Okpewho,Isidore (Editor) and Nzegwu,Nkiru (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
531 p., Traces the immigrants' progress from expatriation to arrival and covers the successes as well as problems they have encountered as they establish their lives in a new country. Includes Georges E. Fouron's "I, too, want to be a big man" : the making of a Haitian "boat people"; John A. Arthur's "Immigrants and the American system of justice: perspectives of African and Caribbean Blacks"; and Perry Mars' "The Guyana diaspora and homeland conflict resolution."
The State Department revealed that an estimated 30,000 undocumented Haitians face deportation to their homeland. [Hillary Clinton], however, said the U.S. will look closely at the issue "and try to come up with some appropriate responses to the challenges posed." A large number of legislators and immigration advocates have been calling on the Obama administration to grant TPS to Haitians as the U.S. has done for other countries, such as Honduras and Nicaragua. Last month, two prominent U.S. Democratic senators - Charles Schumer of New York, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote U.S. President Barack Obama, expressing deep concern about the status of Haitians here.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
;, 300 p., Examines how Haitian diaspora writers, artists, and musicians address black masculinity through the Haitian Creole concept of gwo negs, or "big men". This work confronts the gendered, sexualized, and racialized boundaries of America's diaspora communities and openly resist "domestic" imperialism that targets immigrants, minorities, and gays.
A Congressional Black Caucus delegation, led by the CBC Chairwoman Carolyn C. KiIpatrick (D-Mich.), traveled to Haiti recently for a one-day visit as part of the group's ongoing effort to bring attention to the plight of starving Haitians.
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.
Discusses the impact of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in the U.S. in 2008 examining Obama's black ancestry as well as his self-representation, which generates uncertainty about the meaning of blackness in American life. Looks into some studies examining the social status of African-Americans in the country, including their educational and employment opportunities. Moreover, addresses the social condition of Latin American and Asian American immigrants
Two Florida Democratic congressmen have been pushing the [George W. Bush] administration to permanently cease deportation of Haitians because of the hardship being experienced in the impoverished country. Kendrick Meek and Alcee L. Hastings, strong Haitian cates, have assailed the istration's policy on Haiti, ing that Haitians have, for long, been victimized by Washington's "double standard" immigration policies. Meek, who represents Miami, said Haiti "over-qualifies" for TPS, bestowed when the U.S. government determines eligible nationals are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing conflicts, environmental disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions."
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
241 p., An examination of the importance of international cross-influences between modernist poets in the Americas. Includes "From Harlem to Haiti: Langston Hughes, Jacques Roumain and the avant-gardes," "Signifying modernism in Wilson Harris's Eternity to season" and "Beyond apprenticeship: Derek Walcott's passage to the Americas."
"Congress has gone on record supporting debt relief for Haiti", the letter stated. "We now call on you, Mr. President, to use your influence to make sure that this struggling nation is no longer held captive to their past and is put on a sustained path to development". In urging [George W. Bush] to grant Haitian immigrants, currently residing in the U.S., TPS, the CBC said this would enable them to contribute to their nation's recovery and stability. Under Congressional rules, TPS may be granted when there is ongoing armed conflict, "posing a serious threat to personal safety". It is requested by a foreign state that "temporarily cannot handle the return of nationals due to environmental disaster" or when "extraordinary and temporary conditions in a foreign state exist which prevent aliens from returning". In February, Haitian President René Préval formally requested TPS for his compatriots living in the U.S. The CBC said while Haiti has made "considerable progress" in its efforts to recover from the physical and political damages of recent years, through its "commendable" rebuilding efforts and its recent democratic elections, its democracy "remains fragile.
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."
"That's terrific news," she added. "We're hopeful that Haitians wont be sent back until the country has had a chance to recover." [Kendrick Meek], who represents Miami, said Haiti "over-qualifies" for TPS, bestowed when the U.S. government determines eligible nationals are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing conflicts, environmental disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions. [Alcee L. Hastings], who represents the city of Miramar, north of Miami, said, in his letter to [George W. Bush], that Haiti can "hardly sustain the lives of those currently living within its borders. "How can we also expect it to contend with the repatriation of the very people who left Haiti in desperation and who, through remittances, can aid in the nation's recovery efforts?" he asked.
[Barbara Lee]'s bill would establish a U.S.-Caribbean educational exchange program for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and scholars through the State Department. It would also enable the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a regional strategy to expand existing early education initiatives, and would allow both StateDepartment and USAID to use public-private partnerships to implement the program.
Among the big talking points of the current immigration debate in the United States is the type of labor that should be admitted into the country. Many believe the entry of "unskilled" laborers should be severely restricted. Jamaican-born Eleanor Brown, a Reginald Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School, is not one of them. Shortly after addressing the "Conference on the Caribbean: A 20/20 Vision " last month, Brown explained to Caribbean Today's Managing Editor Gordon Williams why more of the Caribbean's labor force should allowed to go overseas.
In creating Scourge, a full-length work of hip hop theater, Joseph digs into his ancestral roots to tell the story of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere with a long and violent history. The piece's main characters are two Haitian-American kids who are torn between their Caribbean roots and urban America where they have grown up.
From the United States' perspective, it is very, very important for the (President George W) Bush administration to understand the location and the reality of the Caribbean's small economies. You cannot ignore them or you will have problems. You have somebody like (Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez in the (Caribbean) region that is giving them (the U.S.) a headache. The (U.S.) better fortify the small countries or they will go over to whoever is helping them. People must survive and people must live. For the Caribbean in particular, it is a historical event. We are meeting as a Caribbean people. We seem to be sharing the same concerns every other CARICOMmember shares. From the U.S. standpoint, I really don't know because a lot of the feedback that we've had from our heads of state, we've heard this before... over the years and I'm not sure this is any different. The only thing that might be a little different now is the deportation of criminals to our shores and I don't believe that the U.S. does not know what the implication of that is. We are always seeking financial support from them, so to send us people who have been convicted for crimes that we don't have in the islands, somebody, somewhere, must know.
"I cannot emphasize these things enough," he said. "People need to be extra alert and be very careful with what they're taking to and from the airport." "It's a tragedy because we don't have that kind of culture at all," he said. "It is quite unfortunate. "We can have all kinds of religions in the Caribbean, but we must have peace, love and respect for each other and for the outside world." he added. "I am troubled. We don't need that (alleged plot)."
"I knew in some quarters that linking the virus to Haiti would potentially raise some concerns, but for the better part often years I have been tracking the virus from Central Africa to elsewhere-which is the roadmap for useful vaccines and other control methods," [Michael Worobey] said. "Whether it be Haitian men and women or homosexual men and women there is no sense in blaming a group of people for a virus we did not know existed. Instead we as a community should be extra sympathetic to those who are infected with the virus."
In this issue, we'll see why [Frederick Douglass] believed Haiti not only worried but scared slave-holding Americans. We'll also discuss why he believed Haiti is a country of "firsts" and his answers to critics that the country is doomed due to its roots in voodo. His actual words will be in italics. While slavery existed amongst us, Haiti's example was a sharp thorn in our side and a source of alarm and terror.
[Frederick Douglass] lamented the fact that the U.S. continues to shun Haiti although it has enriched American merchants, farmers and the country overall. He acknowledged a common complaint of Americans at the time that Haiti was more friendly to France and other European countries than the U.S. However, he partly blamed the US for not reaching out to Haiti with respect and friendship. He also cited Haiti's many institutional and cultural connections to France - language, literature, laws and government - as reasons for its friendship with France. Still, Douglass asserted that the main reason for the United States' ambiguous attitude towards Haiti was racial. In discussing Haiti's geography, Douglass lavishly praises its climate; lofty mountains; strikingly beautiful valleys, lakes, rivers and plains; blue waters and the exquisite Bay of Portau-Prince and Mole St. Nicolas. Douglass noted that the U.S. wanted the Mole for a naval station in order to dominate the area's commercial market before and after the then anticipated Nicaragua Canal was completed. The U.S. was also considering taking the Mole by force, if necessary. However, Douglass warned them that Haiti would not peacefully give up the harbor and that it would cost too much to take it by force.
Denying Haiti credit where credit is due is an established tradition. In 1893, at the end of the century that started with Haitian Independence and the Slave Trade Act, the orator, statesman and emancipated slave Frederick Douglass told an audience at the Chicago World's Fair how Haiti "taught the world the danger of slavery and the value of liberty." He pointed out that: The world had a chance to recognize Haiti three years ago, during the celebration of Haiti's bicentennial. But once again, Haiti was penalized. On the big day, January 1, 2004, Thabo Mbeki, President of the most powerful African nation, South Africa, came to celebrate. But the former slaveholding nations, led by the United States, boycotted the events, and forced the less powerful countries of Africa and the Caribbean to stay away. Instead of sending congratulations to the Haitian people's elected representatives, the United States sent guns and money to those trying to overthrow the government. When the international spotlight came to Haiti in 2004, it was to witness the return to dictatorship rather than to celebrate freedom from slavery.
[Barbara Lee]'s bill would establish a U.S.Caribbean educational exchange program for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and scholars through the State Department. It would also enable the U.S. Agencjrfbr International Development (USAID) to develop a regional strategy to expand existing early education initiatives, and would allow both State Department and USAID to use public-private partnerships to implement the program.
Examined the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among Black Caribbean immigrant ("Caribbean Black") and African American populations and the correlates of psychiatric disorders among the Caribbean Black population
"That is the difference between the parade in Haiti and the parade in America. Here-it unites us," said [Wilner Auguste]. "I believe that if we can live with the idea of being united for one day then that idea can carry on throughout the rest of our days."
According to McPherson, Spenser has gathered a remarkable international ensemble of scholars who collectively ask what the East-West Cold War meant in Latin America
At the 32nd convention of Black Mayors, which was held in Memphis, Tennessee, from April 26 to 30, 2006, Minister of Interior and Territorial Collectivities Paul Magloire led the Haitian delegation. In the name of the interim government of Haiti, here is the speech he pronounced April 28, on the third day.
On January 7, the Haitian Americans United, Inc. (H.A.U.) will hold its fifth Annual Haitian Independence Day Gala in Lombado's in Randolph starting at 7 p.m. The gala will honor Haiti's Founding Fathers, especially the General-Emperor Jean Jacques Dessalines, on the occasion, this year, of the 200th anniversary of his assassination in Port-au-Prince. The gala will also commemorate 202 years of the proclamation of Haiti's independence. In Providence, Rhode Island, the Haitian Independence Day was to be celebrated at the new Haitian Bicentennial Memorial Plaza in Roger Williams Park starting at 9 a.m. H.A.U., in collaboration with several other Haitian organizations, was to lay a memorial wreath at the foot of the second Haitian memorial in the United States.
The best pieces of good legislation can be hijacked and used against the very people it is supposed to be benefiting. As a result, you may buy clothes that say "Made in Kenya" or "Made in Nigeria," but the reality is that the cotton was grown and processed in China. The textile industry in nations such as Nigeria and the cotton farmers from Kenya and other nations have been devastated. The United has, in effect, laid the environment to bring economic devastation to villages and towns throughout Africa. Why Haiti? It's simple. They can cram China cotton into Haiti and block any textile business in the CAFTA nations. Keep in mind that millions of people of African descent live and work in CAFTA nations. More than any place else, the Dominican Republic is 60 percent Black. It is quickly developing textiles under CAFTA via business with the United States. It also employs many Haitians who border the nation.
In her book Louisiana, Erma Brodber reflects on the alliances that should exist between the African American and Afro Caribbean peoples, symbolically repairing the fissures that exist between the two, while addressing an uncommon subject in Caribbean migrant literature. Brodber's literary themes toward the unification of the relationships shared amongst the black diaspora articulate the legal tensions and national differences that can impede these alliances. Although Brodber's novel approaches this by creating a reconnection of the African diaspora in a borderless and nationless transmigration, and sometimes through a spaceless spirit world, Page argues that in reality this reunification is affected by the rules of the state that simply cannot be ignored.;
The last week of January 2005, the Fifth Annual World Social Forum was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, bringing together 150,000 grassroots leaders, intellectuals and activists to discuss how the world can be made more free and more just. The conference's theme was "Another World Is Possible," and the speakers and participants showed that another, more fair treatment of Haiti is possible. The conference's keynote speaker, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, discussed the debt that the world owes Haiti in a press conference. He acknowledged that Haiti's Constitutional President had been kidnapped, and declared that he and other Latin American Presidents understood that there could be no solution to Haiti's crisis without President Aristide. At a workshop in Porto Alegre, called "Haiti, the International Community's Dictatorship," speakers from Haiti, the U.S. and the Caribbean led a discussion of the human rights crisis in Haiti, and explored ways that people from outside Haiti could promote the country's sovereignty and the return of its democracy.
In his farewell address as outgoing Caucus chair, U.S. Representative Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve as chairman during the 108th Congress and praised [Melvin L. Watt]'s intellect, skill, and balanced approach to solving today's public policy challenges. The new officers of the CBC for the 109th Congress are: Watt, chair; U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, 1st vice chair; U.S. Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, 2nd vice chair; U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis, secretary; and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, whip. "We have to have dialogue, and we're trying to create opportunities for that dialogue to take place," said Watt, who admitted that it's hard sometimes for the CBC to take aggressive positions in the areas of trade because of differing views among its own constituents. "We have not been aggressive in the area of trade, advocating one trade policy over another, as we have on some of the more core issues."
Obiakor,Festus E. (Author) and Grant,Patrick A. (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2005
Published:
Huntington, NY: Nova Science Pub
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
196 p, Foreign born African Americans frequently find themselves in precarious situations. They confront three intriguing questions: How Black are they? How much racism do they endure? How do they survive in spite of the odds? In reality, they are Blacks who are Black enough to encounter problems that other Blacks in America experience. However, they also understand that they must succeed in a competitive complex society like America. On the one hand, they are grateful to be in America; but on the other hand, they wonder why they must cross so many rubicons to achieve their goals.
"The U.S. government would prefer to tell Haiti what to do and when and how to do it," said Eugenia Charles, the Haitian-born director of Fondasyon Mapou, a Washingtonbased group that seeks to improve the quality of life for Haitians. The group sponsors weekly demonstrations in front of the Haitian Embassy demanding that political prisoners be freed and democracy be restored in Haiti. Thomas Griffin, a Philadelphia attorney and human rights advocate who traveled to Haiti last year, presented details of his findings to members of the Congressional Black Caucus on March 2. His report, released by the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the University of Miami School of Law, found that "Haiti's security and justice institutions fuel the cycle of violence. Summary executions are a police tactic, and even wellmeaning officers treat poor neighborhoods seeking a democratic voice as enemy territory where they must kill or be killed." [Barbara Lee]'s Haiti TRUTH (The Responsibility to Uncover the Tuth about Haiti) Act would form a TRUTH commission to investigate United States involvement in [JeanBertrand Aristide]'s removal.
Dzidzienyo,Anani (Author) and Oboler,Suzanne (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2005
Published:
New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
323 p, Contents: Flows and counterflows : Latinas/os, blackness, and racialization in hemispheric perspective / Suzanne Oboler and Anani Dzidzienyo -- A region in denial : racial discrimination and racism in Latin America / Ariel E. Dulitzky -- Afro-Ecuadorian responses to racism : between citizenship and corporatism / Carlos de la Torre -- The foreignness of racism : pride and prejudice among Peru's Limeños in the 1990s / Suzanne Oboler -- Bad boys and peaceful Garifuna : transnational encounters between racial stereotypes of Honduras and the United States (and their implications for the study of race in the Americas) / Mark Anderson -- Afro-Mexico : Blacks, indígenas, politics, and the greater diaspora / Bobby Vaughn -- The changing world of Brazilian race relations? / Anani Dzidzienyo -- Framing the discussion of African American-Latino relations : a review and analysis / John J. Betancur -- Neither white nor Black : the representation of racial identity among Puerto Ricans on the island and in the U.S. mainland / Jorge Duany -- Scripting race, finding place : African Americans, Afro-Cubans, and the diasporic imaginary in the United States / Nancy Raquel Mirabal -- Identity, power, and socioracial hierarchies among Haitian immigrants in Florida / Louis Herns Marcelin -- Interminority relations in legislative settings : the case of African Americans and Latinos / José E. Cruz -- African American and Latina/o cooperation in challenging racial profiling / Kevin R. Johnson -- Racial politics in multiethnic America : Black and Latina/o identities and coalitions / Mark Sawyer -- Racism in the Americas and the Latino scholar / Silvio Torres-Saillant -- Witnessing history : an octogenarian reflects on fifty years of African American-Latino relations / Nelson Peery
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
240 p., When the South American colony now known as Guyana was due to gain independence from Britain in the 1960s, U.S. officials in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations feared it would become a communist nation under the leadership of Cheddi Jagan, a Marxist who was very popular among the South Asian (mostly Indian) majority. Although to this day the CIA refuses to confirm or deny involvement, Rabe presents evidence that CIA funding, through a program run by the AFL-CIO, helped foment the labor unrest, race riots, and general chaos that led to Jagan's replacement in 1964.
Rep. St. Fleur and the panelists also called for a change in the Bush administration's policy denying safe harbor to Haitians fleeing Haiti for the shores of Florida by boat. In a strong show of support for St. Fleur's resolutions, representatives of presidential hopeful [John Kerry] circulated a statement from the candidate supporting the presence of a multinational police force in Haiti including police from the United States, OAS and CARICOM. The statement also called for U.S. funded training and support for Haiti's police force, the lifting current sanctions on aid to Haitians for health and education programs, and renewed pressure on international financial institutions to assist the Haitian government in confronting these issues. Kerry's statement went on to state, "If we hope to lead the nations of the world toward a more democratic future, we must act now to protect a fragile democracy in our own backyard."
Who is it that speaks for our private face? Those of us who take communion at Mass on Sunday morning still intoxicated with the echoes of beating drums from the Vodun ceremony the night before. You know the saying: We are 95% Roman Catholic and 95% percent Vodun. What is it that makes a former Catholic priest more apt to run a country than say, a Vodun priest, a Hougan? To most of us, this would be an atrocity. The country would certainly fall into the wrath of hell if this were to take place. We are trying to move forward not backward, the voices of decency would say. And besides, you would not find a well-educated, well-traveled Vodun priest in the mountains of Ayiti. Ayiti's vision is found in Vodun. Not the religion that it has become, but the very essence of the spirituality. It is the essence of the Ayitian people. After all, these were the conditions under which Ayiti gained its independence. Our country was formed in a ritual - a ritual that called on the guidance and protection of our ancestors who survived the journey from Guinea, as they say in Vodun, and those who were indigenous to the land. The essence of Vodun is to give honor to those whose shoulders we stand on. It is a reverence to the unseen forces that truly determine our fate as a country and it is a time-tested method handed down to us to ensure a successful life.
As the CBC turns up the heat on the [Bush] administration, rebel leader Guy Philippe, who said his troops are ready to attack the Haitian capital, decided to "give a chance to peace" that is, to see if [Jean-Bertrand Aristide] will resign. "Given the fact that Haiti is so close to us, they have been treated very shabbily by our government and we have not exercised the kind of moral authority that we talk about and attempt to exercise even in other places when it comes to Haiti. That is unfortunate...," [Danny K. Davis] stated. "The current unrest may result in an exodus of refugees fleeing to our shores, thus placing the lives of many Haitians in danger. The political violence in Haiti is intolerable, and the U.S. cannot afford to allow a country in our own hemisphere to spiral further downward into a state of turmoil," said [Bobby L. Rush].
State Rep. Marie St. Fleur, lauded by Haitians across the U.S. for her pioneering role as the nation's first Haitian-American lawmaker, gained further strides in the Massachusetts Legislature in 2003. A key lieutenant to powerful House Speaker Tom Finneran, St. Fleur was once again elevated to a leadership position, this time as chairwoman of the Legislature's Committee on Education.
