South Florida Jamaicans put Kamala Harris’ Caribbean heritage into perspective

While the world watched Kamala Harris adeptly shatter glass ceilings, the media made much of the vice president’s roots in India. Her Jamaican heritage? Not so much.

Here in South Florida, that did not go unnoticed by the large Jamaican community. And now that the flurry of inauguration press coverage has abated and communities of color turn toward Black History Month, the diaspora of the Caribbean island nations seems to still be waiting for some acknowledgement, from Harris, from the media and from the world.

After all, her father’s family is from the Saint Ann Parish in Jamaica, a region known for mining, agriculture, open-air markets and, particularly to the point, political activism.

Bob Marley was born there and his mausoleum is just a few miles south of Brown’s Town, where retired economics professor Donald Harris was born (there is also family in nearby Saint Ann’s Bay). Marcus Garvey, the black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, was also from the area, on the northern coast of Jamaica and possibly more familiar to tourists for the resort town Ocho Rios.

There are stories, notably here in South Florida, about how Kamala Harris can nimbly switch gears, holding her own with a Jamaican dialect.

Miramar city commissioner Winston F. Barnes remembers meeting the vice president at a Miami fundraiser in 2018. Barnes and other Jamaicans made a point of maneuvering Harris into a group where he asked her directly, “Listen, what you know about St. Ann?”

Barnes — who is also the longtime news director of the Davie-based Caribbean radio station WAVS 1170 AM — recalls Harris replying in perfect Jamaican patois. “Her response was purely Jamaican, [she said] ‘How you mean man? I’m from Brown’s Town.’ I was done. I was good from then on.”

Fellow Jamaican-American official Ann Marie Sorrell, who in November became the first person of color elected to the Palm Beach Soil and Water Conservation District, says that while she heard some grumbling among Caribbean people living here about the lack of including the Antilles in Harris’ narrative, that was not what was important to them in the big picture.

“That caused a stir,” Sorrell admits. “I remember when she did an event here at [Miami Garden’s Florida] Memorial University. They wanted to hear her speak more about her Jamaican heritage and her upbringing. They wanted to feel more celebrated. They felt it was being downplayed. However many members of the community, including myself, thought that the bigger picture right now is getting her to the finish line of becoming the next vice president, getting out the vote for this election. That became the focus of the Caribbean community here in South Florida.”

Sorrell says activists and community leaders took to Caribbean news platforms, radio stations and social media (particularly WhatsApp) to unite the Caribbean people of color in supporting the Biden/Harris ticket.

“It was grass roots,” she explains. “There were drive-through caravans. There was a lot of excitement, you know, still safe and socially distanced, like a Caribbean carnival to create buzz. There were different Caribbean concerts with DJs to promote getting out the vote.”

Why Jamaicans might not be boasting

Miami’s Eva Silverstein recently returned from Jamaica after spending five weeks there doing work as the executive director or the Ghetto Youth Foundation, which was founded by three of Bob Marley’s sons — Stephen, Damian and Julian.

Silverstein thinks that Jamaicans aren’t putting their pride in the vice president on blast due to an often misunderstood cultural trait.

“There’s a lot of braggadocio in the music, in dancehall, reggae, just as it’s a part of hip hop culture,” she explains. “But it’s the reverse ... on the personal side. There is a bit of hesitation to overly share accomplishments sometimes. I think the focus is on doing those accomplishments — walking the walk instead of talking about it to your neighbor. That is just personally and anecdotally. In American culture the smallest accomplishment is accelerated to the nth degree.”

That is backed up by Barnes. “Part of the Jamaican mentality is humility. That is extremely important, especially to the older ones of us. There is an ongoing debate in social media about how Kamala Harris will not speak of her Jamaican background openly. To my way of thinking, other than bragging rights, what difference does it make? You do what you do and the world will see your good works.”

He did say that COVID-19 also probably muted any celebrations, noting that there were a number of virtual celebrations of Harris’ inauguration, including one Zoom event he took part in along with local activists, Jamaican nationals and the Consulate General of Jamaica.

Another factor: Generations of Caribbeans are used to seeing Black people in power.

“Our first here in America is not the first you see in the Caribbean and other countries where there’s been a dominance of the Black African diaspora,” says Sorrell. “There has always been Black leaders in those countries. Jamaica has had a Black woman prime minister, Portia Simpson-Miller.”

So why don’t we hear more about Harris and Jamaica?

It must be said that Harris is not the first Jamaican to serve as vice president. George M. Dallas, who served under President James K. Polk starting in 1845, has that honor all to himself. Like Harris, his father was from Jamaica. Unlike Harris, the Dallas family was white.

It seems that the bitter divorce and custody battle between Harris’ parents might have made long and frequent visits to Jamaica uncomfortable for Harris and her younger sister, Maya, a public police advocate and former MSNBC analyst.

According to Harris’ writings, the two girls spent most of their childhood with their mother Shyamala Gopalan, who grew up in India before following her career in cancer research to the United States.

Their father lives in Washington, D.C., where he was a consultant on Caribbean economic issues for organizations such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Despite living in the same fish bowl as his daughter Kamala, Donald Harris eschews making any statements to the press.

Dr. Malaika M. Witter Hewitt, an otolaryngologist, knew Kamala Harris when they were children, both with Jamaican fathers, in the early 1970s in Palo Alto, Calif. Witter Hewitt’s father was an economics graduate student working with Donald Harris and both families spent a lot of time together at birthday parties.

Years later she talked to her father to learn more about that time and concluded, “A part of it has to do with the way in which the childhood played out. [After the divorce] they moved away to Canada and then there weren’t as many regular visits with their father. I wasn’t around Kamala those years, but my understanding is it wasn’t the same.”

Witter Hewitt, now practicing in Atlanta, hadn’t seen Harris in decades, but reconnected at campaign events.

“She got my number from my cousin. She was on her way to Atlanta where the mayor was hosting a fundraiser when she called me and ... invited me to the event. I was thrilled out of my mind. She is so down to earth. She hasn’t seen me in 40 years. How is that possible? But she didn’t forget who I was.”

And so Witter Hewitt got some insight into a connection that Harris has to Jamaica that many might overlook: the college years at Howard University.

“She reconnected in her own way,” she explains. “There’s a huge Caribbean community in D.C. There are Caribbean restaurants. The yard at Howard has a Caribbean section. She was in a sorority and so had lots of friends who are into Jamaican music. Kamala like other immigrants from Black countries… especially at African American colleges ...they have a Caribbean root, but also embrace the whole African American experience.”

Danielle Cohen Higgins is the first Jamaican-American and the only woman of color currently serving as a Miami-Dade commissioner. She feels that it is up to the Caribbean communities in general and the Jamaican community specifically to give Harris’ ancestry from Jamaica as much attention as her ancestry from India.

“I think the responsibility, that is on us,” Cohen Higgins says. “It’s on us Jamaicans and Jamaican-Americans to use our voice. You have to admit that a lot is occupying the air waves right now. We just live in the world right now where everyone’s attention misses nuanced things like this. It’s not getting the attention it should.”

But she also adds, “As a proud member of the Jamaican community I can sum up how we feel in one word: Pride.”

Marcia Scott, a Broward County-based life coach and educator who lived and worked in Browns Town, thinks the reason for the lack of coverage is simpler.

“Maybe because there’s a larger Indian population here than Jamaica has,” she says from her home in Davie. “We’re just a little dot. But it’s disappointing that part of her was not mentioned. It didn’t take much for [the press] to go and just see the town.”

But some Jamaicans say there are other forces at play here.

“There is an inherent bias in popular media in this country, straight up,” says Barnes, the Miramar commissioner and news director for WAVS-AM radio. “Media has glamorized anyone with an Asian background for the last 40 years. I think that what has happened is that there is a notion ... of the overly smart uber-achieving foreigner. And when we see that person in the media, then that person has been...from Asia. So, the impression that we get from the media is that every person from India is a math wizard and a spelling bee wizard. I am saddened by it. Media tends to pick up what other media does and run with it.”

But in Jamaica the pride is palpable.

Silverstein recalls, “Even when I was in Jamaica back during the election and inauguration there was a sense of wow, a daughter of the soil is stepping in the second highest ranking office. I felt that as well in the diaspora Jamaican community here in South Florida.

What is Kamala Harris’ ancestral home like in Jamaica?

Donald Harris’ family is from Brown’s Town as well as nearby Saint Ann’s Bay, both in the Saint Ann Parish.

Palm Beach Soil and Water supervisor Sorrel, who was born in the same parish and goes back once a year for a couple of weeks (pre-pandemic), says, “It’s beautiful. As with many parts of Jamaica, it’s lush.”

And its history is just as rich.

“I think when Columbus came to Jamaica, I think he landed in Saint Ann Parish,” says Silverstein. “It was the first point of colonization. There’s an important Arawak [indigenous people] settlement there. It is very known, very important.”

Commissioner Cohen Higgins notes that many Americans often don’t see Jamaica the same way as Jamaicans.

“There is an assumption of what Jamaicans look like or sound like,” she says. “But the true Jamaica is such an incredibly diverse place and is...filled with a diverse mix of people, East Indian, Asians, white, Chinese, African, dark skin, light skin. The motto in Jamaica is ‘out of many we are one.’ I wish that message was carried farther.”

Scott’s family is also from Brown’s Town. While she left in the mid-’70s to attend college, she returned in the early ‘80s to teach chemistry for about two years.

“Education is a big deal, a big big big deal,” she says. “Brown’s Town is way up in the hills. But you have like three high schools there and in neighboring [villages].”

Scott says the importance of education in the region gives Brown’s Town a jolt of youth as well.

“A lot of kids migrate in,” she says. “There are a lot of young people, 26 and 27, because you have a lot of people coming in for education and some of them stay, they stay in this little town.”

And politics is just part of the mix, whether in school or church or just casually talking social issues in the barber shop, the hair salon or the market.

“That’s why you have all those political songs. Listen to Bob Marley. A lot of what he is talking about is consciousness, a revolutionary thing. So politics is a part of our bones.”

Scott concludes, “So, I can understand why Kamala is who she is. Her father would be attracted to someone [Shyamala Gopalan] of that mind.”

The Harris family was well known in Brown’s Town and the nearby town of St Ann’s Bay, according to Richard Toyloy who is from the area but now lives in Kingston and runs a catering business. Toyloy says he’s acquainted with some of Harris’ cousins still living in the parish.

“Everyone knows the Harrises in Brown’s Town,” he says. “They are very popular business people.”

Toyloy continues, “Kamala’s great grandmother, she’s Miss Chrishy, everyone knows her. She had a store, what you would call a dry goods store, where everyone went. She on the other side of her Harris family, the Finnegan side of the family. A bunch of Finnegans migrated to England back in the ’50s and ’60s. A majority of those cousins are in the U.K.”

During the inauguration festivities, Toyloy says he happened to notice two traits that were familiar to him as a Jamaican.

“She dances the way we dance in Jamaica. They say that vibrant energy and laughter, that’s Jamaican. We own that.”