a1126: Haitian and African Americans share cultures (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haitian and African Americans share cultures as first step in their fight
against HIV/AIDS
BY ANDREA ROBINSON
arobinson@herald.com

In the last decade, Haitian Women of Miami Inc. -- Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami
-- has earned national acclaim for its efforts to improve the status of
Haitian women through a combination of education, protest and advocacy.

Now founder and executive director Marleine Bastien is broadening the
mission by launching a campaign to bridge the longstanding gap between
Miami's African Americans and Haitian Americans.

FANM, working with Mothers' Voices and Liberty City's Weed & Seed, has
recruited a handful of Haitian Americans and African Americans for a Dade
Community Foundation project called Miamians Working Together.

To start, eight women and five men will work side by side to devise
strategies to combat HIV/AIDS, a scourge in both communities that has caused
7,200 deaths among Miami-Dade blacks in the last 20 years, according to the
county Health Department.

``Sitting down and working together will increase understanding and bridge
the cultural gap between the two groups, Bastien said. ``If we work together
for a common cause, we will see positive results. The impact will be
enormous.''

Before participants can start the AIDS outreach, Edner Jean, project
coordinator, said they must learn about each other's culture. Twice each
month, they have been meeting in members' homes over dishes such as collard
greens and griot to discuss the historical experiences of blacks in Haiti
and the United States.

''We're trying to find out what we have in common as one black race. We're
all from Africa. We talk about what makes us different and what we have in
common,'' Jean said.

Officials at Dade Community Foundation say that South Florida's demographic
changes increase the need for diverse groups to work together. The
foundation awarded six grants for interethnic projects, said Charisse Grant,
program director.

Coalition building among Miami's black ethnic groups has proven problematic.
Differences in culture and perspective -- and in this instance, language --
caused fear and mistrust. Both groups bought into stereotypes about the
other, and at area high schools fights broke out, as teenagers vented
frustrations.

''There was no sharing between African Americans and Haitians,'' said
Barbara Gainer, director of Mothers' Voices. ``Marleine has been able to try
to bridge that gap.''

Participants say the project could be a springboard to greater
communication.

''The only thing that sets us apart is ignorance. We don't know a lot about
each other,'' said Rose Lee, a domestic violence counselor who has been
''blessed'' to live in both worlds. She was born in Haiti, but has lived in
the United States since infancy.

``I've adopted a lot of African-American ways. In the Haitian ways I select
what I want and discard the rest. There are a lot of similarities. We all
came from the motherland.''

In the last two years, Bastien and other FANM members have collaborated with
civil rights groups on matters such as police brutality and voter
disenfranchisement. In return, the NAACP, Brothers of the Same Mind and
community activist Bishop Victor T. Curry have joined them in protests of
U.S. immigration policies toward Haitian refugees.

A rally and march last month against the detention of 200 Haitians who
arrived in January drew almost equal numbers of African Americans and
Haitian Americans.

That subject will be on the agenda at next week's mass demonstration at
County Hall. FANM has joined Curry, attorney H.T. Smith and a host of
grass-roots groups to form a coalition to protest police brutality and other
concerns.

Tuesday, Curry and Bastien urged listeners of WMBM-AM (1490) to participate.
''We may have come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now,''
Curry said. ``What we're marching for is just and it is right. We're on the
right side of this moral issue.''

FANM serves about 115 clients, excluding those who come for immigration
services and citizenship classes.

''Ten years ago, I had a vision for FANM to become an institution where
women can find safe haven. We're not there yet, but we've come a long way,''
Bastien said. ``When women are empowered, everybody benefits. One day we
will be what we want to be.''


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