An Expected Continuation

By: Jayden Joeckel

Unlike some, I was not particularly surprised by the recent racist attacks on Haitian immigrants to the United States. To those unfamiliar with Haiti’s relationship with the United States – the remarks made in the most recent presidential debate may have sounded completely random – comical even.

This was extenuated by the countless jokes about the “dogs and cats” remark by white liberal comics and commentators, making light of the fact that these lies were propagated on our election’s biggest stage thus far, and thus spreading these lies further. Despite the jokes, it turns out spreading what amounts to a modern day blood libel for the sacred cats and dogs of America has real consequences.

So far, two colleges, two hospitals, and two elementary schools have experienced temporary closures because of the vitriolic attacks on the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio. These attacks have consisted of shooting threats, bombing threats, and the intimidation of the Haitian residents of the city. The type of deprecating, dehumanizing rhetoric spurring these attacks is not new to Haitians, or Black citizens of the United States, who are similar victims of the transatlantic slave trade whose history and continued future are intertwined.

Haiti was founded on the western half of Hispaniola as the product of the world’s first successful revolt by enslaved Africans in the Americas in 1804. Before that, Haiti composed over a third of the French empire’s overseas trade. Partly because of a close alliance to the former master of Haiti – France – the nascent United States refused to recognize the independence of Haiti. The more relevant reason, though, was that Haiti’s existence as a nation of freed slaves posed a perceived existential threat to the institution of chattel slavery in the U.S.

This is why, when France returned to Haiti in 1825, demanding reparations for the ‘loss of property’ they suffered (their ‘property’ being the living, breathing citizenry of Haiti) when Haiti was liberated from French colonial control, the United States did not raise a single word. It took until chattel slavery’s collapse in the U.S. during their civil war for them to recognize Haiti’s independence as a nation.

Even then, Haiti was not looked at like an equal partner in the Americas, but merely a strategic interest. The 150 million franc debt levied onto Haiti was soon financed by borrowing from French, German, and American banks, creating a so-called “double debt”: forcing the Haitian government to pay back the original indemnity plus service the loans they had taken out to pay it off.

European nations and the United States conspired to create institutions with the principal task of extraction of wealth from Haiti. The debt of Haiti, then owned by the National City Bank of New York (today’s Citibank) was a principal cause of the 1915 occupation of Haiti by the U.S. to protect its business interests. By the end of the occupation, Haiti’s president had been lynched, their constitution rewritten, and Haiti’s national bank was entirely controlled by today’s Citibank.

According to The New York Times, by the time Haiti finished paying off the debt, and the debt on the debt in 1947 they had paid an approximate 112 million francs, about $560 million in today’s dollars. The New York Times estimated that if invested in the Haitian economy the indemnity could be worth over a hundred billion dollars in value; in comparison, Haiti’s GDP in 2020 was around 14 billion dollars.

So when politicians in the United States slander Haitian immigrants, the cousins of Black Americans, this is what they are continuing. When they dehumanize those escaping the economic disaster continued to be levied by the U.S. and global financial institutions, this is what they are continuing. When they use Haitians who have escaped natural disasters; exacerbated by the climate crisis by industrialized nations as political pawns, this is what they are continuing. The U.S. has burned the financial future of Haiti, now it has decided to burn the future of Haitian immigrants seeking a future in the country.

The Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition must wholeheartedly stand with the Haitian community, and the Black community of the United States who will undoubtedly also bare the consequences of racism being aimed at Haitians. In this moment it’s critical to remember Frederick Douglass’ remarks at the 1893 World’s Fair. “Speaking for the Negro, I can say, we owe much to Walker for his appeal; to John Brown for the blow struck at Harpers Ferry . . . and to the anti-slavery societies at home and abroad; but we owe incomparably more to Haiti than to them all. I regard her as the original pioneer emancipator of the 19th century.”