24 hours day since Tuesday, January 12th we have watch tens of thousands of Haitians in a slow death after having  their homes, schools and workplaces fall on top of them. Many more will die of thirst, hunger and disease as they wait for relief operations. But the real horror of the Haitian tragedy will come if we allow US and world response policy to be crafted by the ignorant and misinformed who have microphones and access to the editorial pages of major newspapers. 

Virtually from the beginning of this crisis, people have asked why. Why has something like this happened to a country that already has experienced so much pain and suffering?  Why do these people continue to suffer? There are no easy answers to these questions but the best answered will be based in a true understanding of the political and economic history of Haiti not from racism and religious bigotry.  

Last week in a “news” segment supposedly devoted to the relief effort in Haiti, Pat Robertson rewrote Haitian history when he ascribed the victory of Haitian slaves over their brutal French oppressors to a “pact with the devil,” which has caused the misery and suffering we see in Haiti today. Robertson’s pavlovian response is no surprise (he said similar things about victims of Hurricane Katrina), but it is a surprisingly held view in some powerful enclaves.  Five years ago, I was asked to brief a small group of politicians about the conditions in Haiti. As I finished making the case for US assistance, one politician reached over to me and said, “Miss Lee, all these problems are just terrible.  But the fundamental problem is Haitians practice Satanism.” From there the meeting took a turn and it was clear that none of them would lift a finger to help in Haiti’s time of need.  I left that first meeting shocked but in the weeks to come I became numb to versions of that argument made by people with the power to help Haiti, if only for their ignorance and prejudice. And while this view of Haiti was not widely held, its existence had the sinister effect of providing a way to blame victim of their plight.

While not as crude as Robertson’s, Brooks’ argument that Haitians are“progress resistant” is racist inflammatory code that Haitians are “African”, different, violent and unworthy of saving.  These allegations are not just insulting they could have an impact on the long term response to the crisis.  Retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore, commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, when asked about concerns about violence in Haiti put it best, “…they will take the actions of a few criminals and characterize a people…. [T]hat happened to us during Katrina. There appears to be a natural fear among our people of poor people who are amassed in a location that there will be a security issue.”  With the possibility of Haitians being responsible for all this, indifference or suspicion of the victim is not the outlier response. Somehow it is construed as a measured balance response, even a responsible one.  The intense media focus on the possibility of rioting and violence at aid distribution points in Haiti is a repeat of the focus after Katrina, a focus absent from tsunami relief or other efforts geared towards victims who were not primarily of African descent.  No one questioned whether those victims brought calamity onto themselves because of who they are and what they believe. 

Nicole C. Lee, Esq is the  President of TransAfrica Forum