Let's talk about something really quick here. What photos can't show is the very ugly unfortunate side of Cuba, and what it's like for an Asian person to exist in it. I have never been ching chong'd more in my life than in Cuba. Like literally in the cumulative 34 yrs of life I haven't been racially slandered as much as 1 day walking through Havana. You can chalk up most of it to ignorance but when you are getting chino'd, china'd, konichiwa'd, ni hao'd, and straight up fake "chinese talk"d at 50+ times a day you get a percentage of instances of not ignorance but of straight up disrespect and hate aimed personally at you. This was the hardest thing about Cuba and has left a nasty scar for me. They don't tell you about this in the guidebooks. So while it may look like I am having fun a lot of the time for the first 2 days I was walking around really really angry, and unable to fight a whole country of ignorant Cubans. Street hustlers, touts, kids, normal Cubans, they all yell Chino, China, names other asian countries, hello in several asian languages, and fake chinese speak at us when we walk down the street or are in a store or anywhere. For what reason? I suppose i get the psychology behind it. People need to categorize things. People need to belittle in order to feel better about themselves. Humans and their clan mentality. Some people genuinely wanted to know what race we were, like we were some curiosity guessing game for them. It's all super not cool. Ignorance is not cool and the Cubans get a pass in 2015 because they have been isolated, heck they have almost no internet even. But by 2025 if I ever go back I would hope that Cuba is a lot less ignorant and that the instances of getting ching chong'd would be more along the lines of Spain or France (also way more than in America and still not cool). A few Cubans have explained to me that people don't know what they're talking about and anyone who is Asian is just labeled "Chino". Ok that's not the best but ok I'm in their country for a week what am I gonna do about it? Accost every person I see and tell them I'm not Chinese, I'm American who is Ethnically Korean (which I did a few times)? What drives them or anyone for that matter to make these ignorant racist non sexual cat calls at me? Is this parallel to what females feel like when they go through a cat call gauntlet? Cuba has a long way to go as far as progress goes, on all fronts, and progress in racism and racial tolerance is just one aspect of a country playing catch up.
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