By Drew
My family was never broke. I’ve never known poverty. My sisters and I were afforded the simple luxuries of a roof over our head, a private school education and food on our table. But, some shit relative to our surroundings, made us feel fake broke for sure.
But, in hindsight, I’m grateful to have HAD a lunch and a safe place to eat it. I remember a Halloween party I was invited to at my aunt’s house and my mother being a saintly woman wouldn’t let me participate in the “Devil’s holiday”. I was allowed to go but not dress up which never made sense to me cause….
One kid ratted up his clothes and got them as dirty and grimy as possible. Walked with his head down and spoke broken English and when asked what he was for Halloween he said, “I’m a Haitian”.
That garnered a huge applause. That was 1989 and, in 2023, my question is….why has nothing changed?
Saying we have a Haitian problem has now gotten to be a complex and convoluted statement because, let me be clear, a growing majority of us are zenophobic as fuck.
Know how I know?
Half of you clicked on this article thinking I was gonna bad mouth Haitians with written insults of “SEND THEY ASSES BACK TO THEY RUN DOWN FUCKING COUNTRY!!”. They’re genuinely disappointed and will probably stop reading at this point.
And then some of you hate Haitians so much you really thought that’s how you spell “Xenophobic” and was about to use that in a sentence, on said Facebook, to sound smart and be DEAD ass wrong.
The fact that we are so willfully triggered by people that look like us that just happen to have it worse than us right now is frighteningly telling.
For the record: I DO NOT want ILLEGAL Haitians flooding our shores en masse ESPECIALLY considering Brave Davis JUST now realizes PMH is ripe with a shit ton of issues.
If our public hospitals cant handle the load then imagine our economy etc. We simply can not handle an influx of illegal migrants right now. I am not smart enough to even get into the politics of what’s going on in Haiti presently so I won’t bore you with my assumptions and hearsay. I will say this tho….shit is looking sticky.
I may not have the full details but….bruh….
Now that we’ve cleared that up, my question is: WHY are we so xenophobic and inhumane to them?
We are prejudiced in our speech, actions, even our body language.
Y’all literally blocked the right for Bahamian women’s children (who have non Bahamian fathers) to garner Bahamian citizenship all on the strength that they may have kids with Haitian niggas.
Government was like, “Y’all want gals be equal to niggas with citizenship rights and what not?”
And y’all (men AND women) was like….
Lets not get brand new: We are ALL guilty of it. My grandfather called them “Hightians” which, in my experience, anyone who uses that word is usually not the biggest fans of Haitians. Y’all know the type.
What jobs did they take from you exactly, beloved?
Real question.
Last time I checked, we absolutely have hard working Bahamians who do landscaping and other odd jobs but I don’t know the last time I’ve heard any homeowner say, “Jamal is coming to fix up my yard”.
It’s typically a Haitian gentleman because they charge significantly less to do significantly more.
But I won’t limit them to the stereotypical, “they is clean and cut grass” narrative.
At what point did ANY government commit to any affirmative action plan for ANY foreigners on this island? In fact, if there were to be any, however subtle or unwritten….that shit went to white Americans, Canadians and Europeans.
And y’all fucking know it.
Haitians in white collar jobs have to compete just like the rest of us because they don’t have the privilege of being foreign and not black…..JUST LIKE US.
Well, they have one advantage: They speak 2 languages.
So if we’re doing the math here: This person’s parents traveled here, got their work permit/residency, had a child, taught them English AND creole, did what they could for them and gave them the best of what they were able to against all odds.
That child then goes and makes the best of themselves, seeks higher learning by any means necessary and then excels at their givin profession and THESE the niggas y’all mad at?
Half of y’all had everything handed to you and you still can’t keep a job much less $100 in your bank account as mommy and daddy still supporting you at the tender age of 35 while having a headstart that that same Haitian couldn’t even have imagined.
Y’all so prejudice that you scoff at the idea of even LEARNING their language because you think it’s beneath you. You know how hateful you have to be?
And it gets worse.
We used to call niggas Haitian as an insult. Ine forget. God forbid someone say your ma is a Haitian….they were fighting words.
How many Haitians had to hide in the shadows or even deny they were Haitian because of the ridicule? How many had to change their names, accents, ancestry just to make y’all comfortable just to survive in this country?
How many Haitian women or men did Bahamians bed in the darkness but deny in the light? How many Haitians have raised our kids and been a staple in households but when we see them in public or amongst our friends we turn our heads? Bey that has to hurt. That has to be a soul crushing reality being forced to live in a place where they whisper insults behind your back AND to your face.
Bahamians act like Haitians HAVE no reason to have left Haiti.
Are there possibly too many illegal Haitians in The Bahamas?
Yes
Are there too many coming in by boat?
Yes.
Does immigration/RBDF need to clamp down and send ALL illegals back to Haiti?
Yes.
Are there Haitians living among us who came here the right way, doing the right thing and worthy of dignity, respect and love?
Nigga….YES.
I don’t know what Haitians did to Lincoln Bain but this is a fucking gross overcorrection of, admittedly, a bad situation. Like….did some Haitian gal cheat on him with his best friend and now he can’t let it go cause bruh….he is WILDING.
But it’s not just him.
There’s now a growing fear that there will be a revolution or some type of Haitian vs Bahamian war brewing. It’s fear mongering tactics that we have let control the narrative. I can’t believe I’m about to quote a Bahamian politician in a positive light but Keith Bell was right: “Sanity MUST prevail”. Like it or not they ARE our brothers and sisters. Their slave ship dropped them off on another land mass surrounded by water just like ours did.
Face fact: Geography is destiny.
That coulda been y’all grammy or grandads that ended up there. Shit….y’all fly and move to Canada/America for fucking LESS.
As Bahamians we don’t have the luxury to be as prejudiced as we are considering we are ONE bad fucking hurricane away from us having to seek refuge in a America that may very well be run by Trump this next lap.
And…ummmm….he doesn’t seem too fond of niggas, beloved.
Brave Davis is taking steps to quell the issue…to his credit. He’s brought home our Ambassadors to Haiti and has put a moratorium on work visas etc.
It’s a step.
I sincerely believe our Immigration officers and the RBDF are doing their best to catch and return who they can.
That’s a step.
But we have to be more patient with this incredibly complex and nuanced situation. We have to use better language. We have to be better than what we have been because this is not us. How y’all shucking and jiving for these tourists but look your Carribean brothers and sisters in their eyes, who came here the right way, and look down on them?
…meanwhile, to people who look just like you….
I told that story earlier of that little boy who sullied his clothes and mocked a Haitian man.
That was me. I did that.
I’m not proud of it.
I was mocking someone’s father, uncle, brother, friend…
How nasty a time in life that I could make that God awful and insulting parody, get applause and legit WIN the costume contest? In my mind I was relatively poor compared to my peers, insecure and went for the lowest hanging fruit in an act of immature desperation to appease people that could frankly care less about me. I had to relearn what was normalized within my group of family and friends but it took some very hard conversations.
And, make no mistake……this is a hard conversation to have. That’s like Brave Davis from earlier trying to explain to people how he JUST found out PMH was in shambles when….
It starts with looking at Haitians not as a burden but as a people.
It starts with looking in the mirror and asking yourself if you’ve been xenophobic or unkind in your comings and goings.
It starts with realizing that they are in a crisis on their island and for a group of people to get on a fucking dingy to HOPEFULLY reach our shores means they are in a bad way and deserve our love and prayers.
Not our chagrin.
Cause, after all, we are a loving, christian country right?
….RIGHT???
Be safe tho
