As Haiti Burns, Never Forget: White People Did That

The Root ^ | July 9, 2018 | Michael Harriot

[Trump20162020]

On Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti warned American citizens, volunteers and missionaries in Haiti to stay in place and hunker down after angry demonstrators attempted to get past a barricade and security guards at a Port-au-Prince hotel.

CNN reports that American Airlines, JetBlue and the Spirit Airlines (whose official slogan is: “We’re like a Greyhound bus with wings”) canceled all flights to Haiti following unrest in the country related to rising fuel prices, corruption and widespread poverty.

When comparing them side-by-side, the story of the American Revolution ain’t got shit on the history of Haiti. For black people, Haiti represents the most beautiful story of strength, resistance and freedom that has ever been told. It is the story of a people who thrust off the chains of bondage and took their liberty from the hands of their oppressors.

For others, Haiti is a tragedy. There are some, whose names do not deserve mention, who even refer to it as a “shithole country.” But when discussing anything having to do with the country of Haiti, we should never forget that every bit of struggle in Haiti is related to the legacy of slavery, capitalism and American hypocrisy.

As unrest envelops Haiti once again, it is important for us to remember that Haiti suffers from a worldwide collusion between America and European countries intent on making the tropical paradise suffer. To blame Haiti’s problems on white people is not a harebrained hypothesis. It is an unbelievably treacherous fact that it often sounds like a kooky conspiracy theory.

[dsc]

“Decimating them through birth control is naked racism and genocide. “

Besides, reducing the population by 10% wouldn’t really help.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

They scrape something else in Haiti.

[stormhill]

Thank you Professor Literal!

[DoodleDawg]

Probably didn't get into the northern papers much because they were still trying to justify the mass murder they committed in preventing Independence for the Southern states.

Or maybe because it never happened?

[VanShuyten]

You have to admit that Haitian payment to France for their independence was a raw deal. The Haitians should have just told the French to .......

[rlmorel]

I can tell you, there were plenty of natives who wanted to be best friends with Columbus in the hope he could protect them from the Caribs who viewed everyone else as food...literally.

[tinamina]

And isn’t there a WALL between Haiti and Dominican Republic?

[dsc]

Language is important.

[stormhill]

Yes it is. I stand corrected and humbled.
OTOH, idioms are legitimate and efficient tools of language.

[Jack Black]

I find it odd that Freepers can post from an anti-white racist site like "The Root" all day long, but that if we try to post from even a moderate site like American Renaissance that promotes pro European-American views it's blocked.

I mean I sort of get the historical reasons for it and all, but it's still just a weird end point that we have ended up at.

[suthener]

“Probably didn’t get into the northern papers much because they were still trying to justify the mass murder they committed in preventing Independence for the Southern states.”

The victor writes the history.

[GnuThere]

Have you been there? I have. There are people who are trying all of that. Go there and see how all your idealistic plans go over.

[dsc]

“idioms are legitimate and efficient tools of language.”

Sure they are. However, the simple misuse of a word does not constitute an idiom, no matter how frequent the misuse may become.

[Jack Black]

For one, moral education. For another, bring them into the modern world and require they participate in a viable economy. Why couldn't they develop a real tourist industry by making their country more attractive to the world; establish the rule of law, create a safe environment?

--sigh--

So, more of the "White Man's Burden" eh? Here's Kippling's famous poem, written in 1899, in response to the Spanish-American War.

“The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands.”

Take up the White Man’s burden—

Send forth the best ye breed—

Go send your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need

To wait in heavy harness

On fluttered folk and wild—

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,

Half devil and half child

Take up the White Man’s burden

In patience to abide

To veil the threat of terror

And check the show of pride;

By open speech and simple

An hundred times made plain

To seek another’s profit

And work another’s gain

Take up the White Man’s burden—

And reap his old reward:

The blame of those ye better

The hate of those ye guard—

The cry of hosts ye humour

(Ah slowly) to the light:

"Why brought ye us from bondage,

“Our loved Egyptian night?”

Take up the White Man’s burden-

Have done with childish days-

The lightly proffered laurel,

The easy, ungrudged praise.

Comes now, to search your manhood

Through all the thankless years,

Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,

The judgment of your peers!

It's amazing to me that a big slice of the Conservative movement is still stuck on previously failed solutions with regards to nation building.

It doesn't work in the 3rd world, and it won't work in the 3rd world.

Nothing really has changed since Kippling's time except now, if one is willing to educate oneself, we know better.

Leaving aside the long history of failed attempts to "help" the 3rd world, from colonialism, to de-colonialism, to neo-colonialism, to the anti-apartheid movement, to Bob Geldorf, we now, thanks to science, know a lot more about people than we used to.

We know that race is not a "social construct" as we were taught as kids, thanks to the fake-science of the Frankfurt School. (And we know about the Frankfort School too, hopefully). We know race is a matter of DNA, and for $49 you can send q-tip off and find out about yours. We know that there is a significant variation from group-to-group, but also that there are group traits, group averages, group diseases, etc.

The nature/nurture debate has been settled, and nature won.

Given this the colonial program might still b the most practical for a lot of places, but of course, it led to many problems too. Best to just separate and leave them alone.

If this seems odd or cruel I suggest reading this popular science book of a few years ago. It's not by some neo-Nazi, the author is a quite respectable fellow and the book was a New York Times bestseller. His tone is almost apologetic, for having to break so many cherished fairy tales, but broken they must be.

And, if all that fails, consider the tone of the article and the attitude of the people we help. Sure their is the occassional (very occassional) deserving individual who has the drive and ability to move above their background and surroundings. But for every one of them there is a group of guys like this thanking your for your attempts at "moral education":

[stormhill]

Have you been there?

Been there? Been there!
Amigo, not only was I born there, most of my older relatives retire there and I visit "there" as often as I can.

Never ASS U ME

[NorthstarMom]

We chose Christianity, they chose voodoo.

Choices have consequences. As our nation rejects and rebels against Christianity we will see consequences as well.

[polymuser]

“...Haiti’s leaders pledged allegiance to Satan/Voodoo for throwing out the French.”

I think I see a big reason for the Clintons’ fondness for Haiti...

[stormhill]

So, more of the "White Man's Burden" eh?

Who the hell told you I was white? Did I say I was white?

[Jack Black]

Cite a reliable source for the 2 million death figure from starvation and disease in the South after the Civil War.

Sure!

Here is a book review from the U.K. based Guardian/Observer magazine of "Sick From Freedom" by historian Jim Downs of Connecticut College:
How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans

Jim Downs is the director of American Studies at Connecticut College. He is the recipient of a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and both his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Cheers!

[Jack Black]

Who the hell told you I was white? Did I say I was white?

In suggesting that we (the United States) go fix Haiti with moral education you are suggesting that we do the exact same thing that we tried in 1899, with poor results, in the Phillipines. Cuba, Puerto Rico and a few other small possessions. Which is the subject of the poem.

I never said you were white, rather obviously. I said what you were suggesting has been tried, and is summarized by many historians as the "white man's burden", based on Kiplings famous poem.

In the case of Kippling the "white man" wasn't any particular person, it was the nations of Europe which had been trying to civilize non-European peoples for almost 500 years at that point, with pretty miserable results.

He thought it sad that America, which had heretofore avoided Colonialism now felt the need, like the other White nations, to "take on the White Man's burden".. as the poem says.