These days, visitors to South Richmond Hill’s ubiquitous roti shops pick up more than just curries and doubles — they’re also bound to hear spirited conversation about Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Uncles gathering in restaurants on Liberty Avenue talk proudly about the campaign of a candidate whose mother was Indian and father was Jamaican. Aunties active on Whatsapp and Facebook groups circulate posts about the woman who could become the country’s first female president. All the while, young Indo-Caribbean organizers are working to mobilize members of the politically divided community ahead of November’s election.
Some know this corner of South Queens as Little Guyana while others call it Little Punjab. Here, descendants of Indian indentured servants brought to the British West Indies to fill post-abolition labor shortages make up one of the largest Indo-Caribbean communities in the United States. They coexist with a large Sikh population along with other South Asians from elsewhere in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
And on a visit last week, the word “Kamala” — a common name among Hindu families that refers to the lotus flower in Sanskrit, but often pronounced incorrectly by many American voters and Harris’ opponents — seemed to be on every tongue.
“I know she’s gonna win because I know a lot of people who are talking about her,” said 68-year-old George Hirnan, a retired Army metalworker who likes to people-watch and chat up neighbors while sitting outside a shoe store on Liberty Avenue.
“Everywhere you go you hear everyone talking about her,” added his friend Narine, a 62-year-old retired construction worker who declined to provide his last name because he’s undocumented. “I wish I could vote,” he said.
The vibe in Richmond Hill is a notable shift from the 2022 gubernatorial and Congressional election. While the neighborhood voted solidly blue then, Republican candidate Lee Zeldin gained about 20 percentage-points compared to the GOP standard-bearer in 2018.
Mohammed Q. Amin, executive director of the Caribbean Equality Project, a local social justice and human rights organization — and himself a Richmond Hill resident of Indo-Caribbean descent — said he’s seen how energized residents here and in other Caribbean neighborhoods have been since Harris took over the top of the ticket.
Before President Joe Biden bowed out of the race, Amin said, perhaps five to seven people would register to vote at his organization’s outreach events, numbers that matched previous presidential elections. But at a drive in August, nearly five times as many people signed up, he said.
“Many green-card holders have come to us and said, ‘I wish I could vote in this upcoming election. I’ve applied for my citizenship but I don’t know if I’m going to get my interview in time to register. But I will come back and find you when I’m qualified,’” Amin said. “That’s the type of initiative that people are taking.”
Aminta Kilawan-Narine, a 35-year-old Indo-Caribbean organizer and founder of the progressive group South Queens Women March, said she’s noticed increased interest in Democratic politics among the neighborhood’s independent and swing voters.
“And I actually do think a big part of that, at least from my community, is because she’s from Caribbean and Indian descent,” said Kilawan-Narine, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not her organization.
Among the Kamala supporters were a group of five Indo-Guyanese friends spending their morning in a Burger King on Liberty Avenue. All were eager to offer their opinions, talking over one another when asked about Harris.
Roy K., a 70-year-old immigrant from Guyana and Richmond Hill resident of 30 years, said he’s an independent voter who’s backed members of both parties and doesn’t usually tune in for political conventions.
But he watched Harris speak in Chicago and her speech, he said, has helped change the minds of some of his friends and neighbors who usually back Republicans.
“We’re just like Kamala Harris,” he said, gleaming with pride. “Our forefathers and grandparents from India, the same state that she came from, Tamil Nadu.”
Not Yet Sold on Kamala
While Harris’ candidacy has excited some of Richmond Hill’s voters, political divisions in the neighborhood do exist. That fact is not lost on Kilawan-Narine, who noted that many among the diaspora are also Muslim and some of them have so far remained uncommitted to Harris along with other Democrats over her position on the war in Gaza.
And on the other side of the political spectrum, she added, a number of community members have shifted to the right in recent years.
“Since the Trump election, for whatever reason, there has been a wave — a red wave — amongst the community,” Kilawan-Narine said. “I think a part of that is a lot of our folks, they have worked really hard to grow their American dream in all the ways that played out for them.”
Many Indo-Caribbean immigrants have become homeowners since arriving in New York City, she said, with some now building “mansions” in South Ozone Park where there were previously ranch houses.
This gradual accumulation of wealth, combined with internalized anti-Blackness from the colonial experience, she argued, have made some Indo-Caribbean voters receptive to conservative talking points about crime, immigration and the economy — and even the attacks from Donald Trump at Harris’ mixed-race identity.
While “people are paying a lot of attention because of the shared identity,” said Shivana Jorawar, co-founder of the progressive Indo-Caribbean anti-violence and gender justice organization Jahajee Sisters, “I also think that Democrats have not done enough to address the economic issues that working families are facing.” (Jorawar noted that she was speaking on behalf of herself and not her group.)
Some local Indo-Caribbean voters told THE CITY that they have remained undecided about the race, even as they’ve felt the excitement of having someone who looks like them as the Democratic presidential candidate.
Pam Mohabir, a 62-year-old Burger King employee and undecided voter, told THE CITY during her break that she is not yet convinced that a Harris administration would be able to address her concerns about inflation.
“I’d be glad to know if a lady can rule the country. But then I don’t know — things got to go right, because it’s too much expensive stuff in the country.” Mohabir said. “Nowadays in the store you got your $100 and you don’t get much.”
With politicians, she concluded, “Sometimes they say they gonna do this, they gotta do that, but they ain’t doing one thing.”
Many residents in the area, Jorawar added, feel unclear or confused on what a Harris administration would actually do for the diaspora — for example, whether it would provide a pathway to citizenship for the neighborhood’s considerable undocumented population.
This, she charged, is a symptom of how the Democratic Party has long neglected to reach out, educate and build trust with many of her neighbors who would’ve otherwise found solidarity with the party.
“So now we’re in a situation where it’s not at all surprising there are people who are supportive of Trump,” she said.
Debbi Luckmen, a street vendor who sells Guyanese sauces and pickled fruits underneath the elevated A-train track, said she thought Harris is “OK” but that she’ll be voting for Trump — though not because of his platform.
“I don’t know much about the politician, but I hear my children say they love Trump, and I’m not much educated,” said Luckmen, who recalled leaving school as a young girl in Guyana because her family couldn’t afford it.
The 64-year-old is selling on the street even after police slapped her with a thousand-dollar ticket for vending, she added, because her husband has a disability and she needs to help provide for the family.
“I don’t know much — I could read a little and write my name, so my son said, ‘Mom, make sure you vote for Trump.’”
‘Voices at the Ballot Box’
Amin, in the meantime, said he will be focusing his work in the next two months on voter education in Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park and other Caribbean hubs in New York City.
“This election, every single vote matters,” Amin said. “They impact foreign policy, immigration, LGBTQ rights, reproductive justice, healthcare and so much more. And for us, we want to be able to have our community members’ voices at the ballot box.”
Kilawan-Narine is also ready to jump into action, having planned a number of voter education and get-out-the-vote events in the next two months along with other local non-profits, including Caribbean Equality Project and Jahajee Sisters.
A Harris victory would feel like a full-circle moment, she said, as she recalled how, as the first Indo-Caribbean member of her South Asian law student association more than a decade ago, she reached out to Harris, then the Attorney General of California, to speak to the group.
Although Harris couldn’t attend due to a conflicting obligation, Kilawan-Narine remembers Harris personally calling to send her best wishes for both the event and the young lawyer’s career and telling her that she hoped they would cross paths one day.
“I remember the excitement I felt then, and I remember the excitement that I felt the night recently, when I joined the South Asian Women for Harris zoom call,” Kilawan-Narine said.
“I’m thinking about how a decade later, you know, she’s now potentially going to be the next president of the United States.”
