But they might be living in glass houses.
I am dismayed that so many readers are questioning why I did not mention, let alone criticize, Caribbean leaders in my original commentary — “Only an Asshole like Trump Would Call Caribbean and African Countries ‘Shitholes’.” After all, the reason for not doing so strikes me as self-evident.
I will get to it below. But this questioning constrains me to share a little context.
I have expressed compassion for Haitian migrants for years. As far back as 2009, that commentary argued Haitians deserved the same protected immigration status as Cubans, and that the United States bears far greater responsibility than Caribbean nations to improve living conditions in Haiti, given its de facto colonial legacy there.
In fact, iPINIONS has an unimpeachable record of championing the sustainable development of Haiti and Africa. Yet even that record of advocacy didn’t prevent an honest reckoning, years ago, with Haiti’s endemic dysfunction — including the role black indigenous faces have played, alongside white foreign ones, in sustaining the country’s purgatory.
But I trust all can see how my compassionate lament is a far cry from President Trump’s racist rant. Recall that he denigrated Haiti and all countries in Africa as “shitholes” whose people are not good enough to immigrate to the United States.
It came as no surprise that his remarks incited outrage across every continent. But it should also come as no surprise that Trump would spew such contempt on the chronic poverty that compels so many to flee these countries. After all, this billionaire buffoon has shown time and again that he is as ignorant about the root causes of that poverty as he is arrogant about the hereditary entitlements that made him rich.
All the same, one cannot overstate the recurring role the United States has played in sustaining those causes, with respect to Haiti. But I shall suffice here to share how I framed the origins of the racist conspiracy to keep Haiti shackled in poverty. I did so in “Haitians: Returning to Africa; Blaming the US and France?!” February 12, 2010.
As iPINIONS argued in “Haitians: Returning to Africa; Blaming the US and France?!“ the US and France conspired to sabotage Haiti from the moment of its independence in 1804 — fearing that a nation of free black revolutionaries next door might inspire enslaved Americans to follow suit. The instrument of that sabotage was the “odious debt” France imposed on Haiti at gunpoint:
Haiti’s current economic crisis and political turmoil have their roots in the ‘odious debt’ of 150 million gold francs (later reduced to 90 million), which France imposed on the newborn republic with gunboats in 1825.
The sum was supposed to compensate French planters for their losses of slaves and property during Haiti’s 1791-1804 revolution…
It took Haiti 122 years, until 1947, to pay off both the original ransom to France and the tens of millions more in interest payments borrowed from French banks to meet the deadlines.
(Haïti Liberté’s Statement for the European Parliament In Support of Pan-Afrikan Society Community Forum (PASCF) Global Research, May 10, 2013)
The prevailing point is that, after centuries of mercantile pillaging, the French launched a deliberate campaign to sabotage the economic development of their former colony. By contrast, the way the Spanish treated the Dominican Republic is instructive.
It, of course, is the side of the island of Hispaniola that the Spanish retained after ceding “Saint-Domingue” (Haiti) to the French, who at the time were mostly rampaging pirates. But, unlike the French, the Spanish did not treat the DR as a natural resource to be exploited – like an African mine. Instead, they treated it as one to be cultivated for sustainable use … and as a source of imperial pride.
There’s no denying that the legacy of that infamous sabotage is partly to blame for Haiti’s chronic poverty and privation. I hasten to stress, however, that one cannot overstate the recurring role Haitian leaders have played in keeping their own people mired in poverty. As indicated above, iPINIONS has duly denounced them for doing so.
In a similar vein, iPINIONS has made clear why Caribbean leaders would do well to check their moral compass before hurling rocks at Trump’s house. In short, they clearly could do more to assimilate Haitian migrants.
I’m too mindful, however, that no less a person than President Obama failed in this regard. Notably, iPINIONS called on him — in the 2009 commentary cited above — to either grant Haitians the same “wet foot, dry foot” privilege President Clinton granted Cubans, or end it. He ended it. That executive action was hailed with mixed emotions in “Obama Ends Discriminatory ‘Wet Foot, Dry Foot’ Cuba Policy,“ January 13, 2017.
This brings me to readers upbraiding me for not denouncing Caribbean leaders with the same indignation. The simple fact is that Trump has repeatedly spewed the kind of racist bile at issue. I challenge anyone to cite any Caribbean leader who has ever once spewed the same.
Again, Haitian migrants pose a heavy, unsustainable burden for the relatively small and poor countries of the Caribbean. This explains why, even though none have called Haiti a shithole, some Caribbean leaders have treated Haitians like shit.
The point, though, is that Haitian migrants do not pose the same for the big and rich country of the United States. This is why I am loath to draw a comparison between the way Caribbean leaders struggle with this burden and the way Trump is attempting to disown it. Such a comparison smacks of a reductio ad absurdum of moral relativism (pardon my Latin).
Then, of course, there’s the insult to injury inherent in Trump calling all Haitians AIDS-infected to justify shirking of America’s prevailing responsibility — as chronicled above. Not to mention that this insult is all too consistent with his plainly racist immigration policies. They, you may recall, have seen him attempt to build a wall to keep out brown people from Central and South America, and implement a travel ban on all Muslims and blacks from several African countries.
This, while reportedly declaring
We should have more people from places like Norway.
— NBCNews, January 11, 2018
President Trump is a racist. Caribbean leaders are not.
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