- Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
Clarke... 'There is no real voice from the Caribbean community'
Balford Henry, News Editor
YVETTE CLARKE believes the Jamaican community in the United States needs to confront the distinctions that separate them and encourage the similarities which can unite them around issues like immigration.
Miss Clarke has emerged as New York's voice of the "Jamerican" community, in particular, and the Caribbean-American community, in general. She succeeded her mother, Una Clarke, as councilwoman in the Caribbean-dominated Brooklyn 40th district in 2001 becoming the only Jamaican member of the council.
She thinks that the current developments affecting immigrants is "a real clarion call for unity."
She recalls her mother as a strong force for the Caribbean community.
"The chickens are coming home to roost," she said describing, the void created by the lack of leadership.
"Many of our people are being deported and there is no real voice from the Caribbean community that can speak out against it," she said pointing to Congressman Charles Rangel as the only major political officials to speak out against immigration, naturalisation and homeland security issues and how they affect the community.
She thinks that her mother's loss in the Democratic primary in 2000 to incumbent African-American Major Owens was "a missed opportunity," but says she believes that things happen for a reason.
"Perhaps, we needed a much more dramatic demonstration in order to unite us in a way in which we can solidify political power. Eventually our day will come. Folks in the Caribbean community have to take up leadership roles to bring some light to the consequences of this far reaching Act," she said, referring to the Patriot Act Anti-Terrorism Bill which came into effect on October 26, 2001.
EFFECT OF DEPORTATIONS
The Act's anti-terror measures give American law officers sweeping powers to search people's homes and business records secretly and to eavesdrop on telephone and computer conversations.
Miss Clarke noted that "part and parcel" of the Act was the provision for deportations.
"I don't think it is only destabilising the countries of the Caribbean, to which people are being deported, but people are being separated from their families (in the United States).
"People don't recognise that it also has a destabilising effect on families in the United States, because the persons who are being deported may have also been the sole bread-winner, taking care of a family. He is deported to a country where he has no roots, so you have a two-fold situation and, if you look at it from an historical perspective, that has been a problem for families of African-descent since history."
She said, however, that the need to deal with immediate problems of survival has made it hard for more Caribbean families to focus on issues like immigration, "it is something that is not immediate and it is hard to focus on something that is not immediate, it is not a priority concern."
Miss Clarke was in Jamaica last week on her first official visit since becoming a New York city councilwoman in 2001.
During her visit she called on the Governor-General, Sir Howard Cooke, as well as Prime Minister P. J. Patterson. She also visited her 103-year-old grandmother, Odella Tomlinson, in Williamsfield, St. Elizabeth, near Appleton Estate.
She said that her primary concern is about the Jamaican community coming together and having a voice in the issues that affect their lives.
Using the recent Vieques (Puerto Rica) agreement as an example, she said, "Whether you are born in Puerto Rico or New York, you're always a Puerto Rican. However, for whatever reason, we have drawn a distinction between being a Jamaican born in the United States and a Jamaican born in Jamaica."
She said that the cultural linkages that should be a part of every second, third, fourth generation "Jamerican" was something that, unfortunately, had not been captured in the Jamaican community in New York the way many other ethnic communities had done.
ENCOURAGING SIGNS
She noted the sense of pride in Israel displayed by the Jewish and Irish communities in New York.
"When it comes to Jamaicans, at some point the distinction is drawn between being a Yankee or a Jamaican and, usually, that is based on being born on the island as opposed to a national affinity with your country of origin. My purpose is to bring a greater sense of nationalism to first, second, third and fourth generation Jamaicans and to have that embraced by progressive government elements here, so that we can together formulate and advocate for a transfer of expertise and funding, advocate foreign policy positions more favourable to Jamaica."
She said that she was encouraged by the signs she has been seeing, especially among her generation.
In terms of the drugs issue, she feels that it is so widespread in New York City that it has no disproportionate effect on Jamaican community: "I don't see that rush to link Jamaicans to drug trafficking. The main issue is immigration."
In terms of immigration, she feels the situation was getting worse with the introducton of the Patriot Act, subjecting state organisations to the power of federal organisations and reducing local municipalities to a role of informers for federal agencies.
She thinks that in the next four to five years she should be a serious force to reckon with, "depending on what the political landscape scene looks like and certain conditions." But she considers that the seat her mother lost two years ago to incumbent Democrat Major Owens is still her best chance.
