This year is the 17th anniversary of June being celebrated as Caribbean American Heritage Month in the United States, a celebration that Carib News is proud to be a part of, and a celebration that Carib News feels particularly connected to because of the number of years we have been recognizing outstanding Caribbean-Americans and the Caribbean American community as a whole, and the value and hard work we bring to the United States.
For several years at the annual Carib News Multi-National Business Conference, Congressmembers were lobbied to bring about this recognition and we were delighted to work with other partners to make this a reality.
- Advertisement -
We have labeled the contribution of the Caribbean American population in the United States as what is called a `’partnership of progress’ because the Caribbean-American community has been involved in just about all aspects of America’s growth and development since its beginning. Since its founding, Caribbean Americans have had a role in its development and its success.
This partnership for progress grows out of what former president Barack Obama said in his 2016 Presidential Proclamation acknowledging Caribbean Heritage Month.
“The bonds between the United States and the Caribbean remain strong, both rooted in similar legacies of trial and triumph, oppression and liberation — our narratives have advanced on a similar path of progress, driven forward by our shared dedication to fostering opportunity and forging a brighter future for all.”
This partnership for progress goes back to the very War of Independence, when the first casualty of that war was Crispus Attucks, a Barbadian who was killed in the Boston Massacre making him the first American killed in the American Revolution It goes back to the founding of the city of Chicago by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable who created that very city that is of so much importance to the United States today. The very building, the U.S. Capitol building, was designed by architect Dr. William Thornton of the British Virgin Islands.
Not to mention Marcus Garvey who led the awareness, the movement, the largest black movement ever of Black power to exist in the world. James Weldon Johnson, who composed the well-known, Black National Anthem: Lift Every Voice and Sing.
You could trace through the Civil Rights movement, Harry Belafonte and Cleveland Robinson, from Jamaica and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) from Trinidad and Tobago.
Constance Baker Motley, from St. Kitts, the legal genius, Shirley Chisholm, the political icon from Barbados, so our presence has been felt in so many significant ways. Today we have the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris with Jamaican roots, we have several members of the US Congress, Yvette Clarke, Shelia Lee Jackson, and Member Steven Horsford who now chairs the Congressional Black Caucus.
Caribbean-American, Carl Heastie, the leader of the New York State Assembly, and so even today, we are playing critical roles in a number of significant areas, and that is much to be applauded and much to be celebrated.
We at Carib News have instituted the recognition and salute of our Caribbean American contributors, Caribbean icons over the decades, and we invite people, to not only look at the scroll of outstanding Caribbean Americans who are contributing in significant ways today, but to also help to recognize those in your circles that should be a part of this recognition.
From its inception, 40 years ago, Carib News saw as its mission, the need to bring together the Caribbean -American community with a voice and an agenda that can work jointly, collaboratively, to advance the empowerment and positions of the Caribbean-American communities and the Caribbean American region, and we recognize that that has to be done when we work together in collaboration and as a united force.
In the United States today, over 8.5 million people consider themselves to be Caribbean-American, either born in the region or of Caribbean ancestry. This is nothing to sneeze at – a united Caribbean American population working together can be a strong force of influence in this country. This can only happen though if we work together, pull together and move in a common interest in regional agenda and a regional agenda.
As we celebrate the 17th year of Caribbean-American Heritage Month, we celebrate the success of Caribbean Americans and their contribution to the progress of this country, and we must look at that as a major contribution.
We must safeguard against being marginalized and categorized, divided into country loyalties, while each and every person has the right to be proud of their country of origin we should also be proud of being part of the Caribbean-American community.
There are those that wish to divide countries from the region and remove what powers we would have as a united community, united regional force, working for the good of our community and for the good of the region. People will look to develop or propose coalitions of convenience that will serve their needs, but not the needs of our communities or the countries, and people will also look to develop alliances for their own political advantages without any sustained interest in the region. We must be mindful of and safeguard against being used, being divided, being mischaracterized, as we grow as a community and as we grow in significance, that that growth is developed and devoted to the growth and development of the Caribbean community, the Caribbean region, and each and everyone together.
Much in the same way, other groups either by geography or other identification, work together for the common good, we in the Caribbean-American community must seek to do that kind of work, not to be splintered by ourselves or by anyone, but to remain focused and united as to what we can do and achieve together – together with us as a community, together in the larger context of black liberation and black success, and be a true partner in the drive to progress and to share and continue to be a force to be reckoned with as it relates to our interest in so many areas.
So during this time, we have celebrated the achievement of millions of Caribbean Americans, and we should do that and should commit ourselves to working together collaboratively to be supportive of each other because within the Caribbean, the problems we have, the challenges we have to face eventually have to be solved by Caribbean people working together. Even if there are outside forces and outside help and within our communities, we need to bring up our own leaders to lead our communities, who will know and support and guide the interest of the community. We cannot outsource that leadership with the hope and a promise.
We have to be united among ourselves, even when there are slight differences in terms of islands or country, but we know the common heritage and we know the common mission, and we know we have to find a common solution. So let
Caribbean Heritage Month serve as a catalyst to pull us together, to work together, and be stronger together.
