Far From Ohio, Haitian Americans Feel the Sting of Threats in Springfield
Posted on 09/18/2024
Haitian Americans across the United States denounced former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate this week for trafficking in baseless, racially charged rumors about a Haitian community in Ohio.
In spreading debunked rumors about Haitian immigrants in Springfield abducting and eating household pets, Mr. Trump and others have stirred anger and put Haitians and many other people at risk, said Karl Racine, who served two terms as attorney general for the District of Columbia and immigrated to the United States from Haiti when he was 6.
?It may seem like just politics,? Mr. Racine, 61, said. ?But it?s serious business, with the real possibility of violence.?
Since Mr. Trump?s remarks, which his campaign has also repeated, Springfield has received dozens of bomb threats, many of them against schools and colleges, and in some cases specifically targeting Haitians. On Tuesday, state troopers were deployed at the city?s schools to ensure that students were safe.
Mr. Racine, who made combating hate the focus of his term as president of the National Association of Attorneys General, said that he was ?horrified? by the conduct of the Republican candidates. He said their vitriol ?dehumanized and diminished? the immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, who have filled jobs and injected new energy into fading neighborhoods.
The United States is home to about 1.2 million people of Haitian heritage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Since Haitians began arriving in the 1950s amid political upheaval in their homeland, many of them, and many of their U.S.-born children, have climbed the socioeconomic ladder and integrated into American society.
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In spreading debunked rumors about Haitian immigrants in Springfield abducting and eating household pets, Mr. Trump and others have stirred anger and put Haitians and many other people at risk, said Karl Racine, who served two terms as attorney general for the District of Columbia and immigrated to the United States from Haiti when he was 6.
?It may seem like just politics,? Mr. Racine, 61, said. ?But it?s serious business, with the real possibility of violence.?
Since Mr. Trump?s remarks, which his campaign has also repeated, Springfield has received dozens of bomb threats, many of them against schools and colleges, and in some cases specifically targeting Haitians. On Tuesday, state troopers were deployed at the city?s schools to ensure that students were safe.
Mr. Racine, who made combating hate the focus of his term as president of the National Association of Attorneys General, said that he was ?horrified? by the conduct of the Republican candidates. He said their vitriol ?dehumanized and diminished? the immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, who have filled jobs and injected new energy into fading neighborhoods.
The United States is home to about 1.2 million people of Haitian heritage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Since Haitians began arriving in the 1950s amid political upheaval in their homeland, many of them, and many of their U.S.-born children, have climbed the socioeconomic ladder and integrated into American society.
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