The unrelenting right-wing Republican attacks on Haitian American immigrants continue. They are sparked by lies and a false story about Springfield, Ohio, being spread by Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, Donald Trump, and their MAGA supporters. And while there may be ramifications for their actions, it hasn’t stopped. Haitian Americans and their allies are organizing to counter the dangerous rhetoric that puts not only immigrants at risk, but also other Black people who live there.
Racism against Haitians is not a new issue, and yet Haitian Americans have deep roots in the United States and have helped shape our history. It is no coincidence that the same politicians who spread this filth and hate are also politically opposed to teaching Black history as part of American history, of which Haitians are an important and intertwined part.
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Last Tuesday, Haitian American writer and editor Roxane Gay wrote for The New Yorker about the complicated history of Haitian immigration to this country and how many politicians have tried to keep them out.
Since his political ascendancy, former President Donald Trump has engaged in racist dog-whistling and flagrant bigotry with equal aplomb. Though he has demonstrated a general animosity toward people of color, especially Black and brown immigrants, he seems to harbor a particular disdain for Haiti. In 2018, when presented with a bipartisan immigration deal, he referred to Haiti and various African nations as “shithole countries.” He said, “Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.”
More recently, Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, have given fuel to a new, particularly odious set of rumors about Haitians, this time centered on the town of Springfield, Ohio, which has seen a significant wave of Haitian immigration in recent years. Vance said that Haitians were “causing chaos all over Springfield” … Never mind the fact that the Haitian immigrants he’s talking about are in the United States legally; Vance’s remarks were all predicated on a lie. … Erika Lee, the woman who originally posted this grotesque tale on Facebook, alleging that Haitian immigrants were “eating pets,” has admitted that she heard the story from a neighbor, Kimberly Newton. “I’m not sure I’m the most credible source because I don’t actually know the person who lost the cat,” Newton later acknowledged.
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As the Haitians in Springfield bear the intense scrutiny of the world, their hopes for a good life are dwindling. Trump and Vance, with their comments, have brought a renewed and naked contempt for Haitians into contemporary American discourse. They have legitimatized this bigotry. Now these Haitian immigrants fear for their lives, and for the lives of their children. Springfield’s City Hall was recently evacuated after receiving a bomb threat. Several schools, too, were evacuated last week after receiving threats that specifically named Haitians as the target. Colleges and universities in the area are either holding classes online or cancelling all campus events. Haitian community members are keeping their children home from school and are dealing with vandalism, intimidation, and other forms of harassment from people who know they can likely get away with this kind of behavior, because they are targeting a vulnerable group. Meanwhile, Haitian ethnicity itself is becoming synonymous with barbarism and criminality. … Trump and Vance have tapped into something they are using to great effect—who needs to build walls when memes will do the job for you?
Li Zhou, a politics reporter at Vox, wrote about the history of anti-Haitian racism and the stereotypes, which are nothing new.
This past week, Republicans amplified a barrage of strange and racist claims about Haitian immigrants, including falsely suggesting that they’re consuming people’s house pets. […]
The comments echo well-worn tropes, and past attempts to tie Haitian immigrants to everything from the spread of illness to upticks in crime.
In fact, as experts tell Vox, these types of ugly attacks are the byproduct of centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobic sentiment, which have been used over and over to justify restrictive immigration policies that single out Haitian people. The decision to resurface them in 2024 is, once again, creating a palpably dangerous environment, and adding to this legacy. “It’s a part of a very old historic pattern,” Regine Jackson, a sociologist and the Dean of Humanities at Morehouse College, told Vox. “It’s the idea that they could do something so inhuman, so un-American. That’s the message underneath, that these people will never be like us.”
Attacks on Haitian immigrants tap into the longstanding US framing of Haiti as a threat. “Racism and xenophobia against Haitians among white Americans can be traced all the way back to the Haitian Revolution when Haitians … [overthrew] the system of slavery and [established] the world’s first Black republic,” Carl Lindskoog, the author of a book on the US’s detention of Haitian immigrants, told Vox. “Since then, Haitians have been seen by many white Americans as a threat to white rule and have been treated as such.”
On Sept. 20, members of the House Haiti Caucus and allies held a press conference about the current situation and a resolution they have filed in Congress. House Resolution 1473 was introduced by House Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Yvette D. Clarke, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, and Maxwell Frost. The resolution aims to condemn racism and bigotry toward Haitian people, calls on Americans to reject racist tropes, condemn misinformation, urge elected officials and community leaders to promote inclusivity, and celebrate Haitian American contributions.
Haitians have been part of our history since the American Revolution. Several years ago I wrote about Haitians fighting in the war and the statue in Savannah, Georgia, pictured below, that commemorates them, which was revealed in a ceremony in October 2007. It received little media attention but the Haitian ambassador attended the event.
Savannah Georgia's Haitian Monument on Franklin Square, which commemorates the contribution of the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue to the fight for an independent America.
Last week, Black Kos contributing Editor JoanMar wrote about yet another Haiti-U.S. connection.
I’d love to see a journalist challenge the lowlife conman from Queens to explain the Louisiana Purchase. I’m willing to bet my dinner money that he knows nothing about the single greatest U.S. acquisition and even less of the events that led to it. What does that have to do with Haiti or Haitians, you may ask? Well, were it not for the blood, sweat, and sacrifice of Black Haitians, the United States would be half its current size, and many of those boasting about being Americans today would be French.
The Louisiana Purchase was one of history’s greatest bargains, a chance for the United States to buy what promised to be one of France’s largest and wealthiest territories and eliminate a European threat in the process. But the purchase was also fueled by a slave revolt in Haiti—and tragically, it ended up expanding slavery in the United States. It would have seemed unthinkable for France to cede any of its colonial territories before 1791. The superpower had built a vast network of colonies in the Americas, capitalizing on European tastes for coffee, indigo and other commodities.None of these held a candle, though, to sugar, which dominated French colonial holdings. And St. Domingue, which is now known as Haiti, was one of the great sugar capitals of the world. A full 40 percent of Britain and France’s sugar, and 60 percent of its coffee, was produced in Haiti, and the lucrative market lent itself to a particularly brutal slave trade.
For an in-depth look at the history of the first major migration of Haitians to what would later become part of the U.S., InMotion makes a detailed examination of the role of Haitians in shaping what is now our state of Louisiana.
The recent Democratic National Convention was held in the city of Chicago—a city originally founded by Haitian Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. This video tells his story:
The scapegoating and denigration of our Haitian brothers and sisters has gone on too long. We have to make and take a stand to stop the hate. Vote the bigots out in November!
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