Racism

The Trump Administration has instated a travel ban under which Haiti is the only country in the western hemisphere to be included.  As a result, families will be separated and Haiti will become even more isolated.  The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) denounced the ban, which primarily affects countries where the majority of people are brown and black.  A thread that runs throughout Haiti's history, and sadly its present, is the often racist foreign policy of the United States.  Consider contacting your elected officials to express your concern.  The full article by Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald follows.

The New York Times has run an excellent multi-part series on how the United States and France impoverished and de-stabilised while enriching themselves. The piece, copied below, is entitled "The Ransom" and covers how Wall Street, and in particular the Bank that became Citigroup, urged the US occupation of Haiti.  Other pieces in this series include "The Root of Haiti's Misery: Reparation to Enslavers", "Haiti's Lost Billions", and "How a French Bank Captured Haiti" and "Demanding Reparations and Ending Up in Exile."  Both in the past and at present Haitians struggle with racism, corporate greed, and political exploitation of other countries.  This aspect of Haitian history is rarely tought in the USA or France - but it should be.  

While the United States scrambles to resettle Afghan refugees, Haitian asylum seekers are being deported en masse.  Many have experienced or witnessed human rights abuses but are being returned without a proper hearing.  The UN Refugee Agency has expressed concern that these returns may violate international law. Human Rights Watch and many other advocacy organisations, domestic and internatrional, have denounced these returns from an administration that campaigned on making the asylum process humane and transparent.  The Diaspora and its partners are mobilzing to demand due process and dignity.  More information follows in the article by Washington Post journalists Tim Craig, Sean Sullivan, and Silvia Foster-Frau below.