NEW YORK – Three million Caribbean nationals are set to descend on Brooklyn’s
Eastern Parkway for the annual West Indian Labor Day Carnival on September 1. But on the national scene, West Indians are largely invisible and forced to lump themselves into either the African American, Asian or Other category on the U.S. Census form despite being distinctly Caribbean in origin.
The inability to accurately self-indentify has resulted in Caribbean nationals being ignored by mainstream sponsors and advertisers even as their concerns get dismissed at the political level. Even as Caribbean carnival organizers get ready to celebrate their culture, they are forced to scrounge for sponsors and support annually. Why? Mainly because on the national level, they are largely invisible and their actual numbers is unknown.
Caribbean nationals fed up with this constant `disrespect` are fighting back. A campaign to lobby for a non-Hispanic Caribbean/West Indian category on the U.S. Census has kicked off officially ahead of the annual West Indian Labor Day carnival, in New York City, home to millions of Caribbean immigrants.
`CaribID2010,` a movement initiated by Hard Beat Communications` Felicia Persaud, is a gigantic effort to get Caribbean nationals from the English, Dutch and French-speaking Caribbean who are a melting pot of ethnic groups, secure a category.
The movement is now lobbying for a bill to be introduced into Congress to push for a single line to be added to the form. Currently, nationals who number millions across the U.S., and are from English, Dutch and French-speaking Caribbean nations, are now forced to choose between checking the box misidentifying themselves as either African American, Asian American or Hispanic or simply `Other.`
`The aim is to focus on the root of the problem that has affected us for too long,` said Persaud. `The reality is that without real numbers, the growth of our businesses will continue to be stymied and we will continue to be invisible and to be ignored as the all important bloc that we really are. This is about the economic, social and political future of the Caribbean community in the United States.`
CaribID2010 has so far secured the a number of Caribbean organizations and media houses in the Caribbean American community, including the Caribbean Immigrant Services and CbeanMedia.tv, and are lobbying both Congressman Gregory Meeks and Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Yvette Clarke and the U.S. Congressional Government Reform Committee, which oversees matters of the Census, to introduce a bill that will be the first process to ensure a category becomes a reality.
For more log on to www.caribid2010.com.
