More Negatives

Why is there negative context to the phrase “You look Haitian” Or “You look like a Haitian”? When I think about what a Haitian actually looks like, the answer is, like a regular black person. Haitians do not have a traditional garb they wear, like an African in Ankara print, an Indian in a Sari, an Asian person in a Kimono, etc. Haitians don’t even wear or rep their flag that often. So what are people saying when they say “you look Haitian”? They’re saying you look like you don’t match. You look like you don’t have any sense of style or fashion. You look like you don’t speak English. You look like you wear highwaters. When someone says you look African, or Indian, or Asian, you might think of someone wearing the garments that I mentioned are traditional to those people. With Asian people, you might be referring to the slantedness of their eyes. To say someone looks Puerto Rican or Dominican means they have fair skin and long curly hair. Why is the description for these other people favorable (at least not negative) and the ones for Haitians bad? Where does that come from? Because honestly every other country has immigrants who come to this country and don’t speak English, don’t look like the current fashion, etc. I am guilty of this. Everyone I know is guilty of this. I am just confused about how it started and how we can change it.

Maybe because I only know Spring Valley, NY and I only know what Spring Valley, NY is saying about Haitians. And maybe because I only know Spring Valley, NY, I have it twisted about other cultures. I know us Haitian kids born in america or who emigrated here at a young enough age where they identify more with america than Haiti, are the ones saying some of these things…if not all of them. As if we’re not describing people in our families, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, definitely grandmas and grandpas. Why are we ashamed of our people? Why are we ashamed to be Haitian? Why are we all “Zoe’s” on Haitian flag day now, but in elementary school we made fun of the ESL kids who just came from the homeland? Why didn’t we speak creole with them? “You don’t look like you’re Haitian.” And that one is supposed to be a compliment! I am not trying to point any fingers because I would definitely be pointing them at myself and a lot of people I know. I am finally sitting down and trying to connect back to island of my people. We watch a random stranger get killed on the news and we cry, we mourn, and we commemorate. Well we Haitians have a whole island of “strangers” that we can be crying and mourning! We have a whole nation of our brothers and sisters, fellow “zoes” living in poverty and third world conditions. I am having a hard time understanding how we ever came to get so caught up in the american struggle that we forgot about everyone left back in the Haitian struggle. True, you can’t help anyone until you’ve helped yourself, but I feel like I need to disconnect myself from the worry about the plight of the Black race in america.

It feels kind of wrong to say that, but I can’t justify tears I’ve cried over people here when I have had and will continue to have family die over there and I’ve never shed a tear for them. I don’t think I am wrong, just disconnected. It’s not in my face like american media. It’s not on my facebook or instagram feeds. It’s not on my radio stations. It’s not in my conversations with people. So I want to engulf myself in the culture as much as I can until I can get over there and really experience the life for myself. Reading the news, watching the news, listening to the music, talking about it. I spent a few hours on instagram looking at Haitian political cartoons and learned about a struggle I had no idea about. No clue! Petro Carribea. In a conversation with a bunch of Haitian people my age, I wonder how many would know what that phrase means. Smh at me and all of us in the oblivion. I just feel like I owe it to my ancestors. I respect and appreciate the Black-american ancestors who made the life I am currently living a possibility, but my roots don’t trace back here. And where I’m rooted is still in turmoil. Is still light years behind the Black-american fight. I will make it a point to identify myself as a Haitian-american from now on.

Negative Stigmas

Where does the negative stigma that everyone has about the island of Haiti come from? I believe it has been the agenda of the american people to tarnish the reputation of Haiti and to stunt its economic and social growth. How is it that a nation that was the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere and the first free black republic in the world back in 1804, still be considered a third world country in 2021??
History says that: “under Dessalines the Haitian economy had made little progress despite the restoration of forced labor. Conflict between blacks and mulattoes ended the cooperation that the revolution had produced, and the brutality toward whites shocked foreign governments and isolated Haiti internationally. A lasting enmity against Haiti arose among Dominicans as a result of the emperor’s unsuccessful invasion of Santo Domingo in 1805.” (http://www.travelinghaiti.com/independence-of-haiti-1804/)

The similarities to what history is using to blame Haitian people for their own isolation is the same rhetoric that people are using today to discredit the justified anger and violence that resulted this past year in protest of police brutality. Can you imagine an age in slavery where light-skinneds did not look down on dark-skinneds? Where light-skinneds were not viewed as superior to dark-skinneds? Where light-skinneds did not develop a complex that led them to believe in this fake superiority? Where they did commit crimes against their fellow enslaved Blacks because they weren’t the same black? Like white-Black was a separate race? Me neither. So let us not believe the simplified version of “…the brutality towards whites shocked foreign governments and isolated Haiti internationally.” This is exactly what would happen if we actually listened to the “Back To Africa” movement. There would be global isolation of Africa! We would not be able to trade fairly, travel safely, or grow as a nation. Naturally, the BTA movement would be a final response to systematic oppression and overt and blatant racism. After getting settled in, the new nation would obviously decline visitors from white nations, especially america, so we wouldn’t be able to do business with them. We also would not be able to do business with any of america’s allies. There are other nations we would not be able to do business with because they would want to remain neutral and not choose a side. There are other nations we would not be able to do business with because they would frown upon our decision, even though that has nothing to do with the business at hand. As a result, the nation would turn savage, quickly. The ghettos would overrun the civilized neighborhoods. Crime and vigilantism would skyrocket. Homelessness and poverty would take hold of what promised to be the “Black-american Dream”. And that’s how systematic oppression works.

Now back to Haiti. All of those Carnival Cruise Lines and other cruise ships all travel the Carribean. They all gladly advertise stopping in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the US Virgin Islands, Trinidad, Barbados, The Bahamas, just to name a few. You think they don’t stop in Haiti?? Of course they do! There are beautiful resorts and hotels lining the beaches of Haiti, just like every other tropical island, duh. But why don’t they want us to know that? Why is the american media’s stereotypical view of Haiti dirt roads, small stone buildings, bathing in rivers, and voodoo rituals around the fire? Where are the Sandals Resorts that we know are there? No way my co-worker went to Labadee, Haiti and brought me back a souvenir and it was on a dirt road, at a street market! LOL! Who benefits from the world thinking that Haiti is uninhabitable? I don’t know exactly who benefits, but I know who it hurts! You think investors from overseas are even interested in seeing what Haiti looks like for themselves after what they’ve seen and heard on TV? Why would anyone start any sort of commerce or substantial trade with an island of barbarians who are still sacrificing chickens? How easy is it for relief effort organizations to claim they are raising money to help Haiti and steal 90% of the donations? Because who is going to set actual foot in Haiti to see where the relief funds are being used? Not when they can do voodoo on you and rob you as soon as you step off the plane. I’ve never been to Haiti and why do I think like that? Where did that thought originate?

I’ve recently done a little research into the practice of Haitian Vodou and what I learned surprised me. I hear “woke” people talk all the time about how the white man spoon-fed us their religion to help make us more docile and submissive but woooh chileeee if that ain’t the truth about Haiti!! Talk about coming from a group that won their own independence early on in the game, then NEVER uprising or taking over anything else EVER again and actually being SET BACK behind ALL OF THE OTHER nations that became independent after you! It ain’t that hard to start a successful civilization when the odds aren’t STACKED against you and the white man is not determined to see you lose. There were tons of Haitian geniuses born and yet not a single one could lead our nation out of poverty?!? We were taught to fear our rebellious instincts. We were taught to suppress our divine powers. In the name of salvation. Most of our traditions and ceremonies were not written down, they were passed down, generation after generation, via word of mouth and physical demonstration. So of course it was easy for the white man to come with his education and books and demand that we only learn what can be read and rewritten, which isolated those (and whatever knowledge they carried!) who could not do either! So naturally, those isolated by their lack of proper education decline in their standing in society, until they truly embody the barbaric stereotype that was ALREADY given to them. And the educated ones were sure to never commingle or associate with those “likes”. Even if they did remember chants, prayers, and dances, they would not dare risk being mistaken for wild. The fact that there are an abundance of similarities between Haitian Vodou and Roman Catholicism and yet somehow Vodou is Devil worship makes no sense.