On Haiti, Part 3 and Post-Katrina New Orleans, Part 1

Regarding the U. S. Marines’ presence is Haiti, holding M-16s, no less:

Here is — they had no business being there. Sure, if there’s some way where you have an army of bandits, which we haven’t seen, on any mass scale going and attacking, maybe you might bring in some guys like that. But right now, people don’t need guns. They need gauze, as I think one doctor put it. And this is the essence of — it’s just the same way they reacted after Katrina. It’s the same way they acted — the victims are what’s scary. They’re the other. They’re black people who, you know, had the only successful slave revolution in history. What could be more threatening?

From Amy Goodman’s interview with Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté.

I think this quote from Ives is a spot-on analysis about how we’ve treated Haiti and Haitians since the revolution. And I think that theme of The Black Other — “lawless,” “savage,” and uncivilized is implied — is what binds Haiti and post-Katrina New Orleans.

Several journalists have made explicit and implicit comparisons between Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath and Haiti’s earthquake. ABC News’ Dan Harris (in the network’s world news podcast), for example, seemed surprised that Haitians weren’t “looting” en masse. I mean, isn’t that what poor black folks do after natural disasters?

Never mind that Haiti is dirt poor, which doesn’t leave much to “loot,” even if buildings were sturdy enough to enter and remove stuff from. Never mind that Haiti is a different country with its own history and culture. Never mind that religion is so deeply embedded in Haiti’s national narrative that prayer, not looting, would be — and has been — Haitians’ predictable reaction to disaster.

No, Haitians are just more black faces on a different part of the map. Bad behavior* is what we expect.

* That we called it “looting” post-Katrina and post-Haiti earthquake — framing it purely as a nefarious criminal act, rather than one driven by survival — is another discussion.