Haitian-American leaders push for more representation in government

At this month’s “Sounds of Little Haiti” event, when Haitians from South Florida arrived at the Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami, they were greeted by music urging them in Creole to vote in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

That call has grown louder in recent weeks, thanks to former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump’s repeated and reprehensible lies at the presidential debate in September that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were killing and eating local pets. residents.

The outrage has sparked an advertising campaign in South Florida, complete with billboards urging Haitians to vote against Trump and for Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. And at the Sounds of Little Haiti event, it weighed heavily on the minds of Haitian-Americans, especially given the violent threats Haitians in Springfield and elsewhere have faced this fall.

“I didn’t think that in this day and age,” said Laura Levros of Miramar, “this man would resort to caveman ways to harm our community in his campaign.”

Levros is finishing up a bachelor’s degree in technology project management at Broward College, but another goal is to run for government office, not just local, but state and federal. And the abuses now facing more than a million Haitians in the United States have made this goal even more urgent.

“Having more elected officials ensures that we have a seat at the table,” Levros told WLRN.

“When we talk about immigration issues and rhetoric like that, who’s going to take care of you then? We can ensure that we are represented in these conversations.”

Levros, not coincidentally, is one of the Haitian-Americans taking part in a public service fellowship run by the nonprofit Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center in North Miami.

The program prepares people for all types of public participation and activism. But amid the snub in Springfield, many also point to it as a kind of leadership incubator that could lead more Haitian-Americans like Levros to elected office.

Haitian-American social and political activism has actually become particularly strong in recent years, as evidenced by groups like Sant-La. “But yes, we do need more elected Haitian-Americans,” says Sant-La executive director Jepsy Metellus.

“And we need to penetrate every rung of power to say, ‘Hey, you can’t mess with us because we’ve paid our dues in this country, we work hard – we contribute.’

There are fewer than 200 Haitian-American elected officials in the United States—almost all local—and only two members of Congress: Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, and Maxwell Frost, of Orlando, is from the state’s 10th District.

Half of the Haitian population in the United States lives in Florida. But while states like Massachusetts and Illinois have significant Haitian communities, state governments may have relatively few members, despite prominent figures such as Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

This is an important reason why Haiti’s leading newspaper, Le Nouvellistesaid in recent editorial that politicians like Trump can get away with insulting him because, as the document says, “Haitians are politically invisible in the United States.”

Haitian-born South Florida Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick disagrees. But she agrees the Haitian community needs more—and louder—government representation.

“To start coming out and saying, ‘I’m Haitian, you see my character every day,'” Cherfilus-McCormick told WLRN, “and that dehumanization is unacceptable.”

READ MORE: Trump and the Haitians: He said he would be their champion. Many people feel like idiots right now.

Cherfilus-McCormick is the first Democratic Haitian-American elected to Congress. (The first Haitian woman elected to Congress was Mia Love, a Utah Republican, in 2014. One of Florida’s three Haitian-American representatives, Bernie Jacques, is also a Republican.)

Cherfilus-McCormick says she saw her own presence pay off last month when fellow Congressman Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, amplified the lie on social media that Haitians were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

“I work with Clay Higgins,” Cherfilus-McCormick says, “and I was able to walk up to him and say, ‘Hey Clay, I’m Haitian.’ You know what you’re talking about to me “And you are putting me and my family in danger.”

“And he said, ‘Thank you so much for coming and talking to me so kindly.’

Higgins then publicly apologized.

Earlier this month, Cherfilus-McCormick, who will take office in 2022, took part in another program aimed at promoting more Haitian leaders: Haitian Women’s Network conference.

Democratic Florida State Rep. Doty Joseph of North Miami was also there and took part in the discussion about running for office. Joseph says she met and is now mentoring an aspiring job seeker from a state that could use Haitian representation right now: Ohio.

“This young woman is helping to advocate for the Ohio community, not just Springfield,” Joseph said. “And as a result of her defense, she herself received a blow.”

Joseph doesn’t want the woman’s name to be used as a result. (“Swatting” involves calling the police to confront people for the wrong reasons, and has become a common harassment of Haitians in Ohio in recent weeks.)

Still, Joseph points to candidates like Esther Charlestine—the Democratic nominee for governor of Vermont—as examples of Haitian-Americans making their heritage a more visible political presence.

“So we are present, we are participating,” Joseph says. “And we need people to understand things like: I was born in Haiti, and I don’t know a time when I was never proud to be Haitian.”

Haitian-American North Miami Mayor Alix Desulmes certainly shares this pride, but at the same time notes that it is one of the biggest obstacles Haitians face when seeking political office.

“I think the biggest obstacle is the fact that we still have to deal with Haitian discrimination—beyond the fact that we’re black,” Desulme told WLRN in his office.

“Neon” lights

North Miami’s population has the largest concentration of Haitians of any U.S. city. So when Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States in 2008, Desulma, then just 31, wanted to run for city clerk the following year in 2009—and won.

But he was also asked to help create the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network, or NHAEON, informally known as “Neon.” Since NHAEON was created 15 years ago, it has helped many Haitians enter government. However, Desulme agrees that NHAEON’s work to promote these candidates has become more urgent now.

“You get the feeling that this is the group that gets picked the most,” says Desulmes. “So after former President (Trump’s) comments about Haiti were made at the presidential debate, “I started calling friends around the country and said, ‘We need to mobilize.’

In addition to mobilizing the Haitian vote, one of Desulme’s long-term goals is to connect NHAEON with schools—from Florida International University in Miami to Brooklyn College in New York—to create academies for Haitian-Americans who might one day run for office.

“Creating something like a Latino network for young Haitian-Americans,” he says.

But other Haitian-American leaders say the slate of candidates is just as important as the future candidates:

“Money. You need money,” says former Florida Rep. Phillip Brutus.

“But we don’t have it.”

Brutus was the first Haitian-American elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000. He also helped found NHAEON — and today believes that if Haitians want to take the next step as an elected political force, they need to create stronger political action committees, or PACs, and other money-making mechanisms that modern campaigns require.

“We have very highly qualified people,” Brutus emphasizes. “But you can go to all the seminars, you can be the best candidate, and if you don’t have money, it’s like having a beautiful Ferrari.” or Lamborghini, if you don’t have gas, it’s not going anywhere.”

“And in the long term, I don’t see any plans to transition.”

Community leaders like Desulmes insist planning to that effect is already underway, if not in effect. Meanwhile, Cherfilus-McCormick says one answer is to convince Haitian-Americans, a relatively recent immigrant group to the U.S., that political money can actually be a positive thing—as opposed to the negative reputation it has had in Haiti.

“Your reference point will be the rich dictator, the rich president,” Cherfilus-McCormick says.

“So you don’t think they need the money—you don’t think you should give it at all, because that’s corruption.”

One bright spot is that Haitians today have the highest rate of citizenship of any immigrant group in the United States, according to the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

So the question is: will enough of these new Haitian-American citizens register to become new Haitian-American voters—and will elect enough new Haitian-American candidates to help counter new lies like the ones Trump has presented in Springfield?

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