A billboard recently put up in Miami urges Haitian-Americans not to to vote for former President Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election after he repeated lies about Haitian immigrants.
There are fewer than 200 Haitian-American elected officials in the U.S. — almost all local — and only two members of Congress: Democratic U.S. Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach Counties in Florida’s 20th congressional district, and Maxwell Frost of Orlando from the state’s 10th district.
Half of the U.S. Haitian population resides in Florida. But while there are sizable Haitian communities in states like Massachusetts and Illinois, they have, arguably, relatively sparse membership in state government — prominent figures like Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul notwithstanding.
That’s a big reason that a leading newspaper in Haiti, Le Nouvelliste, said in a recent editorial that politicians like Trump can get away with his insults because, it said: “In the U.S., Haitians are politically invisible.”
South Florida’s Haitian-American congresswoman, Cherfilus-McCormick, disagrees with that. But she does agree the Haitian community needs more — and more high-profile — government representation.
“To start stepping out and saying, ‘I am Haitian, you see my character every day,'” Cherfilus-McCormick told WLRN, “and this dehumanization is unacceptable.”
READ MORE: Trump and Haitians: He said he’d be their champ. Many now feel like chumps.
Cherfilus-McCormick is the first Democratic Haitian-American elected to Congress. (The first Haitian elected to Congress was Mia Love, a Republican from Utah, in 2014. One of Florida’s three Haitian-American state representatives, Berny Jacques, is also Republican.)
Cherfilus-McCormick says she saw her own presence bear fruit last month when fellow Congressman Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, amplified the lie about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, on social media.
“I work with Clay Higgins,” Cherfilus-McCormick says, “and I was able to walk over to him and say, ‘Hey, Clay, I’m Haitian. Y’know, you’re speaking about me — and you’re putting me and my family at harm.’
“And he said, ‘Thank you so much for coming and speaking to me in such a gracious manner.’”
Higgins then publicly apologized.
Haitian-American and aspiring elected official Laura Levros of Miramar.
Earlier this month, Cherfilus-McCormick, who took office in 2022, participated in another program designed to promote more Haitian leadership: the Haitian Ladies Network conference.
Democratic Florida state Rep. Dotie Joseph of North Miami was also there — and took part in a panel on running for office. Joseph says she met, and is now mentoring, an aspiring office seeker from a state that could use Haitian representation right now: Ohio.
“This young lady has been helping advocate for issues within the Ohio community, not just Springfield,” says Joseph. “And as a result of her advocacy, she herself has been swatted.”
Joseph does not want the woman’s name used as a result. (“Swatting” involves calling police to confront people for false reasons, and in recent weeks it’s been a common harassment against Haitians in Ohio.)
Still, Joseph points to candidates like Esther Charlestin — the Democratic nominee for governor in Vermont — as examples of Haitian-Americans making their ancestry a more high-profile political presence.
“So we are present, we are engaged,” Joseph says. “And we need people to understand things like: I was born in Haiti, and I don’t know a time I was never proud of being Haitian.”
“We need more Haitians elected and stepping out and saying, ‘I am Haitian, you see my character every day, — and this dehumanization is unacceptable.’”
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick
North Miami’s Haitian-American Mayor, Alix Desulme, of course shares that pride — but at the same time points out that it’s one of the biggest hurdles Haitians face when aspiring to political office.
“The most significant obstacle, I think, is the fact that we still have to face the Haitian discrimination — on top of the fact that we are Black,” Desulme told WLRN at his office.
‘Neon’ lights
North Miami’s population has the largest concentration of Haitian residents of any U.S. city. So when Barack Obama was elected the U.S.’s first Black president in 2008, Desulme, then only 31, was inspired the following year to run for city clerk in 2009 — and won.
Office of U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick
South Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick speaking at the Haitian Ladies Network conference in Washington D.C. this month.
But he was also moved to help found the National Haitian-American Elected Officials Network, or NHAEON, informally known as “Neon.” Since NHAEON was formed 15 years ago, it has helped usher scores of Haitians into government. Still, Desulme agrees NHAEON’s work to promote those candidates has taken on more urgency now.
“You feel like this is the group that’s being picked on the most,” says Desulme. “So after the former President’s [Trump’s] Haitian comments were made” at the presidential debate, “I started calling friends around the country, and I said, ‘We need to mobilize.’”
Aside from mobilizing the Haitian vote, one of Desulme’s longer-range missions is hooking NHAEON up with schools — from Florida International University in Miami to Brooklyn College in New York — to create academies for Haitian-Americans who might someday run for office.
“Creating something similar to the Latino pipeline for young Haitian-Americans,” he says.
Other Haitian-American leaders, however, say the pipeline that’s as important as future candidates is:
“Money. You need money,” says former Florida state Rep. Phillip Brutus.
“And we don’t have it.”
Brutus was the first Haitian-American, in 2000, to be elected to the Florida House of Representatives. He too helped found NHAEON — and today feels that if Haitians want to take the next step as an elected political force, they have to develop stronger political action committees, or PACs, and other money-making machines that are a must for modern campaigns.
Haitian-American Mayor Alix Desulme at this North Miami office.
“We do have folk who are very well qualified,” Brutus emphasizes. “But you can go to all the seminars, you can be the best candidate, and if you don’t have any money — it’s like you can have a beautiful Ferrari or Lamborghini, if you don’t have any gas it’s not going anywhere.”
“And the long term, I don’t see any plans to cross over.”
Community leaders like Desulme insist planning is underway if not in effect in that regard. Meanwhile, Cherfilus-McCormick says one answer is to convince Haitian-Americans, a relatively recently arrived immigrant group in the U.S., that political money can actually be a positive — as opposed to the negative rep it has back in Haiti.
“Your reference point is going to be the rich dictator, the rich president,” Cherfilus-McCormick says.
“So you don’t think they need the money — you don’t think you even should be giving the money, because that’s corruption.”
One bright spot is that Haitians have the highest rate of gaining citizenship of any immigrant group in the U.S. today, according to the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute in Washington D.C.
So the question is: Will enough of those new Haitian-American citizens register to become new Haitian-American voters — and elect enough new Haitian-American candidates to help confront new lies like Trump’s in Springfield?
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Publish date : 2024-10-29 04:00:00
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