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."
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.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
239 p., From 1791 to 1804, revolution on the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue sent thousands of free and enslaved people of African descent to the United States. Historians have largely viewed this migration as contributing to black community formation in cities like Philadelphia, and as evidence of revolutionary connections in an Atlantic World. This dissertation examines the experiences of these migrants as an example of competing identities among people of African descent, and argues that the emergence of an ethnic identity among black Saint-Dominguans, shaped by Roman Catholicism and French language, impeded assimilation into African-American communities.
"I'm from the United States," said Dr. [Claire-Marie Cyprien], a 43-year-old anesthesiologist who three days earlier had dropped her practice in Orlando, Fla., to rush to Haiti, the land of her birth. "And I'm a doctor." For generations, Haiti's chaos, corruption and poverty pushed out many of its most talented people. Haiti has a population of about nine million, but as many as two million more Haitians live abroad, about half a million of them in the U.S. The diaspora-Haitians refer to the émigrés as Haiti's "Tenth Province"-sends about $2 billion a year home, a sum equal to about 30% of the country's gross domestic product. Despite the money, émigrés have often been regarded warily by those who stayed behind. Emigration may offer a way to climb up or break out of Haiti's rigid class structure. But new wealth inspires jealousy, while distance from the motherland opens émigrés to accusations that they aren't as "authentic" as those who never left.
Last May, President Bush signed an Executive Order allowing the Coast Guard to immediately turn back Haitian boat refugees without checking to determine if they were fleeing political persecution. Before that, thousands of Haitians had crowded into unsafe boats to try to get away from their dangerous homeland. The U.S. tagged them "economic" rather than political refugees. "The fact is our government has turned a blind eye to Haitians," said Wade Henderson, director of NAACP's Washington bureau. I have a dream that I intend to make a reality. I'm calling on African Americans and Haitians here in Miami to come together to sit down, talk and work out a plan to help Haitians. But I'm also asking that Hispanics, Jews, Anglos -- everyone -- pitch in to help.
An editorial asserts that the environmental summit is important but criticizes the world leaders for meeting in the comfort and lush scenery of Rio de Janeiro Brazil while deported Haitian refugees face almost certain torture and death, concluding that blacks have only "half-a-life" in leaders' eyes.
Explores the challenges facing immigrant families as they adapt to the United States, as well as their many strengths, most notably high levels of marriage and family commitment. The authors examine differences by country of origin in the human capital, legal status, and social resources of immigrant families and describe their varied living arrangements, focusing on children of Mexican, Southeast Asian, and black Caribbean origin.
At the same time, [Jesse Jackson] lamented what he described as the "disparity" in how the U.S. government treats Cuban and Haitian refugees. Jackson said while the U.S. readily welcomes Cuban refugees, it neglects Haitians. "When Haitian children's parents die at sea they are sent back," he said. "We subsidize Cubans to come to the United States, but we ship Haitians out...We should change our policy and measure human rights by one yardstick." "The Cuban immigrants are called political refugees, and they are welcomed in the United States," he said. "The Haitian immigrants are called economic refugees, and they are sent back...There is a distinction without a difference."
