Black Cubans: Restoring US Ties Is Cool, but America, Keep Your Hang-Ups About Race at Bay
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/01/black_cubans_discuss_the_restoration_of_us_ties_and_how_their_experiences.html
* file under cultural differences that US Citizens can learn about by visiting Cuba
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In Cuba, the races live side by side much more than they do in the U.S. There is far less de facto segregation in Cuba. Families are so much more mixed, and so racial hatred in Cuba doesnt run as deep as in America, because everyone has a black grandma cooking in the kitchen unseen. So I would definitely say that there is more racial equality in Cuba than in the USA in many ways.
TR: Theres poverty in Cuba. Black Cubanswho were always marginalizedhave felt that the hardest. Will their financial well-being improve if the embargo is lifted and American dollars start to trickle into Cuba with more ease and less restrictions?
Omar Diaz: DefinitelyIm looking forward to the economic benefits. Most black Cubans arent receiving financial help from relatives abroadlike white Cubans dobecause, remember, blacks didnt leave Cuba at the time of the revolution. Castros policies appealed mostly to the poor, so they stayed. Now that the channels are opening up, someone like me, a black Cuban, can go back to my island, open up a business there, or open up a business here in the U.S. and help my black Cuban relatives.