Reply #16: Anyone recall the goddawful police brutality against the black community in Miami? [View All]

Miami hasn't had great race relations, for decades. Some people certainly recall the riot with many killed, after Miami police beat a black insurance man to death.

Miami Herald readers read the following information in that paper concerning two friends, one black and one white who came to Miami from Cuba:

That last point, the existence of a racial chasm within the Cuban community, was brought home this week by a lengthy article on race relations in Miami by New York Times reporter Mirta Ojito (Best of Friends, Worlds Apart). It detailed how two best friends, one black, one white, both of whom reached the United States from Cuba by raft in 1994, have drifted apart as a result of the racial climate into which they have been thrust in Miami. While the personal friendship of Achmed Valdés and Joel Ruiz so far has endured the strains, they see each other rarely and have widely different views on race and politics. One wonders whether the friendship will survive as they continue to live separate, disconnected lives.

A LIFE OF LIMITS

For, while Cuba has never been and is not now a paradise of racial equality, when Valdés and Ruiz lived there, people more or less got along together, and the pair experienced a close friendship and connected lives. Here, Valdés, the white Cuban, feels at home and happy living in what for him is a kind of new, improved Cuba. Ruiz, the black Cuban, believes he has been the object of racial prejudice by white Cubans and the police. He lives a life of limits, even avoiding Cuban restaurants. ``In Cuba, I walked as if I owned the streets,'' he told The New York Times. ``Here I have to figure out where, what, when, everything.''

What happened in Miami? Put simply, Valdés became another (white) Miami Cuban, a relatively privileged identity here. Ruiz became another young black man, and he faces the slings and arrows characteristic of that condition in this country and this city. Having met less than a warm embrace from white Cubans, Ruiz has gravitated toward African Americans, but there, he sometimes faces rejection because he is Cuban.

There are lessons in this sad story for every racial and ethnic group in this city:

The fight against bigotry should begin at home. If there is a heightened sensitivity to issues of prejudice in light of recent events, let's use it to face the issue squarely, beginning by putting our own house in order.
(snip/...)

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y00/jun00/08e14.htm