The 12-Year Fight to Make Caribbean Americans Count
Stand Up and Be Counted
12 years. One mission.
Caribbean Americans — finally counted.
Invisible in the Numbers That Matter
For decades, millions of Caribbean Americans were ghosts in the official data that shapes American life. Identify as Hispanic on the U.S. Census and you could specify Mexican-American, Cuban, or Puerto Rican. But check "Black, African-American or Negro" — as most Caribbean nationals were forced to do — and there was no place to indicate whether your roots traced to Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Haiti, Barbados, or anywhere else in the Caribbean.
The consequence was not merely symbolic. Census data directly controls how more than $400 billion in federal funding is allocated across the United States every decade — for schools, hospitals, roads, housing, and community programs. A community that cannot be counted cannot be served.
"We are completely undercounted because there isn't an accurate way of self-identifying for people from the Caribbean."
— Felicia J. Persaud, Founder, CaribIDCaribbean Americans were invisible in the numbers that determined their children's schools, their hospitals, their political representation, and their economic standing.
A Decade of Sustained Pressure
The Movement Begins
Felicia J. Persaud founded CaribID with a radical proposition: Caribbean Americans deserved to be seen in the official data that determines political power and federal resources. A Change.org petition was launched directed at President Obama and the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Congress Takes Notice
Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke introduced a House bill requiring all U.S. Census questionnaires to include a checkbox for respondents to indicate Caribbean extraction or descent. A companion Senate bill followed.
The First Census Passes — The Fight Continues
The bills did not pass in time. CaribID ran a major public awareness campaign urging Caribbean nationals to write in their Caribbean country of origin on the census form. Radio stations amplified the message. The Associated Press picked up the story — it ran in the Miami Herald, CBS News, theGrio, and outlets across the country.
A Decade of Testimony and Sustained Pressure
Ten years of sustained work. Testimonies delivered before the U.S. Census Bureau. Letters sent. Coalitions maintained across Caribbean media and immigrant services organizations. In 2014, the National Advisory Committee adopted recommendations to research "Afro-Latino, Afro-Indian, Indo-Caribbean, and Caribbean/West Indian" as example categories.
⭐ Victory
Twelve years after CaribID launched, the U.S. Census Bureau included a write-in ancestry option on the 2020 Census. For the first time in American history, Caribbean Americans could write in their nationality — Jamaican, Trinidadian, Guyanese, Haitian, Barbadian — while still identifying with the race group they chose.
The Campaign in Action
From petition to polling station — how CaribID reached the diaspora
Voices Behind the Movement
We examined the form and found it to be lacking. Being specific on the census form will allow the federal government to be able to allocate resources to communities of Caribbean nationals and their descendants.
Congresswoman Yvette D. ClarkeThe opportunity for Caribbean nationals to be identified on the Census form must become a reality since it will give furtherance to our celebration of a Caribbean American Heritage Month decree, and will bode well economically and politically for us as a people.
Irwine G. Clare Sr., Caribbean Immigrant ServicesIt is high time Caribbean immigrants and their descendants in the United States obtain the ability to be accurately counted on Census forms. We are not African Americans. Our origin is the Caribbean and we must be able to count as such.
Ann Walters, CaribID Board MemberThis is what CaribID has been saying since 2008 since it was the proponent of this from day one. We need this demographic information on so many levels — our media, our businesses, our non-profits, our community.
Chuck Mohan, Community Activist & CaribID Board MemberStanding Firm
Not everyone supported CaribID's mission. Some critics accused the campaign of practicing "divide and rule" politics — that insisting on Caribbean identity separate from African-American identity fractured Black unity. At least one attempt was made to directly undermine the campaign's congressional relationships.
A fight that began in the Caribbean diaspora ended up expanding American identity recognition for millions of people of every background — Polish Americans, Nigerian Americans, Lebanese Americans, and hundreds of others.
We Did It.
Stand Up and Be Counted.
Twelve years after CaribID launched, the U.S. Census Bureau included a write-in ancestry option on the 2020 Census. For the first time in American history, Caribbean Americans could write in their nationality while still identifying with their chosen race group.
The New York Daily News covered the victory in March 2020.
"Hopefully this goes a long way in making sure we count in 2020 so we can receive the respect we deserve as a huge economic and political bloc in this country. Our communities and businesses have been dismissed because of a lack of economic data. Let's stand up and be counted."
— Felicia J. Persaud, Founder, CaribIDThe Legacy That Lives On
CaribID is no longer active. The mission is complete. The 2020 Census write-in ancestry option is now part of the permanent record of American data collection — and so is the Caribbean American community that fought for it.
That data exists because CaribID said: Stand Up and Be Counted. And refused to sit down for 12 years.
Accurate population data creates the foundation for redistricting, representation, and congressional advocacy for the Caribbean diaspora.
Caribbean-American businesses and media can now point to verifiable demographic data when pitching advertisers and investors.
Communities previously invisible to the $400B federal funding process now have a data foundation to claim their share.
Every policy argument and advocacy campaign the diaspora builds for generations to come rests on this data.
Key Allies in the Movement
Media Record
CaribID was founded in 2008 by Felicia J. Persaud, CEO of ICN Group and publisher of News Americas Now.
Learn more: newsamericasnow.com/felicia-persaud