Yesterday, both Steven and I posted about the baseless, xenophobic, racist attacks being levied at the Haitian migrant community in the small city of Springfield, Ohio. To keep my post focused, I ended up leaving out some tangential observations about the situation. Rather than letting them disappear into the ether, I’m sharing them in the fragment post that follows.
White Christian Nationalism vs Christianity
One of the things that stands out about reporting on the Haitian Migrant community in Springfield are discussions of their religiosity. From the New York Times exploration of the community:
They are assembling car engines at Honda, running vegetable-packing machines at Dole and loading boxes at distribution centers. They are paying taxes on their wages and spending money at Walmart. On Sundays they gather at churches for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole. [source]
[Emphasis mine – MB]
And from a PBS news report on the community:
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The sounds of Haitian Creole carrying across soccer fields, in grocery stores, in restaurants dishing up the popular Haitian street food pate kode. It’s striking hearing all this in the heartland of the United States Springfield, Ohio. Springfield is a small, blue-collar city with a familiar story. Much of the factory work left decades ago, and the residents followed. A community of more than 80,000, emptied out to less than 60,000, that is, until the last few years.
WES BABIAN, Springfield Resident: Our churches, we see new people.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the pews?
WES BABIAN: Yes, absolutely.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Wes Babian was the pastor at First Baptist church for almost 20 years.
WES BABIAN: For years, we have lost people. But you hope somebody else will come and take their place. That hasn’t happened here.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Until now.
WES BABIAN: Because there are folks from Haiti who are coming to church.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Luckens Merzius, who among his many other jobs mans the sound board for Sunday services, is one of those new Haitian members. [source]This is such a great example of why analysts and scholars understand White Christian Nationalism, promoted by people like Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk, is far more interested the the “White” and “Nationalism” components than the “Christian” part. Haiti, like many countries in the Carribean, Central, and South America, is a majority Christian county. Migrants from Haiti are overwhelmingly Christian. Yet rather than invite an influx of Chrisitians into the country, MAGA see’s them an a object of scorn and spreads very unChrisitan lies about them. MAGA claims to celebrate Christianity, but apparently only the right… I mean White Christians.
Eating Dogs And Roadkill Is Wrong… When They Do It!
It’s a bit rich that a movement that celebrated RFK Jr endorsing Trump is wholly offended at the idea that someone would eat a dog or other wild animal. Of course, MAGA folks believe RFK Jr when he promises that he didn’t eat a dog. And who knows what he was planning to do with that bear cub.
Meme vs. Reality: Trump Edition
One of the bizarre aspects of the memes that MAGA folks are sharing is that many feature Donald Trump saving kittens and ducks. For example, this cursed AI generated image:
Anyone who knows Trump’s history will appreciate the irony of him being pictured this way. He famously doesn’t like dogs and dogs don’t like him. Unfortunately, the last few days made it impossible to search for previous reporting on his position on cats. Given that his White House had no pets, let’s assume he’s neutral at best on them. As far as his history with birds, well… there was that one “incident.”
But People Say They Have Seen Haitians Eating Animals
MAGA supporters keep responding to claims that there is no proof with videos from Springfield city hall meetings. The problem is that those videos often feature outsiders like this guy:
His name is Drake R. Berentz. He gave the false name of “Nathaniel Higgers” (N. Higgers… say it fast and you’ll get the “joke”) when he spoke at the meeting. He literally leads a neo-Nazi group.
They will also share a video featuring this guy:
Meet Anthony Harris (yes, that’s his name on his hoodie). He does live in Springfield. He’s a YouTube “Influencer” who creates MAGA-themed trolling videos on his YouTube channel “Red flagged.” While this isn’t to say he’s lying, but it definitely should be taken into account.
Then there is this video that’s now making the rounds:
Which begins with a person who yells at a Haitian migrant for… waving to greet them from a distance. And then, calls them a “fucking sand monkey.” I guess that’s better than the N-word that I suspect they had enough presence of mind not to use. Beyond that racism, the video again doesn’t contain anyone saying that they actually have seen this behavior first-hand; they’ve only heard about incidents from other people. This includes someone who claims that there was a van full of Haitians driving around that had rounded up over 100 cats and were cooking and eating them as they went. Which, as a former cat owner, is utterly impossible to imagine. It’s challenging to catch a single cat let alone trying to keep 100+ in a van. These types of over-the-top stories are common with anxiety-based moral panic, like the Satanic Child Abuse Day Care scare or the Q-Anon/Comet Pizza conspiracy.
But MAGA folks swear this is evidence. And folks like Trump and Vance are more than happy to use the panic for electoral gain.
They are taking jobs away from Real Americans(TM)
One thing that MAGA folks conveniently ignore is that the job these Haitians are doing existed before they migrated to Springfield. From the NYT reporting:
Springfield crafted a strategic plan to attract business. City leaders pitched the town’s affordability, its work force development programs and its location, smack-dab between Columbus and Dayton and accessible to two interstates.
In 2017, Topre, a major Japanese auto parts manufacturer, picked Springfield for a new plant in a decaying part of town that had been the site of International Harvester, a farm equipment manufacturer that was once the biggest employer.
By 2020, Springfield had lured food-service firms, logistics companies and a microchip maker, among others, creating an estimated 8,000 new jobs and optimism for the future.
“It was incredible to witness the transformation of our community,” said Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Partnership, which executed the plan.
But soon there were not enough workers. Many young, working-age people had descended into addiction. Others shunned entry-level, rote work altogether, employers said.
The Haitians had Social Security numbers and work permits, thanks to a federal program that offered them temporary protection in the United States. Some had been living for years in places like Florida, where there is a thriving Haitian community.
McGregor Metal, a family-owned business in Springfield that makes parts for cars, trucks and tractors, was short of workers after investing millions to boost production.
The business needed machine operators, forklift drivers and quality inspectors, said Jamie McGregor, the chief executive.
“The Haitians were there to fill those positions,” he said. The immigrants now comprise about 10 percent of his work force.
“They come to work every day. They don’t cause drama. They’re on time,” he said. [Source]
I am completely supportive of the need for more opioid treatment programs as part of a robust social safety net. I honestly don’t know where the Trump Campaign stands on those topics. And, at the same time, I think MAGA folks would understand the need for employers to find workers.
The Government Has To Have Shipped Haitians To Springfield For… REASONS!
The US has a long history of immigrant groups moving around the country to areas where there is work. Heck, not just immigrants, but whole populations of Americans. Just look at the Great Migration leading Black enclaves moving from the South to the North. It’s common for this type of thing to happen with people living in the diaspora. It most likely was accelerated by religious- and community-based organizations that work with Haitian migrants, but that isn’t government intervention.
Love “Rural Folks,” Hate Actual “Rural Behaviors”
In closing, I’ll leave this one to Tyler Austin Harper, an English Professor living and teaching in Maine.
I’m old enough to remember when Republican shamed Democrats and Liberals for negatively reacting to Mike Huckabee’s story about eating fried squirrel on Morning Joe:
“Mika, I bet you never did this,” Huckabee went on, addressing Mika Brzezinski. “When I was in college, we used to take a popcorn popper, because that was the only thing they would let us use in the dorm, and we would fry squirrels in a popcorn popper in the dorm room.“
I’m sure someone will explain the difference between frying squirrels and ducks or geese. Personally, there really isn’t that much of a distinction in the act. Now the differences in the people doing these acts, well, that’s another story. This leads to this last bit of Xtter analysis:
