African Americans Should Stop Lionizing Castro

[blackrain]

In 2013, Yris Pérez Aguilera, president of Cuban dissident group Rosa Parks Women’s Movement for Civil Rights testified before the United Nations Human Rights Council about threats and beatings she received from Cuban authorities:

I have been the victim of aggressions on the part of the Cuban authorities, especially by the agents Yuniel Monteagudo Reina and Eric Aquino Yera. They have beaten me into unconsciousness in the pavement, as took place most recently this past March 7 in Santa Clara. The hits to the head, neck, and back have caused me serious health problems that I have not been able to recover from. In addition to beating me, they have threatened me with death on various occasions, these agents have told me that they are going to rape me, and have shown their genitals during arbitrary arrests.

Because I am a black woman the cruelty has been worse, because the government that exists in Cuba is racist.

Other black Cuban dissidents such as Coco Fariñas, Berta Soler, Manuel Cuesta Morua, Antúnez, and Nelson Alvarez Matute speak to racism and repression on the island

Long before I became aware of dissidents’ stories, I heard personal accounts from my family. I grew up listening to my grandmother talk about the growing concern she had after Fidel came to power. She talked about hiding her plans to leave the island from her family, her fear of returning to visit after she fled, and the pain of having family and friends perish under the stifling oppression of Fidel’s Cuba. She recalled how protestors were seized, how ordinary citizens had their voices silenced, and how friends and neighbors became neighborhood spies.

My uncles passed down their stories too. One uncle, once a successful chemist, was left homeless and starving after the government punished him for seeking permission to leave the country. Another uncle refused to work sugarcane fields for free. Instead, he hid in the mountains until he could flee the island. A cousin who left Cuba almost a decade ago expressed how angry he was that he had to leave his own country to be a free man

[\quote]

 

[Will Munny]

in 1959 Castro said "Racism is over". Sound familiar?

 

[blackrain]

Does it matter to African-Americans that the penalties for speaking out against the Cuban government are beatings and the threat of rape or death? Are we concerned that black Cubans are incarcerated at higher rates than white Cubans? Do we care that black Cubans still can’t enter many hotels or restaurants? Does it matter to us that Castro could not liberate black people in his own country? This, too, is Castro’s legacy.

African-Americans are demanding that the U.S. recognize that #BlackLivesMatter. We are demanding that our voices be centered in conversations concerning us. We’re tired of people talking about us, lifting up our oppressors, telling us to shut up about it, and expecting us to pledge unquestioned allegiance to America. Yet, when Cubans and Cuban-Americans speak of their lived experiences or the pain of their heritage, we drown out the voices we should be listening to.

We justify human rights abuses with arguments like: “Castro might have done some bad stuff, but he did a lot of good too.” Thomas Jefferson was a brutal slave owner and a rapist, but he wrote the Declaration of Independence. George W. Bush flew over New Orleans as dead black bodies floated in the overflowing waters of Lake Pontchartrain, but he authorized billions in funding for HIV/AIDS and malaria treatment on the African continent.

But from the chattel slaves and their progeny, to Hurricane Katrina’s dead and survivors, how much do the good deeds of victimizers’ matter?

In a moment when African-Americans should fall back and center Cuban voices, including the voices of White Cuban exiles (but hearing those voices in the context of whiteness and what whiteness represents), we are not. Instead, we’re making declarations about a complicated figure that we don’t quite understand.

Just as White Americans don’t get to decide what Jefferson or Bush are to us, African Americans don’t get to decide what Fidel was to the black people who struggled, starved, and died under his regime. One person’s hero will always be another person’s tyrant.

[\quote]
http://fusion.net/story/373379/afri...izing-castro-as-champion-of-black-liberation/

 

[zzombie]

FIDEL CASTRO WAS A COMMUNIST and communism is evil.

The american white supremacist system oppressed blacks for so long that it's only obvious that any alternative ideology would sound appealing that's why when you look at the platform and ideology of many of the radical black groups in the 60's they all styled themselves very similar to communist and the black adoration or communism goes back even further than that but i won't elaborate.

 

[felliwonda]

Great read man I appreciate that.

Well I can tell you being born in Nicaragua in the late 80's right before the revolution of Daniel Ortega was overthrown you can aknowledge the fact that yeah sure Nicaragua having the biggest black population in Central America was being managed under Ortegas regime "the right way". how? Well one example for instance was that he implemented a law where the Blacks in Nicaragua will now participate in student exchange within the country to learn and teach cultures in other words get to know the people of Nicaragua (the mestizos) is true it happened but at what cost was the right question to ask. People who were successful in the country already before the socialist revolution Ortega brought were stripped off their lands and posessions Blacks and mestizos alike no exception. Part of my family suffered through that and were victims of the Marxist teachings as they implemented their reforms. Communism sounds good on paper but is far from that

 

[blackrain]

in 1959 Castro said "Racism is over". Sound familiar?

It's interesting reading this in contrast to the opinions I've seen from those who hold him up as a hero based on their perception of what they think he stood for vs what he actually was doing

 

[blackrain]

@jono @illedout @2stepz_ahead @Los216

 

[ghostdog56]

I don't give a fuck about nobody but black people so on that note

 

[blackrain]

I don't give a fuck about nobody but black people so on that note

@ghostdog56 a black woman wrote it genius

 

[The Lonious Monk]

He kinda lost me at the very beginning when he implied that lots of black Cubans left Cuba because of Castro. From what I've seen, very few black Cubans made that trip. I've lived in FL and seen the big Cuban population in south FL. most of them look like Pitbull.

I don't doubt that there are still struggles for black Cubans, but I think it's unfair to classify that in the same way you do standard racism. It's my understanding that the problem in Cuba for blacks is basically the extension of the post racial society BS that popped up in the US after Obama was elected. Basically, when Castro got in office, he undid Cuba's version of Jim Crow and declared racism ended, and I believe he meant that. However, the foundation of racism was still there, and just like in the US, the Cuban government didn't do anything to tear down that foundation and help the blacks back on their feet. Then when you combine that with the communist tendency to silence dissenters, it resulted in things not progressing as much as one would hope. So it's probably fair to say that Castro's presidency wasn't as good for black Cubans as many on the outside think, but that's not the same as Castro promoting continued racism which is the what the author seemed to be implying.

 

[ghostdog56]

I don't give a fuck about nobody but black people so on that note

@ghostdog56 a black woman wrote it genius

So. Is Fidel a black Cuban? If not fuck him

 

[2stepz_ahead]

I knew a few cubans in the dR

trust me when i say.....dark skin is still very bad to have.but its twice as bad in latin america.

white cubans look at themselves as cuban. and they look at black cubans as afro cubans.....thats bullshit.

cubas whole culture is based off africa....maybe not whole but alot.

i hate seeing how dark skinned people are treated in latin America.

they showed it as soon as obama opened cuba up. the dark skinned people started to get pushed out....

case and point
http://bostonreview.net/world/michelle-chase-us-cuba-relations-afro-cuban-inequality

 

[Beta]

GOATED for using the word lionize

 

[jono]

I don't support Castro. Tyrants of all kinds are unacceptable but when you have high literacy and your people aren't constantly sick you should get credit for that, considering in this bastion of "freedom" people are denied healthcare and quality education.

 

[2stepz_ahead]

an now that i am astrted......

i still side eye niggas who talk that shit about the DR and what the dominicans are doing to haitians....the same shit happens to dark dominicans.

no one talks that shit about how black brazilians are treated

 

[The Lonious Monk]

I don't support Castro. Tyrants of all kinds are unacceptable but when you have high literacy and your people aren't constantly sick you should get credit for that, considering in this bastion of "freedom" people are denied healthcare and quality education.

I think a benevolent tyrant would be great. The question is could such a person ever exist. Absolute power corrupts absolutely as the say. That say, I'm sure if you look back at some of the emperors of the past, there have to be a few of them that were really great for their people. If you have someone that is great, why would you want to get rid of them and gamble on the predecessor.

 

[blackrain]

I knew a few cubans in the dR

trust me when i say.....dark skin is still very bad to have.but its twice as bad in latin america.

white cubans look at themselves as cuban. and they look at black cubans as afro cubans.....thats bullshit.

cubas whole culture is based off africa....maybe not whole but alot.

i hate seeing how dark skinned people are treated in latin America.

they showed it as soon as obama opened cuba up. the dark skinned people started to get pushed out....

case and point
http://bostonreview.net/world/michelle-chase-us-cuba-relations-afro-cuban-inequality

Some folks think latinos don't recognize race or racism because we are proud of our country of origin. That's far from the truth. Race is an issue in Latin America it's just complex as fuck. I've said on the IC before depending on where I'm at will determine my race to some people. In America I'm strictly Latino even though my mom is half Spanish as in her Dad is from Spain...in Panama I'm mixed. In some places I'm seen as black. It all depends on which parent I'm seen with. 2 of my uncles daughters both are light skin and have blonde hair and grey eyes while his middle daughter is like Nautri Naughton complexion and people don't even believe they're sisters at their high school but they all consider themselves young black women. The mixture we have in us can have families looking like a rainbow coalition and that shapes how many view themselves and their racial identity.

 

[blackrain]

I don't support Castro. Tyrants of all kinds are unacceptable but when you have high literacy and your people aren't constantly sick you should get credit for that, considering in this bastion of "freedom" people are denied healthcare and quality education.

But people often can't do anything with that education. That's what you can't gloss over. You can become a doctor yes but it's also an over abundance of supply and not enough demand so the job becomes devalued and you're not able to be paid what the position is truly worth to society. It's the same issue we have in America now that so many college degrees that they're losing the value they once held.

 

[jono]

I don't support Castro. Tyrants of all kinds are unacceptable but when you have high literacy and your people aren't constantly sick you should get credit for that, considering in this bastion of "freedom" people are denied healthcare and quality education.

But people often can't do anything with that education. That's what you can't gloss over. You can become a doctor yes but it's also an over abundance of supply and not enough demand so the job becomes devalued and you're not able to be paid what the position is truly worth to society. It's the same issue we have in America now that so many college degrees that they're losing the value they once held.

So you'd rather have the problem we have where doctors and insurance companies jack up costs?

A broke doctor is a still a doctor. What do broke patients do?

 

[zzombie]

I don't support Castro. Tyrants of all kinds are unacceptable but when you have high literacy and your people aren't constantly sick you should get credit for that, considering in this bastion of "freedom" people are denied healthcare and quality education.

I think a benevolent tyrant would be great. The question is could such a person ever exist. Absolute power corrupts absolutely as the say. That say, I'm sure if you look back at some of the emperors of the past, there have to be a few of them that were really great for their people. If you have someone that is great, why would you want to get rid of them and gamble on the predecessor.

You cannot have a benevolent dictator under communism because the system itself is evil.