Author Cites Elimination of Institutional Racism in CUBA...

Author Cites Elimination of Institutional Racism in CUBA...

By Trace Gibson
[Of the Tribune Staff]

Institutional racism has all but been wiped out and great advances have been made in women's rights in Cuba, claims activets and author Margret Randall, who addressed a gathering Tuesday, October 17th at Temple University's Ritter Hall.
Randall, author of ``Cuban Women Now,'' was born in New York, but has lived in Cuba for the last nine years. Cuba, which is 12 percent Black, was a very racist country before the revolution in 1959, she said, indicating that the Spanish and North American influences played an important role in this regard.
Now, says Randall, ``Blacks are involved in every level of government all the Way up to the Communist Central Committee,''
The problem of sexism is still being tackled, although much less evident now than before the revolution. Randall continued, again citing Western influences, vestiges percent were working as domestic servants before the revolution.  There was also a 25 percent unemployment rate and this was part of the reason for widespread prostitution.
``To be a woman before 1959 was not a very nice proposition.  You had to be young, White and beautiful to be an elevator operator,'' Randall pointed out.

Later, there was a ``tremendous role change among women,'' Literacy increased, eduction became more widespread, Women ...

The Caribbean islands and Africa received a great deal of technical and medical aid from Cuba, according to the author, who added that she saw the aid as a positive effort by Cuba to help the less fortunate countries of the world even though Cuba itself is a poor country.

The above article was written by Reporter Trace Gibson who worked for the Philadelphia Tribune at the time [ Friday, October 20th, 1978, When this article was written.]