Same Old, Same Old

A few months ago, a Haitian teenager was bound, beaten and hanged in a public square in the Dominican Republic. His crime? Allegedly stealing money won from gambling. The young man, known only as "Tulile", was reportedly a shoe shiner (yes, people still shine shoes), and police are denying that race was an issue in this crime. 

Haitians in DR scramble to produce documents or be deported.

Yet that conjecture does not seem far-fetched amid the escalating violence that has ensued against Haitian immigrants who are now being forced out of the Dominican Republic and back into a less-than-ecstatic and already-struggling Haiti (listen to a short NPR commentary on the history of Haitian naturalization in the Dominican Republic by clicking here). Skin colour, you see, is more than a physical attribute in many societies, some of which are right in our backyard. Says Azam Ahmed of the New York Times in an article about this deportation crisis:

"One reason for the relative diplomatic silence...is the troubled relationship many countries have with migrant workers who enter their borders illegally seeking employment..."

Aye but that "troubled relationship" really refers to child labour, slave labour, ridiculously low wages, unreasonable hours, or substandard working conditions for those immigrants, as well as ludicrous margins of profit for the corporations and people that abuse them. Why would any sensible politician complain about migrant workers who keep afloat the businesses owned by their most generous donors and puppeteers?

Of course, there is probably not a country in the world who can boast of having no illegal immigrants elsewhere. And we would do well to keep that in mind as our diaspora grows at a rate comparable to that of our population decline. Yes, I am specifically chastising those of us who mistreat Haitians in Dominica while envying or relying upon our relatives in the US and UK. We have too long considered ourselves, sometimes wordlessly, superior to those who have far better work ethics than many of us do.

Our young men bewail the lack of employment opportunities on island...yet I have never seen or heard of an unemployed Haitian man. Do we not all live in the same country? The menial labour we feel too beneath us, they gladly do and do superbly. And where they cannot find jobs, they create them. Notorious in some areas for craftsmanship and sewing, Haitian men in Dominica often supplement their "day jobs" with tailoring that equals the high quality we expect of our locals, among other odd jobs. Personal experience, however, shows that Dominican men lack that type of innovation and humility. A conversation overheard:

Man: "De country tight wi boy...."
Woman: "Yes wi. Five dollars cannot even buy nothing na!"
Man: "I telling you. I self just need a job and I set."
Woman: "Oh I hear they was looking for people to do construction?"
Man: "Who dat? I looking like a Haitian?"

This sort of unthinking presumption of racial superiority is not just deplorable and ignorant but a frightening echo of the slave system used by whites to portray Africans in a denigrating light. We should never, even unwittingly, create any resemblance between ourselves and the melanin-challenged proponents of black oppression and genocide.

/sarcasm

[Meanwhile, an outspoken Trumpet head feels entitled to make racist remarks about immigrants (watch a hilarious Daily Show excerpt from Vox by clicking here), overlooking the fact that those immigrants comprise a hefty portion of the underpaid labourers that drive his business ventures. Have a look at the surging pinata sensation springing up from this by clicking here and the list of corporations who have cut ties with him here.]

Hundreds of thousands of people of Haitian descent have been scuttling to provide documentation to prove to officials in the Dominican Republic that either: 1) they have a legal right to work there; or 2) they have at least one Dominican parent. Adam Raney of Aljazeera shares:

"In the Dominican Republic hundreds of thousands of people - not all of them migrants - live with the threat now of deportation. Maybe they were born here but can't prove one of their parents was Dominican. Maybe they came to work in the sugar fields. Maybe they fled the 2010 earthquake and since then have eked out a life here. All that matters to the government is that they prove they have a legal right to stay here. Not so easy, as many of these people were born in shacks and have no documents to speak of."

 Raney goes on to show how ironic the Dominican Republic's repugnance for illegal Haitian immigrants really is when, just a few decades ago, New York experienced an upsurge in illegal immigrants from - you guessed it - the Dominican Republic. (Read the rest of Raney's article here. Learn about Haitians in New Orleans here) So, our Spanish counterparts share our habit of slapping the less fortunate with one hand while begging Uncle Sam for scraps with the other. And the only thing preventing mass deportation of the Republic's Haitian population is the scrutiny of the rest of the world, which, as we know, will not last forever. While it is still a hot topic, some Caribbean organizations have called for boycotts against traveling to and buying products from the Dominican Republic. It is thus clear that other countries sympathize with the Haitian struggle, but the Republic holds a deep-seated contempt upon which it feels justified to act.

A Haitian mother broods after losing the means to support her children.

And that very attitude is reflected in our dear, sweet Dominica. Sharing the first name of the Hispaniola nation with which we are often mistaken, we also share its disdain for Haitians. I mean, the least we could do is to be fair and treat ALL of our immigrants with equal disdain, but you won't find any Spanish migrants receiving the types of insults to which Haitians are subjected. Oh no, some Spanish immigrants provide a different type of service with which no Dominican man is displeased (search comments for mention of Spanish women here), neither will he risk his reputation even if he were. Or perhaps we are inherently friendlier to persons with lighter complexions, as many dark-skinned ethnic Dominican Republic residents - who have been kicked past the border because their compatriots thought they were Haitians - will tell you.

We do indeed too quickly forget history's lessons. Many Haitians emigrated not out of mischief, boredom, or selfishness but after having managed to survive Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of 2010 (and the tsunami that followed). They're not here to ruin our country; in fact, they bolster it tremendously. They came here because they were homeless or without livelihoods in a homeland reduced to ruins by horrific disasters. Hundreds were children who had lost their parents or vice versa. And most have since carved out decent lives for themselves on our shores, displaying modest gratitude for the basic necessities that we take for granted. And if anyone should know the devastation hurricanes and earthquakes can cause, it's us. If scenes from Hurricane David (also here, here, and here) and from our 2007 earthquake do not stir up any of the empathy we ought to have for those fleeing disaster zones, then we should be ashamed. THEY are just like US.

L - 2010 Haiti earthquake; R - 2007 Dominica earthquake

Why do we seem to ignore the histories of our nations? Is it too inconvenient for us to be likened, even in tragedy, to fellow West Indians who share our misfortunes both in natural disasters this millennium and in slavery the last? We can strive harder together towards mutual prosperity, or we can water down the past so as to not feel accountable for those seeking refuge in our beautiful country. And in case you were wondering where we might have gotten the latter from...

A whitewashed version of history is now also being taught to students in the USA, particularly in Texas. Social studies textbooks in that state are being criticized by notable historians because they conveniently omit Jim Crow laws, downplay key facts pertaining to racial segregation, and cite the right to slavery as a "secondary cause" of the Civil War (going so far as to praise biblical figure Moses for his contribution to the Founding documents), no doubt, one could easily argue, for the purpose of engendering a new generation of unwitting 'anti-racists' blatantly unaware of the unpleasant history of its nation. Similarly, we in Dominica seem to be reading intently from some imaginary narrative that paints Haitians as the same kind of sub-human creatures that white supremacists believe us to be. Besides the sheer hypocrisy, are we truly so quick to discriminate others for the same reason we are discriminated against and, incredulously so, on the basis of their doing precisely the jobs that we don't want to do? So many of us rake in attention on social media under the banner of the #BlackLivesMatter movement; we had better not be so foolish as to think Haitian lives don't matter as well or as much as ours.

The path to genuine and universal equality is arduous, the destination far away. So as we cheer small victories like the removal of the Confederate Flag from South Carolina statehouse grounds, let us not forget that the battle is not over. Bree Newsome may be our imprisoned heroine for now, but Trayvon, Freddie, Tamir, and countless others are still dead. One symbol of gross injustice may have come down from its mast but the ship of racial prejudice still sails, propelled by the tropical breezes of the Caribbean Sea.

L to R: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice. May they rest in peace.