Cuban Migration To Miami - Rioting and Social Upheaval

Rioting and Social Upheaval

The growing number and power of Miami's Cuban population increasingly impacted African-American communities within Miami. In fact, "countless media and public reports portray Miami in terms of a fragile truce among Hispanics, blacks, and Anglos that threatens to dissolve into a full-blown culture war".

"African American rioting erupted on four separate occasions during the 1980s in Miami. With the exception of the events following the Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles, Miami experienced the worst U.S. rioting since the 1960s when Liberty City erupted in violent protests in 1980. African Americans' non-traditional protests and civil disturbances in Miami coincided with the social upheaval attendant on the arrival of 125,000 refugees from the Cuban port of Mariel". Although the link between racial tensions and ethnicity need to be further examined, African Americans nonetheless are impacted by Cuban immigration into Miami. Cuban Americans' attachment to their culture further fuels the conflict and promote social fragmentation. Essentially, "racial tensions and periodic episodes of civil unrest in its ghettos".