An overwhelming number of Caribbean nationals in the New York metropolitan area have hailed the reelection of United States.
“This is very joyous for me!” exclaimed former New York City Councilwoman Una Clarke in a Caribbean Life interview. “You can see what the president is made of. It’s certainly what was predicted.”
“I think all the Republican chatter will now be silenced, and he’ll get more cooperation in Congress,” added Clarke, the first Caribbean-born woman to hold elective office in New York City.
“The president’s coalition, including minorities and immigrants, held together,” she continued. “The Republicans will have to reevaluate everything, including anti-Black sentiments. I was holding on to every word the president had to say in his victory speech.”
Dr. Janice Emanuel-Bunn, a Guyanese-born professor at the University of Phoenix and president of Brooklyn-based Action, Performance, Commitment (APC) Community Services, said she was very ecstatic about Obama’s “triumph against all odds.”
“It was unbelievable and unprecedented,” she added. “The fact that President Obama was able to put together a coalition that defeated the ‘super pacs’ and all the money they shelled out is a testament to people power.”
“His ground mobilization was superb,” she added. “We need to support this president because he will go down in history as our finest.”
Roy Hastick, the Grenadian-born founder and president of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI), said Obama’s victory means “a great deal for the Caribbean American community in the U.S., the Diaspora and the Caribbean Community.
“While we celebrate a victory that was hard-fought for major domestic and some international accomplishments, we, the Diaspora, must push the president and the Cabinet and other U.S. officials to focus more on the Caribbean Community,” he said.
Hastick, however, said, as a strong supporter of the president, he was overjoyed when he received a “Thank You” email from him at 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
“I was so impressed,” he said. “My family and I shed tears for this piece of history. He thanked me for my support for him over the years.”
The “Thank You” note, which was also sent to ardent Obama supporters, said in part: “I want you to know that this wasn’t fate, and it wasn’t an accident. You made this happen.
“You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and 10 dollars at a time. And when it wasn’t easy, you pressed forward,” the president said.
“I will spend the rest of my presidency honoring your support and doing what I can to finish what we started,” President Obama added.
“But I want you to take real pride, as I do, in how we got the chance in the first place …”
Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests,” he said. “There’s a lot more work to do.”
Maxwell Haywood, a U.N. Development Program officer, who heads the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Diaspora Committee of New York, said he was “pleased with the outcome of the elections. Obama The campaign was fought very hard. The acceptance and concession speeches of the two candidates were very high.”
“I feel in a very high mood this morning, because the two presidential candidates reinforced the desperate need for political unity across party lines,” he added. “To me, that is the biggest success of this election, in addition to President Obama winning.”
In defeating his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, Obama won at least 303 electoral votes with 270 needed for the victory. With one state, Florida, yet to be decided as of early Wednesday, Romney had 206 electoral votes.
“Tonight, in this election, you, the American people reminded us that, while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back,” said Obama in his victory speech in his home city, Chicago. “We know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.
