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News Americas Now, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Mar. 16, 2012: The paltry data released to Carib ID from the U.S. Census on those Caribbean nationals who got the group’s advocacy message to write in their nationality on 2010 census forms, clearly makes the case for a more pronounced West Indian/Caribbean self-identification category on future forms.
That’s the word from Felicia Persaud, who founded the movement in 2008 to call attention to the virtual invisibility of this vibrant population to the U.S. Census Bureau, politicians and corporate America due to a lack of self identification of census forms.
In the data from the 2010 Census, released to Carib ID by officials last week, it was showed that those nationals from the Caribbean region, who got the group’s grassroots message to write in their country of origin on the form while counting their race, totaled over 2.6 million nationally.
Caribbean nationals from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, who are able to clearly identify as Hispanics and pick their country under Question 5 of the form, totaled 2.1 million of that total. By contrast, those from the French, Dutch and English-speaking Caribbean, who have no means of self-identification on the form, accounted for a paltry 440,104.
“We get more Caribbean people from these islands in one place in Brooklyn, N.Y. each Labor Day,” said Persaud, referencing the annual West Indian American Day Carnival. “This data shows people are confused about the forms as there’s no means to identify themselves; they did not get the Census message despite the millions spent and without real resources, we simply could not reach them with the write in campaign.”
Persaud said Caribbean American leaders, regional governments and their agencies – who continue to drop the jargon “Diaspora” but refuse to admit that without a real count of this population there is no power of this bloc – must pick up the baton she created in 2008.
“There are two bills languishing in both the U.S. House and the Senate, thanks to our advocacy of Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand,” said Persaud. “Those who are really serious about this ‘Diaspora,’ who boost of connections and resources and truly want to make a difference, need to coalesce and lobby the government reform sub-committee to really ensure future Census forms count Caribbean nationals.”
“Otherwise we will continue to be ignored, dismissed and treated as non-existent as an economic and voting bloc,” the Carib ID founder added.
The data showed that Haitians accounted for the highest number of Caribbean nationals from the French, English and Dutch-speaking block with 203,955 choosing to write in their country of origin. Jamaicans were second with 82, 620 while 47,180 identified as Guyanese.
Over 21 thousand Trinidad and Tobagonians wrote in their country of origin while 9,3952 said they were from Belize; 2,805 said they were from the Bahamas and 2,465 from Barbados.
Some 1,535 identified as from the island of Dominica while 465 said they were Surinamese; 270 from Bermuda; 220 from Aruba and 140 from the Cayman Islands.
A total of 63,310 choose to identify simply as from the “West Indies” while 4,470 said they were from the Caribbean.
By contrast, Puerto Ricans, who can simply tick their country on the form, totaled 712,750 while Cubans, who also have the option to self-identify, were put at 51,930. Dominicans from the DR, who have the option to write in their country under Question 5, were put at 1,414,705.
“The data, while small, shows there is the need by Caribbean nationals who were born in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural region to self-identify beyond race,” said Persaud. “While many identified as black on the form, according to the data, they clearly also took the time to write in their country of birth under the Some Other Race section. U.S. politicians and the Census need to take note of this, stop the discrimination and allow people from this region to accurately self-identify like the people of Guam and Hawaii too.”
