Df-\i,) I EL j OS f.

0 LO tR

desp,iir,you told me weeks later vvhen I said I didn't know

how to write this essav.
'
A:1d ~n that I saw a miracle: vour
.
Ovirn ;our:ney, your own revolution:, unraveling beside iT'.1.e essage to Daughters
rn.ine and also separate,. 2, ,;vhoL::;country and sea away.
- ., 1
:rou cncse • •
hope, anc,1 tne , ., · .,
nig.rrc 1sqm-et ,
ari.d -J. 7-tnte
· Vv1-11'le you
EDWIDGE DA~ITICAT
' al_
1norn.e11t..vv1tlJ. '1 its
· ""0le1g11t
, 1 anc-1 ..respo11s1"b'l
~ -
. pomt
turmng . u1
. our 1· ' ours, ana'
1vr::s,1s
z,refor
-D Soon after the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of
Michael Brown by the Ferguson police officer Darren Wil-
son, I was in Haiti, at the southernmost end of the country's
border with the Dominican Republic, where hundreds of
Haitian refugees had either been deported or driven out of
the Dominican Republic by inti1r,idation or threats. Many
! I of these men and women had very little warning that they
were going to be picked up or chased away and most of
~
J
them had fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
It was a bright sunny day, but the air was thick with dust.
ic--._
t" :;-;
'"""''..... I-
•~ As some friends and I walked thrnugh the makeshift reset-
tlement camps on the Haitian side of the border, in a place
\:' 1;,(\ f'!( called Pak Kado, it felt as though we, along with the resi-
dents of the camps, were floating through clouds, Around
us were lean-tos made of cardboard boxes and sheets.
Dust~covered children 1.valked around looking dazed even
while playing with pebbles that stood in for marbles, or
while flying plastic bags as kites, Elderly people stood on
the edge of food and clothes distribution lines, some too
weak to wade into the crowd, Later the elderly, along with
pregnant women and the disabled, would be given special

20.:.,:
205
 . I
I
I

EDWI D G l': DAI-HI C/1,T fvlESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTERS

., . b · . 1
ccnsmerat1on y the pnest anCLnuns who were g1vmg out
- •
migrated from the rural south to urban centers in the north-
the only food available to the camp dwellers, but the food ern United States for more than half a century during the
would always run out before they could get to everyone. Great Migration were often referred to as refugees, as were
};,,few days af::erleaving E,ut1 and returning to the United those people internally displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
"
ctates, T.:.. a HS,,c,s·~• "Drown anrnversatv
. . . .
a
.
OD11110ll piece 1il
C
Having no,v visited many refugee and displacement
The W!ashington Post wr:.tte.i1by Raha Jorjani, an immigra- camps, the label "refugee" at first seemed an extreme des-
tion a1:torney and profess er. In her essay, Jorjani argues ignation to assign to citizens of one of the richest countries
that African Americans living in the United States could in the world, especially if it is assigned 011 a singular basis to
easily qualify as refugees. Citing many recent cases of police those who are black. Still, compared to the relative wealth
brutality and kil.lings of 1..marm.edblack men, women, and of the rest of the society, a particularly run-down Brook-
children, she wrote: lyn public housing project where a childhood friend used to
live had all the earmarks of a refugee camp. It occupied one
Suppose a client v'rnlked into my office and told me that of the least desirable parts of town and provided only the
police officers in his counuy had cho\,:ed a man to death most basic necessities, A nearby dilapidated school, where I
over a petly crime. Suppose he F'olice fatally shot attended junior high, could have easily been on the edge of
another man in the back as he ran away. That they arrested a that refugee settlement, where the primary daily task was to
woman during a traffic stop and placed her in jail, where she keep the children occupied, rather than engaged and learn-
died three days later. That a 12-ye,u·-old boy in his country ing. Aside from a few overly devoted teachers, we were
was shot and killed by the police 8S he played in the park often on our own. We, immigrant blacks and African Amer-
Suppose he me tha: all of those victims were from icans alike, were treated by those who housed us, and were
the same erh11iccomr:::nmity-2. communi.ty y;rhosemembers in charge of schooling us, as though we were members of a
!'.car being tortured or killed by police or prison group in transit, The message we always heard from those
gc,arrk And that Lhisis true in cities and towns across his who were meant to protect us: that we should either die or
nation. At that point, as an i.mmigtationla"'i'iryer,
I'd tell him go somewhere else. This is the experience of a refugee,
he 112.d
a strong claim £or protectio11under U.S. law. I have seen state abuses up close, both in Haiti, where I
was born under a ruthless dictatorship; and in New York,
This is nc::,t :i_·std1ne that die African Amer- where I migrated to a vlorking-class and predominantly
1cans as or •::xternal refog,::,::s been floated o:r African, African American, and Caribbean neighborhood
-· , T'. ·1·· ' . , . . .
aDphea. ·-he s1x-rr11 L10n-DJ.US h_;, , ..:,an i-'.dT1encansw ho in Brooklyn at the age of twelve. In the Haiti of the 1970s
J. L

206 207
 EDWIDGE DANTICAT MESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTERS

ana1 ear ly ' 80s, the

. v10:ence
. ' was overt 1y po 1· . 1. Govern-
mca ,_, the wooden handle of a toilet plunger or a broom inside a
• 1 • c l . , . .
menc detracto:::s ,vere o.ragged 01..~to~ t 1eir homes) 1mpns- precinct bathroom. After Abner, there was Amadou Diallo,
oned, beaten, or killed. Sometimes their bodies were left out a Guinean immigrant, who was hit by nineteen of the forty-
the streets, in the hot sun, for extended periods, to intim- one bullets aimed at him as he retrieved his wallet from his
idate neighbors. pocket. Then there was Patrick Dorismond, the U.S.-born
In Je,Te,vYork, the violence seerned a bit more subtle, child of Haitian immigrants, who died trying to convince
though no less pervasive. 'When I started riding the city undercover cops that he was not a drug dealer,
bus to high school, I observed that a muffled radio message These are only a few among the cases from my era that
from an ,u1r:.oyedbus driver-about someone talk1J.-ig
too made the news. There v.ras also sixty-six-year-old Eleanor
or not having the right fare-vvas all it took to make Bumpurs, who, thirteen years before Abner's assault, was
the police rush in, dra.ga young man off the bus, and beat kjlled by police with a twelve-gauge shotgun inside her
into submission on sideviralk. There were no cell own apartment. I have no doubt there were many others.
phone cameras back then to record such abuse, and most of We marched for all of them in the Louima/Diallo/Doris-
us v..reretoo ternned <.c to dennnr cla 'oactge
< • ' num b er. mond decade. We carried signs and chanted "No Justice!
Bc:sidts, many cf us had :fled our countries as exiles, No Peace!" and "\Vhose Streets? Our Streets!" even while
migrants, and refugees just to escape th1s kind of military fearing the latter would never be true. The streets belonged
or police aggression; we hov1rdeadly a :::onfrontation to the people with the uniforms and the guns. The streets
with an armed and uniformed authoritarian :figure could were never ours. Our sons and brothers, fathers and uncles,
.be. Stll.,1, every now and' then
. a 1e1low
r 1•
trave 1er wou ld sum- our mothers and sisters 1 daughters and nieces, our neigh-·
n1on his or her ccm::age dodging the swaying baton, bors were, and still are 1 prey.
or scre:iming from a distance, would yell some variation of My father, a Brooklyn cab driver, used to half joke that
lS a ! A child!" police did not beat him up because, at sixty-five years old,
Of course, not all of the polici::'s victims were children. he was too skinny and too old, and not worth the effort.
· 1
Aoner ,.Lomma, •
a f·am1lyt,1end, 1·
., , · ' wJ.s curtyyears o ld w h en 11e Every now and then, when he was randomly stopped by
\,,ras m1st,.ken :ror s•):tneone v,r/,o :P:t r:111c:1ecla po 1·
, · r -, 1· ' l -. 1ce o ffi - a police officer and deigned to ask why, rather than a beat-
cer outside a BrooklyE nightclub, on August 9, 1997, sixteen ing, he would be given a handful of unwarranted traffic cita-
ye:-n-s to o.ay
1 r
-Derore "· -· 1
N~2c ,ae l nnro,vn w2.s 1:1·11
e d. fLner
'b tions that would wipe out a few weeks' hard-earned wages.
was arrested, beaten with fists, as well as with police radios, Today, one might generously refer to such acts as micro-
£1~~"1°j,,-,:~h.,
ll<Ccl"'--·fSl"!.~, rdn'crL,
i:L1 ..,.c·,,1-- an d'-]-ro•
,,_lt,lHc,I.L_,_s, py,·111 yassau
...J.J.,.11S-a,.c-a~ ced v\11._s
~ ·1c c;~h aggressions.That is, until chey turn major and deadly, until

208 209

'· --· -- ' ... _..-. . ... ,. '·LN·' '''' '0 •• ,•4J >-::-'··.,' ,· ·- •.. ··-· ··· ··· _,, __ •. ·····=•-'"•·">=·-""--..,,....,,,-____,
__,'--'•--·•-··-.
, .."
 EDVV1DC::DANTICfa,T MESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTERS

other 1.marm.edblack bodies, with nowhere to go for refuge, ous nature of citizenship here: that we too are prey, and that
find themselves in the path of yet another police officer's or those who have been in this country for generations-walk-
\ 101,aL ,t<>'
a1 lil.eQ 1 -r'.u"1
, --
;., $ g"lc..IL
ing, living, loving in the same skin we're in-they too can
\1Vhen it vvas announced that Darren '\;~\lson would not suddenly become refugees.
be indicted for die killing of Michael Brown, I kept th.ink- Parents are often too nervous to broach difficult subjects
ing of J.\bner Louirn.a, whose assault took place when with their children. Love. Sex, Death. Race, But some par-
Michael ,vas just eighteen Abner and ents are forced to have these conversations early. Too early.
I have known each othe::-fo: years. Both our families have A broken heart might lead to questions we'd rather not
attended the same Creole-spe2.krn.g church for decades, so answer, as might an inappropriate gesture, the death of a
I cJJkd him to hear his thoughts :o,bout :Michael BroVirn's loved one, or the murder of a stranger.
killer going free. If anyone could understand all those bro- Each time a black person is killed in a manner that's
. 'n.earts, al"1tne
ken . rage, a11tn.e
1 J .
oesperat10n, ·1
tne •
yearning r
ror clearly racially motivated, either by a police officer or a vigi-
justice, what it is to be a member of a seemingly marooned lante civilian, I ask myself if the time has come for me to talk
and persecuted group, I thought, he v"oDJcL to my daughters about Abner Louima and the long list of

Abner :=_,ouima,unlike Nhchael Brown, had survived. He dead that have come since. My daughters have met Abner,
went on with his life, movec: from f\.TewYork City to south but I have never told them about his past, even though his
Flor:tda, started businesses. He has a daughter and two sons. past is a future they might have to face.
One son was eighteen years old when we spoke, the same -why don't I tell them? My decision is about more than
age i✓Echael Brown was ,vhen he died. avoiding a difficult conversation. The truth is, I do not want
How does he feel, I asked hirn, each time he hears that yet my daughters to gro,v up as I did, terrified of the coun-
another bl.ack person was killed or nearly ki,lled by police? try and the world they live in. But is it irresponsible of me
"h reminds me that our Eves mear; no t~1:ng," he replied. to not alert them to the potentially life-altering, or even

'1'.11P •:s1·r
'\ V •~J.•;,>
1·r,
,~J. 1nr-,1·ic~ ·berci11
/·' .• _.~.=-"Q...
~.k ·;e..,,
-~.,;rr:1,.--,,1,• ,_{,.1_ r
rep l;vP.< ,., "~n1' r•-n·l·11·110-
..!., '.~!:l .1.LJf;'.e:,_,l..,. _i...,_l,- -- t, t·n
'~
life-ending horrors they might face as young black women?
1J10·"P i11·1,o·"'r"'r
-~ .,..,I.J=-----"-- f-" 'It....,.,.. 1°·1
J, -+1~ ,~n:111,"·1"~
i;..~ {;° ,nb"'t"'
.,_J_.__,,_, 1 ....-~ ''"'e r,,,~,F f··~om
,._...., -- 1 y,,,.
..._-...,1., YY "-"C:1-J..J._
.. ..., J. a
The 111ghtPresident Barack Obama was first elected
vsre come 11r;;re to reanze 'I.
ot:r 1' 1so mean not lung
rves a... ' (would he too qualify for refugee status?), my oldest daugh-
l, -crp vJ'.~.l\..-
l__1,C~°L-, nt U'l 1-,•.,r '·o·
~r> [r"'- \..l.J. l·v •"'""")
··~·1,·~
L:::1-l ._..,_ 01 1 r~el-,e~ +-·01-c
..,,1, ..1.l
;:J y
re~l-
.J.l ·1-J..u~
,:;. _1._ :::, .:;1.
ter was three and I was in the last weeks of my pregnancy
' 1.

rty, thmK1ng
1 '
bec,,,Jse we are anc c.f"other"- with my second, When President Obama was inaugurated
JJ;.1:rnl gra11
-rs:, ,,,,,J11•_7 '-""S-+·1··1·'c
..).~:;:.;i...,.;:J,.__1.., v _l'--' :1.u0 ,-oc
1.l, -~11" p ·oblem
J.
1... y...__1
0
1
J. 'J
for the first time, I was cradling both my little girls in my
nor one we cc1.n But ultimately we r-::alize the precari- arms.

210 211
 ,-- ---

ED\J\IIDGE DM,JTiCAT MESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTERS

To think, I remember telling my husband, our daugh- born in a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and
ters will never know a in ilirhichthe president of in as many ways as possible that you were a worthless
· country has not been black. Indeed, as we watched . "
human bemg.
President Obama's inaugural speech, my oldest daughter That same letter could have been written to a long roster
1
,:;vassnoc 1~eo.
1
t l1at no woman -ha d ever 1peen pres1.d-ent o f of dead young men and women, whose dungeons shook,
the United Scates. That day, the vvorld ahead for my girls but whose chains did not completely fall off. Among these
seemed full of greater possibility- 1£not endless possibil- very young people are Oscar Grant, Aiyana Stanley-Jones,
.- . , l - .r .
1t1es, then at 1east greater tun those ior generations pasc. Rekia Boyd, Kiman.i Gray, Renisha McBride, Trayvon
1/Iany more doors suddenly seemed open to my girls, and Martin, Michael Bell, Tamir Rice, lYLichaelBrown, Sandra
the "joyous daybreak" evoked by Martin Luther King 1 Jr., Bland, and counting. It's sad to imagine what these young
in his "I Have a Dream" speech, a kind of jubilee, seemed people's letters from their loved ones may have said. Had
to have emerzed.
,___1 However.,. it ouickl->"
l becan1e clear that this their favorite uncle notified them that they could qualify for
one m2,n was not going to take all of us v;rith him into the refugee status within their own country? Did their mother
postra.cial promised land. Or that he even had full access or father, grandmother or grandfather warn them to not
. ,....,
to 1t. 'vODstant tal ,;__
'1 oxr 'wantmg
, . , . . I ''
h1m to .r1a1.: . .,
was racially walk in white neighborhoods, to, impossibly, avoid police
tmged, as were tne ·,,1DJ.rther
' -- C . -
..,; mv,:::st1gauons,
' -
an d t h e ·1::'
,1gotea! officers, to never play in a public park, to stay away from
cornmentaries and jokes both eJ,ected officials and ordi- neighborhood watchmen, to never go to a neighbor's house,
nary folk. One of the most consistent attacks against the even if to seek help from danger?
president, was that, like my husband and myself, he was I am still, in my own mind, drafting a "My Dungeon
elsewhere and was not ;?rJ.llyAmericano Shook" letter to my daughters. It often begins like this.
L.fr:e ~ 1 nb
"' .1:l:1n.c1,-;:
'--1 an1a 's r us l1aa'-b roug l1t our
many o:.. Dear Mira and Leila, I've put off writing this letter to you
black bodies to America from. somewhere dse. Some of us, for as long as I can, but I don't think I canput it off any lon-
Likethe president, were the children d such people. 'lie are ger, Please !:mowthat there wz'llbe times when some people
to havcc with our black might be hostile or e'oenviofrnt to youfor reasom that have
offspdng: !.:meabout 'why ,ve're hete and the other about nothing to do with your beaut')',your humor, or your gMce,
why not al--vays a promised land for people who look. but only your racecmd the colorof your skin. Pleasedon't let
us, this restrict your freedom, brea!?.your spirit, or kill your joy.
fo his 01i'r.a -version of Talk,'' James Baldwin ~vrote And ifpossible do everythingyou can to changethe world so
to his nephew Ja1nes in ''1',(iyI) Jngeon Shook,'' "You were
0
that your generation of brown and black men, women1 and

212 213
 ED\ 1'\fl DC E DA l\1;·! CAT
IVIESSAGE TO MY DAUGHTERS

½o
C,Y tlop 1·,-•ct-
ill o,--p·
,-,-,,,;·;,, ov2'pr·p
i/,L -1[!<i?z'- 11,,rfplea-o
......i,;, "' l,,1 ,...), ..Ll!
i.,,,',,J ..- .{,/ .. .; • .lf..J \., ....\, __,(__.) ·-· t,,...,i, .)I;;;
them, brown and black bodies living with "certain uncer-
do lii•e best b:i1es and achie7,e yoti-r full potentied. Love tainty/' to use Frantz Fanon's words, black bodies fleeing
Be foyf1,tl,In Iubilee, om,, oppression, persecution, and poverty, wherever they are.
-d·· f~ o-f_ ··l·1'~
0
;.:eJ,_L .!. 1·~-'L"'C!O'"
1
t, T ,·f1-~-
l_..·,_,..l;,JL
v 'J ,_._1-1.
\_. .t ...........,0·1CT\al··Jw1'n
11:rJP"~ .,__,. .•.1 )' .......
, 0 '0
,J,l,1._r'
"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprec-
you this because I lo,.re yo-'-'·and ple,,se don't you edented in the history of the world, but then you read,"
t n l O.\'."Vlnre=r1.n1dec
- · "' ..8a
e-VfT 1org;et1t:in ' · ' · \ l-ilSJ:;~.1r1es.
· T ~'"Fl\ ..r1ov1vrher1ce
•
James Baldwin wrote. Or you see, Or you weep. Or you
came. If you know c2.rfr:o, is no limit pray. Or you speak Or you write. Or you fight so that one
to can go, day everyone will be able to walk the earth as though they,
1s
• ·1 r
oernre you, -..i.wan: to teJ·1 ' hters,
oaug to use Baldwin's words, have "a. right to be here." May that
• -: ' ' 1
" 11ot tal-;_e 1t ()r leave 1t as rt vtas -V{J.1e11)'01-1 day come, Mira and Leila, when you can :finally claim those
c0.1ne 11L')
crowns of yours and put them on your heads. When that
I 0rcu1t to I ,n.nt to be outimist1c. day of jubilee finally arrives, all of us will be there with you,
"
I ·v,T;~ntto have a dxeam. I v.rar:.tto in jubilee, 1 want my walking, heads held high, crowns a-glitter, because we do
to at least try have a right to be here.
1
tna: resists change -v,nt
. , • h
..1Ttr·-~
~. u.tc ~tn:;1ic,fb
'J b" _ ,..1 __ .t,., tbev
1·\arc
... ...t 1 / I ,,a11+
1\ '" _1. ·en 1·, 11 ....~1 thP-r
+l~,,orr1
t....__ ..,)
\.J can.,..,
0

• .
overcome everythmg, n" ( t11ey
L
are courageous, res1'l'1ent, and.
Paradoxically, I also -:;;rant to them their crowns
·111~ear't-T · • C 1 '
rL,_....,_ .... ) 6P-PP
~'-'--"- lOf In-:rt they
to do is n
D1.1t vrc,r 11
C Keeps tnp-
1 •

J?i11grn s 1

~aiti and
r r
o:::rerugees 11cere
srv-' and helped com-
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