On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female Caribbean American Vice President of the United States. Caribbeans from around the world took the opportunity to share their thoughts via social media.
Let’s start with Puerto Rican Princess JLo who performed at yesterday’s Inauguration.
What an honor to spend a few moments with these brave men and women. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. I honor you today and everyday. 🇺🇸 Tomorrow I sing for you and all Americans. ❤️🤍💙 #inauguration2021 pic.twitter.com/xgk64I1bRr
— jlo (@JLo) January 19, 2021
Our Bajan Queen Rihanna took a comedic route while slaying at the same time!
View this post on Instagram
Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, shared well wishes to the New Administration:
On behalf of the Government of Jamaica, I congratulate Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America and Kamala Harris as the first female, first black Vice President.
I look forward to working with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the new Administration as we continue the vibrant partnership enjoyed between Jamaica and the United States of America.
“There was an immense sense of pride from all over,” said Shurland Oliver, executive director of Vote Caribbean, a Washington DC-based voter advocacy group. “Caribbean Americans saw [Harris] as one of our own – a symbol of the excellence we can achieve.”
According to Migration Policy Institute, the Caribbean diaspora in the US consists of more than 8 million people who were either born in the region or reported having ancestry of a given Caribbean country, including an estimated 4.4 million immigrants.
More than 90% come from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
That growing diaspora of Caribbean American voters was a bloc Joe Biden’s campaign sought to engage, primarily in battleground states like Florida and Georgia where their population growth has worked to strengthen Black voter turnout.
In Georgia, Caribbean voters in the state’s Senate runoff helped steer turnout to records numbers, securing victories for the newly sworn-in Democratic senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. I personally felt obliged to be involved and became a Community Mobilizer with the Ossoff campaign.
“It’s about that exposure,” Oliver said. “We’re mistakenly lumped into the same groups as African Americans when politicians have needed to engage with our communities in ways that speak to our unique cultures.
“With [Kamala Harris], they were able to,” he said.
Vote Caribbean led get-out-the-vote efforts throughout communities in urban, Democratic strongholds, including with Virgin Islanders in Georgia, Haitian Americans in south Florida, and Jamaican Americans in Pennsylvania.
Sources: The Guardian, Twitter, Instagram
