Brooklyn pastor warns separate national parades could weaken Labor Day carnival
Pastor Louis Straker Jr, son of a former St Vincent deputy prime minister, fears a fragmented diaspora could undermine the West Indian Day Parade.
NEW YORK, United States. A prominent Brooklyn pastor has voiced concern over a growing trend of individual Caribbean nations holding their own independence parades in the borough, warning that it could diminish the West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway.
Pastor Louis Straker Jr, lead pastor of Reflections Church on Utica Avenue, pointed to Haiti Flag Day events and the more recent Guyana Independence Parade and Jamaica Rising Day Parade.
Straker, the son of a Trinidadian mother and a Vincentian father, Sir Louis Straker Sr, a former deputy prime minister and foreign minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, spoke to Caribbean Life on Saturday 15 August.
“While I am fully supportive of our Caribbean nations celebrating their independence, I must admit that I have some concerns and reservations about the potential of having a myriad of individual Caribbean countries holding their own parades in Brooklyn,” he said.
A display of unity
He described the Labor Day parade as “a tremendous display of unity”, noting that despite mixed reviews and public safety challenges it remains the largest cultural parade in North America, drawing 1.5 million to 3 million people.
Straker, who chairs the 67th Precinct Clergy Council, an anti-gun violence group, said the trend could expand to Trinidadians, Vincentians, Grenadians, Barbadians and others.
He invoked colonisation, which he said “divided Africans into these respective islands” and fostered “isolated island nationalism”.
Practical concerns
He also asked whether it was sustainable for every country to stage its own event, given the traffic management, policing and public safety resources each requires.
“I hope the thoughts I have expressed here are not misconstrued as opposition to celebrating our individual cultures or national identities,” he said.
“There is strength in our individual identities, but there is also tremendous strength in our collective identity as Caribbean people.”
