and African slaves Cuba is a diverse mix of races it is a society that is by its nature multicolored Henry Lewis Gates Junior explores whether Castro's Revolution put an end to widespread racism whites and blacks everybody has the same right but do they racial issues in Kua are censored Prejudice never disappeared Cuba the next Revolution black in Latin America [Music] it's difficult for us to think of Cuba Beyond a 50-year-old dictatorship just 90 Mi south of Miami the revolution of 1959 Fidel Castro's conversion to Communism 2 years later the Bay of Pigs the r over Elon Gonzalez but these events obscure the shared history between the United States and our closest Caribbean neighbor dating back centuries and nowhere is this connection deeper than in race relations Cuba received about 780,000 African slaves almost twice the number that arrived in the United States from the start black people have profoundly shaped this country's politics its culture social social identity and its very way of life but like their African-American cousins the afroc Cuban people have been forced to struggle for racial equality right through to the present day when Castro took over he declared famously that socialism would put an end to the racism that was an endemic part of Cuban Society has that happened that's what I'm here to find out to understand the question of race in the history of Cuba I'm starting my journey at the very beginning Christopher Columbus landed here in 1492 but Cuba's economy didn't really take off until the late 18th and early 19th centuries the Haitian revolution caused a sudden and massive short of sugar opening doors to Cuban Planters to fill that Gap to meet this new demand they imported a massive number of slaves hundreds of thousands in the early [Music] 1800s this is Tyro an old slave plantation where I've been invited to a santoria religious ceremony one of Cuba's most important cultural legacies from Africa and slavery the ceremony starts with the sacrifice to the gods but especially to one the god of the pathways named in Cuba ala in Yoba he's called ASU it's the same God the same ritual the same beginning for condom in Brazil for vodu in Haiti and for Sant Ria here in Cuba a clear sign of the common origin with the yba people of West Africa and the F people of Dome Cuba didn't abolish slavery until 1886 21 years after we did that means that many of these people's great grandparents could have been born in Africa and that even some of their grandparents would have been born as [Music] slaves west of Havana overgrown sugar and coffee plantations dot the countryside the remains of an enormously profitable and vast slave fueled [Music] economy by 1840 Cuba had become the largest producer of sugar in the world it used to be Haiti but after the Haitian revolution sugar economy fell apart and that Sugar industry here in Cuba was manned by the massive importation of African slaves hundreds of thousands in the 19th century alone I've come to the ruins of angerona deep in the Lush artamisa Province it was one of the most important slave plantations in the country initially 428 slaves produced coffee then sugar on a very large scale I'm here meeting Professor Carmen Barcia who's devoted her career to the study of slavery what was the effect of the Haitian revolution on the white people on the Planters it fueled the fear of the blacks the fear that another Haitian revolution could happen here the slaves in Haiti began their Revolt in 1791 deposing their French Colonial Masters and declaring their independence in 1804 the Spectre of that Revolution terrified Cuban Planters eager to maintain their new dominance in the hugely lucrative sugar industry so they operated their plantations like prisons they began to construct panoptic watchtowers to control everything that went on in both the sugar and coffee plantations here we have one of these towers it's not one of the biggest ones though there were some that were much bigger so they wanted to watch them all the time yes by 1825 all of Spain's American colonies were independent except for Puerto Rico and Cuba Cuba's sugar industry was far too profitable for Spain to lose and slavery was essential to those profits but the fight for independence from Spain couldn't be suppressed [Music] forever I've come to Santiago de Cuba 600 Mi east of Havana at the opposite end of the island it's the country's second largest city and it was around here that most of the battles for Freedom were fought the Mana launched the first war of independence in Cuba was Carlos Manuel Cespedes that man right there on October 10th 1868 he called all of his slaves to a meeting they had no idea why and he told them that he was launching a war of independence against Spain and that they were going to constitute his army and that they henceforth From This Moment were free I'm sure that was a mindblowing thing for them to hear but over the next 10 years the movement grew into a true war of independence in 1874 Cespedes was killed by Spanish troops the war ended in 1878 but just a year later a new war commenced in which black leaders were even more prominent the most important of these was Antonio M the bronze Titan I'm here meeting Professor otter ferer a professor of Cuban history to understand how a black man could become such a leading National figure when slavery still existed Antonio maso joined the war in 1968 as a common Soldier was promoted within uh weeks maybe even within days uh and Rose to the rank of of General uh he there was always anxiety about his rise to military power because he was black because he was because he was a man of color Yes and um he was accused of wanting to create another Haiti and he defended himself really eloquently and he said yes I am a man of color and because of that I don't think I am any less than anyone [Music] else Spain tried to use the fact that Meo and over half his army were black to feed fears that Independence would only lead to another Haiti a black dominated Republic but the leader of the movement a white intellectual named Jose Marti dismissed this idea as rubbish and eloquently defended the idea of Cuba for Cubans calling Spain's Bluff [Music] they said no the only people who talk about race war are the Spanish who are trying to divide us here in these years of war slaves have fought they have fought together with white men they have died together they have shed blood together their souls have have risen up to heaven together out of the war they created a vision of of a nationality that transcended race in some sense what they what that did was make racism an infraction not against an individual not against you or me or anyone else but an infraction against the nation to M and his compatriots blacks and whites were first and foremost Cubans their enemy was Spain not race they were ahead of their [Music] time I find it astonishing that a black man could rise to the level of General during the war for independence in Cuba in the decade of the 1890s when America that it never would happen in America it was 50 years later before we had our first black General General boo Davis right yeah and in Cuba it it happened um just 8 years after the end of slavery as the final war against Spain raged Across The Straits of Florida between 1895 and 1898 the United States government cast a weary eye both on the Spanish conduct of the war and on Cuba's multi-racial Army Meo himself was killed in in an [Music] ambush as the conflict escalated the American government sent the USS Maine to protect American interests in January 1898 a few weeks later the warship mysteriously exploded and sunk in Havana Harbor mariio eaus a professor of History has brought me to see its remains the Cannons and the chains are part of the original Battleship original Canon wow yes the battleship after the explosion remained sunk in the bay that plaque shows that the remains of the battleship were partly sunk and they were visible in Havana for 14 years how did the American intervention affect the war of independence is a very important event because it splits Cuban history into two it puts an end to Cuba's Colonial history to the 400 years of Spanish colonization it is thought that the explosion of the main Unleashed a chain of events where the United States intervened in the war between Cuba and Spain and expelled Spain from Cuba the war between Spain and America was over in 10 weeks Cuba was finally independent from Spain black and white rich and poor Cubans rejoiced Professor acius has found an exceptionally rare letter congratulating one of the leaders of the War written by a black sanua priest called Vicente goto solo we' managed to track down goto Solo's descendants in one of the poorest areas of Havana to tell them about this letter it turns out as family still proudly displays his photograph the kids asked Mom who is that person and I said this is your great great grandfather and they asked why is he dressed like that and I said because he was from the time of the war of independence and that's how they dressed it's a very very interesting letter because he shows his nationalistic sentiments in different parts of the letter he mentioned our land and Long Live a free Cuba he includes his address he lived on Padre deasa Street number 33 let me read to you what he said in the letter you are the god of the earth and all of us and then he finishes the last line of the letter saying Long Live Free Cuba and he signs it viente go solo it's very rare very unusual for a black person to have written a letter yes because many people of this origin who had come from the world of slavery didn't know how to write they were illiterate and he makes an effort so the handwriting is a bit bad it's not the same as they teach you in school he writes any way he can but manages to get his point across the letter is thrilling ah it's great so what do you think it's really good to know about the history of my family and my ancestors at the time of the war of independence which led Cuba to be free unfortunately things weren't quite as they seemed victory over Spain was not quite the same as Independence soon it became clear that the United States was here to stay the nationalistic version is that the Cubans had been fighting Spain for 30 years but by their intervention with occupying military government the US prevented the birth of an independent republic in 1902 Cuba was allowed to elect its first president but the United States effectively remained in control of the island one form of colonialism replac [Applause] [Music] another did the Americans coming change race relations I think so the official policies of the American government were incredibly racist and they even tried during the occupation to impose segregationist policies for example when it came to choosing the staff that would form the police force or the artillery which used to be multiracial the US government forced Cubans to create separate bodies of black white people but I have to say that there was also a Cuban Elite who was racist and cooperated with the military and with the racist policies of the occupying government while some white people challenge American attempts to prevent black veterans from voting America's racist policies were music to the ears of some of the Cuban Elite the descendants of the same people who had maintained slavery for so very long I've come to the anthropology department of the University of Havana where a century ago as a black man I wouldn't have been welcome in accordance with the government's official racism two anthropologists decided to whiten the history of the war of independence in the most fundamental way imagine if ulyses Grant had died during the Civil War and after he died scientists dissected his body to see whether from the size of his Cranium he was more European or more say Native American that's what happened to Antonio M during the American occupation on September 17th 1899 just 3 years after his death his body was exhumed and examined to determine how black or white he was professor Rando ronel explained this analysis to me first that said he was a beautiful skull then they said he was a perfect skull it influenced ideas of maso as a great Soldier a great warrior it was said that he had the body of a strong man like Hercules but arm it sounds like they were worried that he might be too black that they didn't want this great man to look like the African they want him to look like a European if maso was a superior man then he couldn't be black the superior man would have to have European characteristics and that was really a mistake a scientific mistake made at the time there is a curious fact in the history of the Republic the more these investigations went on the whiter the images of Mel became and his face became more European Antonio M suffered these indignities after death but what happened to the black leaders that survived and should have been celebrated for their role in the war of [Music] independence I've been allowed access to the National Archives to find [Music] out after Meo Quinton Banderas was one of the most popular and Powerful black leaders in the re Evolution people even wrote poems about him was he recognized as a hero a Founding Father this is a letter he wrote to a very distinguished woman essentially employing her for financial assistance because he couldn't get a job he was reduced to searching for jobs menial jobs jobs as a custodian a janitor his situation never improved in fact four years later he was imprisoned and by order of the president he was killed just 10 years after Independence the promise of a colorblind Cuba seemed a distant dream of a fast retreating past but in 1908 thousands of former slaves decided the dream could not be allowed to die I'm standing at the tomb of Pedro Ian Ian and his companions demanded rights and equality for black people in the newly independent republic of Cuba Pedro Ivan and the Independent party of color declared that they would fight for a racially mixed Republic the white establishment reacted swiftly and viciously the mainstream claimed that the black political party would eat the whites alive acquainting them with monkeys and with the rats that had caused an outbreak of the bubanic plague while the sanitation department hunted Rats the military it was said was hunting [ __ ] and Thomas look they look like monkeys they all look like monkeys all these black people made to look like monkeys same caricature in America they're all black people are always monkeys Cuba has historically been a very racist country there was a tradition that blacks could not enter certain areas within Parks because these were white areas just like in the United States where at this stage black people were marginalized in Cuba there have never been any segregation laws but there was actual discrimination Pedro even bravely led a Revolt but with the deadliest of consequences the government massacred 3,000 of his followers even himself died in 1912 shot in the back while trying to escape how could the slaughter of thousands of men most of whom like Ian had recently fought in the War of Independence possibly be justified it is possible that the massacre was carried out in order to satisfy the threat from Washington that if the Cuban government could not show that they had control and were in charge of the island the US might intervene again and this time remain in Cuba racist caricatures of black Cubans were just as common in the American Press Cuba itself was always represented as a black [Music] child the massacre without doubt was the low point in race relations since Independence while black men could vote and there were some black elected officials many white Cubans wanted to quash any memory of their country's vibrant African roots and recreate their identity in the image of Europe and Jim Crow America everything black became immoral ugly and bad this was the carnival that was uh if not put together energized by the black slaves and the poor white people here in Cuba as long ago as the 17th and 18th century and for just as long the official culture in Cuba has been trying to repress it trying to suppress it blacks were forbidden from using African instruments in dancing at carnival African religions and ritual drumming sessions were banned a 1906 immigration law appropriated a million doar to whiten Cuba bringing 600,000 Europeans mostly from Spain here to the island over the next 20 years Black Culture an embarrassing relic of Africa and slavery was repressed forced to live underground in the first couple decades after Independence black music was was considered vulgar it was the equivalent of jungle music but there was nothing anyone could do to repress it it was bubbling up from underground it was on the street corners it was in the catay it was in the clubs it was a musical genre known as s an irresistibly lyrical sensual music that somehow expressed the soul of Cuba s was born in or an Province at about the same time the Jazz was being invented in New Orleans I've been invited to a rehearsal of one of the oldest playing song bands in the world the septo too Des [Music] song hey hey fantastic guys fantastic thank you oh my god thank you when were you born me yeah in 1926 I am about to be 84 84 years ago was son music um legal 84 years ago no no why not why not okay because back then they said the accepted was black people's business so if they were playing in a party the police would come and arrest them you couldn't play son back then in Havana you couldn't play on you had to play on in hiding the police would come I would take everybody to the police station how much much of s music is African how much is Spanish from Spain it gets the string elements the guitar but from Africa it gets the drums the backing vocals and the flavor with which the singers perform is much more African than Spanish the government's attitude towards song represents a radical turning point in Cuban culture despite efforts to suppress It song kept bubbling up from underground even the Rich and Famous succumbed and through secret song parties all that changed officially in [Music] 1925 the president president Mado authorized a song band to play at his birthday celebration and shortly thereafter the government officially recognized song allowing it to come up from underground and become a normal fundamental part of Cuban culture which it continues to be to this day it's like meeting Living Legends in the history of Cuban popular culture it's pretty fantastic president mado's endorsement of song was part of a larger cultural phenomenon Cuba's white establishment stopped pretending that it was a Caribbean extension of Europe and began celebrating its racially mixed or myso Heritage this movement was called cubanidad a blend of white and black to make brown I've come to the home of Tores quas the head of Cuba's National Library he's preparing a meal that is a metaphor for the Blended nature of Cuban culture and identity hi I'm Henry it's an honor to meet you the concept of Kuan starts in the 1920s it became a way of trying to explain who we were who we are these Multicultural and multicol people Tes quas is making aako a kind of stent in which different meats and ingredients blend together like this is kubang made with all the ingredients that lended a unique quality and taste I'd like you to try it and tell me what you think see M of course it's very good and the pork is tender very tender this is one of the dishes that Define Kuba so this is the cultural essence of Cu what is the aako Ste metaphor that Kuban identity is the result of multiple ingredients that lose some of their original flavor in order to acquire a new flavor in North America a black person is anyone who has a drop of black color in Kuban Society this is very difficult to establish because all of us have that drop so racial differentiations are extraordinarily false and this means that when you get to the heart of Society it is a society that is by its nature multicolored but multicolored within the individual himself all these elements are mixed inside each person in the 1940s Cuba officially began to embrace its hybrid Heritage racial discrimination was criminalized and intellectuals trumpeted their unique mixed culture all very different from what was happening in America at this time whenever I ask a black Cuban who they are or how they describe themselves they always say always I'm a Cuban who's black African-Americans on the other hand almost always saying I'm Black and I'm an [Music] American as Cuba's official attitude towards its black cultural heritage were changing so too was its economy the middle of the 20th century saw a real rise in prosperity American business interest dominated and American Tourist started to flock to Havana's newly built hotels including some less respectable visitors this was Meer Lansky's hotel suite he ran his entire Empire right here he had a sweetheart deal Myer Lansky the infamous mafia boss wanted to turn Havana into the Caribbeans Las Vegas and his influence reached the peak with the return to power in 1952 of General fencia Batista historian Graal Shou was a child of Batista's Cuba the reason he came to prominence in Cuban society and remained in power for more than 20 years had a lot to do with the fact that he was the guardian of North American interests in Cuba he was a man who had an extraordinary thirst for power Batista despite appearances was a mulato I wondered if his ancestry affected how black Cubans fared under him batia didn't change the racial segregation that existed in Cuba in any way black people were brought to Cuba to be slaves when slavery was abolished the living conditions barely changed in fact by 1957 Cuba enjoyed one of the highest per capita incomes in all of Latin America but the prosperity was not equally distributed the 1950s saw two different cubas emerge one well off and overwhelmingly white the other poor and predominantly Black by 1955 riots and anti- Batista demonstrations were rif his response was to stifle descent and torture and kill the [Music] rebels a group of revolutionaries led by a young attorney named Fidel Castro raged a Guerilla war against him from oriente Province Commander Victor Dre joined the rebel militia when he was only 15 and he fought under chuara he would serve the Cuban Army for the next half cent he's a passionate defender of the Revolution I was only 9 years old when the Cuban revolution occurred can you tell me what it was actually like fighting in the mountains and then what it was like to be part of that Revolution well for those of us who had the opportunity to be there they were Unforgettable days as the war Advanced towards Havana Commander Drey was involved in progressively more vicious engagements despite being outgunned and outnumbered by 10 to one at times Drey survived the legendary battle that insured victory over Batista at about 6: a.m. we saw a white flag and someone said to me look D they are surrendering they are surrendering I did not believe they were surrendering it was all a bit unreal so we cried with joy and also with sorrow because uh there were comrades who had died a few days earlier and they had not managed to see our Victory 12 hours after the fall of Santa Clara Batista fled the country with 1880 of his cronies and over 400 million us soon after Colonel Dre and Fidel Castro's Army rolled victoriously into Havana against the greatest odds the revolution had been won given the brutalities and harsh repressions of the Batista regime there's little wonder that the revolutionaries were greeted as Heroes we did not think we would live to see the Triumph of the Revolution that was an unforgettable moment for all the fighters and for the people of Cuba who threw themselves onto the streets of men women children all clapping their hands celebrating the victory of the Revolution even some people who did not won the revolution went into the streets to support the Triumph of the Revolution blacks and whites they were all there the government set up a new ministry of labor to end racial discrimination and employment Fidel Castro declared racism to be over but this made it difficult even to talk about discrimination informal racism did begin to disappear though and Colonel Dre attributes this change to the revolution in Kua everybody has the same right to study the same right to work the right to fight to defend the principles of the Revolution whites and blacks everybody has the same rights we cannot say that there is discrimination here in Kuba hardly anyone would dare to say I do not want my black daughter to marry a white man I do not want my white daughter to marry a black person no because the power of the Revolution the power of ideology the strength of the dream the strength of the truth stops people from saying that not only did Castro's government declare black and white equal before the law it also began providing free health care and universal access to education both of which had an immediate and dramatic impact on the poorest Cubans who for the most part were black while 3/4 of the population was already literate in an extraordinary attempt to eradicate illiteracy completely in 1961 Castro sent out an army of 100,000 teenagers to teach nearly a million Cubans how to read and write Professor gracial shyu whose father was a lawyer was one of the children who took part in that Crusade you were 11 right 11 years old when I was 11 I couldn't have left my parents how far away did you go from your home were you alone and was it terrifying were you homesick there were lots of people like me who had left home and the problem was for those who didn't get the permission from their parents those who wanted to go but their parents wouldn't let them they did have a serious problem how long were you away months eight months months yes my God yes crazy you're [Music] crazy on the 22 of December of 1961 Cuba was declared an illiteracy free territory and all the young people who had taken part paraded in the revolutionist was it Cuba's finest moment I think so I think so because Fidel said that everybody have to study everyone has a right to study yes and so they have to study yes did you your parents try to stop you I would have stopped my daughters I would have said no because I would have worried about their safety especially being girls did your parents try to stop you no no it was a special moment and everyone's strength was put into it I admire I'm so moved I admire your uh commit to your country to your ideals it's be very beautiful it's very [Music] beautiful today it's so easy to forget how full of hope so many Cubans were when the revolution triumphed but I guess that's mostly because of what happened next Castro nationalized American-owned companies ending Us control over the economy America then canceled its sugar contracts so the Soviet Union stepped in becoming Cuba's major economic partner soon Castro declared Cuba to be communist not surprisingly soon after that the CIA began various attempts to overthrow Castro culminating in the disastrous invasion of the Bay of [Music] Pigs when the Soviet Union installed nuclear warheads on the island the world stood on on the brink of nuclear war the most terrified I have ever been in my entire life without a doubt was October 1962 I was 12 years old and it was the Cuban Missile Crisis we all thought we were going to die I spent the entire crisis when I wasn't in school on my knees praying to God either that the Russians didn't dro the bombs or if they did I went to heaven um seems kind of amusing now wasn't music back then I was a military leader during the October crisis as we call it during the Cuban Missile Crisis as it's called in the rest of the world did you like me think you were going to die yes I thought that I could die I thought there's many times I fought in the War and I was injured I could have died then I was also injured at the Bay of Pigs and could have died then I always thought I would die it's not that I am brave but you decide to Die For A [Music] Cause commander dreki and Professor shyu lived through the Revolution and played a role in it both are quite romantic about it so you can see why for them it's a Cause worth defending but younger Cubans have become increasingly critical of the regime in general and of its silence over ongoing racism more particularly in 1989 international events forced the issue the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived Cuba of $6 billion income annually almost overnight tat Quinones a journalist lived through the chaos that would soon envelop the island myut T I've always wondered how the fall of the Soviet Union 1989 affected race relations in Cuba and the life of the average black Cuban in less than a year Cuba lost over 80% of its overseas trade and its GDP fell by 50% this was traumatic and would have affected relations of any type in any country get place the financial crisis was so severe that industry and agriculture collapsed the nation was on the brink of widespread famine many people were forced to rely on financial support from exiled relatives in the United States most of whom were the white middle class people who had fled when the revolution [Music] triumphed I went to the USA at the end of the 90s and I found out that 97% of the Cubans living there consider themselves to be white and so the hundreds of millions or some say billions of dollars sent to Cuba every year end up in the hands of those who consider themselves white that in itself is also creating significant economic and social differences as we might expect the surgeon inequality had profound consequences for Cuba's race relations 30 years on from the Triumph of the Revolution there were still some racist germs and they multiplied at an astounding rate it was incredible it was as if the immune system had failed and this disease was taking hold of society money being sent from abroad is one reason for this new race divide the other is internal since the fall of the Berlin Wall two currencies have emerged in Cuba the peso and the C which is worth 25 times more than the peso how much pesos or Cooks this two-tiered currency has turned Cuba's economic structure upside down while professors and doctors being paid in pesos earn $20 a month a waiter being paid in Cooks can earn $20 a day I've come to meet Professor Roberto zurbano to find out how this two tiered currency might affect black people I've been many places in Cuba and as a black American I always look for black people always when I walk I do this in America too but here I see very few black people on airplanes in hotels or in restaurants why unfortunately that's the way it is maybe they claim the rooms or they work in the kitchen or in a performance you may see some black people who come in do the performance and leave they're likely to be paid in pesos rather than Cooks which is the strong currency in Kuba there are few black people in the strong economic sectors why because Prejudice never went away Prejudice never disappeared it was simply concealed under the table the silence allowed all the problems to continue to grow under the table I'm meeting one of the most famous writers in Cuba Miguel Barnett Miguel believes that one way of dealing with the silence surrounding racist attitudes against blacks is through education the knowledge that people have of the African Legacy comes from the roots comes from the family but I want that to be taught in the university in the schools in the primary schools that's one of the things the issues I raised at the at the parliament we have to introduce more the African mythology the African history in our school the idea that the blacks in this country the Africans in this country their legacy is not only cultural or philosophical or artistic is also they contributed very strongly to the economy of this country Cuban intellectuals might be demanding change but according to many younger black people the intellectuals aren't speaking loudly or urgently enough and this leads to another problem since since freedom of speech never has been one of Fidel Castro's strong suits declaring that racism exists can be judged a seditious criticism of the government after all didn't socialism end [Music] racism I'm on my way to interview one of Cuba's leading hip-hop artists his name is Sue Andreas he's recorded two songs about racism in Cuba which have been banned I wanted to record him at his upcoming gig but the government wouldn't give me permission [Music] [Music] so andrees grew up in the shadow of 1989 and through hip-hop is now trying to wage a war on racism I heard that you have two songs about racism you're performing tomorrow night and you can't sing them is that true and why and how does that make you feel well I'm kind of allowed to sing them but doing so will cause trouble trouble that in the long run won't only involve me it will put at risk the success of the concert and my colleagues because the concert could end right there and then I could maybe sing that song tomorrow but the next person may not be allowed on stage that would be a loss for the rap Movement we want hip-hop to continue [Music] it is true that racial issues in Kuba are censored not only in rap music but in paintings in Visual Arts and on television despite experiencing direct and indirect punishment for fighting Cuba's racist attitudes so Andre's and other leading rappers are determined to persist many of us have been criticized for what we do but the majority of us haven't stopped doing it because this is our reality when you accept your reality at least you have the courage to face what is happening and at least you can begin working on how to fix it I think it's better to face things like this than to push them aside and pretend that they don't exist we did manage to sneak our our cameras into so Andre's gig just as s musicians 80 years ago helped change social attitudes towards black people these hip-hop artists are determined to use their music to keep racial discrimination in the consciousness of their generation hoping to eradicate it from Cuban Society forever the Cuban Revolution of 1959 pledged to end racism forever was it successful well to some extent it was and to some extent it wasn't institutional racism ended virtually overnight legal racism formal racism what didn't end was the racism of the heart of the Mind the racism that's a fundamental part of the fabric of this Society will that ever change well judging from the afroc Cuban intellectuals whom I've interviewed I think that it will and perhaps then we'll see the the next Cuban Revolution [Music]