A cartoon from 1821 of Henry Christophe, a leader in the Haitian Revolution and later king, in front the monarchies of the Holy Alliance. Credit: The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Springfield, Ohio has become a flashpoint due to a xenophobic and racist remark made by former President Donald Trump during a recent presidential debate, where he falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in the city were taking people’s pets and eating them. The Haitian immigrant community in the region has grown significantly, with thousands settling there, many through the Temporary Protected Status program. Despite most Haitians residing in the United States legally, the community has faced safety concerns, including anonymous bomb threats leading to the shutdown of schools, hospitals and the municipal center.
Use of fearmongering against Haitian immigrants is not unique to the Republicans or Democrats — it is part of a long legacy of racism and xenophobia towards the Haitian people. The Western media has historically played a role in perpetuating racist stereotypes about Haitians, dating back to Haiti’s independence in 1804.
Media demonization and the plot to sabotage Haiti
Historians have yet to fully address the plot to wreck Haiti that began soon after independence. Since the Haitian Revolution started in 1791, local and foreign actors committed to capitalist and imperialist domination have worked to prevent Haiti from becoming a truly independent, sovereign nation that serves the interests of its people. Haiti’s injustices and the role of imperialist countries like the U.S. and France in perpetuating them have been hidden from public view for centuries. The ruling class and Western media have obscured the true history of the Haitian people, depicting the revolution as a dangerous uprising that must be suppressed rather than a struggle for freedom and equality.
The portrayal of the Haitian people as violent and brutal justified the continuation of colonial exploitation and hoped to discourage similar uprisings among other enslaved people from around the Caribbean region, other European colonies, and within the U.S. itself. The media’s portrayal also reinforced racialized narratives that dehumanized the revolutionaries, presenting them as incapable of self-governance and maintaining a stable society without colonial oversight. The Western media sought to discredit the revolutionary ideals of equality and anti-imperialism that threatened the interests of the colonial powers by emphasizing chaos and disorder.
An embargo was also imposed on the new nation, cutting it off from international trade. In 1806, the U.S. declared a blockade of Haiti at the request of Napoleon’s foreign affairs minister, Charles-Maurice Périgord. Périgord’s letter to his envoy in Washington depicts the intentional sabotage.
“The federal government should adopt severe measures to prevent all sorts of communication between a civilized nation and savage people who, through their ferocious manners, barbarians no less, are strange to the system of civilization,” Périgord noted.
“Moreover,” he continued, “They don’t threaten France’s security only, but also the security of all the European colonies and those of the United States.”
The southern members of the U.S. Congress, aware of Haiti’s influence, the threat it posed, and the message it sent to its enslaved population, banned the use of the word “Haiti” in the capitol building. It took almost 60 years for the U.S. to recognize Haiti’s independence in 1862.
The campaign escalated in 1825. On orders of the French king Charles X, a fleet sailed to Port-au-Prince, ready to reduce the Haitian capital into ashes if President Jean-Pierre Boyer refused to sign that Haiti owed France 150 million francs, equivalent to about $21 billion in today’s dollars.
This demonization and plot to isolate Haiti from the rest of the world was not just an attack on Haiti but a broader ideological weapon used to uphold the dominant mode of slavery and colonialism.
Haiti served as hope and a warning.
The caricatures below show how Haitians were depicted in the world.
U.S. President Martin Van Buren receives a Haitian diplomat in Washington, D.C. The Haitian ambassador is ridiculed, and his dialogue mocks African-American English of the 19th century.
Emperor of Haiti Faustin Soulouque plunges a European journalist into a cauldron for criticizing his administration.
Suzanne Simone Baptiste Louverture, the wife of Haitian general Toussaint Louverture, being pulled apart by British soldiers.
Racist immigration policies against Haitians
The increasing immigrant population from Haiti in Springfield can be seen as a result of the impact of global capitalism. Economic challenges and political instability in Haiti, often worsened by imperialist interventions and extreme exploitation, have led thousands to seek better opportunities in places like Springfield. Over the past century-plus, Haitians have found their country unlivable as the U.S. and other imperialist countries continue to fuel both physical and economic violence in Haiti to this day.
Haitians have been immigrating to the U.S. in significant numbers since the 1970s. They often fled Haiti by boat, where they were derogatorily labeled “boat people.” They were escaping a harsh dictatorship led by François and Jean-Claude Duvalier, who killed tens of thousands of people and imprisoned and tortured many more. Haitian refugees fleeing the dictatorship were typically met with arrest, imprisonment, denial of asylum and immediate expulsion. Due to rampant anti-communism, the U.S. supported the Haitian government under Duvaliers while simultaneously undermining and delegitimizing the Cuban government under Fidel Castro. This foreign policy dictated immigration policy, resulting in Cuban refugees being encouraged to come to the U.S. while Haitian refugees were being denied this amnesty. Multiple U.S. presidents pursued these immigration policies because of American anti-Haitian bigotry that saw Haitian immigrants as a threat based on a combination of racism, nationalism, xenophobia, and misconception that Haitians carried disease at higher numbers than other nationalities.
Many Haitians do reach the shores of the U.S., but it’s estimated that thousands die at sea during the journey. Before 1981, all Haitian arrivals in the U.S. were detained and if they were not considered political refugees were sent back to Haiti. After 1981, all Haitian refugees intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard were immediately sent back to Haiti.
Following the 1991 overthrow of the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, by the U.S. and the persecution of his supporters by the military government, around 40,000 Haitians attempted to sail to the U.S. Many were detained at Guantanamo Bay, where they were held for at least six months. The conditions were deplorable, with a severe lack of supplies; many refugees slept on cardboard or bare ground, and others stayed on cots.
In 2010, Guantanamo was once again designated as a potential holding cell for Haitian refugees from that year’s disastrous earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people. While a significant exodus of people did not happen, as a deterrence measure, U.S. Air Force planes made daily flights for five hours a day over the ruined country, broadcasting a message in Creole from Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the U.S.: “If you think you will reach the U.S. and all the doors will be wide open to you, that’s not at all the case.” Additionally, 33 U.S. Naval and Coast Guard vessels served as offshore hospitals and helicopter landing pads, primarily for relief and evacuation purposes, but also functioning as floating barriers to contain potential waves of immigrants pushing offshore.
In 2021, the images of men on horseback with long reins corralling and wiping Haitian asylum seekers trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico once again confirmed the long history of anti-Blackness and anti-Haitian Sentiment that exist in the US immigration policies. For the few Haitian immigrants who manage to enter the U.S., they must contend with systemic racism in the American criminal legal system and brutality of U.S. policing that has been endemic for people from across the African diaspora.
Haitians and other Black migrants routinely face structural barriers to legally entering and living in the U.S., often enduring disproportionate contact with the American criminal legal system that can jeopardize their residency or hasten their deportation. Haitians as a nationality account for one of the highest rates of asylum seekers, with the lowest rate of acceptance, according to an analysis of data from The Associated Press. According to this study, between 2018 and 2021, only 4.62% of Haitian asylum seekers were granted asylum by the U.S. —the lowest rate among 84 groups for whom data is available.
The Haitian Revolution continues
Haiti, with its revolution that started over two hundred years ago, remains unfinished. It has long captured the West’s attention, though rarely for the right reasons. The nation has long been a victim of foreign interventions, coups, blockades, and crippling loan debt that led the country to be a victim of underdevelopment. Western imperialism has studied Haiti quite well and learned to disguise its tactics in a more sophisticated, covert way. Rather than an overt rollback, they learned to disguise their continuous counter-revolution in Haiti behind “the electoral process” and “international community assistance.”
The broader historical treatment of Haitian immigrants reflects a long-standing pattern of racist and xenophobic narratives. From the demonization of the Haitian Revolution to discriminatory immigration policies, these actions are not isolated incidents but part of a broader strategy to undermine and marginalize Haitian people. While Haiti continues to pay the price for daring to free itself, the spirit of the Haitian people remains unbroken.
