By Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, Contributing Writer
In 1869, author Isa Blagden wrote a book, The Crown Of A Life. She wrote, “…If a lie is only printed often enough, it becomes a quasi-truth, and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article of belief, a dogma and men will die for it.”
This is reflective in the philosophy of Joseph Goebbels, the World War II Third Reich Minister of Propaganda for Nazi Germany from 1933-1945. Goebbels said, “…If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Today, people of Haiti are being systematically lied upon. They are being lied on by former President Donald J. Trump, and United States Senator J.D. Vance, currently representing the state in which the lie has sprung forth, Springfield, Ohio. Legal migrants from Haiti on a “temporary protective status” are not stealing dogs and cats to eat them for supper. According to Senator J.D. Vance, “If I have to create stories so that the American media can pay attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” Vance has admitted to the public that he’s willing to lie in order to get his story told.
Trump is doing the same thing. From the stage of a national debate to the campaign trail, he continues to champion another big lie, from winning the election of 2020, to casting a dispersion against hard working, family-oriented, and community-contributing Haitians in 2024.
Haitians came to America to escape violence, socioeconomic oppression, and to seek the promise of the American dream. The nation of Haiti has been the victim of both man-made and natural disasters. In 1825, after Haiti fought for and won its independence from France in 1804, France demanded that Haiti pay $150 million Francs in reparations for the loss of its slave plantations and its commercial revenues. Equivalent to $21 billion in today’s currency, Haiti took out loans from the banks of France, Germany, and the United States. They were forced to pay reparations for their own colonization by France. Interest rates on the loan amounted to 80% of Haiti’s annual budget, 10 times its annual revenue.
In 1947, 150 years after gaining independence, Haiti made its final payment. The economic impact has been devasting. More than half the people live below the poverty line. Earthquakes and tornados have taken a toll on the people of Haiti. Once the richest colony in the Americas, it is now the western hemispheres poorest. It is easy pickings for those whose strategy is to divide and conquer using racism, fear, and the concept of “the others” to reduce the very humanity of those they do not value.
Former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade writes from her book Attack From Within, “Tactics in the authoritarian playbook include appealing to emotion over reason, exploiting divisions, undermining critics, dismantling public institutions, stoking violence.” She further states, “If we want to protect our rights from tyrants and conmen, we must fight disinformation as unpatriotic, a betrayal of the American people.”
Strategies of disinformation are not new. African nations have been lied on and referred to by Mr. Trump as “shithole countries.” Mexicans and those from Latin America are called “murderers, drug dealers, and rapists flooding the country.” The charge that those coming to America are “vermin, poisoning the blood of our country,” have many fearful and ready to fight for something that is not really a threat to our survival but a cultural, economic, and social blessing for our future.
The Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine called it “garbage.” The Republican Mayor and City Manager have called these “outright lies.” The tragedy is not only from those who articulate and promote these lies. It is most harmful when those who enable them refuse to shine the light of truth upon them. Everyone must speak out about that which threatens the very lives of innocent children and families. Schools have been forced to close for virtual learning. Hospital doors are shut. Haitians are afraid to meet in public and forced to meet on Facebook Live. Threats of bombing run rampart.
Hate must not be used to fuel a bogus immigration policy in which Trump and his Project 2025 describe the need for the greatest deportation program in the history of the country. Trump has indicated he will start in the city of Springfield, Ohio.
Maribel Hastings, of America’s Voice, an immigration reform organization, says of “approximately 11 million undocumented people, eight million work in critical industries in our economy. They constitute 22% of farm workers, 15% of construction workers, and 8% of workers in the manufacturing industry. The economic disaster would be huge.”
This mean-spirited, hate-filled policy follows the Dwight Eisenhower model of 1954 and the Hoover Administration policy in the early 1930s, targeting Mexicans, deporting more than one million people and a large number of United States citizens. Lest we forget 1939. The German liner St. Louis sailed from Germany to Cuba with 937 Jewish refugees. Cuba’s government refused to allow the landing along with the United States and Canada. They were finally permitted to land in Western Europe. Ultimately 254 passengers were killed in the holocaust.
Hate does not operate by standards of etiquette. It is treacherous and uncaring for those it attacks. It can become a fertile ground to make for a political lynching where mobs are stimulated to lynch those they fear based on color, religion, or just being different.
Therefore, policies of this country do not need to consider them for jobs, economic development, or social mobility. It can lead to violence against those targeted by such rhetoric. It has impacted the policies of numerous police departments. The deaths of Black men and women have characterized police and community relations as witnessed in the murders of George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, and Sonya Massey, naming only a small fraction.
The perpetrators of such lies do not deserve praise, but must be denounced for what they are: bold-faced liars. Yet one finds hope in the city of Springfield. A creole restaurant has been the scene of an overwhelming outpouring of community support and love from both Haitians and citizens of this small town of 58,000 people. They have come together to demonstrate that love still conquers hate.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said of hate, “Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” America must illuminate the love of truth and not darken it with the clouds of hate.