Firmly imbedded in the mythologies of communist countries is that total racial and social equality has been achieved. The Soviets would routinely exorciate the US for its racial problems, as has the government of Cuba. But apparently all is not so idyllic on the island nation we love to hate. In 2000 Raul Castro said that if a hotel denied access to someone because he was black, the hotel would be shut down. Visitors report that all the best jobs go to whites, whatever white means in Cuba ( the color of Desi Arnez?) and that racial oppression is the dominant theme in the hip-hop music of the nation. On a positive note, India may have a female untouchable as its next leader. A woman named Maywati has won the leadership of the state of Uttar Pradesh and announced plans to run for national office. This is a huge stride forward for a country that has stubbornly resisted giving up its brutally rigid caste system. In my brief experience of India the Dalits, the so called untouchable caste, are also both physically smaller and darker colored than the “higher” castes. Go India.
And in another victory of ideology over reason, freedom loving students at the University of North Carolina shouted down Tom Tancredo, breaking windows and causing police to escort Tancredo away while firing pepper spray at the protestors. ” Shut him down, no racists in our town” , they shouted. So much for freedom of speech.
