Racism - Haiti Observer Blog

In Spring Valley, discrimination is well alive, specially against Haitians. The Newspaper Pennysaver has recently posted an ad placed by Interim Healthcare Inc. that clearly stated that no Haitians need to apply. Am I going back to the 1940s and 1950s when certain groups in America were clearly advised not to apply for a specific position?

The ad that appeared in a Pennysaver October 15th edition was made by Interim Healthcare Inc. and ironically, to be published in the Rockland County Pennysaver. The ad was for a female nursing position in West Haverstraw. This is by the way an area with a large Haitian population. "No Haitians" would be considered for employment according to the ad.

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We all probably experienced this one time or another; however one Haitian nurse working in Long Island hospital is doing something about it. Diana St. Gerard who is a light skin Haitian nurse has been discriminated by other staff members for her background. They assume that because she is Haitian, therefore, she must be practicing "Black magic" and Voodoo.

According to Diana St. Gerard, the white staff at Long Island hospital made her life a living hell there. During the nine years that she worked in the mental health unit she was faced with many incidents of discrimination. Nurses have told St. Gerard that she looked like a voodoo doll; another staff member actually brought a voodoo doll at the Hospital once.

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I wish I coud hear what the two leaders were talking about. Dominican President Danilo Medina and Haitian President Michel Martelly met in Caracas for the Petrocaribe energy cooperation and ALBA summit. They probably talked about everything but the effect of the recent Dominican court ruling that could strip citizenship from people of Haitian descent.

A pictue is worth a thousand words. Take a look at the video below

Based on the video and picture of the two leaders seeing after their meeting, one can think that that there is no issue between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

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The Dominican Republic (DR) Constitutional Court (CC) gave a ruling on the status of undocumented migrant workers from Haiti. It stated undocumented migrants as far back as 1922 were not considered DR residents, although they had settled in the DR. And so even the children they bore with natives were also not considered Dominican. The DR contains 450,000 Haitian-Dominicans who, believe they are Dominican, and yet are being denied identity cards.

The CC ruling came as a result of a case filed by a Haitian-Dominican daughter of immigrants. The DR denied her an identity card because her Haitian parent was an undocumented worker. The Court justices look at undocumented immigrants as "in transit" workers, a sly term meant to obfuscate the fact Haitian immigrants settled in the DR.

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Here is the video of the speech delivered by Haitian President Michel Martelly at the CARICOM recently. The speech actually contributed to the final decision of the Caribbean Community to defer a Dominican request to become a member of the trade bloc.

We need to give credit to where credit is due.

President Michel Martelly defended the nation very elegantly at CARICOM.

One day following the the CARICOM decision, Dominican Republic announced that they would no longer meet with Haitian officials to talk about a court ruling.

My conclusion to this is that the Dominican government thought that they would proceed with their policy while engaging us in never ending meetings.

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The Dominican Republic is now involved in an open conflict with Haiti. The government of the Dominican Republic has recalled its Ambassador to Haiti, Ruben Silie, for consultation.

This is the latest attack coming from our neighbor.

The government of the Dominican Republic revealed that it had recalled their Ambassador Ruben Silie due to recent action of Haitian authorities to violate a joint statement signed recently.

My suggestion is that we need to be ready to take anything they are willing to throw at us at this time while we are working toward a plan for our long term independence from the Dominican Republic.

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Officials in the Dominican Republic have decided no longer to meet with Haitian authorities to talk about the recent court ruling in their country. I don't know if the decision from CARICOM to cancel the recent application of Dominican Republic to join the organization has anything to do with it; however, this sounds like they really feel it.

Since the Dominican Republic has decided to remove the citizenship of some of its population because of their link to Haiti nothing have been effective in making them reconsider their racism act. The decision of CARICOM to defer their request to become a member of the trade bloc certainly catches their attention.

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I have decided to no longer take certain things for granted. For example, I have been living in the United States of America for many years. But once in a while, I will get these racist jokes in the streets like: "Go Home". Some of the people I meet, once they detect that I have an accent, they usually want to know if I am "Haitian", "Jamaican", "African", etc...

Regardless of all the economic, political, social difficulties, I am always proud to say that "I Am Haitian". To show that they know something about Haiti, my country, many would respond "Sak Passe","Map Boule".

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Why would anyone think the people of the Dominican republic are racists. We are tolerant, and welcome foreigners just like all civilized societies. We just don't like "Black Haitians"

Where do you think this statement came from. You wouldn't believe it but this is a true statement coming out of the mouth of a Dominican in Miami.

This is how we set this: A good friend of mine who is white asked the other day to a Dominican Immigrant why is it that Dominicans and Haitians are often in conflict? To his surprise, his Dominican friend came with the above answer.

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Since the late 1960s when Haiti and the Dominican Republic had similar economy, the Dominican has been implementing a policy focused on economic development. One major section of that economic plan was the development of their tourism industry.

It has worked!

Thanks to its booming tourism industry, the Dominican Republic has become an economic superpower in the Caribbean, leaving its neighbor Haiti still seating in that economic misery called poverty.

However, there is one error the Dominicans are in the process of making, something that usually happen to many as they are becoming used to prosperity which is entitlement.

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