A History of Racism

From the very beginning, the relationship between Haiti and the United States has been defined by racism. Escaping from hundreds of years of colonial theft, first by the Spanish and then by the French, by a brutal series of independence wars, Haiti was left isolated. Haiti had been the most prosperous of all French colonies. But the wars decimated the population and the land. It solidified lasting divisions between the mulatto elite and the black middle class.

Gaining independence in 1804, it was not until 1862 that the U.S. granted Haiti diplomatic recognition. That was a critical period for Haiti's future. Independence came at a steep price and international isolation forced the population to use the land for survival, destroying its productive capabilities exhibited during the colonial period. The reason the U.S. failed to recognize Haiti's independence was simple. They feared legitimizing a slave revolt, which could encourage its own slave population to fight for freedom.

Once the existence of Haiti was acknowledged, the U.S. was determined to ensure its interests were realized. The U.S. wanted stability so that U.S. corporations could flourish. If a Haitian government defaulted on a loan, they were overthrown. In all, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the U.S. intervened in Haiti nineteen times.

By 1915, the U.S. became fed up once again with the constant change of leadership in Haiti. The marines entered the country and occupied until 1934. The U.S. military ruled autocratically. White Southern officers were recruited because of their familiarity with blacks. Of course, during that period, the U.S. South was home to legal segregation, a system which gave whites rights that blacks did not enjoy. Another feature of the occupation was the suppression of peasant revolts. The U.S. also served to keep the status quo of control by mulatto elites.

The U.S. attempted to install a democracy upon leaving, but the political system was democratic in name only. The U.S. gave aid to various dictators until it was obvious a given dictator had to leave. They would then receive a call from the U.S. embassy alerting them that the U.S. would no longer give support and their tenure was over. There is speculation that the U.S. helped manipulate the results of the 1957 election, in which Francois Duvalier became president.

Duvalier was a ruthless dictator who further impoverished his people by extorting money from them in order to build his own bank account. After the U.S. supported the mulatto elite for the previous hundred years, Duvalier was able to legitimize his rule on a disingenuous ideology of black nationalism. In reality, he ideology was completely one of self-interest. In 1971, Duvalier died and his 19-year old son took over the country with the same sense of self-interest.

The U.S. supported the Duvaliers financially until a grass roots rebellion surfaced in the mid 1980s. The younger Duvalier then received the famous phone call from the embassy. After a complex tussle between various military factions in which the U.S. continuously supported the status quo, Jean-Bertrand Aristide won a presidential election and ruled for 7 months until he was deposed by the military. The U.S. intervened to restore him to power in 1994. He was deposed once again in 2004, and the U.S. supported the new government of reconciliation.

Throughout the entire period Haitians seeking a better life in the U.S. were turned away, while their Cuban counterparts were accepted with full refugee staus. A distinction was drawn between a "political" refugee and an "economic" refugee. Critics view these as semantic terms enlisted in order to legalize a system of racism against Haitian immigrants.

The U.S. is back in Haiti once again. This time it is to provide aid after a devastating earthquake. Some have claimed that the U.S. is using the tragedy as an excuse to occupy Haiti. More realistically, it is possible that the U.S. will merely keep intact the old system dominated by the mulatto elite at the expense of the rest of the population. But perhaps the U.S. will get it right this time. Will the cycle of dependence remain? Or, will, in conjunction with locals, Haiti be given a chance to thrive? Will schools be built and children of all classes given a chance for social mobility? Will U.S. aid help to create a meritocracy? Or will, after basic aid is delivered, Haiti be forgotten until the next crisis?