NEW YORK – The importance of ensuring the Caribbean community counts in the next Census was on Monday reiterated by CaribID founder and CaribWorldNews publisher, Felicia Persaud, at the annual West Indian American Carnival kick-off breakfast.
Before a roomful of dignitaries, including former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Persaud reminded the audience that while Labor Day or Caribbean Carnival Day in Brooklyn is always a day when the community is celebrated, the bloc will go back to be dismissed and ignored as unimportant for the rest of the year again, if they fail to ensure an accurate count in 2010.
The CaribID head insisted that an accurate count is important for the community to not only secure the necessary social and economic funding it needs but for private sector companies to take the market seriously.
Census numbers, she reminded, are used to determine many facets of life in America, including advertising dollars, investment in new business and also political seats.
CaribID Founder Felicia Persaud speaking at the West Indian American Day Carnival kick-off breakfast on Sept. 7, 2009.
(Hayden Roger Celestin Image)
She also brought the audience up to date on the Caribbean Count bill, which CaribID advocated for and secured the introduction of in both the Congress and the Senate. To applause, Persaud, told the audience that Caribbean nationals too need their own origin category on the Census form.
Waving a sample Census form, the CaribWorldNews publisher, ended with a call by all to fill out the form come April 2010 and write in their ancestry or nationality under the some other race section so the community can truly count for the multiplicity of cultures it is blessed with.
`The power,` ended Persaud, `Is really in our hands.`
