From Capitol Hill Cubans:
Questions for Jesse Jackson on Cuba Trip
During a speech last week, Reverend Jesse Jackson made the following important observation:
“We in the US don’t fully appreciate that there are more Africans in South, Central and Latin America, than in the USA. The slave trade started through this region; the US was the caboose.”
He’s absolutely right.
So here are some questions for Rev. Jackson regarding his trip to Cuba this weekend:
Why did you only meet with the leaders of Cuba’s overwhelmingly white dictatorship?
Why didn’t you meet with the Afro-Cuban leaders of the island’s courageous democracy movement?
Why didn’t you meet with the leader of The Ladies in White, Berta Soler, or with Angel Moya, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Manuel Cuesta Morua, Ivan Garcia, Guillermo Farinas, Damaris Moya Portieles or Ivan Hernandez Carrillo?
Why didn’t you advocate for the release of Afro-Cuban political prisoners, such as Sonia Garro, Ramon Munoz and Ivan Fernandez Depestre?
Or is Castro’s Cuba the exception to your civil rights rhetoric?
Where to start? He should have said blacks instead of “Africans,” since the overwhelming majority of the people he refers to have never been in Africa, and they identify as black Brazilian, Cuban or whatever, not “African.” He mentions South, Central and Latin America as if they were three separate or distinct entities, when only an ignoramus would make that crass mistake. It’s beyond clear that he doesn’t give a shit about the oppression and abuse of black people in Cuba, as his complete obliviousness to that during this trip illustrates (and it’s not the first time he’s ignored it while visiting Massah Castro’s plantation). But hey, this is Jesse Jackson we’re dealing with, so it’s all par for the course. However, for a professional BS artist, either he’s slipping or he’s simply straying too far afield. He should stick to his home turf, which has served him well enough.