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As you can see, see that!! The African-American legend series highlights the accomplishments of blacks and areas as varied as politics, sports, aviation, business, and publishing. We will explore how African-Americans have succeeded in areas where they had been previously excluded because of segregation, racism, and lack of opportunity. I'm your host, Dr. Roscoe C. Brown Jr., and joining us on today's program is Carl Rodney, a publisher of the Caribbean News.
Glad to have you with us today, Carl. Roscoe's a real pleasure to be with you, one of the true legends too, in this city. Thank you. I read the Caribbean News, even though I'm not a Caribbean background. I enjoy hearing about my Caribbean brothers and sisters, and your publication does an excellent job of doing that. How did you get started, and what was your basic purpose when you got started? Primarily, it was to fill a need. The Caribbean-American community in New York was growing quite large, and there was no timely and consistent information flowing between the Caribbean community and also with African-American friends. So we thought it was the numbers were there. There were over a million people in New York, and the quality of the audience was there. There were pretty much hard work in folks, so that means that we wanted to reach them. So we did our basic research and reach out to our friends, and 16 years ago we started
Caribbean News, and it was to really provide information within the community, provide coping information, information on education, health, apart from the regular news, and then we also felt that we would build that bridge to African-American brothers, and it does work, because now we are more informed about each other. We have formed alliances, as you know, and so apart from connecting the community in a sense, giving it a voice, it is also expanded to be a bridge. And so we find that with Caribbean News, the ability to articulate issues, to mobilize the community, we have gone on to participate in politics, as you know, we have elected to Caribbean Council members, we have two Caribbean state legislators, and so we see a sense of connection and growth within the community, and we are delighted to play a part of
it. Let's start in the Caribbean News, what was your profession? Well, school, I am a trained economist of a master's in economics and work with Equitable Life for 20 years in the research and development department. So the key to it is research, because I know as you mentioned, you did the research on the numbers. Absolutely. So you knew that there was a need and a group of people who would respond to the need, precisely, in terms of purchasing the paper which then leads to advertising, which is a good solid business approach. Yes. And we did a research and then we managed a project, I mean, we started out with zero employee and volunteers and, you know, we could employ one person and my wife then quit her job. She was with General Foods at a time and came on full time. Then I asked for a leave of absent from Equitable for a year and never went back. Now, tell us about the Caribbean community in New York City. There are literally dozens of Caribbean countries and many of us either have gone there to visit or have relatives there or would like to go there, like particularly in the
middle of the winter. Best time to go. The Caribbean American community in New York City, or the New York metropolitan area, has grown significantly. It's estimated 1.5 million and they're in all facets of the community activity. One in business, in some of the professions, and they've made a niche for themselves in health services. So it has contributed consistently to the community. And so we have areas of Brooklyn that are predominantly Caribbean, you know, areas in Queens. In fact, the New York Times recently talked about income parity. The one commented that income parity was in Queens and they contributed that to the influx of the Caribbean American community. Some work in two jobs, you know, to make ends meet. Also in the Northeast Bronx, and there's a resurgent even in Harlem. So the community is growing.
It's, it represents a good solid work in class group, fairly decent spending power. And now it's really to get them mainstream, so to speak. And that's happening. So what about the countries of origin? I know that Jamaica and Haiti, Barbados, and a number of countries sort of predominate in numbers, but as I move around the city, I find people from Montserrat, from Antigua, I find people from a whole range of the Caribbean countries. And what are the main sources of the Caribbean population? It's Jamaica. Jamaica represents pretty close to 40% of the total Caribbean American immigrants. Then behind Jamaica comes Guyana. Although it's South America, we look at it as part of the Caribbean country. Fronts onto the country, right, exactly. And the background and the traditions are just the same. Then you have Trinidad.
Of course Haiti. And Haiti's right behind Jamaica, then Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados. But as you rightly say, folks from Grenada, from St. Vincent, the full range of English speaking and French speaking Caribbean country. And they're all here. And they're all here doing their different little things, but also with a common kind of interest that the region looked to say the United States in certain issues. So you have a number of countries here, yes, and all out their own little culture, a little area. But then there's this embracing Caribbean American community that are facing issues like the immigration, of course, and banal and the communicator around that. Well, immigration, of course, has been the basis of the growth of the United States in immigrants initially from Europe and then some from the Caribbean and some from Asia. What draws people from the Caribbean to New York City?
I've very few people that I've beat from the Caribbean tell me how bad it was back at home. It was beautiful. They've got to go back there. But obviously there must be a reason for this immigration to New York City, usually economic. But sometimes political, how does that work? It's primarily economics, primarily economics, it's a chance to experience a better life. It's a chance to really go beyond the ceiling that you might experience in the Caribbean. There's some political consideration, of course, particularly with Haiti. And in the 70s, Jamaica, when there was this so-called democratic socialism, a number of people left Jamaica. But primarily it has been economics and although folks will come and they'll say we want to work for a certain period of time and return home, they never do, they never do. So the immigrant population grows, but you know what is interesting, Dr. Brown, is the interest
that they maintain in their home country, their firment about the politics in their homeland and also the remittance of funds, a number of the Caribbean countries, main source of hard currency is remittance of funds from their overseas nationals who are sending that money. So there's that strong tie anyway and it's in courage, of course. But we also, big drivers, have been on to encourage Caribbean Americans to become citizens to participate in the political economy. You need to participate fully and not that's happening. In fact, because of the increase in the Caribbean American and registered to vote, there is a tremendous amount of attention that's now being paid to that particular community. Now, most of the folks in the Caribbean come from colonized countries, countries ever originally colonized by the British, the French, the Dutch, the Spanish.
Caribbean news is an English-based speaking publication, in folks who are in English. Yet there's Haiti, which is basically French-oriented, and then there's Puerto Rico and Cuba, Dominican Republic, got a Spanish-oriented. Now, how do you get all of those folks under there? Umbrella of the Caribbean news, which is an English-speaking newspaper. Well, you know, the readership, take for instance Haiti. You have two other Haitian publications, but they're all in politically, and they're heavily oriented, politically one way or the other. So you'll find that the Haitians would recarred news to get what they consider to balance you. So though we're in English, there in fact, reading us for that purpose, the same thing with Cuba, again, we address a Cuba issue from this connection with its care compartment. And so it's a story for us, it really is because Cuba is such a critical part of the Caribbean and what happened in the Caribbean.
So we must deal with the Cuba issue and blend it in full context of what's happening in the Caribbean, the same thing with Puerto Rico, the incentives that are given to Puerto Rican business people that impact the reconciliation Caribbean in terms of low-cost loans. So we find it necessary really to be informed about what is happening, to inform our community and to provide what we see as a real balance picture with the French, Spanish, and English. And we're not saying we can service all those needs because they're Spanish papers, but they're the commonality of issues within the Caribbean. All right, let's talk about some of those issues. You mentioned Caracom, which is the organization of Caribbean states to work on commerce. Exactly. And in the Caribbean, and then you get into issues like the supposedly favorite status that Puerto Rico might have because of certain tax incentives, then you get into the whole question of socialism or what was attempted in Jamaica, et cetera.
Where do you get your information? You say you want a balanced view, if you go to and dig real or martinique, you've got to have somebody who's going to get to this information because obviously you can't know what all yourself is. How do you get your information? We see about our local journalists, professional journalists in the different countries, and we maintain a relationship with them. We maintain a relationship with certain publication. Then of course we contribute to the YS service, Reuters, Khan, IPS, so we're online to them. We get 24 YS services. And then we have a particular staff with expertise in the different countries. We make it a policy also when Prime Minister comes through, we'll do editorial board meet it with them, but when the lead of the opposition comes through, we also do it with them. We're in a position to you about the results of those dialogues in the paper? Yes we do.
We do. And sometimes you're coming from different angles from one editorial board meet you might have three stories, depending on the particular pitch. So we pride ourselves really in digging out the nuggets, so to speak, and spend extra time in doing that. It has worked because we find that we are considered the paper with credibility. And so as I mentioned last week, we had three prime ministers who came through and added it to our board meetings with us. And Dr. Brown, what we do are those meetings, they're not just journalists, we invite community leaders in, invite religious leaders in, and we invite African Americans. And so you find that there's a good give and take a good sense as to what the issues are. And we do need the African American as allies as we talk about the banana issue. When you say economics right now, one of the biggest threat to the region is the U.S. position on banana where they've gone to the World Trade Organization on behalf of
Chikita, which does an employee, one person in the United States, and is now threatened in the favored nation, banana position that the Caribbean has, and if that happens, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica, Jamaica, their economy will be severely impact. So we're building this alliance with our African American friends to say this is an issue that we need your help on. And in fact, in October, we took eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus to Barbados to meet with their elected officials in Barbados. Around these same issues, oh, can African American and Caribbean American get together. And how can they be helpful? And they want to be helpful around banana and trade issues. And so we see Caribbean is making that connection, strengthening it, and certainly hoping that it will operate for the good of both communities.
As I hear you speak, you talk about political issues and economic issues. You've spoken less about cultural issues, which really is the thing that binds people of African descent together throughout the diaspora, whether it be in Cuba, or whether it be in Dominican Republic, or whether it be in Jamaica, or whether it be in South Carolina. So that's a particular important part of your role, in addition to which you address very directly the question of relations with African Americans. Of course, right now, we don't know who's who because we're all African, but some of us came via the Caribbean and some of us came via the slave ship into Georgia and South Carolina. And unfortunately, in years past, there had been some frictions between African Americans who came to the States and people who are some of whom call Citizens Caribbean, African Caribbean, who came to the Caribbean and the question is who suffered the most and who
is the smartest and who has, those days, I think, have diminished considerably. Although when it comes to political issues, people do line up with their home communities. You say many of the people of the Caribbean background are more concerned with the politics in Jamaica, San Lucia than they are with the politics in Beffa Stuyveson, which actually will have more direct impact on them, but because they have family in the various Caribbean countries as a relationship there. So does culture give you an opportunity to bridge that gap? Does culture in our music, our poetry, our dance with the African roots tends to be something that is broad-banded and tends to bring people a little bit more together? Absolutely right. Absolutely right. And culture is a very strong part of the ribnose in fact, I think we might be the only big newspaper that is active in promoting culture events.
The huge one, of course, is in Brooklyn where we have three million people or more sharing the culture and we are very much involved in that. We recently did what we call a Caribbean Expo at Lincoln Center and it was again to expose the culture of the Caribbean. And we took it out of Brooklyn for that precise reason. If we can bring it to the cultural center in midtown, at Lincoln Center and we had music and food and crafts and we wanted to show the best of the Caribbean. So we see ourselves not only in terms of publishing but in terms of being active in promoting the culture through events, through workshops seminars because it certainly is one that will keep the community together. And certainly it's one that you can share with the wider community. We've seen reggae that's really taken over as in terms of music form and of course, the first album to sell a million copy was our Bellafondes collection.
So in shared culture, people get to understand you more, appreciate you some more. And you absolutely right, we see that as a ski in care news. And to your point that the interest is in the local politics and possible friction between the community previously, I think that is care news mission. Really to say if we have qualities that are different then let's blend them together so we can work for the entire good of the community. And it's working because people are responding to that and a lot of that is being pushed behind us now. Well, sometimes this is a generational thing. The first generation of immigrants from anywhere are more attached to the place from which they immigrated. And then the second generation is beginning to do the transition to the country to which they integrated.
In New York City with probably 180-some or more ethnic groups has gone through this many, many times. And one sense of numbers have a lot to do with. For example, the reason why they're Caribbean, American population get a lot of attention is that they're a lot of them and more and more of them are voting. And when you vote, you then can get people who represent not only the interest of the largest society but particularly the interest of your particular sector. For example, the recent Muima case with police brutality against the Haitian has mobilized everyone across the city against police brutality, the white community, the African American community, the Latino community, the Caribbean community. And I know the group news has played a major role in this in that you have interviewed exactly everybody who's involved and carried the case, particularly carrying the case from a factual point of view. I think the strength of the Caribbean news, as you say, is that as much as possible, you try to present a factual view of issues that face the Caribbean community.
Right. And the lonely case in particular was interesting because in the initial stages, the excuse that they were going to use with that particular case was really awful because, you know, they're talking about this homosexual partner, but we had connection to the nurse directly. And it was passed on that information is already in our hands. And with Eunachlard, who's a city council person with that particular district, I mean, it's literally stayed on that case, so it couldn't be pushed down the rug and so it was important for us to stay on the case and still on it because if we're not there to protect our own, nobody will, as you know. That's one of the roles of the press in the Democratic Society to carry the message, to
you point up the strengths and the weaknesses of various communities to advocate, et cetera. One of the things you think you have to be careful about is becoming too polemic, advocating one side or the other, and this particular two in business, for example, the Caribbean community is burgeoning in terms of business. And when you bring corporations, like you bring AT&T and Western Union and so on, to collaborate with you, there's a question of how do you spread this out? How do you spread the wealth? What's your approach on that? Well, what we've done really is to look at it in the wider sense, and we have said to our AT&T and Western Union that, yes, we have a mark that you're particularly interested in, but we also have a life outside of that. So if we're doing the business conference in, what I bet is we're bringing cabin business people with African American business people, we're seeing the Western Union. These are the things you need to facilitate while you're working with us, because you
need to participate in the wider world. So AT&T, because there's a long distance of Western Union, because of money transfer and certainly the airlines. But we really make the separate Dr. Brown to be viewed as a holistic community, not necessarily just Caribbean, but cabin people are aspiring. And we really believe that that has to be the way to go. And we have made sure that we have reached out to all the major African American institutions to work with them closely. And as much as we do the labor, they're festival, you know, I'm up there with Harlem. And as much as we do the other carnivales, we are there with African American. So we deliberately made that connection. So we see us as a whole society. As a community, and I know you've worked with the 100 Black men as well, it is a community
of African American, African American business and professional people. But what role do you play, for example, in helping to improve the quality of education, that African Americans and Caribbean Americans receive? So that's a crucial issue, and I know the press can have some influence, maybe not a lot. But what are some of the things that Caribbean news does or tries to do in terms of improving the quality of education for our youth? You know, we have a page every every week on education, and we do a couple of things. We try to bring information as to what is happening in the education field. So our readers can be informed. We try to do highlight those students and teachers that are making a difference, and we're doing that every week. And then we've been working with Task Force on the Chancellor's Task Force, because a few large Caribbean American population is in the public school system, as the whole
society is in the community, and so we have been on the issues, we've had a professor Ian, who literally stays on the education issue for us, sees an educator himself, and so we see education as a critical need within the community, and we have dedicated every week that is going to be in-cad news, something that has to do with education, and we're always looking for other ways to impact what's happening. You know, there are two aspects of education. One, you've talked about advocacy for improvement of the system, the quality of the system of funding, et cetera, but there's another aspect of education helping people to understand the cultural heritage. Yes. What do you do in that area? We're very strongly aware of our strong, the fact that we connect with them, and we also feature in a way what's good about the heritage, what they should
be proud about, and really keep a strong link there, and take for instance, during Black History Month, we do what we call the African antecedent, we go all the way back to Africa, we do the African-American and the current civil rights effort, then we do the cabinet American contribution, and then we do the cultural, the diaspora, so it's that ongoing kind of connection that we see as key, so we understand in ourselves, and we're understanding where we're coming from, and you meet readers, and they'll constantly tell you how much to enjoy reading those issues. How much does a paper do you write now, or what is your present role? I know you started this, and you're very proud of, now what's your role now?
I'm the publisher, I do a little writing, I was never trained as a journalist, but I know what good articles are and what good journalists should do, and so we have surrounded ourselves with good journalists, but Dr. Brown, I manage a day-to-day operation of the paper, and it's never easy to balance all the needs from journalists to the advertisers, and then I'll also play a role in the community by being on boards, by attending sessions to be involved, and so a lot of my time now is really getting into functions to make sure that we are represented, getting certain on boards, both in the care of the American community, and to really articulate where I can the needs of the community, so we consult with our editorial board on issues, we weekly talk through what our editorial positions
will be on these issues, but the actual writing I do very long. Well, you do more than that because you're the publisher and the leader, you in a sense, are communicated on the conscience of the Caribbean community in America. Today on African-American legends, we've been talking with Carl Rodney, who is the publisher of the Caribbean news, and we want to thank Carl for being with us today. It's a real pleasure in being with you, that's a brand. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Series
African American Legends
Episode
Carib News
Contributing Organization
CUNY TV (New York, New York)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/522-7659c6sz14
NOLA Code
AAL 097014
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Description
Series Description
African-American Legends profiles prominent African-Americans in the arts, in politics, the social sciences, sports, community service, and business. The program is hosted by Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., Director of the Center for Urban Education Policy at the CUNY Graduate Center, and a former President of Bronx Community College.
Description
Karl Rodney discusses how his publication, Carib News, got its start, and its role in the African-American community. Taped October 6, 1997.
Description
Guest: Karl Rodney. Taped 10/6/1997
Created Date
1997-10-06
Asset type
Episode
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:28:23
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Credits
AAPB Contributor Holdings
CUNY TV
Identifier: 15796 (li_serial)
Duration: 00:28:36:28
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Citations
Chicago: “African American Legends; Carib News,” 1997-10-06, CUNY TV, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-522-7659c6sz14.
MLA: “African American Legends; Carib News.” 1997-10-06. CUNY TV, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-522-7659c6sz14>.
APA: African American Legends; Carib News. Boston, MA: CUNY TV, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-522-7659c6sz14