First, let’s look at some data. The Pew Research Center published this report in January 2022 that looks at an increase in immigration from African countries.
Jamaica and Haiti remain the top countries of origin for black immigrants
Although there has been some shifting in the top countries of origin for black immigrants to the US, Jamaica and Haiti have been the top two countries, respectively, in both 2000 and 2019. In 2000, these two Caribbean countries accounted for almost four— ten (39%) black immigrants, but in 2019, their collective share had decreased to 31%, indicating a greater diversity of black immigrants to the U.S. Nigeria and Ethiopia were the main birthplaces for black African immigrants to the U.S. in 2019 , with approximately 390,000 and 260,000 immigrants, respectively.
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) published this detailed report by Jane Lorenzi and Jeanne Batalova in July 2022:
Approximately 4.5 million Caribbean immigrants resided in the United States in 2019, representing 10 percent of the total foreign-born population of 44.9 million. Nearly 90 percent of immigrants to the United States from the 13 Caribbean countries and 17 dependent territories come from one of four countries: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Haiti.
The Caribbean is the most common region of birth for the 4.5 million black immigrants to the United States, accounting for 46 percent of the total. Jamaica (16 percent) and Haiti (15 percent) are the two largest countries of origin for black immigrants. There have been particular push and pull factors for Caribbean nationals, given that previously the United States exercised direct political control over most Caribbean nations, with the notable exception of Jamaica.
Voluntary, large-scale migration from the Caribbean to the United States began in the first half of the 20th century.th century, after the end of the Spanish-American War, when a defeated Spain renounced its claims to Cuba and, among other things, ceded Puerto Rico to the United States. In the early 1900s, American firms hired Caribbean workers to help build the Panama Canal, and many of these immigrants later settled in New York. A high demand for labor among the fruit-picking industries in the US attracted other labor migrants, particularly to Florida. After World War II, American companies recruited many thousands of English-speaking “W2” contract workers from the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Barbados to fill critical jobs in health care and agriculture. At the same time, political instability in Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic spurred emigration from the region. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, about 1.4 million people fled to the United States. While the first large migration of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and other Caribbean nations consisted primarily of members of the elite and skilled professionals, subsequent flows consisted primarily of their family members and working-class individuals.
So the black people of the Caribbean are here. Historically, many Caribbean blacks were the ancestors of many, many black Americans, as enslaved people captured in the Transatlantic Triangular Trade were “tempered” in the Caribbean before being sold to the United States. For example, you can take a look at the Midlo-Hall database, which documents enslaved people brought to Louisiana during the period 1719-1820.
However, as I mentioned in the opening of this story, there are those who are vocally and abusively opposed to black immigrants, even denying that they are “real black Americans.” I addressed this issue in May 2019 when the group making the most negative noise was ADOS, an acronym for “American Descendants of Slavery.” You can also read a detailed takedown from Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor.
Many of the online attacks against our now-Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Jamaican-American and Indian — and black — were created by ADOS, which was covered in this 2019 Slate article by Rachelle Hampton:
Malcolm Nance, a counterterrorism and intelligence consultant for the US government, warned on Twitter that “For 5 months, a small group of black cyber security experts have watched a bunch of black Trumpers using #ADOS and warning that it was the leading edge of a racist Russian cyber attack on @KamalaHarris. Too many robots. Some trolls.” Indeed, there is evidence that purveyors of disinformation are more than happy to use #ADOS as a weapon in their meme arsenal. In a 4chan /pol/ thread seeking dirt on Harris, one user wrote, “Point out the fact that most black Americans (#ADOS) hate her for posing as one of them when in fact she is a descendant of the owners of Caribbean slaves and high-class street vendors. She does not speak for African Americans.” Another wrote, “I have a bunch of Tw@tter accounts for the sole purpose of astroturfing reparations. It’s going to tear the Democratic Party apart. #ADOS #FuckYouPayMe.” Another said in January, “Make sure we let them know that Kamala is a Jamaican/Indian mix and she is not a descendant of American ADOS slaves.”
Part of the ADOS movement has now morphed into Foundational Black Americans (FBA), which was founded by Tariq Nasheed, a filmmaker and author of books glorifying pimping who also has a very large following on YouTube. IMDB has a short bio. (I am not linking to his website or video channel.)
Shannon Dawson recently wrote a story for NewsOne explaining the FBA move:
Over the past year, you may have seen the phrase Basic Black American (FBA) thrown around the internet thanks to “World’s #1 Baiter”, Tariq Nasheed. In January, during a discussion on Twitter Spaces, the controversial media personality sent the word trending when he argued that black Americans were the creators of the United States. Since then, the author and polarizing documentarian’s faith has drawn millions of supporters from the black community, many of whom claim they too identify as a founding black American. But what exactly does the term mean?
According to the FBA’s official website, the Founding Black Americans are descendants of black slaves who built the United States from scratch. Followers of the ideology, however, believe that the origin and history of the original Black Americans did not begin with the beginning of slavery in the early 1600s. They strongly believe that the FBAs settled in North America in 1526, when they were allegedly brought from The Caribbean by a “colonizer” named Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón. […]
FBAs do not believe in the concept of Pan-Africanism. They believe they are a unique ethnic group with complex cultural and social ideologies different from Africans and other black immigrants. Community members often refer to those who do not identify with the “non-FBA” culture.
This rather innocuous piece was trolled by Nasheed’s followers.
Why is all this important? While we are locked in a life and death struggle with MAGA insurgents and a Republican Party that has devolved into MAGA white supremacists spewing hatred against our most vulnerable citizens, many non-Black Democrats who do not regularly pay attention to Black social media may be completely unaware of the divisive forces seeking to break the black community that has been the Democratic Party’s staunchest supporter. Our Caribbean communities need more attention from the rest of us, not less. Black lives matter regardless of where they, or their ancestors, were born.
I also take this personally. I’ve been attacked on social media as “un-black” and told to shut up if I’m talking about black issues. All because of the “Velez” in my name (my husband’s last name), and because I was a member of the Young Lords Party in the past, which was engaged in a lot of activism in the Puerto Rican community in the late years ’60 and early. The 70s.
My pasted tweet was selected for a reason:
My husband is black. His family is Puerto Rican. Many of my religious family members and friends from across the Caribbean and from Brazil are black.
Any group of people that tries to push an agenda of denying our shared history and culture is dangerous and must be condemned. This weekly series was born out of what I felt was a need to introduce more readers to Caribbean culture and politics, both in the Caribbean and here in the US I hope he makes it.
Join me in the comments section below for the weekly roundup of Caribbean news. I hope that those of you who live in or near Caribbean communities will have a chance to participate in the upcoming celebrations.
