"I don't want to look arrogant, especially with [Cornel West]. But I believe he sat on the side of something he doesn't actually know," [Nancy Morejon] said of the open letter West and 59 other African Americans sent to Cuban President Raul Castro late last year. In it, they accused his government of mistreating civil rights activists and a "callous disregard" for its Black population. "Yes, there is racism in Cuba," Tomas Fernandez Robaina, a prolific writer about the social condition of Black Cubans, told me. The country "engaged in romanticism" when Castro ordered an end to racial discrimination nearly a half-century ago, Fernandez said. "Now we understand it will take more than goodwill to get rid of it, something Americans should know better than Cubans."
Why would [Frederick Douglass], a former slave, newspaper publisher, author and United States Minister and Consul General of Haiti, so admire Haiti, its leaders during the Revolution and its contributions to the world? And why was Douglass, despite his realistic assessment of the nation, so very hopeful about Haiti's future?
