Al Jazeera English - Focus - 'Race still an issue in Cuba': "Esteban Morales: Despite the radical nature of the process that got underway in 1959, the country's social policies failed to take skin colour into account. In terms of social policy, after the triumph of the revolution, all poor people were treated equally, without differentiating between whites and blacks. But this was something that needed to be done, because the colour of one's skin in Cuba is a significant variable in social differences.
White people came to Cuba by their own free will, as colonisers, with goals that they very often achieved. Black people were brought here by force and turned into slaves. These are very different starting points that cannot be forgotten or ignored, and that continue to have an impact today.
Despite the fact that everyone's living standards improved and black Cubans achieved a more favourable position over the last half century, the profound differences did not disappear entirely. During the special period [the economic crisis of the 1990s, following the collapse of the East European socialist bloc], we realised that those who were hit hardest by the crisis were in fact black Cubans, who had fewer possibilities of forging a livelihood.
Even in Cuba today, being poor and white is not the same as being poor and black."
White people came to Cuba by their own free will, as colonisers, with goals that they very often achieved. Black people were brought here by force and turned into slaves. These are very different starting points that cannot be forgotten or ignored, and that continue to have an impact today.
Despite the fact that everyone's living standards improved and black Cubans achieved a more favourable position over the last half century, the profound differences did not disappear entirely. During the special period [the economic crisis of the 1990s, following the collapse of the East European socialist bloc], we realised that those who were hit hardest by the crisis were in fact black Cubans, who had fewer possibilities of forging a livelihood.
Even in Cuba today, being poor and white is not the same as being poor and black."
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