A newly-formed digital group referred to as Caribbean People United in Assist of Kamala Harris for President is strongly pushing for the election of the primary Caribbean-American Vice President in November’s Presidential Elections in the USA.
The Steering Committee of the group, which was fashioned on July 22, contains members who’re primarily New York residents.
The seven-member Committee contains former Metropolis Council Member Una S.T. Clarke; state Sen. Kevin Parker, consultant for the predominantly Caribbean 21st Senate District in Brooklyn; former Suffolk County legislator Jacqueline Gordon-Davy; school administrator and neighborhood activist Sherrill-Ann Mason; educators and neighborhood activists Martin Felix and Fadhilika Atiba-Weza; and political advisor Ernest McD. Skinner.
Vincentian-born Atiba-Weza, the group’s convenor, informed Caribbean Life over the weekend that Caribbean People United in Assist of Kamala Harris for President contains people who’re residing in numerous states, and that members anticipate Harris, the daughter of retired Jamaican economist Dr. Donald Harris, to be elected the forty seventh president on Nov. 5.
“We’re at inflection level within the historical past of this nation,” Atiba-Weza mentioned. “We can’t afford one other Trump presidency. His statements and proposed insurance policies pose existential threats to the safety of the nation, as we all know it.
“Immigrants are threatened with important disruption to the well-being, amongst different nefarious utterances by Trump and the MAGA forces,” he added. “A Harris victory will avert that. We anticipate that Vice President Harris will probably be elected to the White Home.”
Jamaican-born Clarke, the primary ever Caribbean-American girl to be elected to New York Metropolis Council, informed Caribbean Life Sunday night time that Harris is “competent and has the {qualifications} for the place.
“I really feel assured that she will win,” mentioned the trail-blazing Clarke, an elected New York Metropolis delegate to the Democratic Conference in Chicago subsequent week. “When all of us put our heads and hearts collectively, it turns into simpler.”
Felix, a Grenadian-born public highschool instructor in Brooklyn and adjunct professor on the Style Institute of Expertise (FIT), State College of New York (SUNY), additionally informed Caribbean Life Sunday night time that “sure moments in historical past underscore the significance of voting and collaborating within the electoral course of.
“This upcoming US election is just not a selection between the lesser of two evils however a call of profound significance, begging us to reply the query: ‘Which aspect are you on?’” he requested.
“The Trump administration is stuffed with local weather change denialists, whose coverage prescriptions are closely influenced by the fossil gas trade,” Felix continued. “If Trump is re-elected, his administration is predicted to proceed denying the local weather disaster, pushing a ‘Drill Child Drill’ agenda, and appointing justices who oppose reproductive rights and environmental protections.”
In stark distinction, he mentioned Harris is “dedicated to persevering with and increasing the Biden-Harris administration’s local weather insurance policies,” stating that the vp solid the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Discount Act, hailed by environmentalists for advancing clear power.
Addressing the UN Local weather Summit in 2023, Felix mentioned Harris “emphasised the pressing local weather challenges dealing with communities worldwide, from droughts and floods to hurricanes and rising seas.”
He mentioned an environmental coalition is rallying round Harris’s historic candidacy, given the stark variations with a possible Trump administration.
Felix mentioned Trump’s marketing campaign can also be guided by Challenge 2025, a Heritage Basis blueprint aiming to dismantle democratic rights, social security internet packages and environmental protections.
“These points have direct implications for Caribbean folks, each at house and overseas,” he warned, including that the forthcoming election can also be of serious symbolic significance.
“The US has but to elect a lady as head of state, regardless of the worldwide precedent by many Caribbean international locations that Trump and others refer disparagingly – Haiti, Dominica, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, to call only some,” Felix mentioned.
In its 248 years since independence and 46 presidents, he identified, the US has “by no means had a head of state to symbolize ladies, who’re the bulk.”
“Girls, particularly ladies of shade, are nonetheless paid lower than males, and the Supreme Courtroom not too long ago repealed Roe v. Wade, which now offers the state management over a lady’s physique,” he mentioned. “Because the US grapples with problems with gender equality and reproductive rights, Harris’s candidacy gives a pivotal selection for all People, together with Caribbean-People.”
Atiba-Weza mentioned the mission of Caribbean People United in Assist of Kamala Harris for President is “to empower the voice of Caribbean People within the USA, and to mobilize and encourage our communities to elect Kamala Harris in 2024 as President of the USA, fostering a way forward for inclusive and strategic management and illustration.”
He mentioned the group has 4 major targets: Fundraising, Consciousness Constructing, Voter Registration and Flip Out The Vote.
Caribbean People United in Assist of Kamala Harris for President mentioned that whereas Caribbean-People’ contributions are “drastically appreciated,” they will nonetheless “do extra.”
“We might not have the numbers of our African-American sisters and brothers, however there are sufficient of us to make a big contribution to the trouble to elect Vice President Harris to the presidency of those United States of America,” the group mentioned.
Referring to knowledge from the Emigration Coverage Institute, it mentioned there are about 4.5 million Caribbean immigrants in the USA, including that, when their youngsters are components in, “the numbers are considerably elevated.”
Caribbean People United mentioned that, in 2021, the USA Census Bureau listed the quantity at 3.06 million.
“Both approach, there are sufficient of us to make an affect on the electoral course of,” it mentioned. “We will do it. We owe it to our progeny and to these whose struggles made it attainable for us to be right here.”
Skinner, a Trinidadian native, residing in Brooklyn, informed Caribbean Life Sunday night time, as properly, that “voting for Trump agenda is inimical for us.”
“I hope she (Harris) wins,” he mentioned. “She’s in a honeymoon interval; she’s energizing the bottom. I hope that continues to construct. I hope Democrats will probably be energized. I hope we will proceed to construct that momentum popping out of the conference.”
