New
York - Close to 200 Haitians, headed by two coalition groups (Haitian Centers
Council and Haitian Americans for Human Rights) and local politicians, staged
a demonstration to demand the recall of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," a video
game that glorifies violence and instructs gamers to kill all Haitians.
The
march took place on Monday December 15, 2003 across from the main office Rockstar
Games at 575 Broadway and Prince Street. City council Yvette Clark, Denis Rivera
1199 president, City Councilman Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, attorney Sanford
Rubenstein, New York State's Senator Kevin Parker, attorney Elda S. James , Dr.
Hanry Dr. Ketty Rey, and other local politicians joined Haitian activists demonstrating
against a racist and potentially dangerous video game.
Despite
the blisteringly cold weather, over one hundred concerned citizens gathered to
send a message to Rockstar and Take-Two executives that the contents of the eleven
millions copies of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" already sold in the United States
and European counties must be recalled and modified.
Many
protesters believe that it would have been unthinkable for the creators of "Grand
Theft Auto: Vice City" to develop a similar game targeting Jews, Arabs, or Europeans.
As such, they are astonished as to why Haitians are often the target of organized
racism so as to allow the marketing of such a game. Indeed, for the protestors,
Rockstar Games has lost in their play with racism as signs proclaimed "Rockstar----
Game Over!" Other banners conveyed a simplistic heart-felt frustration with the
company, as children from a nearby school made special banners that read "Stop
talking about Haitians! If you were Haitian, you wouldn't like it!" "You wouldn't
like anyone talking about your country, so you need to stop and get along!" and
"Do not pick on Haitians and hurt their feelings".
City
councilman Charles Barron said in a statement "We are all African people and when
you mess with one of us you have messed with all of us. When they mess with the
Haitian community, then they mess with the children Of Jean Jacques Dessalines,
Toussaint Louverture and Henry Christophe. And these are people that African-Americans
admire because they led the first revolution in the western Hemisphere which inspired
Nat Turner and some of our people to fight against slavery. "…Americans should
be grateful to the Haitian community because their fighting against Napoleon caused
America to be able to purchase Louisiana. So we owe Haiti a debt of gratitude
and for any racist game to come out talking about killing Haitians they're talking
about killing African-Americans too because we are one people. This Rockstar game
we are going to boycott. They are messing with the wrong people when they mess
with our Haitian brothers and sisters."
We
wish that every elected American official would feel the same way that Councilman
Charles Barron felt. We wish that they would understand that Haitians have contributed
significantly to the development of this country as a strong pillar in the world.
Had Haitians not deterred Napoleon and its army from 1790's to 1804, Americans
would not have been able to purchase Louisiana, which became the heart of North
American and a major trade center for the world at particular time.
 |
| Counsilman
Charle Barron and Dr. Henri Frank |
According
to American and Europeans historians, the Louisiana Territory of the early nineteenth
century had a profound impact on the direction of American and European history.
"Whether Napoleon's "French intrigue" was designed to further his European goals
by entangling the United States, Great Britain and Spain in bitter North American
boundary disputes or whether, realizing the hopelessness of his attempts to resurrect
a French empire in North America, Napoleon sold Louisiana to free French capital
for use elsewhere, the acquisition of this vast territory forced hard-line strict
constructionists in the United States to adopt a more flexible interpretation
of the constitution and provided the foundation for future American expansion"
(according to The Historic New Orleans Collection, Louisiana State Archives, Louisiana
State Museum and Tulane University.).
Also,
we should not forget that Haitians soldiers helped Americans fight off the British
in Savannah, Georgia, including the young General Henri Christophe, one of the
heroes of Haitian independence in 1804. Pierre
Toussaint, a Haitian-born slave and the first American Saint of African
descent, helped to establish one of the first children's orphanages in the United
States. Two centuries ago, before Colonel Collins Power,, Jeorge Biassou was a
black general in St Augustine, Florida. General Biassou, one of the leaders of
the slave uprising in Haiti in the 1790s, was in charge of a free black militia
out of Fort Matanzas (now run by the National Park Service). And Haitian-born
immigrant Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable was the first settler (1773) of of Chicago
(
read the story)
Saint
Francis academy, the nation's oldest black school which has just celebrated its
175th anniversary, was founded by Mother Elizabeth Lange, a Haitian woman. As
Kimberly A.C. Wilson of the Baltimore Sun reported, "Lange, born to a wealthy
Creole family that fled Haiti, lived among Baltimore's free black population in
Fells Point in the early 1800s. She established the school in her house on Bank
Street because there was no place for her neighbors' children to be schooled.
A year later, with the encouragement of a French Sulpician priest, she organized
the Oblate Sisters of Providence, an order of Roman Catholic nuns whose mission
remains in the education of black students".
With
just these few illustrations, we are able to recognize that Haitians have made
innumerous and invaluable contributions to this country, and today we continue
to be a valuable part of American society. We are scientists, doctors, engineers,
mechanics, health care workers, artists, teachers, caregivers, shop keepers, and
factory workers, yet we often bear the brunt of racism and hatred. When we are
not being labeled as AIDS and HIV carriers; we are being portrayed by the media,
both on television and in film, as boat people or depicted in video games are
drug abusers and voodoo worshippers.
Whether
is it done by the so-called world superpowers, the
World's Bank and FMI (through outrageous loan rates and economic stipulations),
or through Haiti's own citizens through the financial support of international
organizations and/ or governments, Haiti has been oppressed for 200 years and
the country was never given an excellent opportunity to seriously establish a
democratic form of government and a chance to develop. It certainly could have
been established during the period of American occupation in 1915-1934.
"This occupation failed to achieve its goal of building a democratic government
that would last after its forces departed. The occupation undermined the sovereignty
of the Haitian Republic and the development of democracy" wrote Marie-Josée Mont-Reynaud,
a junior at Menlo H.S., Atherton, CA.
As
always, we will continue to update you on future events that the Haitian Americans
for Civil Rights and The Haitian Center Council have planned for the coming months,
including a potential national demonstration to be held sometime in January.
