Haitian Immigrants Now Seeking Dialogue with Black Americans Amid Deportation Fears

[00:00:01]See, what if they're going home because their magic on us isn't working anymore?

[00:00:10]Because I really feel like the only reason why the Haitians were allowed over here is to perform magic on us.

[00:00:21]Because why would the US like allow them to come over here [music] and they couldn't colonize, you know, [music] them?

[00:00:36]It's like they saw their magic, they saw their power [music] and thought, you know, hey, why not come over here? We see how you're living. You know, why not come over here? You know, you can come over here, live with us, but as long as you perform magic and do rituals for us.

[00:01:00]And since they can no longer do rituals and spells on us with their magic, [music] it's time to go home.

[00:01:09]>> I think what hurt the most is because because if someone reject you, okay, fine, let me go back home. But I cannot go back home. you know that's what hurts because you know that okay it's not that it's the dream I'm not living the dream here so it's us immigrant trying to survive and whenever you're trying to survive for me it's not a dream so it's not a dream America for us it's not a dream it's just like most like a jungle I'm sorry but we're trying to survive every single day so >> US resume deportation flights to Haiti, y'all. Yeah. They said that they're going to start sending two plane flights a week. They just dropped off 11, no 111 uh Haitians recently. I want Let me Let me tell y'all the scoop. Thursday, July 16th. Yeah. Th This happened Thursday, July 16th at 1:30 p.m. Kate Kaitens International Airport carrying 111 Haitian nationals who were deported from the United States. So that's how the US was dropping off the Haitians. Now look how the DR is dropping them off. This is the DR dropping off Haitians. Uh some of them alleged that they they've been, you know, physically assaulted. Uh it's like the DR is just sending a message to the Haitians like, "Hey, we we really don't want y'all to come here. You know, we're trying to, you know, keep our country afloat." And and they also want to build a wall. They're in the process of of building a state-of-the-art wall between, you know, to separate Haiti from the DR cuz they really want the Haitians to stay on their side. Uh if their budget was a little bit bigger, this wall will go up quicker, but they're like, "Man, we don't have the budget for it, but this is a necessary for this wall to keep the Haitians out on their side." I guess they don't want them to mess up with their tourist money, you know? I mean, Haiti could be doing the same thing with tourism. Uh, but all that Haitian on Haitian crime is is is u ruining their side of the island.

[00:03:25]>> Immigration authorities say they have deported more than 120,000 people so far this year, most of them from Haiti.

[00:03:32]>> Lafael has been living in the Dominican Republic for 13 years. He says immigration authorities beat him while he was in detention.

[00:03:39]>> They came at 3:00 in the morning. They broke down the door and took me. They beat me a lot and they broke my head.

[00:03:45]>> Dominican President Luis Ainad has made mass deportations of undocumented Haitian migrants a central pillar of his immigration policy. His government is also building a wall along the border with Haiti.

[00:03:59]>> We keep on building with what our budget allows us. It's an objective that is a priority and national security strategy.

[00:04:07]This is the TIME FOR ALL OF US TO RAISE OUR VOICES and to say THIS COUNTRY IS ALSO OUR COUNTRY IS ALSO THE COUNTRY OF our immigrant because we are the one WHO BUILD IT.

[00:04:21]>> GIVEN the circumstances in Haiti, I can understand her frustration. I can understand the fear that a lot of Haitians will probably have at this point. Um, a lot of them have been here for, you know, many, many years, 10, 15, 20 years, and this is probably all that they know. They some of them don't even have memories of Haiti and been living under this temporary protection status.

[00:04:41]But to say that you build the country, it's like why would you build America but not build Haiti? That that alone doesn't make sense. Like why why if you have your own plot of land, your own island that's for you really. It's technically like having your own private island. It belongs to you and your folks. Why would you not build that and come over to somebody else's house and build that up and not build up your own house on your own private island, your beautiful island, by the way? That part does not make sense. And obviously, we know who built the country. I mean, the country was built by foundationally black Americans, the the freed men, uh the slaves, and then, you know, the freedman. Um, so when immigrants started coming over here, they were adding to a foundation that was already built and just kind of put their, you know, they added to it. I'm not saying that they didn't help.

[00:05:34]>> So America's doors are closed fully to asylum seekers. We've set up agreements where if you want asylum, then we will find a country elsewhere in the world to take you. It's very simple, very elegant, very complete solution.

[00:05:47]>> Problem is that when you build in somebody else's house, they you kind of give them the right to say, "Okay, well, it's time for you to go. This is my house now. I'm going to need you to go back to your house. And I'm not saying none of this as a way to poke fun at anybody's misfortunes because I mean I just wouldn't I mean I actually feel bad for a lot of the people who don't who don't know what they're going to do next, don't have no idea how to make a life in Haiti. So I'm not making fun of I'm just saying that if you you claim she claims that immigrants built America, right? But why wouldn't she why would you build why would you build America when you have a whole country that you can build exactly to the way that your people would want it to be and just kind of have make a better life for your people in your home country. I just they just don't make sense to me.

[00:06:37]>> You know what's so crazy right now? The comments I've been getting when I made a video, these folks, especially the white liberal, think I supposed to give a [ __ ] about the the [music] Haitian and the TPS. Man, I am an American citizen. I'm not Haitian. I'm not on TPS.

[00:06:54]Just because we have the same skin color, [music] I'm a little bit browner than most of them. But still, that doesn't make us the same race. I am not black and brown. I'm not a person of color and I'm not African-American. I am a foundational black American who was born in the United States. I'm not Somali. I'm not Haitian. I'm [music] not Jamaican.

[00:07:22]I was born and raised in United States.

[00:07:26]My parents [music] are foundational black Americans.

[00:07:34]They write liberals all over the internet saying, [music] "What are you talking about? Y'all black and brown.

[00:07:38]I'm not [ __ ] black and brown. I'm a black [music] American." When I fought for this country, I didn't fought for Africa. So, I'm not an African-Amean.

[00:07:48][music] I am a black American.

[00:07:52]A proud American.

[00:07:54]Just because I look like some of the Haitians, it doesn't mean a [ __ ] thing, man. Temporary mean temporary.

[00:08:02]And that's all to it.

[00:08:05]>> There's a long history between Haitians and African-Ameans. Despite conflict and tensions between these two groups, Haitians and African-Ameans are deeply connected. Our paths more than just cross. Our stories, our journeys, our fight for liberation is deeply intertwined. Both Haitians and African-Ameans are part of the African diaspora. We share the same ancestral home, the same motherland. We both primarily originate from West [music] and Central Africa. Yes, we descend from various ethnic groups and societies who [music] were kidnapped from Africa, but they didn't share a collective sense of being black or being African, but they did share a similar experience of surviving the middle passage and then surviving the brutal system of slavery in the new world. Now, our histories are nuanced [music] and distinct. Slavery in Haiti, sending versus slavery in the United States were two wildly different experiences. [music] The variation in culture, language, food, tradition, religion are evidence of these differences. But at the end of the day, [music] Haitians and African-Ameans are both children of Africa. More than that, immigration has binded our people together in a unique [music] way. In 1791, when the Haitian Revolution broke out, a large wave of immigration from Sanang to the United States began, cities like Philadelphia, Charleston, New Orleans began to receive a significant amount of French colonists who were fleeing the revolution with enslaved Africans. New Orleans, for example, [music] received at least 15,000 refugees from Sandang when the Haitian Revolution broke out. This more than doubled the size of the free people of color in New Orleans. This means that Haitians [music] integrated with African-Americans, which greatly impacted the culture. There was also a mass immigration of African-Ameans to Haiti in the 1820s. Haiti was the first free black republic in the world. When Haitians overthrew their colonial oppressors, they directly challenged ideas of white supremacy. and African-Americans. They saw Haitians as an embodiment of black resistance and freedom. African-Americans began to refer to Haiti as the promised land. The Haitian Constitution offered citizenship to any black person who landed in Haiti.

[00:10:25]Haitian President Buo took it a step further [music] and offered financial support and free land to any African-Amean who came to Haiti. And so the mass exodus [music] began. Some African-Americans fled the discrimination in America and then made their way back to Africa and that helped to establish the nation of Liberia.

[00:10:45][music] But many found it more feasible just to make their way down to Haiti.

[00:10:49]Close to 20% of the free [music] black population in the northern United States immigrated to Haiti before the Civil War. Now, a significant amount returned back to the United States due to climate, cultural, language, religious barriers, but they did bring back with them a part of Haitian culture, and they left in Haiti a part of their culture.

[00:11:11]There are countless ways Haitians and African-Ameans are connected, and we don't need to look at history to see it.

[00:11:18]Today, we share a common fight for freedom. We're trying to break free from these shackles of racism and discrimination, incarceration, imperialism, and control. And just like our histories, our liberty is intertwined.

[00:11:34]>> Not too long ago, I made a video describing my experience as a Haitian-American male growing up in this country and how it wasn't like it is today where the culture is embraced and loved. You were actually ridiculed for it, especially by other African-Americans. Mind you, I want to state that it wasn't all of them, but it did happen. And a lot of Asian Asian millennials can relate to this experience. I got a robber video from somebody within the African-American community, World Smallless Violin, disregarding my experience. It's fine.

[00:12:00]All well and good, right? But what I find very, very interesting is [music] this TPS situation has really proved my point. and it has proved me right in regards to people within the foundational black Americans community, their approach towards Haitians and how they are celebrating them being deported to a country that is not stable economically or politically. They are celebrating the fact that a lot of Haitian lives are going to be ruined, but they want to talk about black empowerment when y'all are the biggest obstacle to black empowerment. Really, >> you're celebrating Haitians being deported, bro. As if we don't have as much a right to this country as you do.

[00:12:41]>> See, now that part right, did this man really get up here and say black Americans are the biggest obstacle to black empowerment?

[00:12:51]Did he just get up here and say that when black Americans are literally the reason why black people are on a world stage globally?

[00:13:03]Black Americans inventions, innovations, creations, technology, science, art, cultural influence.

[00:13:16]We literally coined the term black and I'm black and I'm proud. And we're the biggest obstacle to black empowerment.

[00:13:25]This is very rich coming from people that would need no black me no black.

[00:13:31]coming from the very people that, oh, y'all don't have no culture. Y'all don't know where y'all y'all from. We don't eat slave food. Dirty black American.

[00:13:38]You see how now that it's like a couple of black Americans that's probably saying, "All right, bye.

[00:13:44]Go home." And they're literally blanket statementing all of us under that umbrella. Yet, when there was a few Haitians coming out calling us dirty, saying we ain't got no culture and they don't eat slave food, they was crying up and down the comments talking about, "Oh, don't say, "Oh, that's not all of us. That's not all of us, but when it comes to us, we don't get the same grace.

[00:14:05]And then his funky butt had the nerve to end it by saying they got just as right, just as much rights to the country as we do.

[00:14:15]This is what this is what I said in my last video and what I keep screaming from the roof rooftops. They're trying to ethnically erase us and put us all in a melting pot so that they could take credit for the things that black Americans has accomplished in this in this country. And and you know what gets me? They keep saying, "Oh, y'all want us to go back to a country that's war torn and destabilized and America did it and a whoopde-doop and a whoopy whoop."

[00:14:38]Where do y'all think black Americans came from in this country? Like what do y'all think it took to build the foundation and to be a foundational black American? Do y'all think that white people just woke up one day and said, "Oh, we're going to leave these black people alone."

[00:14:55]Y'all don't think that our ancestors lived in a war torn country where their [ __ ] communities was being burned to the ground. These things were still happening in the 60s.

[00:15:05]Y'all don't think our ancestors were were in a situation where they were destabilized continuously. The last burning of a black American community happened in what was it? 1985 85 or 87 in Pennsylvania.

[00:15:21]Domestic terrorism. So y'all can miss me with that [ __ ] Now, I'm not sitting up here saying that I'm applauding or I want anybody to be, you know, in a dire state. I'm I'm not advocating for that.

[00:15:32]However, you all love to use these talking points as if my ancestors didn't go through worse. Right now, the people that are destabilizing you all in your countries look just like you. I don't care about the puppeteer and who's behind the strings pulling the goddamn strings. People that look just like you are in the forefront and they're allowing this to happen. You all are governing yourselves at this point.

[00:15:58]Take some accountability. Y'all keep saying, "Oh, y'all, we have to go through this and it's bad." What the [ __ ] do y'all think it took for black Americans to build up this country and to make it a safe space for you to even come over here, Haitian man? Talking about you have just as much right. No, you don't.

[00:16:18]No, you don't. Now, I should just run around talking about I my Hey, we done fought in 1804.

[00:16:26]Whenever y'all want we the first black republic, the first black people to free themselves. We Me too. Me too. Black Americans, too. I'mma start telling y'all to shut the [ __ ] up because we all we all can take credit for the 1804.

[00:16:40]It is disrespectful.

[00:16:43]It is disrespectful. I don't know how many times I got to scream this from the rooftop. Ethnically, we are not the same. Lineage based, we are not the same. My ancestors did not go through the same. Your ancestors did not go through the same things as mine did. And we don't even have to go all the way back to slavery. We're talking about things that happened in the 1900s.

[00:17:01]There's people that's still alive. I have to keep saying it's Ruby Bridges that integrated schools that was getting called [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] having objects and rocks thrown at her with angry pale-faced women screaming in the crowd.

[00:17:11]She has a Tik Tok account. She is still alive.

[00:17:16]She's still alive. Me, Love Jones, I have been the first black woman to work at an establishment in my lifetime.

[00:17:24]I'm here talking to y'all, a millennial.

[00:17:28]So, for you all to get keep coming up here talking about you have just as much. No, you don't. Just because you're from the Americas does not mean that you built the United States of America. Your family came over here when it was already infrastructure. Your family did not have to go through getting all that [ __ ] burned down and having to be resilient and constantly rebuild and move pillar to post state to state because they trying to vote and they getting kicked out of their houses for voting or getting ran out of town for fighting back.

[00:17:58]We literally tamed a [ __ ] beast. You think white people was just nice? No, we had to whip them into [ __ ] What y'all think about this? Sound off in the comments below. SP of the Brooklyn way. It gets to a [ __ ] point, [ __ ] >> When fear arrives, people often look for allies. But here's a question that's igniting passionate debate across social media. Can [clears throat] unity be built overnight after years of perceived distance? That's exactly what many people are asking as reports circulate that some Asian immigrants are seeking dialogue with black Americans amid growing deportation concerns. Let's talk about it. Now, for many black Americans, this conversation isn't simply about immigration. It's about history, trust, and reprocity. Across countless [clears throat] online discussions, some black Americans are asking a difficult question. Where was this outrage before? Now, they point to moments when they felt there wasn't enough solidarity on issues affecting black Americans communities. Now for from police violence and voting rights to economic inequality and cultural recognition where there every criticism is fair or not. Those feelings are real for many people expressing them.

[00:19:21]Relationships between communities aren't just built only during moments of crisis. They have built over years through mutual respect, shared advocacy, and standing beside one another, even when it isn't politically convenient.

[00:19:36]That doesn't mean every Haitian immigrant shares the same views, right?

[00:19:39]Just as no community speaks with one voice. Many Haitian Americans and Haitian immigrants have worked alongside black American organizations for decades. Others may not have. It's important not to treat [clears throat] millions of people as though they all think or act the same way. Now that being said, at the same time, it is understandable for people to ask whether calls for unity become louder only when circumstances become difficult. Now, that's a question that extends beyond this issue. It's a question every community can ask itself. Real solidarity isn't transactional. It isn't something you activate only when you need protection. It isn't something that appears because political winds suddenly shift. Real solidarity is showing up consistently even when your own interest and immediately at stake. Now, if stronger relationships are going to emerge from these moments, they will likely require honest conversation. That means acknowledging past frustrations without pretending they never existed while also recognizing that today's individuals shouldn't automatically be judged by every action or perception of the past. Now dialogue can only work if it's based on honesty. Trust can only grow if both sides are willing to listen, acknowledge concerns, and build something lasting rather than temporary.

[00:21:07]Okay. Now, moments of crisis often reveal the strength or weakness of relationships that already exist.

[00:21:15]Perhaps these moments can become an opportunity for communities to examine how solidarity is practiced, not just how it is requested. So, what do you think? Is solidarity something that must be end over time or or should communities unite whenever people face hardship regardless of the past? Share your perspective respectfully in the comments below. If you enjoy this commentary, don't forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss another conversation here on Global Trends. Until next time, take care and keep the discussion going.