While
the basis of this post will focus on Dan Lebatard’s recent radio show analyzing
Colin Kaepernick’s embrace of Castro, let me start this off by noting that this
is not a hit piece against Lebatard.
I
love his show. In determining which show on earth has the best content
throughout all of media, I often vacillate between The Right Time with Bomani
Jones and the Lebatard show.
I
can claim enthusiastically, that I get his show! But Monday, Dan failed to get
his own show when he claimed Kaepernick to be out of his depth in embracing aspects
of Fidel Castro.
For
a show that’s so acutely conscious of race in America, Dan’s proximity to Miami
and, I believe, his Cuban lineage were obstacles preventing him from
comprehensively analyzing Kaepernick with the same nuance he so adeptly applies
to the racial and socio-political climate in America.
And
I understand.
While
I understand, I’d like to counter a few of Dan’s blind spots by asserting that that
Kaepernick’s struggle for Black justice in America makes it understandable why he
would embrace of aspects of Castro.
So…
in my best Papi voice, Schokular!
Afro-Cubanos Pre-Castro
First,
it would be disingenuous to discuss the Cuban Revolution without discussing
race. Chattel slavery persisted in Cuba until 1886. After slavery, Afro-Cubanos worked in the sugar
fields where as sugar cane cutters, according to PBS, these mostly black workers,
lived on the edge of existence.
These
mostly Afro-Cubanos workers were only allowed work the sugar harvest for four
months out of the year. The rest of the
year, near complete scarcity was the status quo.
Later,
in pre-Castro Havana, the prevalence of American capitalism marginalized
Afro-Cubanos as they were not allowed to work in city’s glitzy tourist industry.
Even Cuba’s president, Fulgencio Batista, a mulatto, was denied membership into
Havana’s racially exclusive clubs.
Worse,
prostitution in Havana, then known as the brothel of western hemisphere,
excelled as the city served up Afro-Cubano women children to satisfy the
perverse sexual urges of its wealthy white tourists.
Consequently,
Kaepernick shouldn’t have to qualify as a historian or sociologist to innately understand
the commonality of oppression endured by pre-Castro Afro-Cubanos and
African-Americans.
Afro-Cubanos during
the Dawn of Castro’s Cuba
Unlike
the wealthier white professional class of Cuba, on the eve of and during Castro’s
revolution, many Afro-Cubanos who favored western ideology did not have access to
means that would have enabled them to flee. Furthermore, nearly all of the Afro-Cubanos
who also braved the same treacherous 90 mile ride to Miami as their white
countrymen were promptly denied entry and returned to the clutches of Castro.
(As
an aside, even today, Haitians fleeing the most abject poverty in this
hemisphere frequently face an arguably more treacherous trek to the land of
opportunity yet due to the deep melanin in their skin, are returned to the shores of
despair while white and mestizo Cubans [and dark Cubans that can hit a baseball
really far] are perpetually welcomed to America with a hug of liberty.)
So
upon conquering Cuba, when Castro proclaimed, “One of the most just battles
that must be fought, a battle that must be emphasized more and more, which I
call the fourth battle- the battle to end racial discrimination…,” it was
refreshing words to the ears of those displaced by slavery in this hemisphere.
See, in nearly every other instance in the
history of the world in which a non-black power structure engaged Black
folks (be they colonized or members of the diaspora) their heads of states, at
best, as in the case of European imperial powers, viewed us as farming
equipment.
At medium, as in the case of the confederacy (and during its lead up), they desired our tarred, feathered, castrated, target-practiced,
flayed, and ultimately hung & burning black bodies as the perfect backdrop for a Sunday
southern post card.
At worst, as in the case of Belgium’s King
Leopold II, who viewed the Congolese as livestock and their homeland as his
personal butcher shop, who massacred 10 million souls and the mutilation of another
15 million (only a short 100 years ago).
So
when Castro later stated that blacks and whites being educated together was the
primary way for Cuba to mend their racial divide, it’s obvious to me why
Kaepernick would identify with Castro’s investment in education.
Furthermore,
I understand why Kaepernick would highlight Castro’s investment in free and universal
healthcare when, during the 1990’s, according to the American Journal for
Public Health, nearly one million African-Americans died prematurely when
compared to white Americans, simply due to inequities in the American health
care system.
Was
Castro being disingenuous? Who knows!
Irrespective of the strategic and tactical necessity
of partnering with Afro-Cubanos, Castro’s comments about Blacks marked the
first time in the existence of interaction with Blackness where the initial comments
from a non-black head of state about Africans wasn’t one of hatred and disgust.
Considering
Kaepernick’s quest, how could he not find these aspects of Castro at least
somewhat endearing.
The
Acknowledgement of the Horror of Oppression
Stugotz,
the show’s co-host, said he thought it odd that Kaepernick would praise certain
elements of Castro while not acknowledging his oppressive policies. The
statement denotes a particularly tone-deaf double standard when considering the
Kaepernick’s quest in America.
While
Kaepernick did not articulate a comprehensive knowledge of the oppressions
inflicted by Castro, it’s not odd for Kaepernick to deem immigration to a land
where people who look like him are being savaged as counter-intuitive to
seeking freedom.
Sixteen
short months after Castro began his quest to take Cuba, here in Eisenhower’s
America, racists in Mississippi were acquitted after cracking open the skull of
sweet Emmett Till, choking him with barbed-wire, dislodging his eyeball from
its socket and eventually fatally shooting him in the ear.
Cubans
flocked to Kennedy’s America as Blacks faced the sting of water hoses, the
force of billy clubs, and the bites of German Shepherds while simply demanding
basic civil rights.
Cubans
urged for America as Johnson and Nixon’s reign shipped young Black boys to the
frontlines of war in Southeast Asia- where those fortunate to survive left Vietnam
and Cambodia with their veins infested with cocaine and marijuana.
Paradoxically,
Reagan would declare war on the drug infested ghettos where their descendants
lived while simultaneously financing a foreign war with the proceeds gained by overflowing
these same neighborhoods with Contra drugs.
Clinton’s
America would later label them super criminals, spawning the world''s largest prison industrial
complex that devoures non-violent black drug offenders by the minute.
In
Obama’s America, news accounts of Black Lives Matter protests bleed through stereo
speakers as young black boys sit paralyzed in cars awaiting the approach of a deputy,
hand on pistol. These young men’s hands
meld to steering wheels and dashboards petrified to flinch as even the most subtle
movements can lead to a hail bullets.
Yet
today, Cubans still flock to America.
And
they should!
So
yes Dan, Kaepernick understands the feeling of loneliness you feel now as world
eulogizes Castro. He’s felt it his entire life as the world perpetually turns a
blind eye to the affliction placed upon Black people. This is well within his depths!
Conversely, I cannot locate one instance in
which African American journalists (or a journalist of any race) ever questioned
a Cuban immigrant (or any immigrant) on how they can embrace America despite
the horrors it has afflicted upon Black people.
We will never hear that question because Black
Americans understand and empathize with desperation resulting from oppression
and affliction.
So instead of proclaiming Kaepernick wrong and
out of his depth, Dan Lebatard, you should have extended the same understanding
and empathy to Kaepernick.
