Writers, Singers and Artists are using their talents to fight against Anti- Haitians
To this day, Haitians in Dominican Republic are being humiliated, oppressed, deported and so on . We must not stop fighting for justice and equality for Haitians living in Dominican Republic.
The Writers
Araceli Cruz and Vivala reported: "Junot Díaz has always been vocal about seeking justice for undocumented immigrants and hadn't really received any backlash about his position until now. Just one day after the Pulitzer Prize-winning author went to Washington D.C. to urge congress to combat the “human rights crisis in the Dominican Republic,” Eduardo Selman of the Dominican Republic's consul in New York called him “anti-Dominican,” and stripped Diaz of the Order of Merit awarded to him by his native country in 2009. The Dominican-born, New Jersey-raised scribe attended the meeting with congress along with writer Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat.
Photo: Getty
The two writers visited their shared island in June, and Díaz said that the capital of D.R., Santo Domingo, was in a "state of terror." Danticat echoed the sentiment and told a crowd in Miami that if this could happen in the DR, then we should all be worried. "If you're not concerned you should be. Especially when we live in a town [Miami] where most of us came from somewhere else."
Tension in DR has escalated after the Dominican government "re-interpreted" its constitution and announced that they would be denying and reneging citizenship for both Haitian immigrants that came and worked after 1929 and Dominicans born with Haitian blood who didn't have proper papers.
Díaz has yet to make a public statement about getting stripped of his Order of Merit award, nor about being called "anti-Dominican," and he doesn't seem to concerned with it either. On the same day that he appeared before congress, he posted on his Facebook page (where he constant shares articles on injustices) that Dominican politicians and judges are "thieves."Weeks after Donald Trump announced he was running for the presidency, Díaz stated: "Demonizing immigrants and demonizing poor people has always been a surefire tactic that elites everywhere deploy to keep us from identifying the true enemy — the elites that are devouring our world."Related
From Vivala: Growing Up a Black LatinaAlso, a couple of years ago Díaz went on The Colbert Report and said: “Every single immigrant we have, undocumented or documented, is a future American. That’s just the truth of it,” and later added: “Saying someone is an illegal immigrant is an oxymoron.”
The Singers, dancers and artists
Photo: El Museo del Barrio website
Verite Sou Tanbou and The Haitian Community Cultural Initiative of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, in collaboration with El Museo del Barrio has come together to proteste against the " Anti-Haitians", they invite you to join on Wednesday, November 11 at 7:00pm - 9:00pm for an evening of Haitian and Dominican music and dancing. Artists and musicians from Cuba, Brazil, and Puerto Rico, Haitian songstress Emeline Michel, New York-based Haitian dancer/choreographer Peniel Guerrier, Gaston "Bonga" Jean-Baptiste (Haiti), Legacy Women (Dominican/Latina), Cindy Peralta aka "Black Angel the Poet" (Dominican), and KONGO Haitian Roots Music, plus an informative conversation with New York City activists about the conditions of life and work for Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic, under the threat of denationalization and forced deportation.
Let's join the fight.
