19603: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Intellectuals urge black community to `fight the fight (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Intellectuals urge black community to `fight the fight of Haitians'

By Gregory Lewis
Staff Writer
Posted February 29 2004

OPA-LOCKA · A group of the nation's black intellectuals meeting at a Baptist
church here urged African-Americans not to just stand by while Haitians are
brutalized and killed on the streets of their country.

Several members of the star-studded panel joined U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson
Lee, D-Texas, in calling on blacks to lobby elected officials and President
George W. Bush to liberalize current immigration policy to allow Haitian
refugees to come to the United States.

"No one begged us to go to Iraq," said Jackson Lee. "The Haitians are asking
for relief. They are family."

Jackson Lee's comments were made at the State of the Black Union:
Strengthening the Black Family symposium organized by Tavis Smiley, the PBS
television and National Public Radio talk-show host. He gathered 23 of the
best minds to discuss how the troubled black family could be strengthened.

But the morning panel, which lasted three hours, often brought up Haiti and
criticized President Bush and U.S. immigration policy for permitting
democracy-seeking Cubans to migrate to the United States but turning away
Haitians in search of a safe haven.

"It's hypocritical for U.S. Marines on boats to stop Haitians fleeing
killing fields," said Cornel West of Princeton University.

U.S. military personnel, who are helping build a democracy in Iraq should
also go to Haiti, "where a democracy is about to fall," Jackson Lee said.
"We want peace in Haiti."

Black America's leading radio host, Tom Joyner, pointed out the irony that
Haiti is celebrating 200 years of independence from France, and once again
is struggling to maintain democracy.

Joyner and Smiley said they will travel to Haiti today to interview
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Smiley said the interview will air Monday.

"The struggle is accelerating," Jackson Lee said. "The issues of inequities
are not just within [U.S. borders]. African-Americans have to fight the
fight of Haitians. It could be you tomorrow."      Email story
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Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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