Human Rights in Cuba - Race Relations

Race Relations

Esteban Morales Dominguez has pointed to institutionalized racism in his book The Challenges of the Racial Problem in Cuba (Fundación Fernando Ortiz). Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba discusses the racial politics prevalent in communist Cuba.

Enrique Patterson, writing in the Miami Herald, describes race as "social bomb" and says that "If the Cuban government were to permit black Cubans to organize and raise their problems before ... totalitarianism would fall". Carlos Moore, who has authored extensive on the issue, says that "There is an unstated threat, blacks in Cuba know that whenever you raise race in Cuba, you go to jail. Therefore the struggle in Cuba is different. There cannot be a civil rights movement. You will have instantly 10,000 black people dead". He says that a new generation of black Cubans are looking at politics in another way.

Jorge Luis García Pérez, a well-known Afro-Cuban human rights and democracy activist who was locked up in prison for 17 years, in an interview with the Florida-based Directorio Democratico Cubano states "The authorities in my country have never tolerated that a black person oppose the revolution. During the trial, the color of my skin aggravated the situation. Later when I was mistreated in prison by guards, they always referred to me as being black".