds in reducing the salience of race for Cubans, particularly among the revolution's supporters 2) how this racial ideology affects identity formation, racial consciousness and racial attitudes among blacks as it interacts with visible racial disparities and 3) the trajectory that black politics has taken in Cuba. In the absence of black institutions, associations or networks, and amidst a powerful ideology that blocks identity affirmation, there are blacks that still feel a sense of solidarity with one another and some display a strong sense of racial consciousness as racial difference determines modes of access and influences everyday social interactions. I also maintain that while many nonwhites in particular see race as a salient category in their lives and opportunities, many still adhere to the dominant racial ideology, believe in its integrationist ethos, do not view race as a determinant in their social relations and perceive racism to be a manifestation of attitudes and isolated incidents, rather than a structural phenomenon. Revolutionary ideals create a union among belief in racial democracy and the Cuban Revolution …
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