By: Josiah Sanon
When we see injustice in the world, the worst thing we can do is get used to it.
This is exactly what we see happening with the rampant hate and discrimination against Haitians (Anti-Haitianism) that America has been brewing for a long time now, and has gone almost completely unaddressed. It is not shocking to see prejudice against Haitians in a place like America, where people who aren’t rich or white are systematically mistreated, but the animosity towards Haitians seems to be very targeted.
America has made Haiti and its people a target for xenophobia through a systematic manipulation of the media.
When people think of Haiti, the first thing that comes to mind is the country’s struggles with poverty and natural disasters like the 2010 Haitian Earthquake, in which the government’s official death count was 300,000 people, officially making it one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in recorded history. The constant documentation of Haiti’s decline doesn’t humanize them or shed a light on their suffering; it instead perpetuates the image that the entire country and, by extension, its people, American or not, are lost causes and not worth caring about. The increase of Anti-Haitianism in America can also be attributed to the statements made by America’s public figures. During his presidential campaign in 2024, President Trump made comments about how Haitians were “eating the dogs and eating the cats” of Ohio, which were extremely harmful to Haitian Americans and only served to make dehumanization that much easier. Amidst the rise in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and looming fears around safety, Haitian immigrants are at risk.
Since the 2010 earthquake, Haitian immigrants have earned Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which gives them the ability to work and live in the United States, as well as protects them from deportation.
The Trump Administration attempted to end the TPS that keeps up to 350,000 Haitians safe and able to work and start families in America, away from the humanitarian crisis going on in their home country. The request was denied, but the mere attempt at ending TPS to no doubt start mass deporting Haitians, despite what is happening in Haiti currently, shows the pure malice of our government towards Haitians.
Though protected, Haitians remain under the watchful eye of ICE and live in fear of possible detainment. Recently, in Alabama, Reginald Toussaint, husband and father of four children, was forcibly taken out of his minivan by ICE agents claiming he was “under arrest for being in the United States,” leaving his wife, Tyshiana Toussaint, and his two children, who were present in tears and hysterics. Emmanuel Damas died of an untreated tooth infection inside an ICE detention facility.
These incidents were cases of intense racism and extreme negligence, and both were able to happen and were barely talked about in the news because the mistreatment and misfortune of Haitians is normal to the people of the US.
In fact, it has become so normal that the discovery of 4 decapitated bodies of Haitian women on Feb. 2 near the Haitian-Dominican border has gone almost completely untouched by any major news outlets. The women were reportedly deported from an ICE detention center in Puerto Rico and just weeks later were found beheaded in a river. A Puerto Rican community leader, Leonard Prophil, claims gangs might be responsible for the crime.
The fact that all of these horrific moments of anti-Haitianism have gone under the radar shows how strong the apathy towards Haitian issues really is. Not even beheadings are enough for the community to get the well-deserved attention their struggles need, and maybe even some support from communities going through similar hardships. All of this goes to show how terrified we should be of letting things like this be normalized and constantly swept under the rug. Anti-Haitianism is a real issue that grows more and more pressing every day, and it is up to everyone, Haitian or not, to stay aware of it and speak up against it.