The exterior of the Tremé-based Haitian restaurant Fritai, where head chef and owner Charly Pierre says racist rhetoric about Haitians is distracting people from real issues the migrant community is facing. (Safura Syed/Verite News)
New Orleans’ Haitian community is grappling with racist remarks made by former President Donald Trump during the Sept. 10 presidential debate, when he cited an unfounded rumor that accused migrants of stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
In the days after the debate, Trump’s running mate and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance repeated the rumors during television interviews, even as news anchors attempted to fact-check him. Vance has also spread false claims that Haitians are contributing to a rise in communicable diseases like tuberculosis and HIV in Ohio.
The governor of Ohio and the mayor of Springfield, both Republicans, have denied the rumors. Springfield is home to nearly 15,000 Haitian immigrants, many of whom have moved recently due to instability in their home country. The national spotlight has upended daily life in the city, with dozens of bomb threats shutting down city hall, schools and grocery stores, putting the Haitian community there on high alert.
New Orleans has a smaller Haitian population by comparison, with population estimates ranging from 1,500 to 7,000, according to local government and community sources in recent years. The city’s culture — including its food and music — was heavily influenced by Haitian migration to Louisiana in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, driven in large part by the Haitian Revolution.
Although the New Orleans Police Department said there have been no instances of harassment reported in the city, Haitian residents are worried that others will believe the rumors.
Wesner Jean, a real estate agent who lives in Gretna and immigrated from Haiti in 1992 said he felt bad when he heard the rumors.
“We are people,” Jean said. “We are not animals.”
Jean is a member of the First Haitian Baptist Church in Gretna. Many churchgoers there dismissed the rumors to Verite News, reiterating that they did not eat pets. Jean said politicians pick on Haitians because of their vulnerability, saying that “no other people [are] gonna fight for them.”
Charly Pierre, the head chef and owner of Tremé-based Haitian restaurant Fritai, said these kinds of conspiracies can damage livelihoods. He says that Haitians have frequently been subject to negative stereotyping and discriminatory policies. In 1990, a controversial federal policy barred Haitian migrants in the U.S. from donating blood, which the Food and Drug Administration said would prevent the spread of AIDS. Pierre sees parallels between the past and the present: “It feels like that’s just being repeated again,” he said.
Pierre said he doesn’t want people to focus on harmful stereotypes and conspiracy theories, and that they should instead try to understand Haiti’s role in the world and the root causes of migration out of the country. Political instability has gripped the country throughout history, with gang violence, the assassination of a president in 2021 and natural disasters contributing to the migration of Haitians to the United States in recent years.
He said people should be talking about why the country is in turmoil and what’s the United States’ role in it. “It’s overshadowing the real issues that are going on, especially with the people,” Pierre said.
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This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.