An Unbroken Agony
by Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Pastor Emeritus, Trinity United Church of Christ
In Selma James’ book, Our Time Is Now, Margaret Prescod writes these words: “The Haitian movement, those most pivotal to the abolition of slavery in the Americas, is the most neglected period – we all owe a great debt to Haitians and must pay it.”
My question, given the racist treatment of the thirty thousand Haitians who were “disappeared” from the border of our country makes me question how we are paying the debt. Randall Robinson would argue that we have repaid Black Haitians with “an unbroken agony.”
In Mr. Robinson’s majestically written book by the same title, An Unbroken Agony, he shows how the second nation in the western hemisphere to be free of rapacious settler colonialism, Haiti, has been treated apartheid style since the 1700’s! The first nation to gain independence from European settler colonialism is the United States of America which gained its freedom in 1776. We historically call it “The War of Independence.”
Twenty-eight years after 1776 enslaved Africans on the island of Haiti won their independence, defeating Napoleon and his massive forces masterfully to become the second nation to gain independence.
Randall Robinson chronicles the painful story of black men and women who were determined to be free in his awesome work which I would recommend to every reader of this newsletter. C.L.R. James, author of the book The Black Jacobins, describes that African triumph as follows: “When history is written as it ought to be written, it is the moderation and long patience of the masses at which men will wonder, not their ferocity.”
Enslaved Africans did the impossible. Yet white racism has caused the masses of black Haitians to be punished for daring to embarrass the white western juggernaut called settler colonialism. How are we paying the great debt that we owe to Haitians? By continuing the vicious racism that they have experienced since the 1700’s.
In the Hudson Harbor outside of New York, the Statue of Liberty has these meaningless words etched into its base: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Ironically enough, the Africans in Haiti have done what the Statue of Liberty promised to do. Haiti established itself in 1804 as an independent and free nation “dedicated to the abolition of slavery.” It declared itself a sanctuary country for oppressed people of every color and every ethnicity – especially enslaved Africans and indigenous people. Those laboring and living under the oppression of European countries and European settler colonialism are welcomed to come to Haiti to be recognized as citizens and their freedom will be defended!
Maybe those words on the Hudson harbor statue were meant only for immigrants coming from Europe – white immigrants. Our track record shows they definitely were not meant for immigrants of color. Just ask the parents of the Mexican babies torn away from their mother’s breasts and penned up in cages like animals. It is reminiscent of chattel slavery when African babies were torn from their mother’s breast and separated from their families forever.
Haitian refugees, fleeing from the devastation of the combined vengeance and viciousness of hurricanes, earthquakes and United States interference in their politics came to the southern border of our country seeking refuge.How did we repay the debt we owe Haitians?We put them on a military plane and sent them packing.We “disappeared” them just like we had taught the white radical troops in School of the Americas how to “disappear” those who disagree with United States policies where business profits are worth more than Black people.
As we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday, it is my prayer that we will take a good hard look at the great debt we owe the Haitians, then hold it up next to and take a hard look at the hard facts of racism and apartheid that cause us to treat them as we have treated them while letting in sixty-five thousand Afghani refugees with a proposed target of ninety-five thousand before the end of the year.
Prayerfully yours,
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.
Pastor Emeritus
Trinity United Church of Christ