Normalizing Cuban refugees: Representations of whiteness and anti-communism in the USA during the Cold War  

Oleh:

Current, Cheris Brewer

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Ethnicities vol. 08 no. 01 (Mar. 2008), page 42–67.
Topik: anti-communism and Cold War; immigration and refugee studies; racialization
Fulltext: 42.pdf (4.03MB)

Isi artikel

This article examines the representation of Cuban refugees during the 1960s and 1970s in the USA. Positioning the Cuban refugees as ‘ideologically’ valuable, the US government undertook a substantial public relations campaign that sought to secure public mandate for incoming refugees. In order to avoid a national anti-Cuban backlash, the US government and the popular media alike constructed ‘positive’ portrayals of incoming Cuban refugees. These representations played up the refugees’ purportedly universal anti-communist stance and the socially and racially desirable qualities of these ‘good immigrants’, who were perceived as ‘white’ and middle to upper class. In order to contextualize these representations, a history of US–Cuban relations and mid-20th-century refugee policies are discussed. Thus anti-communism, whiteness, and middle-class attributes were strategically linked and broadcasted by the US government and public media sources alike.

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