‘This is affecting a lot of people in my community‘: Haitians in Minnesota stand strong amid hateful rhetoric

CATHY WURZER: The city of Springfield, Ohio, has spent the week on edge. Hospitals, colleges, city government buildings, and public schools have received threats linked to false racist claims that target the city's Haitian population. Senator JD Vance and former President Trump repeated these claims on the campaign trail and in last week's presidential debate. Vance defended his use of the rumors, which Ohio and Springfield officials say are just that, rumors with no evidence to support them. The rhetoric may be concentrated in Ohio, but it's reverberating across the country. Last night, here in Saint Paul on the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater during a Talking Volumes event, Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian American writer, addressed the attention surrounding Haitian immigrants in Springfield.

EDWIDGE DANTICAT: We don't always get to decide where we call home. It's decided for you in a lot of cases. And that could be whether you're in the place where you were born. Like Warsan Shire said, "no one leaves home, unless home is the mouth of a shark," and so this idea that you don't always get to decide that, whether you are in the place where you were born or whether you're in this new place when you're in this precarious condition, like in situations, for example, that a lot of the families, the newly arrived families in Springfield are now. So I mean, I think that sometimes can go generations where you think, oh, I thought I was home. But this person who has more power than thinks that this is not my home. And they have actually the mechanisms to make that-- to disavow me of that notion.

CATHY WURZER: We wanted to find out how this story is landing with members of Minnesota's Haitian community. So Djenane Saint Juste joins us, an author, dancer, and the founder of the Haitian arts organization, Afoutayi. She joins us right now. Djenane, welcome back to the show.

DJENANE SAINT JUSTE: Hello, Cathy. Thank you for having me back. Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: What has been going through your mind as you've been listening to this story?

DJENANE SAINT JUSTE: Well, Cathy, one more time, Haiti is being the scapegoat of political issues. All the time, Haiti is being blamed for all issues, all problems. And it's unfortunate because we are a community who always want to give our best. And unfortunately, that best is never overshined like that the way the negative comments are being passed around the world so quickly.

And this is affecting a lot of people in my community, myself, my family, my students, especially that I work with a community that has adoptive kids. And they are being bullied at school. And this is not just a game anymore. It's affecting people and lives and people that already came in this country for a better situation who already are dealing with ancestral trauma. It seems that they don't have a peace.

CATHY WURZER: I'm glad you mentioned the kids you work with, the Haitian adoptees and the non-Haitian adoptive parents, because one of them sent a voice message. And we're going to play it here. This is Laura Thelander in Saint Paul.

LAURA THELANDER: I am the proud parents of two beautiful and brilliant Haitian immigrants. Through them, I have been connected to the history and culture of the Haitian people. And my life is richer in every way because of them. I'm not naive. As a mother, I know that I'm not able to protect my children from liars and haters, although I have purposefully kept this story from them. our family may live 100 of miles away from Springfield, Ohio, but I'm heartbroken and furious by the fact that these innocent children, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles find themselves living under the constant threat of violence and hateful rhetoric simply because of who they are.

CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering, what messages do you think this kind of rhetoric is sending to the kids you work with?

DJENANE SAINT JUSTE: It's hurtful. People already have a crisis of identity. And when you come back from different trauma and feel that you're never welcome in a country that you tend to call your home now and whatever you do is never enough-- you're being ridiculed. You're being manipulated. You're being exploited. You're being raped. It's hurtful. It's hurtful for me, as an adult, to have kin to deal with that. So imagine for those young minds who've been through so much and they see the future cloudy.

Whatever is going to happen, I'm going to be the one being used. So that's why a lot of Haitian families refuse to assume their identity. A lot of them tell their kids, if you are born here, you don't have to say you're Haitian. And this is hurtful because it's a crisis of identity. It's exactly those kind of comments making my people unaware of what's going on. They need to have more decency and more humanity to treating people and not using negative comments like that to hurt purposely without any fact. Those kind of comments are really hurtful.

CATHY WURZER: I think people don't also understand that many Haitian immigrants in Springfield and across the country are here legally under what's called temporary protected status. And for folks who don't know, that was created to prevent the US from deporting people to countries where they'd be in danger because of violence or disaster. And you know. I mean, gosh, since March, half a million people have been displaced by the gang violence in Haiti. And I know part of your mission is to show people how beautiful Haiti's story is. So I'm curious, what do you want people to know about Haiti that they might miss if they're only reading the headlines?

DJENANE SAINT JUSTE: Well, Cathy, I have to say, the TPS started since the earthquake. And I am a product of the TPS, my family and I. Since that time, we've been very diligent in renewing our TPS every 18 months. And that's an income that we're providing to the US government every 18 months. So the TPS gives you the opportunity to work legally in the US, but that doesn't give you any more opportunity than that. And my son has spent 15 years here. He's not considered as a US citizen.

And he still doesn't have any benefit to apply for any grant or any scholarship, even though he spent more time in the US than in Haiti. Haiti has a lot of riches. And Haiti, I feel, is still being blamed because we defeated in 1804 the colonizers. So I think we are still paying for that. And since that time, we've been through difficult political and natural catastrophe that we never have a time to rebuild our country.

And even though in the US, we're giving doctors, judges, lawyers, intellectuals, it's never enough. So it's a time for-- I'm calling for you, for the US people, to look Haiti through the lens of humanity and respect. We are a nation that needs to be respected and loved and have some kind of compassion because it's enough. It's enough. It's not a game. We have a lot more to offer than to scare people away.

CATHY WURZER: I can hear in your voice just how distressed you are. And obviously, this is a very stressful time. And I'm wondering how you're taking care of yourself right now.

DJENANE SAINT JUSTE: Well, I do what I do best. I pull from a vibration of love because there's nothing I can do to change people's mind. But I can be myself. I'm already stressed by the fact that I am in limbo, not knowing, not having the opportunity to move past that because with the TPS, it's not a definite situation. It's a temporary situation. So at any time, they can tell us, OK, go away. But go away where when we have some foundation here? I built a dance school. I built a family, a community. But this can be taken away from us by any time.

And those comments are what are affecting us and affecting our community who doesn't know what will happen in a couple of years. So I'm putting all that energy, and that love, and that sense of growing. But at any time by any comment, it can be taken away from me and from my kids. So there's no stability. There's no safety. So it's a scary part. And the reason I moved to Minnesota is because it's not perfect place. But the Minnesotan people have a way to look at the problem and trying to find solution to conversation. So I'm very hopeful that people who are listening now can put that conversation together and help the Ohio community understand that we are not the bad guy here.

CATHY WURZER: I wish I had more time with you, Djenane. Thank you so much for your comments. I wish all the best.

DJENANE SAINT JUSTE: Thank you, Cathy. And I hope all the Haitians who are listening or all the people who love humanity can be together with Haiti in that crisis that we will vibrate in a place of love and resilience.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you. Djenane Saint Juste is the founder of Afoutayi. That's a Haitian dance and arts organization here in the Twin Cities.