President Trump’s racist claims about Haitians is part of his political strategy

As a Haitian-American,  I condemn President Trump’s reprehensible comments on Fox news, October 7th.  Mr. Trump falsely claimed that hundreds of thousands of Haitians immigrants were entering the United States and that many were bringing HIV/AIDS.  Both claims are lies. 

We ignore President Trump at our own risks

Whilst we have all come to expect lies from the former president, these dangerous comments stoke fear and inflame racist sentiments and cannot go unanswered as his tropes are part of a more insidious plan.   President Trump, in his search for political relevance, purposely stoops to the depths of indecency, accusing dark-skinned people of being disease carriers.   This is not an accident and it is a well-thought out strategy with clear patterns, and we ignore him at our own peril.

 

For many fellow Haitians, the president is ranting and is to be ignored. For others, President Trump is right because it is the fault of Haitians themselves for not being able to provide a safe country for themselves.  Therefore, we deserve the calumny we get. What is being missed in the first argument is that the more cerebral/intellectual approach to politics is lost in the debates in the public square.   America is being torn apart and race continues to be centerpiece in the battle for its soul. President Trump feeds and is sustained by division as he understands its power to tap into and play on Americans worst instinct.     

 

The latter argument is understandable because the cognitive process of self-blame is real.  As Haitians, we have lived traumas after traumas.  From the moment our ancestors were captured in Africa, to the dehumanizing transatlantic voyage, to life on the plantations as slaves in an unknown land, to the bloody wars for freedom, to the great powers’ abuse through their blockades of the nascent nation of Hayiti, to the bloody US occupation followed by the even bloodier Duvalier regime, to earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters, and finally the many self-inflicted wounds by selfish politicians.  The traumas this small nation has experienced are enough to drive us all raging mad.  

Haitians are survivors

Haitians have been a people who have survived despite these traumas but their impact cannot be erased with the stroke of a pen.  President Trump is standard bearer of one of our country’s two political parties. What he says matter because it set the frame within which we are seen as Haitians but also as people of African ancestry.  

 

HIV/AIDS is no longer a stigma and living with the disease is no longer a death sentence.  However, President Trump's disgraceful comments evoke painful memories for those of us in the Haitian-American community who experienced life in America in the 1980s.  A common trope early on during the HIV/AIDS pandemic was the term “Four-H”, widely used as a shorthand for they called the four major risk groups in the United States – gay people (homosexuals), haemophiliacs, heroin-users, and Haitians.  This stigma took years to change. 

Telling our story

President Trump vile attack on Haitians sets a narrative that serves two purposes. First, it vilifies black and brown people – we may remember his comment about Mexicans being rapists.  We are seen as others who do not deserve the same human decency as those who bring their tiki torches to the pity party.  Second, his approach also serves to strengthen the narrative of the victim ideology of white supremacy.  When the president says that the US is being overrun by these Haitians and tells his audience that “It's like a death wish for our country," it is not a slip of the tongue.  He is stoking the fears of the 'tiki torchers' and reaffirming that they are indeed being replaced. He is making a call to arms that must be pushed back every time and everywhere.

 

Silence is never an option.  As black people and as Haitians, we must tell the long story of our contribution to weaving the fabric of American society.  Haitian freemen fought alongside colonial troops against the British in the Siege of Savannah on Oct. 9, 1779.  Haiti’s founding father, Dessalines’ trashing of Napoleon’s army forced France to sell the entire territory west of the Mississippi River. This purchase allowed the US to more than double its territory.  As the first nation to overthrow slavery, Haiti was a beacon for the world and set the path for the ideals that we are indeed all created equal. 

Conclusion

Decades of failed foreign intervention have fostered a corrupt regime in Haiti, leading to the most terrifying levels of violence and insecurity the country has seen since the Duvalier era.  That insecurity was compounded by two earthquakes.  Thousands of people, in fear for their lives, flee their homes to seek refuge in the United States.  After a traumatizing trip across 11 borders and through the most dangerous terrains, many arrived on the border of the country which sets itself up as the beacon of human rights.  Without any due process, those who risked everything, including pregnant women and children, were met by armed men on horseback who pushed them back little cattle. The picture of those border patrol agents captured the long legacy of the friendship between Haiti and the United States.

 

 

The people of Haiti need – and deserve – the solidarity of the US.  Instead, they are greeted by a former president citing the same old jingoistic tropes.  Just as people of all color, race, sex, sexuality, disability and national origins rallied together during the 2020 elections, we must stand together once more and reject President Trump’s xenophobia.