What the Haitian Pet Talk Reveals About the US Character
By Rupande Mehta
Image: Comic by Michael P Ramirez
The racist talk about Haitians coming from Republicans is incendiary and harmful but so is the Democrats’ jest and widespread meme making. In fact, both show how deeply fanatical and prejudiced the United States of America is, and how, despite so many years since its founding, we have not let go of our xenophobic foundations.
Let’s start with the debate. When Trump started spewing his lies about Haitians in Springfield, fed to him by his utterly incompetent vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance, Harris started to laugh as if this was a joke. Had she bothered to read the real history of this country, she would know her laughing at his “joke” was deeply problematic but also very symbolic of the administration she vows to form. The correct response from Harris – the only response from her – in that moment should have been to call him out for his vile, racist views that would cause harm to Haitians in Springfield.
Her silence was deafening but totally understandable since the administration she is a Vice President of, is currently conducting a full-scale invasion of Haiti to militarize the Caribbean, LatAM and serve its geopolitical interests.
The result of his jokes and her laughs is a violent backlash against Haitians in Springfield with many schools and other public places closing due to bomb threats and attack on families. Erika Lee, the racist woman who started this rumor in a Facebook post later claimed, “it just exploded and that “she feels for the immigrant community”. On the other hand, those laughing alongside Kamala Harris have made thousands of memes showing their pets with a Trump voiceover, “They are eating pets, eating the dogs, eating the cats”.
Haiti is one of the first countries to have successfully overthrown their colonial rulers and freed themselves of slavery, an act for which the West never forgave them. For this hard-earned freedom, they had to pay billions of dollars to France for earnings lost as result of the successful revolt. Then, in 1915, for nineteen years, the US invaded Haiti during which time Citi (National City then) took control of their bank, looted, and plundered, literally carrying the gold out of the country.
For decades, the West has exploited Haiti, calling its citizens unable to rule, “barbaric”, “savage” and “cannibals” creating in our mind a “less than” image of its citizens. In 1994, Biden said, “If Haiti—a God-awful thing to say—if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn't matter a whole lot to our (USA's) interests.” This is exactly the vitriol and slander used to objectify people of color so its easy to disassociate with them and not consider them human. This is what made slavery so common place and the genocide of Natives acceptable. The rich men in power then used similar adjectives to identify Blacks and Natives to make it easier to explain their inhumane treatment. In fact, because they were less than, the treatment was not just warranted but helped improve their lazy character and show them how to be civilized and develop character.
A long time has passed since this country’s founding but if we objectively look at where we stand today, we realize not much has changed. Racist ideologies, imperial tendencies, prejudiced views, settler colonialism are all strong as ever. Yes we have had a Black President and might soon have the first woman of color President as well but what good is that if both are as the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted by the US, kidnapped by Marines and sent into exile in the Central African Republic, said in The Haitian Revolution, “mental slaves, the colonized who nonetheless defend the interests of white colonizers…play (ed) a crucial role in upholding slavery.” Harris may have laughed off Trump’s comment but the people of Haiti, who have known a lot of suffering are not laughing.
