15621: (Hermantin) Miami-HerA new Haitian revolution: S. Floridians embrace their roots (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, May. 17, 2003

A new Haitian revolution: S. Floridians embrace their roots
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com



It's a few minutes past midnight inside a Hollywood nightclub. DJ Suicide is
on the microphone spinning the latest hip-hop rhythms. As the crowd grooves,
Suicide booms from the deejay booth, ``Where are all my people at? Sak
pasé?''

Less than a decade ago, the question in Creole would have been met with a
chilled, shamed silence among young Haitian-American South Floridians. But
tonight, the response of the crowd is unmistakenly loud and unapologetically
clear: ``Nap boule.''

To non-Haitians, the answer -- the Creole equivalent of 'We're chillin' ''
-- can be easily dismissed as the latest buzz phrase. To many Haitian
Americans, however, it has become symbolic of a quiet evolution more than a
decade in the making: After years of denying their Haitian roots, an
increasing number are embracing them.

It's a change not evidenced by statistics but in the scenes that unfold on
South Florida streets. Some of it is tangible: Haitian flags flying from the
windows of cars, imprinted on T-shirts, transformed into tailor-made
outfits. Some of it involves attitude, as when a Haitian-American teen at a
school assembly, paying homage to Haitians' accomplishments, declared, ``We
did it once. We can do it twice.''

SEA CHANGE

''There has been a huge change,'' said 33-year-old Suicide, of WEDR-FM
(99.1), who grew up in North Miami. ``You got a lot of role models now. . .
. The young kids got something to look up to. People aren't ashamed to say
they are Haitian now.''

Observers point to a host of reasons.

Teenagers credit pop culture, particularly Haitian-American rapper Wyclef
Jean, who in 1997 walked onto the stage of the Grammy Awards with a Haitian
flag knotted around his neck. The event will forever remain etched in the
Haitian-American psyche as the day being Haitian became cool.

Some point to the increasing number of Haitian Americans who have risen to
prominence, especially in Miami-Dade, with its Haitian population of 97,793,
according to the 2000 U.S. Census. In Broward, they are second only to
Jamaicans, at 65,100.

And still others point to a more bleak time, when frustrated Haitian youths
began choosing the culture of the streets. Once the victims of taunts,
mostly from African Americans, Haitians in the 1990s began forming gangs.

One of those gangs was called Zoe Pound.

Police alleged that the gang and the popular Haitian rap group of the same
name were one and the same. The artists, among the first to rap about
Haitian pride, denied the allegations.

Gang members or not, Zoe Pound deserves a lot of credit, says Cynthia Blanc.

''Some people called them gangs, but this is the result of what they
started,'' said Blanc, 32, the producer of Miami's annual Haitian Music and
Entertainment Awards.

Whatever the reason, most agree the community has come a long way from the
1980s and early 1990s when many saw it as a powerless minority struggling
for affirmation.

The constant flow of what were known as ''Haitian boat people'' streaming
into Florida and the rejection of blood donations from Haitians during the
early years of the AIDS crisis often made them victims of stereotypes and
ridicule.

''Haitians through that period did not have any way to effectively fight
back,'' said Alex Stepick, director of the Immigration and Ethnicity
Institute at Florida International University.

As a result, many Haitians, especially young people, hid their ethnicity,
becoming ``underground Haitians.''

In at least one extreme case, in 1984, an Edison High student commit
suicide. Seventeen-year-old Phede Eugene shot himself in a Little Haiti
church parking lot after his African-American girlfriend found out he was
Haitian and broke up with him.

''Before, we didn't have any backup,'' said Chris Morigene, 19, a North
Miami Beach High senior, who, like many Haitians youths, grew up hearing
that story.

``Now we do. We're out. We're no longer hiding.''

SHAME, DENIAL

Shirlee Lafleur-Moreau, a North Miami High graduate, says when friends asked
why her mother had such a thick accent, she told them her mom was Bahamian,
not Haitian.

Lafleur-Moreau, now deputy district director for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek,
D-Miami,said her turning point arrived in 1993. She was at work when a
Haitian woman approached her, asking for help. The woman was struggling to
speak English, and Lafleur-Moreau refused to ease the woman's frustration by
addressing her in Creole.

''I went home crying because I could not believe I had denied my heritage,''
Lafleur-Moreau said.

It wasn't until she applied for a county job seeking a Creole speaker that
Lafleur-Moreau finally admitted to inquisitive colleagues that she was
Haitian. Their response: ``But you don't look Haitian.''

NEVER FORGET

Stepick, the professor who has studied South Florida's Haitian community,
said while demographics have clearly helped Haitians find strength in
numbers, schools have also made an effort by hiring employees of Haitian
descent.

Among them is Fabrice Laguerre, a North Miami Beach High computer education
teacher.

On any given day, Laguerre's computer class becomes a walk down memory lane
as he recounts past insults and his own transformation from being a Haitian
to a New Yorker to an African American to back to being Haitian.

On one hand, Laguerre is delighted by the new display of Haitian pride. But
he also finds the remaining misinformation tragic.

''You ask them when is Haitian Independence Day, and they tell you May 18,''
the wrong date, Laguerre said. ``They are wearing the flag but can't tell
you who sewed the first flag, or know that the flag has changed colors.

Haitian Independence Day is Jan. 1. Haitian Flag Day is May 18, which this
week was celebrated by everyone from Haitian schoolchildren to
African-American politicians.

Many turned out at Margaret Pace Park in Miami, where they nibbled on
authentic Haitian dishes, sipped Haitian rum and schmoozed.

''Once you forget your culture you are nothing,'' said Renee Bazile, a South
Dade parent who attended the event.

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