NEW YORK, CMC –Caribbean nationals within the diaspora are pushing forward with plans to have Kamala Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican nationwide, elected as the following President of america.
They’ve since shaped the digital group Caribbean People United in Help of Kamala Harris for President and say they’ll go all out to make sure her victory on November 5.
Vincentian-born Fadhilika Atiba Weza, the group’s convenor, informed the Caribbean Media Company (CMC) that Caribbean People United in Help of Kamala Harris for President includes people who’re residing in varied states and that members anticipate Harris, the daughter of retired Jamaican economist Dr. Donald Harris, to be elected the forty seventh President of america of America on November 5.
“We’re at an inflection level on this nation’s historical past. We can not 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 vital disruption to their well-being, amongst different nefarious utterances by Trump and the MAGA forces. A Harris victory will avert that. We anticipate Vice President Harris to be elected to the White Home,” mentioned Atiba Weza.
Jamaican-born Una S.T. Clarke, the primary ever Caribbean-American lady elected to the New York Metropolis Council, informed CMC 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. “It turns into simpler after we all put our heads and hearts collectively.
“I didn’t go into politics for politics’ sake however to make a distinction for all folks. Kamala Harris has immigrant roots. All immigrants, together with Caribbean-People, ought to help and vote for her, if they will, within the Presidential Elections,” Clarke added.
Martin Felix, a Grenadian-born public highschool trainer in Brooklyn and adjunct professor on the Style Institute of Expertise (FIT), State College of New York (SUNY), informed CMC that “sure moments in historical past underscore the significance of voting and taking part within the electoral course of.
“This upcoming US election will not be a selection between the lesser of two evils however a call of profound significance, begging us to reply the query: ‘Which facet are you on?’” he requested. He mentioned environmental points are notably expensive to Caribbean folks’s hearts, each within the US and the Caribbean.
“Environmental and quality-of-life points influence Many African-Caribbean communities. Our house nations within the Caribbean are on the frontlines of world warming. Nearly yearly, a hurricane destroys a minimum of one Caribbean nation’s financial system and infrastructure.
“The rising frequency and depth of hurricanes, pushed undeniably by international warming, have devastated Caribbean economies and infrastructure,” Felix mentioned, noting that the most recent instance is Hurricane Beryl, which wreaked havoc on the Grenadines, components of Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and southern Jamaica.
“The Trump administration is stuffed with local weather change denialists, whose coverage prescriptions are closely influenced by the fossil gasoline business. 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.”
Felix mentioned Trump’s marketing campaign can be guided by Undertaking 2025, a Heritage Basis blueprint aiming to dismantle democratic rights, social security internet applications, and environmental protections.
“These points have direct implications for Caribbean folks, each at house and overseas,” he warned, including that the forthcoming election can be of serious symbolic significance.
“The US has but to elect a lady as head of state, regardless of the worldwide precedent set by many Caribbean nations to which Trump and others refer disparagingly—Haiti, Dominica, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, to call just a few,” Felix mentioned.
In its 248 years since independence and 46 presidents, he mentioned the US has “by no means had a head of state to symbolize ladies, the bulk.
“Girls, particularly ladies of coloration, are nonetheless paid lower than males, and the Supreme Court docket not too long ago repealed Roe v. Wade, which now provides 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 presents a pivotal selection for all People, together with Caribbean-People.”
“This election goes to be one in all attrition. We can not take it without any consideration that Harris will win. Our group intends to play important roles in voter training, voter registration, and voter mobilization.
“Our success in these endeavors, measured by boots on the streets and numbers on the polls, particularly in strategic areas, and others energetic like beehives all through the nation, would decide the general success of this marketing campaign.
“That is going to be a battle of attrition. Numbers would matter at each juncture and in each geographic space. Even after the election, encouraging civic engagement could be our precedence. We have to make sure that our voters will not be taken without any consideration,” Felix added.
Atiba-Weza mentioned the mission of Caribbean People United in Help 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 america, fostering a way forward for inclusive and strategic management and illustration.”
He mentioned the group’s main targets are fundraising, consciousness constructing, voter registration, and voter turnout.
Caribbean People United in Help of Kamala Harris for President mentioned that whereas Caribbean People’ contributions are “significantly appreciated,” they will nonetheless “do extra.”
“We could not have the numbers of our African-American sisters and brothers, however there are sufficient of us to make a major contribution to the trouble to elect Vice President Harris to the presidency of those United States of America,” the group mentioned.
Knowledge from the Emigration Coverage Institute signifies that there are about 4.5 million Caribbean immigrants in america, and when their kids are factored into, “the numbers are considerably elevated.”
Caribbean People United mentioned that, in 2021, america Census Bureau listed the quantity at 3.06 million.
“Both method, there are sufficient of us to influence the electoral course of. We are able to do it. We owe it to our progeny and people whose struggles made it potential for us to be right here.”
Political advisor Ernest McD. Skinner, a Trinidadian native who lives in Brooklyn, informed CMC that “voting for Trump’s agenda is inimical to us.”
“I hope she (Harris) wins,” he mentioned. “She’s in a honeymoon interval, energizing the bottom. I hope that continues to construct. I hope Democrats will probably be energized. We are able to proceed constructing that momentum from the conference.
“I’m hoping that the election is not going to be as shut,” added Skinner, whose political activism was influenced by the late Kwame Ture, previously Stokely Carmichael. Ture was a Trinidadian-born American activist who performed a major function within the civil rights motion in america and the worldwide pan-African motion.
“I’m encouraging folks to vote, register, and vote. I’m speaking to younger folks and inspiring them to try this. It’s incumbent on us to end up in our huge numbers to ensure Kamala Harris turns into the forty seventh President of america,” Skinner added.
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