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    America’s Love for Haiti but Hate of Haitians

    By 7 Mins Read
    Image credit: ShutterStock

    As we approach the end of this election cycle, Republicans have amped up their racism, which is only shocking because as soon as you think it gets bad, it gets worse. Let a white-washed history book tell it: the United States was built on the tenets of multicultural harmony and the tradition of immigrants coming to this country to make a better life for themselves. However, that storybook ending is only reserved for European immigrants, as is noted in the national origin of former president Donald Trump’s wife.

    Vice Presidential hopeful JD Vance, whose wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants, has also fanned the flames of xenophobia by adding to the outrageous and racist claims against Haitian immigrants who moved to Springfield, Ohio and filled the many empty job openings in the industrial town, hoping for a better life. Not only are Republicans erroneously calling them illegal immigrants—even though they are here legally—but they have fabricated stories to justify their hate and to make Haitians the scapegoat for any failure that befalls white citizens of the municipality, hoping their fearmongering will spread faster than covid. Why racists can’t simply say they do not like someone without having to make up lies is beyond the scope of logic for the party of the Christian right. 

    Racists have been spreading a meme that states that Haiti has an average I.Q. of 67. Someone with an I.Q. of 67 would need concerted assistance performing very basic tasks. Meanwhile, CEO Jamie McGregor of McGregor Metal in Springfield, who is white and whose workforce consists of about 10% Haitian immigrants, tells PBS, “Our Haitian associates come to work every day, they don’t have drug problems, they’ll stay at their machine. They’ll achieve their numbers. They are here to work. So, in general, that’s a sharp difference from what we are used to in our community.”

    His statement is contrary to the portrait that many stereotypes have painted about the Haitian members of the community. The PBS report on the town states that while there was some strain on the city’s resources, they were not a major issue until last year when a Haitian immigrant without a license clipped a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. Of course, Republicans have spread misinformation that the driver came here illegally and have used Aiden Clark, the boy who was killed, as a martyr, much to the dismay of his parents, for racism.

    If that was enough, a picture that was posted in 2023, which featured a Black man holding a large dead bird, was used to accuse Haitian immigrants of killing the townspeople’s pets and ducks from the local park; the picture is from Columbus, Ohio. This previously refuted claim by the Springfield Police Department was reiterated last night by Trump during the presidential debate.

    Now that many residents have responded with recoil to the influx of Haitian immigrants, they have responded to pushback by stating that it is not a race issue but rather a housing, job and safety issue. PBS noted while there were high incidents of reckless driving, there was no distinguishable uptick in crime. It is so utterly privileged as an American to complain about immigration while vacationing in the same countries that birth the immigrants they detest.  There is never a clamor from these same people for the U.S. to disassociate and divest itself from these same countries whose resources it siphons.

    Americans have no problem with destroying other countries, they have a problem when the citizens of those countries have a problem with it.

    Upon its establishment as a French colony, Saint-Domingue, Haiti was more profitable for France than all the 13 colonies combined. If Haiti a small slave nation with no military expertise, limited artillery resources, and money, only had an I.Q. of 67, when it defeated France, to be the first Black nation to gain its independence, and most specifically by force, then what does that say about a Napoleon led France? The same France that was fighting for its own independence was simultaneously trying to squash the Haitian Revolution. As we do live in a country that values racism more than the correct teaching of history, racists have a tighter grasp on their hate than their grasp of facts. Haiti is not poor—Haitians are—and Haitians are poor because of the U.S. and Europe.  

    When Haiti gained its independence on Jan. 1, 1804, there was a fear that their independence would give American slaves too many ideas about their own independence; therefore, the U.S. did not recognize Haiti as a country until 1862, right around the time there was a little American battle over the autonomy of Black Americans happening.  The U.S.’ and France’s refusal to acknowledge Haiti crippled the economy and even though the former colony was no longer using slave labor, the country remained enslaved by French hypocrisy for centuries to come. More than 20 years after France had declared its independence, French warships set out to Haiti to demand payment for France’s loss. In 1825, France charged Haiti with an indemnity of 150 million Francs (25 billion U.S. dollars in 2024), which was more than their GDP (their first payment was six times Haiti’s national revenue), a debt which France continued to collect until 1947. Even after the portion to France had been repaid, American investors would receive interest payments from Haiti for the debt for years to come. What was left of Haiti’s debt was not cleared until 2010 by the World Bank after Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake.

    According to the New York Times, France robbed Haiti of anywhere between $21 billion and $115 billion. In 1991, President Jean-Baptiste Aristide demanded reparations from France, which France, the recipient of repartitions from Germany following World War I and II, not only refused, but their refusal was backed by the UN. 

    Even with its history of poverty, Haiti was still attractive enough to a young power-hungry couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton, to spend their honeymoon there. After the 2010 earthquake, the Clinton Foundation went to work in the disaster-stricken island nation. However, sixteen years prior, in 1994, The Clinton administration placed an embargo on the already economically devasted country and undermined the profits of Haitian rice farmers by flooding Haiti with subsidized rice from—Arkansas. The U.S., long regarded as the bastion of truth, justice and democracy helped to oust the first democratically elected president, Aristide, who they would later help return to power years later, continuing a history of political upheaval for the country.

    Between the U.S. and French interference, Haiti never stood a chance. 

    As the election gets closer, Haiti is again in the U.S. spotlight, as some of its citizens come to one of the countries that robbed it, looking for shelter, employment, a better life and the possibility of even sending money back home. Alas, they are subject to the same hypocritical racism that says Melania Trump, a woman who overstayed her tourist visa, is somehow deserving of a better life than those whose blood is smeared on American currency.

    Haiti, whose denizens are the descendants of overcoming extreme odds, is now at odds with extremists. A country that values independence and pulling oneself up by the bootstraps is fine with taking but not giving back, and as if Haitians have not endured enough, they are now fodder for the lowest I.Q. individuals that the U.S. has to offer, the irony.

    Kyla Jenée Lacey is an accomplished third-person bio composer. Her spoken word has garnered tens of millions of views, and has been showcased on Pop Sugar, Write About Now, Buzzfeed, Harper’s Bizarre, Diet Prada, featured on the Tamron Hall show, and Laura Ingraham from Fox News called her work, “Anti-racist propaganda.”. She has performed spoken word at over 300 colleges in over 40 states. Kyla has been a finalist in the largest regional poetry slam in the country, no less than five times, and was nominated as Campus Activities Magazine Female Performer of the Year. Her work has been acknowledged by several Grammy-winning artists. Her poetry has been viewed over 50 million times and even used on protest billboards in multiple countries. She has written for large publications such as The Huffington Post, BET.com, and the Root Magazine and is the author of "Hickory Dickory Dock, I Do Not Want Your C*ck!!!," a book of tongue-in-cheek poems, about patriarchy....for manchildren.

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