Haitian Americans Aren't Laughing

An interview with Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune about the scapegoating coming from the highest levels of Republican power

A daughter of Haitian immigrants, Ruthzee Louijeune has risen to become president of the Boston City Council. I spoke with her late last week about the animus being directed at people of her heritage. You’ll find edited excerpts of that conversation below.

This interview is part of a series of conversations I am having about the state of race relations in this presidential election year. Previous interviews can be found at these links:

—DEI consultant Malia Lazu;

—Diana Hwang of the Asian American Women’s Political Initiative;

—journalist Julio Ricardo Varela;

—Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley;

—security expert Juliette Kayyem.

Bernstein: The Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees of a major party are talking trash about Haitian-Americans and Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, saying that they are committing crime, spreading disease, and eating their neighbors’ pets. I think a lot of people, frankly, are so shocked that they are just making a joke out of it: look how weird these Republicans’ stories are. Can you try to give me a sense, from the Haitian-American perspective, what it means, and what is really happening here?

Louijeune: It's abhorrent, it is hurtful, and it has to be condemned. It's really exhausting to have to defend your humanity at every turn. And it's unacceptable that a Presidential candidate—a former President—and a Vice Presidential candidate are making these baseless remarks. We're talking about Haitians, and folks who are Haitian-American like I am. We have a strong Haitian-American diaspora here in the United States, that started coming as early as the 1950s. To hear us other-ized, and to hear this level of xenophobia, is completely unsettling, and we won’t stand for it

Bernstein: Is this something that's been building over the course of the year? Not just Springfield specifically, but there have been a lot of Haitians coming to America, and moving around within America, over the past year or two, because of conditions in Haiti and other factors. Has this kind of backlash and scapegoating been building, or did this seem to come out of the blue?

Louijeune: I always want to contextualize things historically, and this sort of immigrant backlash is nothing new, unfortunately, to this country. Look at how folks reacted to our Chinese communities during the COVID era. Look at the language that's often used against our Latinx brothers and sisters. It’s nothing new when people are coming to this country, often by force, in search of a better, more stable, peaceful life. We do see around the country, areas that have seen an increase in the number of new arrivals from parts of the world where there's devastation: Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Haiti. So you have seen difficulty in states and municipalities, figuring out how to receive new arrivals. And at the same time, there are lots of industries that have labor shortages, and since time immemorial in this country, the way that we resolve those labor shortages is via immigration. Before the Chinese Exclusion Act:, we were looking for people to come to this country to work on our railroads and in our mining systems. And then it often gets to this point where some people say: “this is more than what we wanted.”

Bernstein: From my years in Boston I know the large, established Haitian community there that feels well integrated and active. But it's not that way everywhere,

Louijeune: Yeah. The community in Ohio is a relatively new community. I lived in Ohio from 2014 to 2015, and that was not a community that was there. I lived in Youngstown, Ohio, the former manufacturing capital of the United States, for a year, and I understand how so many of our rust belt cities, so many of our Midwestern cities, are trying to revive industries that are dying or trying to find economic grounding again. That's what Springfield was trying to do. The welding industry in Springfield has wanted and has received a lot of these new arrivals. The government there said it has really helped to revive the industry. It's not a place that traditionally has had a Haitian community—and I think it's good when we have places other than our metropolitan hubs that say: “We want you to come here. We want you to get jobs.” A lot of these folks who are coming, and I can speak specifically for the Haitian population, are people who really want to work. But often folks who feel vulnerable, they end up seeing people who are even more vulnerable as a source of their woes, rather than systemic issues about manufacturing, and how corporations are failing our communities.

Bernstein: Boston has one of the country’s largest Haitian communities—it started, as you say, decades ago, and as a result other Haitians have thought of Boston as a place to come. They have people they know there, or they know that there are people there who they'll feel comfortable with. So naturally more come, especially at times, for instance, after the 2010 earthquake, or in recent years with violence there. Now the Haitian diaspora in Boston is complex. There are naturalized citizens, there are folks like you who are second, third generation. There are those who are here nder TSP, or migrants working with green cards. There is a tremendous diversity in the Haitian diaspora, a lot of economic diversity as well.

Louijeune: The Haitian community that started coming here in the ‘50s was actually a pretty elite, bourgeois, well-off community: teachers and professionals who were fleeing dictatorship in Haiti. And then in the ‘60s and ‘70s you see more working class people coming to the United States, fleeing political persecution. I even asked my parents: “Boston can be very cold, the winters are brutal, why didn’t this population choose to stop in Miami?” And it's because Massachusetts is the Commonwealth of ‘meds and eds’. When you look at our hospitals, you see Haitian nurses, nursing assistants, translators, coordinators, doctors. Our Chief Behavioral Health Officer for the City of Boston is of Haitian descent, Dr. Kevin Simon. Healthcare is a profession where Haitians and Haitian Americans thrive. And education—this is a community that cares so deeply and so much about education. I was at a ribbon-cutting yesterday in Chinatown for the Josiah Quincy school in Chinatown. I was their graduation speaker last year. The principal is telling me that they're seeing an increase in the number of Haitian students at their school, and how well-behaved and focused they are on education. I know that's true for me and my story. There's a saying in the Haitian community, that there are three “Ls” in Haitian culture: legliz, lekòl, lakay, which means church, home, and school. Those are the three places where your kids are supposed to be, and that's something that's so ingrained in our culture.

Bernstein: But Boston has struggled at times absorbing immigrants as well. Haitian migrants had to be put up in the airport recently, and now they're trying to find other spaces in converted jails and so forth. It was reported that Governor Maura Healey even sent someone down to the border to tell people: “Don't come to Massachusetts. We can't take people.” What do you make of that, and whether states are being overburdened?

Louijeune: When I hear that, I think, where is the federal government? And it's important for us to understand, the in-country conditions  of Haiti are such that people feel like they really don't have any choice. And you can't look at Haiti without inspecting American foreign policy. What are we doing on the foreign policy level to improve conditions, and not putting our economic interest as a country first. It was earlier this year that the Prime Minister stepped down, who neither had a constitutional or popular mandate, but who we, the United States government, were propping up for more than two years—even though we Haitians in diaspora had been calling for him to step down for quite some time. By allowing him to sit there, you let the gangs run amok in the country. If you were really serious about stemming the flow of migration, you have to look at what your foreign policy is and isn't doing in these countries. In Boston we're trying to find options, because there's diaspora here, and because we have been a Commonwealth that has been welcoming. You can't fault people for seeing this as an opportunity.

Bernstein: The governor can't change conditions in Haiti or Venezuela, or any of these other places where the conditions on the ground are what's really fueling these things,

Louijeune: Yeah. She can do what she has been doing, asking the federal government for more funding. And she can continue to ask the legislature here for more support. But really, this is a federal issue, and the federal government does need to step up with financial support to help us at least temporarily. Again, these are people who may need temporary shelter, but who want to work. They're folks who are here legally, either via the humanitarian parole program or through temporary protective status, and who have authorization to work. Sometimes the work authorization has taken some time. We've done a lot of advocacy around shortening the time period to get their work papers once they are on their feet. These are people who are members of our community: they're working, they're paying taxes, their kids are going to school.

Bernstein: In these conversations on race that I've been having, one thing that keeps coming up is the idea of pitting different minorities against each other. You get politicians saying to black audiences, these immigrants are taking your jobs. Then talking to Latino voters and saying the Blacks are getting all the advantages and all the opportunities that really should be going to you. And Haitians kind of get it both ways. Do you see some of that happening, generally, and how does the Haitian community get caught up in that?

Louijeune: Yeah, it's a playbook as old as time, right? That they're the reason that you don't have a job or that you're not getting paid well. We have failed to do deep racial reckoning in this country to really figure out how we live in this multiracial, multi-class democratic republic that we've been trying to create since 1776. I do see people trying to push back against that. An Asian American activist tweeted out “this Haitian cat thing is 100% recycled from the same lie about Asians. This is why solidarity matters.” That’s why I care so deeply about inclusion, why I care so deeply about calling out anti-blackness. We have to be able to say that this is a city where everyone's story is the Boston story. You know, I was just talking about this project of democracy; even before Haiti itself was free, freed Haitians helped Americans in their fight against the British. Our histories and our stories are so intertwined, and we need to be able to find humanity in each other. That is is why we're about to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month, so that we can celebrate our Latinx communities. The Taipei mayor and city councilors came here on Monday. It was a beautiful thing to be able to learn from them and celebrate them, and show off our city.

Bernstein: You just spoke very eloquently about the need for solidarity, and your attempts to offer it. But are you seeing that solidarity and support throughout the city, in the wake of what's happening with Haitians in the news right now?

Louijeune: Yes. Just in the last few days, so many people have reached out to show love, and said tell me when and where, and I'm there in solidarity with our Haitian brothers. You know, a lot of people say that Haiti is still paying its debt for the audacity to believe that it could be free. And I'm not one that's going to solely blame the woes of Haiti on the international community, but it's responsible for a lot of them. The isolation and the embargoes that Haiti felt post-independence, the reparations that it was forced to pay, the way in which American corporations have had unclean hands and the failed Haitian leadership itself. So, yes, I've been seeing the outpouring of solidarity, and I am grateful to be someone who knows and understands Haitian history, the challenges and the triumphs. And I'm grateful for all of the people who understand the connectedness: the Jewish community, the African American community, the faith community, the Asian community. A union leader, 100% OFD—originally from Dorchester—reached out to me and said “I'm with you, I got the Haitians’ back, whatever you need. We ride at dawn.” It has been heartening to see. Of course, we always need more people to step up, but it has been comforting to see.

Bernstein: On the other side of that, have there been reports of any hassling or harassing of Haitians in the community in and around Boston?

Louijeune: I haven't been hearing an incredible amount from people. But there have been, when there has been a hotel used as a temporary shelter or a place for migrants, there have been instances where people have protested. Not a large number, but some, as a result of that backlash that you were talking about earlier.

Bernstein: Some of the particular criticism of Haitians in America stems from a stereotype that Haitians have certain unusual religious practices. I'm wondering whether those Haitians who do practice less mainstream religions are feeling this as a religious persecution? Feeling afraid to pursue their religious and cultural practices that may get misinterpreted?

Louijeune: It isn’t something that I've heard. Haitians are overwhelmingly Catholic and Protestant, but there are Haitians who practice traditional African animist religion, or spiritual religions. But I don't think religion should be used to explain away people's racism, xenophobia, and bigotry, to excuse these comments about Haitians and pets as religion. There's always going to be some excuse. I have never, ever heard anything remotely close to what is being considered when people talk about cats, and their relationship with pets. It's ludicrous. I think often of the quote from Toni Morrison, saying the purpose of racism is to distract you from the work, It's all about distracting you from what's important. So that's what I see this as. I wish that I didn't have to talk about or respond to this level of hatred, bigotry, and anti-blackness that we're seeing. I want to ignore them, but you also have to condemn it, because there are people who are going to believe this stuff. Because misinformation spreads, right? So while I'm responding to it, because I feel like that's my role as a very proud Haitian American leader, there's work to do. We need to make sure that folks have a place to call home. We’ve got to improve our schools. That's the work that we need to be focusing on. And we have an election to win.

Bernstein: And hopefully things will calm down after the election. But it really seems like for a couple of months it's only going to get uglier before it gets calmer.

Louijeune: We’ve weathered quite a bit, both as Haitian people and as Black people. And we'll weather this as well. And for the country, we will show people in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Georgia the strength of the Haitian-American vote. This was a folly of Trump and Vance, because Hatian-Americans are strong voters, and hopefully they'll feel it in November.