Haiti Is Poor Because Colonial Powers Like the United States Made It That Way

Today is yet another marker of our broad societal decline in the Era of Trump. Some folks like the National Review’s editor, Rich Lowry, have defended the practical sentiment of Trump’s racist remark about “shithole countries” by essentially saying “why wouldn’t we want to stop people from coming here from dilapidated areas?”

I’m going to tag in Jonathan Katz, a fellow at the Carey Institute and the Director of Media and Journalism at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University to explain why this is also an inherently bigoted position to adopt.

In order to do a victory lap around the GDP difference between, say, Norway and Haiti, you have to know nothing about the history of the world.

That includes, especially, knowing nothing real about the history of the United States.

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

You’d have to not know that the French colony that became Haiti provided the wealth that fueled the French Empire — and 2/3 of the sugar and 3/4 of the coffee that Europe consumed.

You’d have to not know how rich slave traders got off their system of kidnapping, rape, and murder

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

You’d have to not know that Haiti got recognition by agreeing to pay 150 million gold francs to French landowners in compensation for their own freedom.

You’d have to not know that Haiti paid it, and that it took them almost all of the 19th century to do so.

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

.@RichLowry would have to not know about the chaos that ensued, and the 19-year US military occupation of Haiti that followed (at a time when the US was invading and occupying much of Central America and the Caribbean).

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

… the use of the IMF and World Bank to impose new loans and destructive trade policies, including the now-famous rice tariff gutting that Bill Clinton apologized for but had been a policy since Reagan, and on and on …

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

In short, you’d have to know nothing about WHY Haiti is poor (or El Salvador in kind), and WHY the United States (and Norway) are wealthy.

But far worse than that, you’d have to not even be interested in asking the question.

And that’s where they really tell on themselves …

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

Racists have needed Haiti to be poor since it was founded. They pushed for its poverty. They have celebrated its poverty. They have tried to profit from its poverty.

They wanted it to be a shithole. And they still do.

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

So if anyone tonight tries to trap you in a contest of “where would you rather live”—or “what about cholera” or “yeah but isn’t poverty bad?”—ask them what they know about how things got that way.

And then ask them why they’re ok with it.

— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.