Uncovering Blackness: Racial Ideology and Black Consciousness in Contemporary Cuba Danielle Pilar Clealand A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science. Chapel Hill 2011 Approved by: Jonathan Hartlyn Evelyne Huber Lars Schoultz Paula McClain Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Abstract Danielle Pilar Clealand: Uncovering Blackness: Racial Ideology and Black Consciousness in Contemporary Cuba (Under the Direction of Jonathan Hartlyn) 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 such that politics, nationalism, and racial attitudes cannot be separated from each other in order to comprehensively study racial politics in Cuba. Dedication To my grandmother, Dea Clealand, who I always hoped would get to read this project and whose pride in me always left me smiling and in awe. Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures…………………………………………………………………….v Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter I. Racial Ideology in Latin America…………………………………………….9 Ideology………………………………………………………………….......11 Racial Ideology………………………………………………………………13 Racial Democracy……………………………………………………………17 Racial Categories…………………………………………………………….20 Racial Democracy: Myth or Ideal?…………………………………………..24 Racial Democracy and Nationalism………………………………………….32 Consequences of Racial Democracy………………………………………...34 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...36 II. Todos Somos Cubanos: The Development of Racial Ideology in Cuba….…40 Cuba as a Mulatto Nation and the Erasure of Race………………………….42 Racial Politics at the Start of Cuban Independence………………………….47 Race and the Cuban Revolution……………………………………………...53 The Special Period…………………………………………………………...60 Racial Ideology and Socialism……………………………………………….71 Individual Prejudice vs. Structural Racism…………………………………..76 Institutions…………………………………………………………………...77 Effects of Racial Ideology…………………………………………………...82 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...85 III. Black Affirmations and Ideological Acceptance: Survey Data …………….87 Black Identity and Consciousness: Survey Questions……………………….89 Racism, Discrimination and Experience……………………………………106 Black Consciousness and Discrimination…………………………………..111 Discussion…………………………………………………………………..116 IV. Voices on Race, Racism and Representation in Cuba: Interview Data…….131 Characterizations of Racism………………………………………………..135 Individual Prejudice or Structural Racism?..................................................139 Racial Ideology and Political Ideology……………………………………..144 Black Consciousness………………………………………………………..148 Racial Attitudes……………………………………………………………..153 Social Relations…………………………………………………………….159 Experiences with Discrimination…………………………………………..162 Representation………………………………………………………………171 Organization………………………………………………………………...183 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….187 V. De Aquí Pa‟l Cielo: Black Consciousness and Political Thought………….190 Group Consciousness……………………………………………………….193 Discrimination and the Influence of Experience…………………………...198 Everyday Talk………………………………………………………………207 Integration and Assimilation………………………………………………..214 Black Organizing…………………………………………………………...218 Hip Hop……………………………………………………………………..224 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….231 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….234 Methodological Appendix………………………………………………………………….241 References…………………………………………………………………………………..256 List of Tables Table 1. Social Relations………………………………………………………………...120 2. Self-Identification………………………………………………………………121 3. Racial Significance……………………………………………………………..122 4. Representation…………………………………………………………….……123 5. Racial Perception……………………………………………………………….124 6. Organization…………………………………………………………………….125 7. Relationship between racial organizing and perceptions of a black organization………………………………………………………….126 8. The determinants of an experience with discrimination………………………..127 9. Racial consciousness and experience with discrimination……………………..128 10. Relationship between an experience with discrimination and group consciousness…………………………………………………………….129 11. Relationship between an experience with discrimination and group identity…………………………………………………………………...130 12. Gender distribution of survey respondents……………………………………..246 13. Gender distribution in Cuba…………………………………………………….246 14. Age distribution of survey respondents………………………………………...247 15. Age distribution of residents of Havana, Cuba…………………………………247 16. Level of schooling of survey respondents……………………………………...248 17. Completed level of schooling for Cubans over the age of eleven……………..248 18. Occupations of survey respondents…………………………………………….249 19. Racial makeup of Cuba…………………………………………………………250 20. Havana Black Identity Survey- English Version……………………………….251 21. Havana Black Identity Survey – Spanish (Original) Version…………………..253 Introduction On December 21, 1959, just one year after the start of the Cuban Revolution, Castro stated, “In the United States….they have not been able to resolve economic and social problems like racial discrimination, which we did by persuasion.” (Castro 1959). This view, still promoted by the government today, portrays one of the key elements of race talk in Cuba, which suggests that Americans are plagued by racism, whereas Cuban citizens enjoy harmonious or “civilized” race relations. With regard to race, the vision often articulated by government leaders and members of the party has been one of racial unity and harmony. The importance of this characterization of race relations is the consequence: with racial harmony achieved, the need to address race or racism is rejected, both in policy and rhetoric. After the first few years of the Revolution, race ceased to be an issue open to critical discussion or public debate1 (de la Fuente 2001c; Moore 1988; Sawyer et al 2004). Racial difference was deemed irrelevant with regard to national identity deeming racial affirmation and racial consciousness among nonwhites equally irrelevant. Racial ideology in Cuba, racial democracy, was not born at the start of the revolution, but the success that the regime had in creating higher levels of equality during the first years of the 1960s brought the ideology legitimacy that it did not previously possess. 1 It should be noted that during the Special Period beginning in the mid-1990s there was a resurgence of racial scholarship and during the past decade government leaders have slightly altered their rhetoric to discuss some aspects of racial inequality (primarily housing and representation) that has its legacies before the Revolution. The structure of racism within the Revolution, however, continues to be a silenced topic. Racial democracy rests on the assumptions that 1) race as a social cleavage is not relevant and is replaced with a universal national identity, 2) consequently, there is an absence of racial hierarchies such that race is not connected to life chances or socioeconomic status and 3) racism and discrimination are foreign problems (primarily within the United States) and while individual prejudice may still exist, it only manifests in isolated incidents that cannot be connected to a larger social structure. The ideology has become powerful enough to escape evidence of racial inequalities through the use of alternative explanations such as poverty or individual racial prejudice. Racial democracy negates the importance of racial difference which not only prevents an awareness of the links between race and opportunity, but undercuts racial consciousness among Afro-Latin Americans. The silence on the race issue accompanied by the ideal of racial democracy have become a part of the nation‟s common sense so that not only are citizens of all races largely conditioned not to talk about race, but they often further perpetuate the ideology themselves (Bonilla-Silva 2006). In Cuba, the ideology goes hand in hand with the