Portuguese and Spanish slavers supplied the Americas with "los Negros," the Blacks. Only those young and strong, impervious to European disease and able to withstand months of torturous living packed in the cruel quarters of slave shipholds survived the middle passage. Those who arrived, stunned and malnourished, lost in a foreign land, were easy prey to the slavers. Removed from a world that had nourished them, left to the mercy of those whose own lack of humanity prevented the recognition of theirs, they were utterly dependent and at the mercy of their captors. Vestiges of racism threaten to dismantle further progress in South America, as they do here. The prophecies of Willie Lynch, a slave owner who created a divisive plan to keep Blacks separate by fostering dissent among them, are coming true. Lynch outlined the differences in physical characteristics among the slaves-skin shade, hair texture, height, etc. By playing up these differences, Lynch promised, "The Black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands." Throughout North and South America, Lynch's plan lives on. Color lines rule, with the predominantly European strains remaining in power, and those of darker skin and crisper hair texture continue to be oppressed. It is a chilling reality that echoes down from the brutal suppression of the native peoples of Chiapas to the continued repression of Mexicans here and in their own country, to the harsh discrimination shown the Blacks of Brazil and America.
Discusses the social conditions in Haiti in 1965. Prevalence of violence in the country; Disasters suffered by Haitians; Human rights violations committed by the government.
"You must understand that we are very different in Cuba," insisted Gabriel Molina Franchossi, director of Gramma newspaper, the official organ of the communist party in Cuba. "To Afro-Cubans, big lips and big backsides are objects of beauty. To us, such images represent the feminine ideal." Afro Cubans also seem naive. Cubans are fond of saying that Fidel Castro abolished racism when he came into power 40 years ago, as though this can be accomplished by a simple decree. What they really mean, of course, is that Castro outlawed discrimination And again, who am I to say he hasn't? In the United States, discrimination didn't become illegal until the mid-60s when Congress passed a series of civil rights laws effecting voting rights, equal employment, and fair housing. By 1968, Richard Nixon was ending a wave of white backlash into power and the process of undermining those gains began. Blacks appear to have had a different experience in Cuba, where better than 40 percent of the population is either Black or mestizo (mixed) and where a fair percentage of those who are considered "white" acknowledge some degree of African or mestizo blood in their heritage. "We in Cuba are not so easily categorized as in the United States," said Reynaldo Calviac Lafferte, director of the International Press Center. He pointed to a wall in his office. "In the same family, there are some who are as white as that wall." Then he slapped his patent leathers. "And there are some who are as black as my shoes. For us, race is not an issue like it is for you."
At [Henry Christophe]'s death, Haiti was taken over by General Boyer and civil war ceased. It was Boyer who obtained Haiti's official independence from France for 150 million francs. Unfortunately, Haiti's employment is less than 30 percent and its illiteracy rate is above 50 percent. Though its official language is French, Haiti's most widely spoken language is kreyol. Ninety percent of Haitians are Catholic although 99 percent worship their native religion of voodoo. Despite its tropical resort geography, living conditions in Haiti are comparative to those of many Third World nations. The Haitian economy is almost entirely dependent upon U.S. companies who horde the country's resources and only pay slave wages.
The presenters discussed topics ranging from democratic reform and transition in Haiti to health concerns in the Haitian diaspora. One presentation by Lunine Pierre-Jerome, Ed.D., titled "Identity Development among Low-Literacy Haitian Adolescent Newcomers: Collective and Integrative View of the Self" was particularly poignant. Dr. Pierre-Jerome's case study explored how low-literacy Haitian adolescent newcomers identify themselves; their perceptions of family, peer relationships, community and schooling; and their opinions about attending a literacy program.
I do know that racial identity is important and perceived differently there. For example, people who consider themselves black or African American in the U.S. would not automatically be considered black or African Brazilian in Brazil. People who have brown or lighter skin complexions in Brazil are mulattos, morenos, or some other nonblack color category. Approximately half of Brazil's 150 million people are classified as mulatto or black. "Pe na cozinha" means "Foot in the kitchen" and "mulatinho" means "little mulatto." "Foot in the kitchen" refers to someone normally seen as white acknowledging his African ancestry because the kitchen is the kitchen of slavery in which blacks served white in all aspects of life.
Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, is a Haitian activist and leader of Fondasyon Trant Septanm (September 30 organization), named in commemoration of the coup against democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 1991. His organization worked with victims of torture, rape and extrajudicial executions by the Haitian military and paramilitary. I met Lovinsky when I lived in Haiti. I admire his fervent commitment to educate Americans about the negative impacts of US policies towards Haiti. In 2004, under threat by the former military whose human rights abuses he had vehemently denounced, Lovinsky left Haiti for the US. But two years later, after democratic elections, Lovinsky returned to Haiti. Like many of his friends, I was concerned for his safety, but Lovinsky was unwavering. Last August, while working with a human rights delegation, Lovinsky received a telephone call and left his home. His car was found the next morning, but he has not been seen since. He is "disappeared", a term used to describe someone who is kidnapped out of a political motivation.
While some forget that the United States does not have a monopoly over the title "America," the term, with some exceptions, encompasses most of the Western Hemisphere. As such, many of the communities of African descent that reside within this range possess equal claim to the name "African Americans." The event commemorated "Black Consciousness Day," an annual holiday that is celebrated in Brazil on November 20. The public holiday pays tribute to an African ancestor, Zumbi dos Palmares, revered by Blacks in the country for his fierce resistance to slavery in the 17th century. The day was consciously chosen to symbolize the ongoing struggles of Blacks to achieve social and economic equality in Brazil.
In this, he's not unlike his counterparts in the United States, where black people also have an extensive vocabulary to describe variations in skin tone. In the United States, one can be "high yellow" (i.e., of very light skin); one can be "red" (i.e., with a reddish tint; one of Malcolm X's early nicknames was "Detroit Red"); or one can be any of a number of synonyms for dark. Like, for instance, "Smokey." In fact, the famous (and "high yellow") Motown singer William Robinson was given that nickname in affectionate irony by one of his father's friends - sort of like calling a fat guy Tiny. The same is not true in Brazil. And if the United States is a country where black people with light skin used to sometimes "pass," i.e., pretend to be white, well, in this country "passing is a national institution." So says Elisa Nascimento with a laugh. She is white, American-born and the wife of Abdias do Nascimento, a 90-year-old black Brazilian artist and political icon. And the insistence of some Brazilian blacks on "passing," she says, has political consequences in that it tends to distort statistics on black life. "The way racism works in Brazil . . . there is a hierarchy, and so people tend to identify themselves lighter than they necessarily would be." "It was a rough time," she says in her imperfect English. "For me, was impossible to live there. We could not be married. Why I married with a black guy, you know? So when I say to you that Brazil was different . . . even my first husband didn't think of himself as black. In Brazil, he was a Brazilian, even though he was black. He never thought of himself as someone different from me because he was another color."
It goes something like this: A Dr. James D. Watson made a statement in an interview with the Times of London, which was interpreted to mean that blacks are dumber than whites (those are my words). Here's what he actually said: "...there are many people of color who are very talented," ...he is "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Àfrica. ' "All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really," the Times quoted him as saying. As a child growing up in Haiti, I often heard my peers making comments that would reflect views similar to that allegedly expressed by Dr. Watson. There's no truth to the belief that Haitians are inferior to citizens of other nations, but sadly, many Haitians believe that. Unfortunately, many non-Haitians believe that about Haitians as well. For as long as I can remember, there s been a cancer spread throughout that says that we as a people aren't capable of rising above our circumstances and becoming who we were created to be. It's time for all of us to recognize that all people are created in the image of God. One race or people group isn't created "better than another. We are all created equal and we are all loved equally by a Heavenly Father who desires the best for His creatures.
