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Starvation and Jim Crow Racism Part 1 & 2
Minister of Information JR/SF Bayview-POCC-Block Report
Monday, February 15, 2010;
Today, on the one month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, I went all over Port au Prince and saw the devastation firsthand and the occupation by Brazil under the guise of the U.N., and of course the U.S.A. I rode through Port au Prince all day and didn’t see one act of recovery going on.
I haven’t left Port au Prince. Here it looks like the city was hit with an atomic bomb. All through the city you could smell dead bodies and see people going through the rubble lookin for scraps of metal to build a shanty-house and for anything that can be eaten, drunk or sold.
I don’t see where the millions of dollars that have been raised for Haiti is going. Everywhere people is starving. Me and my comrades gave some of the most desperate some money, but the thing is that it might help them today; what about tomorrow?
We been staying at a makeshift hospital run by some white so-called American missionaries. Today at the house I witnessed my first act of Jim Crow-type racism from so-called friends on this particular trip.
Haiti is like a time machine. It’s like 1920 here in terms of the apartheid type of relationships that the whites have with the Blacks. The white woman of “God†that runs the house says that Haitians can’t come in the house from their shantytown in the backyard after the hospital closes, but check this out: Multiple dogs have free reign all over the property. So in other words, these dogs are more important than the Haitians – including the hungry babies, the old people, the wounded and maimed and regular everyday people.
One of the members of our delegation was told not to feed the Haitians in the tent city in the backyard because they already eat once a day. The issue is, why do they think that they can determine who I share my food with? The house is full of white people who have free reign to eat as much as they want, and whenever they want.
One of the members of our delegation was told not to feed the Haitians in the tent city in the backyard because they already eat once a day.
The second issue is that when we went to Port au Prince we had a 19-year-old Haitian translator named Gady who helped our team. When we got back, the rooster-neck nun who is ultimately in charge of the house told him that he can’t be in the house, although we met him in the house the day before and hung out and listened to music to about 1 a.m.
We asked why, and she told us he wasn’t a good translator. I told her he did great with us, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. She told me he doesn’t know enough English medical terms to assist the doctors. I informed her that my team consists of journalists, and we didn’t need him to know English medical terms.
She then quickly said there were other reasons, then told us that she just didn’t want him in the house, and if we needed a translator, contact her and she would hook it up. Most of the translators that I met were very subservient, except ours, and that’s why we got along.
She kicked him out, and we went out the house after him and paid him a third of what he would make in a month as a translator, because we realize how hard it is to find money, water and food, let alone a regular job.
I’m currently writing this from the house, and God knows I wish I had somewhere else to go out here rather than deal with these undercover racists. I don’t, so like my Haitian “auntie†told me, I’m supposed to see all of this so I can report it.
On another note, most of the Black people from the U.S. out here that I have met are complicit in this Jim Crow racism. They act like they don’t see it because it is not affecting them. These dumb ass people don’t recognize that these same crackers were doing this to their grandparents 60 years ago. It’s like Malcolm taught us, when he talked about the house slave and the field slave.
Like my Haitian “auntie†told me, I’m supposed to see all of this so I can report it.
This is my first report, on my first full day here. There is more to come, so stay tuned …
Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com.
Editor’s note: POCC Minister of Information JR and Chris Zamani, M.D., who were political organizing comrades years ago, have reunited to form the Haiti Media-Medical Team to minister to the needs of the people of Haiti and tell their truth. With Minister JR on the media team are filmmaker Angela Carroll and photojournalist Siraj Fowler; with Dr. Zamani on the medical team are a nurse and a mental health therapist. They arrived in Haiti Feb. 11 thanks to the generous donations of many good folks, most notably Mos Def, Kamel Bell of Ankh Marketing, Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee and Walter Riley of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. Their reports will be posted here as soon as they are received.
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Port au Prince, Feb. 13 – After I stopped writing yesterday there were a few more things that I felt I should document. The first is the eating arrangements. In the missionary house, a bell is rung for dinner. That is when the non-Haitian people, with a few exceptions, eat. The few exceptions are Haitian medics, who, in the houses, are few and far between.
After the bell is rung, people can eat as much as they want until the food is gone. We have eaten stuff like rice, egg plant, macaroni salad, cole slaw and bread. The Haitians living outside in the tent city eat a ravioli-like substance once a day that they are given to collectively cook. They are not permitted to eat in the house. The ones that we hung out with were constantly hungry. This place definitely has the feel of the plantations that I have only read about: loyal house slaves, rebellious field slaves and all.
The rules here are very interesting. Because we are in a “church†or missionary house, rap music is looked down upon because some artists use profanity. The “holy people†running the house drink beer at every meal – some even drink Babancourt Haitian rum – but when it comes to one Black group, Black people from the United States, having a musical exchange with our Haitian counterparts, it was frowned upon.
The nuns even went as far as to have one of the Black translators – or overseers in the nuns’ minds – tell us, instead of addressing the issue themselves. Because of that I kept playing music, inviting a confrontation. None of the higher-ups said anything to me, although they passed me many times during the evening and night.
One of the visiting white medics said I should play some Haitian music mixed in. I recognized the comment for what it was: It was a subtle way of saying that he doesn’t approve of the rap music – Mos Def, Tupac, M1 and Umi – I was playing or the “classics” like Bill Withers, the Isley Brothers and Nina Simone. I wonder if he would have made the same comment if I were listening to Green Day, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Nirvana or Fergie.
The missionaries, who are also nurses, and their team of medics hate the way that we are able to uniquely connect with the Haitian people across language barriers, using music and dance. In Haiti, the average white person, especially those from the U.S., displays a level of racism that is way more blatant. There is less accountability, oversight and media, which are contributing factors to prolonging this type of activity and keeping it in the dark.
It is an old school relentless plantation-style colonialism that is governing the country currently through mostly white non-governmental organizations just as well as through armies like those from the U.S., Italy, Canada, France and the United Nations that control the flow of resources. What is going on in Haiti is just as much about race as it is about class. Stay tuned …
Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com.
Editor’s note: POCC Minister of Information JR and Chris Zamani, M.D., who were political organizing comrades years ago, have reunited to minister to the needs of the people of Haiti and tell their truth. Completing the team are Naseema McElroy, R.N., Angela Carroll and Siraj Fowler. They arrived in Haiti Feb. 11.
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