Trump’s anti-Haitian rhetoric reverberates miles from Ohio

Elected officials and local Haitian leaders across the country criticized former President Donald J. Trump after he uttered falsehoods about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, during the presidential debate earlier this month.

Lawmakers and Haitians denounced Trump and J.D. Vance’s unfounded claims, calling the statements a broader campaign to denigrate Haitian immigrants for political gain.

In a press briefing Friday, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley urged the public to “vigorously and firmly condemn the reprehensible hate violence targeting our Haitian neighbors, friends and colleagues in Springfield and across the country.”

At the gathering in Washington, D.C., hosted by the House Haiti Caucus chaired by Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Pressley was joined by Congresspeople from Florida, California, and New York, Boston City Council President and Councilor-at-Large Ruthzee Louijeune, and Pastor Dieufort “Keke” Fleurissaint of True Alliance Center.

The officials decried Trump’s falsehoods and said Congress should “act swiftly without delay” on the resolution introduced by the group to stand against racism towards Haitians, many of whom have entered the U.S. in recent years as migrants on temporary protected status.

During the presidential debate, Trump falsely asserted that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, had stolen and consumed pets, a claim that has since been debunked and even refuted by the state’s Governor Mike DeWine. But lawmakers Friday said the baseless claims have already had far-reaching effects.

“These flagrant lies are deeply offensive, they are disgraceful, they are dehumanizing, and they are outright dangerous,” Pressley said during the press conference, adding that Trump had used Haitian immigrants as a “scapegoat” for his own political gain.

Patrick Sylvain, assistant professor at Simmons University and Haitian scholar, said Trump’s statements were part of a long history of politicians using claims against immigrants to boost their political standing. Trump, he said, resorted to “vilifying Haitians” to compensate for his political shortcomings, adding that the former president chose to “other” Haitians because they are “hyper-visible.”

The number of Haitians in the U.S. continues to rise, with many migrants and their families fleeing violence in their home country. The population of Haitians in the country has reached over a million. Massachusetts is home to the third-largest population of Haitians in the U.S.

For Charlot Lucien, a Haitian lecturer, artist and scholar at the OLLI Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Trump’s comments about Haitians recalled similar harmful sentiments from the past.

Lucien pointed to the 1980s and 1990s when U.S. governing bodies such as the FDA banned Haitians from donating blood out of fear that they were high-risk carriers of AIDS. And in 2018, Trump called Haiti and African nations “shithole countries.”

While some viewed Trump’s false claims during the debate as a planned political move, Lucien perceived them as a Hail Mary.

“I saw someone who was losing control, who was losing track in a debate, and he was getting agitated and started to throw all [kinds] of irresponsible or nonsensical [statements]” he said. “I say that because I don’t think that it was a calculated and premeditated thing.”

In fact, he said he thinks Trump’s statements were an “enormous political miscalculation” that has “backfired.” The fabrications, he said, exposed the former President as having lied during the debate and nullified any political gain Trump sought to achieve.

Trump’s statements may have been aimed at Haitians in Ohio, but they have had a ripple effect on Haitians nationally and in Massachusetts, raising safety concerns.

“There are people who believe this and are coming up with their own conclusion,” said Marvin Dee Mathelier, chair of the executive committee of the forthcoming Toussaint L’Ouverture Cultural Center of Massachusetts. Mathelier added that Trump was “trying to stick to anything that’s going to be able to create buzz,” “get him more votes and get him more political clout.”

“The thing that people don’t understand is that you are truly hurting people that’s part of that community… And that’s unfortunately at the cost of a lot of Haitians,” he said.

Kendy Valbrun works with recently arrived migrants, most of them Haitian. As program manager of the Migrant Neighbor Initiative at Bethel AME Church in Jamaica Plain, he supports their transition into life in the U.S.

He said hateful rhetoric about Haitians, such as that touted by Trump, “amplifies the anxiety” around the future of migrant families in the U.S. It compounds the stress of adjusting to a new environment for people who “are already dealing with the trauma of this place,” Valbrun said.

Also looming in the minds of the migrant families is what might happen to them should Trump take office again.

“There are no promises you can make to them because we don’t know what’s going to happen. So it’s just one of those things we take a day at a time,” he said.

Similarly to other Haitian immigrants living in the US, the anti-Haitian rhetoric is nothing new to Valbrun. When he arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s from Haiti, people made fun of him and other Haitians and spread harmful stereotypes, he recalled. He said he worried that it was history “trying to repeat itself” but that people worldwide would be educated enough to see Haitians for who they are.

“Despite the challenges, the Haitian community, we remain resilient. We’re leaning on each other, building networks of support, and working hard to make sure that the new arrivals are not only safe [but that] we’re also able to thrive,” he said. “I know it’s going to be tough for us because the battle is not easy. We have to come together.”

Lucien, the artist and lecturer, said people should not only view Haitians in the context of such “tragedy” but should see them as people with “beautiful stories” and pointed to the response of Haitians in the face of Trump’s derogatory statements.

“Of course, there is fear, there is distress, there is outrage,” Lucien said, but those feelings have been met with a “sense of pride” as Haitians “are showing up in different places, reminding themselves, this is who we are.”