Race - Haiti Observer Blog

Four years ago, the SLS South Beach Hotel in Miami was hit with a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for alleged discrimination against their Haitian workers. Seventeen Haitian dishwashers employed there were forbidden from speaking Haitian Creole. The Haitian workers were also asked to drag heavy items up the the 13th floor of the hotel by stairs. For the Hispanic workers, not only they were free to chat Spanish, they also did not have to carry any heavy items anywhere.

One time, a Haitian worker asked his manager to fix the broken service elevator in the hotel, the boss stated:

Read more →  

Following the crippling Hurricane Matthew on October 2016, Black Lives Matter(BLM) Cambridge partnered with a number of Haitian organizations (Vertiver, Kouraj, and Kolectif Kay Kok- Sakage) to send aids to a number of grassroots associations. BLM has extended long term support by supplying resources to repair damaged homes, install solar posts, and provide water purifiers and donated specific items like LED lamps, solar panels, water filters, etc for as many communities as possible.

Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based national organization in the United states that is working for the validity of Black life. It is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates the United States of America. It was was created in 2012 after 17-year old Trayvon Martin's murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime.

Read more →  

The big winner for the logo contest "Nou Tout Sanble, menm lè nou diferan" was Neyssa T. Demorcy, a 17 year old studdent at Institution du Sacré-cÅ"ur de Turgeau. She was declared winner as her logo was determined to be better over 5 others in inculpating the values of respect, dialogue, learn to live together and the quest for excellence among the youth. This campaign began in Octobrer, 2015 and the Logo contest of "Nou Tout Sanble, menm lè nou diferan" is part of of an initiative with the objective to adopt a visual identity for the campaign. There will be other campaigns in the coming days such as music, litterature, DJ that will be part of the activities for the 2015-2016 school year.

Read more →  

The Caribbean is a veritable melting pot for the world's nationalities. Perhaps predominant among them are the African, but there are also the Indian, Chinese and the Hispanic. Just as common is a mixture of two or more such roots. Among the Afro-Latino number, a large amount aren't keen to even acknowledge they may have any African roots at all. Holding to their often lighter complexion and generally straighter hair, this group more commonly refer to themselves along the line of "white" than the stigmatized "black",

The reasons for this phenomena, highlighted on forms where Afro-Latinos have to classify themselves as one or the other, can be ascribed to a number of factors, not the least of which is language. One needs only think of Haiti and Dominican Republic to understand this. Haitians, who speak Creole, tend to identify as black, while Dominicans, who speak Spanish, identify as white. The issue is that people tend to identify with others who speak their own language, and Spanish is not an African language.

Read more →  

Antenor Firmin Debunks French Author Gobuineau's White Supremacy Theory

Haitian intellectual Antenor Firmin was born in the old French colonial city of Cap-Haitien in 1850. He carved out a distinguished career as a journalist, attorney, and writer. He was appointed by President Hyppolite as Minister of Finance and Commerce, and also Minister of Foreign Affairs. But history has remembered him best as the author of the book "The Equality of the Human Races", a refutation of Arthur de Gobuineau's "Essay on the Inequality of Human Races", which argued for white supremacy over minority races.

Read more →  

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, popularly referred to as Nelson Mandela was born on 18th July 1918 in South Africa's Transkei. He was the son of Tembu Tribe's chief Henry Mandela. He studied in College of Fort Hare and University of Witwatersrand. In 1942, he attained his law degree. In 1944 he joined the African National Congress and joined in a resistance in 1948 against apartheid policies of the then ruling National Party. During 1956-1961, he was held on trial for treason but in 1961 he was acquitted.

Newsmaker Interview: Nelson Mandela, 1990

In 1960 when ANC was banned, Mandela proposed a military wing in ANC. In 1961 however, this proposal was considered to be a violent tactic and yet allowed the willing members of ANC to join Neslon Mandela's proposal without any fear. As a result, Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed. Mandela was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labor for a period of 5 years. In 1963 several Umkhonto we Sizwe and ANC fellow members were arrested and Mandela was once again charged for plotting the overthrow of the ruling party/government by using violence. In 1964, Mandela along with 7 others was sent for life imprisonment.

Read more →  

People say a picture is worth a thousand words. With this new development in the Fanmi Lavalas where there is a public conflict between Senator Moise Jean-Charles and Deputy Arnel Belizaire on the one side and Maryse Narcisse, Pasha Vorbe and Claude Roumain on the other, I call it simple Sibling Rivalry.

Mezanmi, Mwen ta Konseye Nou Gade Bagay la Pi Prè

Here is the picture that makes sense to me in term of how I see the new and restructured Lavalas Party following this new development:

THE NEW LAVALAS STRUCTURE:

Read more →  

The Caribbean community (Caricom) should be commended for taking its first action against a cancer that is growing and spreading in the Dominican Republic. Declaring that it can no longer be business as usual, they suspended the Dominican Republic's application to join its regional economic bloc, following the court decision in Dominican Republic to remove the citizenship of many Dominicans with Haitian background.

The Dominican Republic must really have a huge problem with Black people, Haitians in particular since not only they are black, they are also poor.

After the Haitians, will they ask that only white people comes to visit the country?

Read more →  

Andre Michel is back and this time, as you can see in this video, he put the blame squarely on Michel Martelly for the resurgence of class issue in Haiti. He also said that this did not start today.

He gave some examples: " When Michel Martelly referred to Liliane Pierre-Paul of Radio Quisqueya as "Ti Lili" added Metre Michel, he meant to say that: "Pitit malere, malerese" nan Ti Goave, Moun Tet Grenn, Moun Led.

Mesanmi Tande Koze

He also referred to the first Bal following Martelly inauguration as President in Petion-Ville. According to Andre Michel, Minm moun ki gin koule noir were nor allowed to go in".

Read more →  

This is the phrase that I have been hearing all this week regarding the protest that took place last Thursday in Petion-Ville where several thousands of people were asking for the removal of President Michel Martelly from office. Actually the notion "Dessalines visiting Petion" was used to refer to the Race issue in Haiti once again. In a sense, Dessalines represents the Black, poor, uneducated Haitians while Petion, represents the elite, mulato, educated, affluent Haitians.

The anti-government protest got out of control after demonstrators made a rare trip to Petionville. Some opposed to the demonstration threw stones at the marcher and Police fired tear gas to break it.

Read more →