Protesters gathered at the corner of 64th Street and 22nd Ave., carrying yellow placards reading "Stop Using Black Men as Target Practice," and "Free Haitian Refugees." "If we can't vote people in the positions to do the right thing then we have no other alternative than to protest," said [Lorraine Goddard], who held a sign that read "No Justice, No Transit Tax." "We demand that the police who have been guilty of killing our youth be prosecuted and put in jail," said Mel Reeves, an organizer with the coalition. "We also demand that they free the Haitian refugees who are being held in the Chrome detention center."
New York Cambridge Mass.: Russell Sage Foundation Harvard University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
413 p, The story of West Indian immigrants to the United States is considered a great success. Many of these adoptive citizens have prospered, including General Colin Powell. But Mary Waters tells a very different story about immigrants from the West Indies, especially their children. She finds that when the immigrants first arrive, their knowledge of English, their skills and contacts, their self-respect, and their optimistic assessment of American race relations facilitate their integration into the American economic structure
Arbitrary detention of Haitian refugees should not be part of U.S. foreign policy. Minors should not be held captive, nor should any of the refugees be denied due process or the right to legal representation. In the past, all Haitian refugees were considered economic refugees. Today, even the president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is claiming that he is being persecuted. While the U.S. Special Forces and the State Department are busy chasing Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, on the island nation of Haiti, a powerful and deadly drama is unfolding. Mob killings of reporters and shootouts in broad daylight between mayors and congressmen have become common occurrence.
Boston First Baptist Church and Mattapan's Saint Angela's Catholic Church choirs uplifted the service with songs. Rev. Father Charles Gabriel of Dorchester's St Matthew Catholic Church gave thanks to God for the country's blessings. Rev. Gary Theodat of Golgotha Seventh Day Adventist of Roslindale asked for deliverance for Haiti, while Reverend Nicholas Homicile of the Baptist Tabernacle of the Evangelical Voice prayed for unity. The President of the Association-of Haitian Pastors of New England, Rev. Pastor Paul Daniel of Evangelical Baptist Church of the North Coast, closed the worship with a prayer of consecration and the final blessings. The reflection part of the gathering ended with a series of short and precise messages.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
85 p., Contends that Caribbean migrants are adopting the foreign culture, sports, food, clothes and behavior at a rapid pace while at the same time losing knowledge of the native environment. Many of the "recent migrants" who are seen on the streets in Brooklyn or elsewhere or in the schools are hardly distinguishable from inner city African Americans suggesting that dominant society influence coupled with the desire to fit in pervade the entire raison d'etre even before the immigrants arrive.
In addressing some of the issue facing Caribbean migrants, Dr. Manley implored everyone to take responsibilities for themselves and their respective islands. "Maybe we have been depending too much on the people we elect. A democracy works best when it has citizens who are willing to be accountable," she said. While empathizing with the terrorism issues, currently affecting the United States, Dr. Manley pointed out that the Caribbean was also experiencing terrorism in its own form. "For us poverty is terrorism. The amount of guns that come into Jamaica from this country is terrorism. Jamaica is way ahead of the other islands with their homicide rate. "Guyana is right behind us and some other islands are beginning to see the same thing happening."
Special journal issue., 211 p., During the colonial era, after abolition of slavery in 1833, the British faced extreme shortage of labor for sugar plantation in their sugar producing colonies of the Caribbean. To overcome this problem, over half a million Indians were transported to the region as indentured workers (often called as Indian coolies) with false hopes and promises.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Papers presented at a conference held in 2011., 270 p., Illustrates the neglect of emotions and feelings in the historiography of the people of the Bhojpuri areas in India who migrated to the plantation colonies in the Caribbean; analyses assimilation, mainly in the form of Christian conversion of Hindu and Muslim migrants, which resulted in the absence of mandirs and mosques, and the virtual lack of traditional Indian festivals and ceremonies in Belize, Venezuela and St. Lucia; deals with the plurality of ethnic identities, which is in fact the opposite of assimilation; and discusses the social adaptations and reproductions in forms such as Islamic spaces in politics as well as Bollywood movies.
It may also have helped English-speaking migrants from the Caribbean that Florida served as a broad entry point for Caribbean migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and other countries: Where an area has a strong tradition of immigration, prevailing social attitudes are not likely to be as parochial as those in traditionally closed communities. Again, this is not to minimize the difficulties that particular migrants have faced; it is to acknowledge the fairly obvious point that some communities are less impenetrable for outsiders than others. A recent study by the British Cabinet Office has found that Caribbean women constitute a significant success story at the professional level. Specifically, for the generation born between 1940 and 1959, as many as 45 percent of the black women from the Caribbean, or who are of Caribbean heritage, now hold professional or managerial jobs, as against 27.3 percent of the black men in the same category. For the generation born between 1960 and 1979, 38.1 percent of the black women with Caribbean roots are professionals or managers, in comparison with 28.6 percent of the black men. These figures warn us that gender is now a significant factor in determining the prospects of Caribbean migrants to Britain, and they highlight the need for a broader examination of the factors that determine success for those who, in Claude McKay's words, may find themselves "a long way from home."
Yvonne J. Graham, CEO of the Caribbean Women's Health Association, discussed the health disparities that continue to plague racial and ethnic groups in the New York City metropolitan area at the Brooklyn-based group's annual benefit reception. The CWHA's chief mission is to respond to problems affecting immigrants from the Caribbean region.