Photos: Twitter
President Joe Biden recently announced plans to “welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russia’s aggression” while providing $1 billion in humanitarian funding to Ukraine. This is rightly raising eyebrows in some corners of Black America.
Given the wall-to-wall 24-hour news fixation on the Russian invasion of Ukraine—since there are apparently no other conflict zones in the world worthy of news coverage—many Americans will understandably welcome this gesture of supposed compassion. The Ukrainian people should indeed receive any help Western nations can muster.
However, we, in the Black community particularly, should ask this question: why is it this same administration is willing to take 100,000 Ukrainians while they are deporting desperate Haitians back to the chaos in Haiti that America’s imperialist foreign policy created in the first place?
Why is there no compassion for their plight? Is it because Haitians aren’t white?
Haiti has gone thru much tragedy, including in recent years. On July 7, last year, Haitian President Jovenal Moise was assassinated following a period of widespread protests from the Haitian people demanding his resignation. As the turmoil from Moise’s assassination was still unfolding, another cataclysmic event occurred: the August 14, 2021, 7.2 magnitude earthquake which killed close to three thousand people and injured over twelve thousand people–and left, at least, over half-a-million people in need of assistance.
On top of all this, upwards of $2 billion in damage was caused by the earthquake.
All of this was bad enough. But then two days after the earthquake, on August 16, the unthinkable happened: Tropical Storm Grace swept across the island making rescue efforts for the earthquake and the like difficult. Haiti had also still not fully recovered from the January 24, 2010, 7.0 earthquake which killed around 200,000–and caused around $9 billion worth of damage.
The devastation of the 2010 earthquake caused many Haitians to migrate for work to countries in Latin America for work. And when much of that work dried up, it set the stage for the vicious treatment we witnessed last year at the American-Mexican border–when we saw white horseback riding Border Patrol cowboys abusing Haitians in the most despicable manner.
Faced with footage and images of the outrageous conduct, the Biden Administration issued declarative denouncements of the conduct of the Border Patrol agents. But that was basically it.
Shockingly, at the same time, Biden used (and is apparently still using) a policy that Donald Trump was condemned for, which the Administration is using to deport Haitians en masse back to Haiti: Title 42.
One of the few leaders in Congress who is still making a lot of noise about the Biden Administration’s use of Title 42 is Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
Recently, Pressley, and New York Rep. Mondaire Jones wrote a letter to the Biden Administration and said, among other things, “We write with a request as simple as it is urgent: Stop deporting and expelling people to Haiti. Now. Today, we reiterate our insistence that you impose a moratorium on deportations to Haiti, respect Haitians’ legal and human right to asylum by ending Title 42 expulsions and reverse the unjust deportations to Haiti that have already occurred.”
The Biden Administration’s stance on deporting Haitians is surely in line with that of those in the Republican Party screaming racist nonsense about the so-called “Great Replacement Theory,” which is just a nice way of complaining that there are too much non-white people in the country. But since Ukrainians are white it is less politically risky to offer them sanctuary. But why offer it to the Black-skinned Haitians who are from African stock like Black Americans?
White Americans who are fearful of the changing color of America will also welcome the numerical boost to their numbers–and some are probably hoping they get the right-wing type of Ukrainians, like those in the Azov Battalion.
Obviously, the Biden White House is not doing the right thing here with this hypocritical double standard. Perhaps they agree with former Ukraine’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, who made this statement on the BBC: “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed.” Many have expressed similarly racist comments—and within this context it shouldn’t surprise us of the bigoted abuse African students trying to flee the war in Ukraine face.
Black Americans should take note of the polar positions being taken here by this Democratic Administration which is anchored by the votes of Black Americans.
Haiti has been undermined by America ever since they defeated their slave-masters and created a Black republic on the island back in 1804. America owes Haiti an apology—and Reparations too—for all the destructive undermining of their country that has been caused by American imperialism. This Administration has an opportunity to start making amends for America’s historically malicious policies against Haiti. They are currently continuing the racist foreign policy America has always had toward Haiti.
The Biden White House’s treatment of the Haitian refugees is an abomination. There is no justification for them deporting Haitians back to the catastrophic situation in Haiti while they decide to give sanctuary to white Ukrainians.
Is it because they are Black?
