Between “Laws and Practice,” Blacks, Latinxs, Afro-Cubans/Latinxs, and Public Policy

Abstract

This final, summary chapter briefly summarizes findings and discusses implications for future research and public policy-making, situating these intersections in a recent trip to Cuba. I write here that much of this book was exploratory and challenge interdisciplinary scholars to look more intensively at the Afro-Cuban experience in South Florida given the methodological limitations of the book. I also place the now-documented intra-Cuban racial bifurcation narrative (my findings) within the context of growing literature on the Afro-Latino experience in the USA, with specific attention to arguments that Latinxs are “becoming white.” I challenge researchers and policymakers to ignore scholarly and popular claims that the USA has moved into a “post-racial” era given the empirical evidence to the contrary and propose a continuation of universal and targeted race-based public policies as remedies for persistent racial discrimination in various institutional spheres (e.g. housing, labor market, and education) at the same time bottom-up, root-level solutions are sought.