Connect with us

Massachusetts

Massachusetts' Haitian community feels the weight and history of racist lies

Published

on

Massachusetts' Haitian community feels the weight and history of racist lies


Hundreds of Haitians and their allies gathered on Boston Common Tuesday to protest the racist lies being perpetuated by presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance.

Among those who spoke at the rally was Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, herself the daughter of Haitian immigrants, who expressed disdain for former President Trump, saying “someone who used to occupy the highest seat in the land is spreading these hateful xenophobic and racist lies.”

“Do not hit people who already have their backs against the wall,” said Louijeune. “We stand here in solidarity because we must.”

The Tuesday rally came as Massachusetts’ large Haitian population reckons with the ugly rhetoric that’s become a flashpoint in the 2024 election.

Advertisement

Ishtar Pady and her father came to Massachusetts in 2023 through a humanitarian parole program set up by the Biden administration. Her father was suffering from stage four cancer with no possibility of treatment in Haiti, and the family had been subject to kidnapping attempts there, with an uncle being killed. Her father died after their arrival in Massachusetts.

Pady said no one “wants” to leave their home, but challenging circumstances in Haiti have forced many to migrate.

“In general, the population, the country, is going through tough times and we’re not in our strongest point,” she said. “We’re already down. It’s easy to pick on us — like bullies pick on the weak kids at school.”

Pady said the ugly, racist lies about Haitians eating domestic pets, and the absence of compassion from the Republican presidential ticket, has left her baffled and saddened. She hasn’t encountered much hatred that’s targeted her directly, but there was a recent, telling question from a white person.

“I’ve had somebody ask me, ‘Do Haitians eat cats and dogs?’” she recalled. “I wouldn’t qualify it as racism, personally. Maybe ignorance.”

Advertisement

“We’re already down. It’s easy to pick on us — like bullies pick on the weak kids at school.”

Ishtar Pady

The Rev. Myrlande DesRosiers is the founder of the Everett Haitian Community Center, which provides a variety services to the Haitian community, including English for Speakers of Other Languages classes aimed at parents. She said that among the adults she works with, there’s a sense of fear that their children will be attacked in school because of the rhetoric being perpetuated by top Republicans.

“They are lies. Haitians don’t eat pets,” DesRosiers said. “In Haitian Creole, we call them animal domestik. Dogs are considered bon zanmi, which means best friend.”

Changing the conversation

The racist myths being spread by high-level Republicans are hitting especially hard in Massachusetts, which has the third-largest Haitian community in the U.S., according to the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, MIRA.

Advertisement
Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune speaks during a rally on the Boston Common in support of Haitian migrants on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.


Sarah Betancourt


GBH News

The individuals GBH News spoke with for this story say that deep-rooted racism and xenophobia come from a lack of education and misunderstanding about Haitian culture and history.

Haiti was the first Black-led republic in the world, where the enslaved population threw off French colonial rule in 1804.

“[We are] the very first Black people to have fought and gained our independence. So we do know that we have value,” said DesRosiers.

Advertisement

The young nation played a prominent role in world politics, becoming the first country to recognize the Greek Revolution against Ottoman rule in 1821. Greece recognizes this
even today.

But the long-lasting impacts of French colonialism and U.S. foreign policy have led to chronic instability in Haiti, with waves of political and economic refugees fleeing to the United States.

Gabrielle Rene is a local community activist and podcaster who came to Massachusetts from Haiti in the 1980s, when she was 13 years old. The violent reign of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and ongoing unrest prompted her family to resettle in Somerville.

“My people have gone through enough. The fact that [Trump and Vance] are using them [Haitians] to get votes, it’s really embarrassing. And it’s not fair to us,” Rene said.

“I’ve spoken extensively about what it means to be an immigrant in this country,” said Rene, referring to her podcast and community work. “Some of what we’ve had to give up. I had hidden my dreams of growing up in my own country and having to come to another.”

Advertisement

Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of MIRA, said the racist rhetoric ignores the valuable ways Haitians have integrated into communities across the United States.

“They [Haitians] are building businesses there. They’re working in our health care system,” she said. “We see so many contributions from Haitians and are really saddened that this kind of information is being said about them.”

“We just have to learn how to sometimes not internalize any shame around us, but also to educate.”

Gabrielle Rene, community activist and podcaster

It’s not the first time

Rene recalls the painful racism prompted by the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention incorrectly suggested that Haitians were at
increased risk for acquiring HIV, and that the nation had been a root cause in its spread. Those claims led to major burdens on Haiti’s economy.

“They had started the rumor that the Haitians were the carriers of HIV/AIDS. And at the time I was a child, I really didn’t know what was happening,” Rene said, recounting how the adults in her life went to a rally to demonstrate against the rhetoric.

Advertisement

“So it happens every generation,” she added. “It happens all the time, and we just have to learn how to sometimes not internalize any shame around us, but also to educate.”

Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, director of Africana studies at Northeastern University, said the current rhetoric is an extension of “a longstanding campaign of vilification and dehumanization of Haitians,” including Trump’s reference to the country as a “shithole” in 2018.

Jean-Charles said that from the U.S. occupation of Haiti in the early twentieth century, through the devastating earthquake of 2010, and up to the present day, Haitians have been targets for American racism and xenophobia. Community members agree.

“It’s an old playbook,” said Dr. Geralde Gabeau. Gabeau is the head of the Immigrant Family Services Institute, a nonprofit in Mattapan that’s helping an unprecedented number of Haitians who’ve fled to Boston. She grew up in Haiti, and still has family there.

“I think anyone who has the smallest appreciation for human dignity to stand with us and say enough is enough,” she said. Gabeau believes that the lies spread by Trump and Vance will continue to reverberate.

Advertisement

“Words do have consequences,” said Gabeau. “Are we still allowed to walk down the street without having any fear?”





Source link

Massachusetts

Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit

Published

on

Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit


Twenty-eight lawmakers dissented Wednesday as the Massachusetts House voted to set new terms around what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio would be able to review in the legislative audit voters authorized her to carry out in 2024.

Almost all House Democrats voted for the measure, which also proposes to make more state government records accessible to the public. Three Democrats — Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, Attleboro Rep. Jim Hawkins and Fall River Rep. Alan Silvia — joined the body’s 25 Republicans in voting no.

Speaker Ron Mariano said the bill responds to an ongoing call from voters for more transparency out of Beacon Hill and provides a path forward in lieu of a what he called “politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution.”

Leaders of the House and Senate have resisted DiZoglio’s audit push, arguing that a probe by the auditor’s office would run afoul of the separation of powers laid out in the state Constitution, bringing the legislative branch under the review of a piece of the executive branch.

Advertisement

“We are not accountable to any constitutional officer,” said Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat. “We are only accountable to our constituents.”

Taunton Rep. Lisa Field, a Democrat in her first term, said she was among the 72% of Massachusetts voters who backed the audit ballot question in 2024.

“Due to legitimate concerns and questions about constitutional privileges and separation of powers, we have been stuck on this audit issue for more than a year,” Field said. “Let’s not be like Washington, D.C. and accept such gridlock — not about the audit and not about public records. Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good progress.”

The House’s bill would authorize DiZoglio to review what it defines as the “administrative functions” of the Legislature, going back to the 2021 fiscal year. Those areas include the adoption of annual budgets, official audits of the House and Senate by independent firms, spending by both chambers, and the execution of any financial settlements with lawmakers and employees.

It would also newly apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office, and create a process by which people could request and receive certain legislative files.

Advertisement

Massachusetts is currently the only state where the Legislature, governor and judiciary all claim to be exempt from the public records law.

Warren Republican Rep. Todd Smola described the process that led up to Wednesday’s vote as opaque in and of itself. Mariano last week said the House would take up what he called comprehensive transparency legislation, but did not say when or what, specifically, the bill would do.

The bill was circulated to members of the House Ways and Means Committee around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and committee members had a little over a half hour to vote on whether to advance it. Smola, the ranking Republican on the committee, said during that 34-minute window, “we had members on both sides of the political aisle that were calling each other back and forth to say, ‘Can you explain this portion to me?’”

“We are so much better than the process that has unfolded,” he said. “And for the sake of people that are asking us for transparency, that is not transparency. That’s the opposite of transparency.”

Rep. Michael Soter, a Bellingham Republican, said he was particularly concerned with a part of the bill that removes the courts from settling disputes between the auditor and the Legislature.

Advertisement

He said that by setting its own rules around an audit, the House would be “ensuring the auditor can only see exactly what we allow her to see and nothing more.”

It’s not clear yet if the Senate will pass the bill. Last week, state senators voted to turn over a limited set of documents to DiZoglio. The documents the Senate plans to provide mirror the records she would be allowed to review under the House bill.

Asked if he expected the Senate to agree to the legislation, Mariano on Tuesday said only, “I talked to the Senate.”



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Massachusetts

French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston

Published

on

French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston


BOSTON, MA — An international restaurant group with locations across the globe is preparing to open its first Massachusetts restaurant this year.

LPM Restaurant & Bar, a French Riviera-inspired restaurant founded in London, is set to open on the second floor of the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street in Back Bay, according to Four Seasons. The hotel lists the restaurant as “Opening Summer 2026,” while the Boston Business Journal reported the restaurant plans to open in September.

The Boston restaurant will mark LPM’s debut in the Northeast and its third U.S. outpost, following locations in Miami and Las Vegas, according to a Four Seasons announcement.

LPM, also known as La Petite Maison, was founded in London in 2007 and is known for French-Mediterranean food, Mediterranean ingredients and dining rooms influenced by Belle Époque design.

Advertisement

The business operates locations in London, Dubai, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Limassol, Doha, Mykonos, Kuwait, Boston, Maldives and Bangkok.

Four Seasons said LPM will take over the space that formerly housed One Dalton’s breakfast concept, One + One. The restaurant will join other dining options at the hotel, including Zuma and Trifecta.

See Also:





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Massachusetts

Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer

Published

on

Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer


A Massachusetts high school is under investigation after “several” teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions.

The state Department of Public Health is set to visit Uxbridge High School on Thursday to “conduct a series of air quality tests,” to determine whether the multiple cases are potentially connected.

Superintendent David Ljungberg and Principal Michael Rubin alerted families and district staff on Monday of the “sombering news,” after Uxbridge High School’s graduation over the weekend.

“We are writing to inform you about a concern we are investigating at Uxbridge High School,” Ljungberg and Rubin stated in the letter. “Several female teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions over the past few years.”

Advertisement

“It is, of course, possible that these multiple cases are not connected to one another,” the leaders added, “but out of abundance of caution, we are looking into any environmental factors at the school that may be a factor in their diagnoses.”

The 123,000-square-foot school, with an enrollment of roughly 600, was constructed in 2012 at a cost of $45 million, including a $22-million state reimbursement.

Uxbridge school leaders say they notified the state Department of Health and local health board as soon as they became aware of the cases, seeking “counsel about how best to proceed.”

“Massachusetts DPH officials have indicated that there is no evidence of immediate danger in the building and no reason to limit access to or use of the facility at this time,” they wrote in their letter. “In fact, the public health officials have commended our decision to approach them with these concerns, our readiness to partner with them in support of the evaluation process.”

Health officials are assessing the school’s interior and exterior to “ensure there are no issues with the infrastructure that would present risks (including electrical, plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, and other systems)” and the indoor and outdoor air quality on campus.

Advertisement

The superintendent and principal said that state officials have ruled out water supply as a “risk factor” after “thorough testing.”

“The team has reached out to the women who have been diagnosed, requesting data to evaluate whether there may be a connection among their cases,” Ljungberg and Rubin wrote. “We are grateful for their cooperation.”

They added that the state has said discovering an environmental “smoking gun” is “rare” in workplace investigations.

“However, even if a direct causal link is not established,” the leaders wrote, “the administration is utilizing this process to rigorously test the building and guarantee that it meets all safety standards moving forward.”

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending