'There is No Race in Cuba': Level of Culture and the Logics of Transnational Anti-Blackness/'En Cuba No Hay Raza': nivel de cultura y la logica de anti-negritud transnaoional/'Nao Ha Raca em Cuba': Nivel de Cultura e as Logicas da Anti Negritude Transnaclonal

While many Cubans of all racialized identities often insist that there is no race or racism in Cuba, they still experience ongoing forms of prejudice and discrimination. This article analyzes the translocal processes through which the logics of racialization and racism circulate in contemporary Cuba. Based on long-term ethnographic research in Santiago de Cuba, known as Cuba's Blackest City, I analyze the local construct level of culture as central to ongoing processes of racialization in Santiago. I trace Cubans' experiences of racialization from Santiago to Havana to the United States, connecting their experiences of race and racism to broader transnational forms of anti-Blackness that date back to the colonial era. I show the ways in which the translocal process of racialization through level of culture is not another form of Cuban exceptionalism, but rather links the Cuban experience to broader regional constructs of race, respectability, and culture. [Keywords: Race, racism, Cuba, Caribbean, transnational, anti-Blackness, color-blind racism] [Palabras clave: Raza, racismo, Cuba, Caribe, transnacional, anti-negrltud, racismo contra los negros] [Palavras-chave: Raca, racismo, Cuba, Caraibas, transnacional, anti negritude, racismo daltonico] [phrase omitted]
'I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and [...]