A report reveals that a prominent journalist and proponent of the divisive critical race theory once touted that Cuba, which is now in turmoil due to the results of communism, is a "model country" that boasts of "high equality," among other things.
Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times stated in an interview that Cuba is the "most equal" country in the Western hemisphere, garnering criticism from conservatives on the Internet. Hannah-Jones, who is an investigative journalist covering civil rights and a leader of the controversial critical race theory movement "1619 Project," said other countries must look to Cuba to see the "least inequality between black and white people."
According to the the National Pulse, which unearthed the interview, Hannah-Jones made those comments to Vox's Ezra Klein when she was asked during a 2019 podcast about "candidates or places" that she thinks has a "viable and sufficiently ambitious integration agenda."
The "1619 Project" creator answered, "If you want to see the most equal, multiracial demo-it's not a democracy-" she corrected herself after realizing that the country had a communist regime ruling over it "-the most equal, multiracial country in our hemisphere, it would be Cuba."
"Cuba has the least inequality between black and white people of any place really in the hemisphere-most of the Caribbean," Hannah-Jones continued to explain. "In places that are truly at least biracial countries, Cuba actually has the least inequality, and that's largely due to socialism, which I'm sure no one wants to hear."
Hannah-Jones' controversial comments can be heard via the Vox Conversations podcast. She admitted that she was not an "expert" on international race relations. The "1619 Project" creator's comments were met with intense criticism especially after the Cubans sparked the largest public display of disapproval over the Communist regime in decades.
According to the BBC, the anti-government protests began in San Antonio de los Baños, a city southwest of Havana and later spread throughout the country. In response, the communist President Miguel Díaz-Canel gave an address on national TV, blamed the U.S.' sanctions on trade for the economic crisis, and accused protesters of being U.S.-hired mercenaries to destabilize the country. He also called for his civilian supporters to attack protesters, saying, "The order to fight has been given - into the street, revolutionaries!"
Hannah-Jones' resurfaced comments on Cuba, especially in light of its political unrest, was met with intense backlash. According to The Blaze, American Conservative Union senior fellow Mercedes Schlapp took to Twitter to denounce Hannah-Jones' praise for Cuba's socialist "equality."
"Please go to Cuba and stay in Cuba - Nicole Hannah-Jones," Schlapp tweeted. "The anti-American factions in our own country fail to understand the horrors of Communism."
A Twitter user by the name of Iyla Okun agreed, writing, "Yes, every Socialist-loving Democrat must be sent on sabbatical for 3 years into all countries that espoused Socialism/Communism to talk to people there and learn what advantages Socialism brought to their citizens. Nikole Hannah-Jones should lead that initiative."
This is not the first time the "1619 Project" creator expressed her approval of Cuba's communist regime.
According to Fox News, Hannah-Jones visited Cuba in 2008, when it was under the rule of dictator Fidel Castro. Back then, she praised its "99.8 percent literacy rate, the lowest HIV infection rate in the Western Hemisphere, free college and health care." But in 2013, she appeared to backtrack, taking to Twitter to share a first-person account from a Black Cuban that she interviewed for the New York Times.
"The reality is that in Cuba, your experience of these changes depends on your skin color," Hannah-Jones wrote.
