16163: (Hermantin) Miami Herald -Haitians complain about treatment from NAACP (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Jul. 18, 2003

Haitians complain about treatment from NAACP
By ADRIANA CORDOVI
acordovi@herald.com

Expressing feelings of neglect, some Haitian community activists on Thursday
called the NAACP ''insensitive'' and ''disrespectful'' for failing to
address the issues of South Florida's Haitian migrants during the
organization's weeklong convention in Miami Beach.

The local activists from the Haitian Grassroots Coalition and some elected
officials criticized the NAACP for not holding a summit that would
specifically discuss the plight of Haitian immigrants in the United States
and noted what they believe is a communication problem with the group during
a press conference Thursday.

''We think this was a great opportunity for the NAACP to say a few words for
us,'' said North Miami Beach Councilman Philippe Derose during the press
conference at Jean-Jacques Dessalines Community Center in Little Haiti.
``Because we are all the same people. . . . We all come from Africa. . . .
We all fight for the same issues.''

NAACP leaders say they regularly promote issues of importance to Haitians on
Capitol Hill but acknowledge they need to a better job of conveying that
information to Haitian Americans.

''There's an injustice when Haitians are treated the way they are in
America,'' said NAACP Washington bureau chief Hilary Shelton. ``In addition
to working on these issues on Capitol Hill, when we come to Florida, we want
to stand with them and show symbolically what we've been doing these years
toward improving the Haitian policy.''

Speakers at the press conference complained that a convention being held in
a community with a large Haitian population had not examined the plight of
its people. They called it a ''setback'' and missed opportunity.

Later Thursday, a demonstration planned by the NAACP to call for equitable
treatment of Haitian migrants drew only about a dozen protesters, when a
250-plus crowd from the convention was expected.

''I was calling out on everybody telling them it was their duty to get out
here. Now I'm going to have to swim to get out of this,'' Lucie Tondreau,
secretary of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, said standing across
from the federal immigration agency building on Northeast 79th Street and
Biscayne Boulevard.

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