The erasure, distortion, and justification of the United States’ relationship with Haiti has been crafted over centuries. Given the current rabid right-wing attacks against teaching American history as it really happened, warts and all, I am not surprised by the right-wing resurrection of what for them are tried and true tropes that pump up the blood pressure of adherents to hate.
While preparing to write this week’s Caribbean Matters, what kept popping up in my news feeds was Haiti. Not Haiti aid stories, nor reports on the ongoing political struggles on the island; no, these stories were all about immigration. Some of the stories were dominated by relentless racist and stigmatizing attacks on Haiti and Haitians from the bête noire of all things decent: a certain former U.S. president. Donald Trump’s reruns of past anti-Haitian spews were not a surprise. He is only one of many white supremacists with a media platform who use Haiti as their primary whipping boy in the stigma stakes, which aid and abet painting “Blacks” as diseased, savage, superstitious, and corrupt criminals, hopelessly destined to fail vis-a-vis their eternal “racial” damnation. This in turn paints the greater Caribbean with the same brush, and waltzes hand-in-hand with the all too familiar ongoing open racism against Black Americans.
None of this is new. Let’s talk today about Haitian history and the role we as a nation have played in making Haitians a primary chapter in the ever-expanding white supremacist playbook.
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
Philip Bump documented the latest outrage from the orange menace in The Washington Post. From my point of view, describing Trump’s vile words about Haitians as “disparaging”—as Bump did in his headline—is far too mild.
Trump’s resurrection of the Haitian AIDS stigma may not ring a bell with readers who were not engaged in fighting the early HIV/AIDS epidemic here in the U.S.—where superstition, homophobia, and racism reigned with impunity over a disease that was not understood. As an HIV-AIDS activist at the time, I watched that full-blown ignorance take hold and hold sway.
In 1983, as Marlise Simons wrote for The New York Times, the stigma was devastating to the nation’s tourism economy.
Julio Capo Jr. wrote about this in 2013 for HIVPlus magazine. The headline says it all: “Haiti has been linked with HIV for 30 years. Will the stigma ever go away?”
Years later, here we are again, hearing the same racist bullshit from the lips of a man who will stop at nothing and use every tool in the hater toolkit to continue to get support from those racists and xenophobes among us.
But as Bump notes, something’s different this time.
There was an immediate and fierce response from the Haitian Embassy.
Here’s Ambassador Bocchit Edmond’s “fire” statement in full:
Though I doubt many people here saw the response from the Edmond, I think it’s important to reintroduce the history that he highlighted. Though a monument to that history exists (in Savannah, Georgia, as pictured above), it is part of our history that I can’t remember ever being taught in school—though I do remember clearly being taught about aid to American revolutionaries that came from Prussians and the French.
Back in 2010 I wrote about that erased history, and the efforts of members of the Haitian American Historical Society (HAHS) to change that.
The HAHS celebrated the 14th anniversary of the monument’s unveiling last weekend.
Melanie K. Jones’ Go South Savannah has more details.
Another key historical link to Haiti was Frederick Douglass. Though I did learn quite a bit about Douglass at my enlightened New York City high school and at home, what I learned was focused on his role as an abolitionist. I don’t remember learning any details about his relationship to Haiti and his appointment as ambassador to the new republic until grad school.
Historian Brandon Byrd, writing in 2017 for Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), tells that story.
Byrd documents Douglass’ tenure as U.S. minister resident and consul general to Haiti, appointed by President Benjamin Harrison, and his response to U.S. “intervention” in the Haitian regime change in 1891, which historians have dubbed the “Môle Saint-Nicolas affair.”
In January 1893, Douglass addressed the Chicago World’s Fair, reenacted here by performance poet Nathan Richardson.
"Haiti is Black … and we have yet not forgiven Haiti for being Black."
YouTube Video
This is a key excerpt from the transcript of Douglass’ lecture at the World’s Fair.
It has been heartening to see that in the last six months or so, the subject of some of the primary reasons why Haiti is so impoverished today have been raised. However, far too many of our citizenry are still oblivious to and uneducated about that history.
University of Virginia professor Marlene Daut’s July op-ed in the Miami Herald is an important read, with a particularly potent and accurate headline: “France pulled off one of the greatest heists ever. It left Haiti perpetually impoverished.”
When discussing Haiti and Haitian history with both friends and students over the years, I’ve found that very few had any idea that Haiti had to pay so much for its fiercely won freedom. NPR’s Planet Money reporter Greg Rosalsky explored this same history earlier this month.
What isn’t discussed by Daut or Rosalsky is the role of Citibank, which The Root’s Michael Harriot detailed back in 2018, in the aptly titled, “As Haiti Burns, Never Forget: White People Did That.”
In August 2021, writing for The Washington Post, David Suggs explored the “long legacy” of U.S involvement with Haiti, noting: “in 1915, the U.S. military invaded Haiti. Over the next 19 years, it executed dissidents and instigated a system of forced labor.”
I’ve barely scratched the surface of our Haitian historical connections, much less the role that the U.S has played in Haiti’s continued destabilization. I encourage those readers new to this history to read more.
In the comments, I’ll be posting suggestions for further reading, current news about Haiti and Haitian Americans, as well as a Caribbean Twitter roundup—so please join me.
Read the first installment of Caribbean Matters here, and last week’s entry—a profile on Barbados’ powerhouse Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who met with Vice President Kamala Harris this week—right here.
While preparing to write this week’s Caribbean Matters, what kept popping up in my news feeds was Haiti. Not Haiti aid stories, nor reports on the ongoing political struggles on the island; no, these stories were all about immigration. Some of the stories were dominated by relentless racist and stigmatizing attacks on Haiti and Haitians from the bête noire of all things decent: a certain former U.S. president. Donald Trump’s reruns of past anti-Haitian spews were not a surprise. He is only one of many white supremacists with a media platform who use Haiti as their primary whipping boy in the stigma stakes, which aid and abet painting “Blacks” as diseased, savage, superstitious, and corrupt criminals, hopelessly destined to fail vis-a-vis their eternal “racial” damnation. This in turn paints the greater Caribbean with the same brush, and waltzes hand-in-hand with the all too familiar ongoing open racism against Black Americans.
None of this is new. Let’s talk today about Haitian history and the role we as a nation have played in making Haitians a primary chapter in the ever-expanding white supremacist playbook.
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
Philip Bump documented the latest outrage from the orange menace in The Washington Post. From my point of view, describing Trump’s vile words about Haitians as “disparaging”—as Bump did in his headline—is far too mild.
Trump’s resurrection of the Haitian AIDS stigma may not ring a bell with readers who were not engaged in fighting the early HIV/AIDS epidemic here in the U.S.—where superstition, homophobia, and racism reigned with impunity over a disease that was not understood. As an HIV-AIDS activist at the time, I watched that full-blown ignorance take hold and hold sway.
In 1983, as Marlise Simons wrote for The New York Times, the stigma was devastating to the nation’s tourism economy.
Julio Capo Jr. wrote about this in 2013 for HIVPlus magazine. The headline says it all: “Haiti has been linked with HIV for 30 years. Will the stigma ever go away?”
Years later, here we are again, hearing the same racist bullshit from the lips of a man who will stop at nothing and use every tool in the hater toolkit to continue to get support from those racists and xenophobes among us.
But as Bump notes, something’s different this time.
There was an immediate and fierce response from the Haitian Embassy.
Here’s Ambassador Bocchit Edmond’s “fire” statement in full:
Though I doubt many people here saw the response from the Edmond, I think it’s important to reintroduce the history that he highlighted. Though a monument to that history exists (in Savannah, Georgia, as pictured above), it is part of our history that I can’t remember ever being taught in school—though I do remember clearly being taught about aid to American revolutionaries that came from Prussians and the French.
Back in 2010 I wrote about that erased history, and the efforts of members of the Haitian American Historical Society (HAHS) to change that.
The HAHS celebrated the 14th anniversary of the monument’s unveiling last weekend.
Melanie K. Jones’ Go South Savannah has more details.
Another key historical link to Haiti was Frederick Douglass. Though I did learn quite a bit about Douglass at my enlightened New York City high school and at home, what I learned was focused on his role as an abolitionist. I don’t remember learning any details about his relationship to Haiti and his appointment as ambassador to the new republic until grad school.
Historian Brandon Byrd, writing in 2017 for Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), tells that story.
Byrd documents Douglass’ tenure as U.S. minister resident and consul general to Haiti, appointed by President Benjamin Harrison, and his response to U.S. “intervention” in the Haitian regime change in 1891, which historians have dubbed the “Môle Saint-Nicolas affair.”
In January 1893, Douglass addressed the Chicago World’s Fair, reenacted here by performance poet Nathan Richardson.
"Haiti is Black … and we have yet not forgiven Haiti for being Black."
YouTube Video
This is a key excerpt from the transcript of Douglass’ lecture at the World’s Fair.
It has been heartening to see that in the last six months or so, the subject of some of the primary reasons why Haiti is so impoverished today have been raised. However, far too many of our citizenry are still oblivious to and uneducated about that history.
University of Virginia professor Marlene Daut’s July op-ed in the Miami Herald is an important read, with a particularly potent and accurate headline: “France pulled off one of the greatest heists ever. It left Haiti perpetually impoverished.”
When discussing Haiti and Haitian history with both friends and students over the years, I’ve found that very few had any idea that Haiti had to pay so much for its fiercely won freedom. NPR’s Planet Money reporter Greg Rosalsky explored this same history earlier this month.
What isn’t discussed by Daut or Rosalsky is the role of Citibank, which The Root’s Michael Harriot detailed back in 2018, in the aptly titled, “As Haiti Burns, Never Forget: White People Did That.”
In August 2021, writing for The Washington Post, David Suggs explored the “long legacy” of U.S involvement with Haiti, noting: “in 1915, the U.S. military invaded Haiti. Over the next 19 years, it executed dissidents and instigated a system of forced labor.”
I’ve barely scratched the surface of our Haitian historical connections, much less the role that the U.S has played in Haiti’s continued destabilization. I encourage those readers new to this history to read more.
In the comments, I’ll be posting suggestions for further reading, current news about Haiti and Haitian Americans, as well as a Caribbean Twitter roundup—so please join me.
Read the first installment of Caribbean Matters here, and last week’s entry—a profile on Barbados’ powerhouse Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who met with Vice President Kamala Harris this week—right here.