TRUMP'S HAITIAN IMMIGRANTS & AIDS: THE UNENDING "BLACKS ARE BAD" NARRATIVE.

ICHEOKU says President Joe Biden's immigration officials set mounted horses against them at Del Rio and deported thousands of them back to Port-Au-Prince as soon as they were pocked up, despite the dire situation in Haiti. It did not matter to the administration that amongst those helpless Haitian immigrants were thousands of women and children. It did not matter to the administration that Haitian president was assassinated a few months ago on July 7th, 2021 and that the country is rudderless and adrift on the sea of hopelessness and despondency. It did not matter to the administration that thugs and gangsters are running amok in Haiti, making life unbearable and that security situation is deplorably bad. 

Then add the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2021 which turned Haiti upside down on its head and reeling in abject depravation and degrading poverty. But none of these were sufficient to persuade the President Joe Biden's administration to show mercy on these unfortunate Haitians who successfully made it to America through the Del Rio entry point to grant all of them at least a temporary stay in America. Instead, the administration deported thousands of them back to the same Haiti which they fled several years ago, where they are now more despondent than they ever were when they left as their country that has changed drastically for the worse. 

Now, as if those Haitians immigrants have not had enough punching on the nose already, here comes former President Donald John Trump disparaging them further, stating that majority of them probably have Aids. In his own words while on a telephone interview with FoxNews Sean Hannity, the former president said, of Del Rio's Haitian immigrants: "Haiti has a tremendous AIDS problem. AIDS is a step beyond, AIDS is a real bad problem. So hundreds of thousands of people are coming into our country. And if you look at the stats, and if you look at the numbers, take a look at what's happening in Haiti. A tremendous problem with AIDS." An insinuation that those Haitian immigrants are infected and carrying AIDS.

What a balderdash for the former president singling out Haitian immigrants in this particularly disparaging manner as if Haitians are the only immigrants that ever came to America with some infections or even probably carrying the HIV/AIDS disease. Why the attack on Haitians with such insinuation, afterall Rock Hudson was the first face of AIDS in the world and he is an American, but nobody ever disparaged America or tried to publicly shame America for the scourge that eventually killed the Hollywood rich and famous Hudson. America also had HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s but no country in the world ever isolated American citizens or shamed Americans for producing Rock Hudson in this manner, calling them out as AIDS carriers. So, why Haitians?

But a former president who is either oblivious of the damage or who does not care about his image and how he is perceived among black community in America as an acute racist, continues to give his detractors more ammunition for their continuous firing off of their racist accusations and attacks against the former president. Why is he still digging more inside a hole of racism when he is already in, instead of guarding his utterances more carefully and being more circumspect about what he says that could be (mis)interpreted as further evidence of what they already accuse him of. President Trump should make effort at building bridges with blacks everywhere, including Haiti, in order to help him burnish his image and make it more amiable to black people.

It does not even matter assuming what the former president said is true, such a public figure should be more careful not to utter such divisive and derogatory statements capable of stigmatizing a particular people. We are not allowed to call Islamist terrorists Muslim islamists terrorists because it would stain Muslims all over the world; so why is it then ok to stain all Haitians and by extension, every black people, by painting Haitian immigrants as AIDS carriers. The United States of America at 2.40% even have more people living with HIV/AIDS according to the World Index on HIV/AIDS than Haiti with 2.10%, so why the singling out as if Haitians are the incubators of the disease.

It only goes to show the former president's aversion to all things black; and further propagate the typical stereotyping that paints everything Africa and black as bad and negative. With regard to Haitian immigrants, the former president does not have any proof of the "stats" he quoted and  could not possibly validate his claim, yet he said it, regardless. Whether it was Trump being Trump or to be provocative on the issue of immigration and make a point that President Joe Biden has failed with his immigration policy, what he said only festers the fear of Haitian immigrants by Americans. It is also indisputable that there are more homosexual gay men in America than Haiti and if the typical stereotyping that the dreadful disease is a gay disease, why then is Haiti being singled out in this manner. 

Hopefully, the former president will realize the gravity of what he said soon enough to disclaim or deny it; and apologize for it, except that he does not usually apologize, before it costs him more black supporters and many Haitians live in Florida and throughout the East Coast. Haitian immigrants should not be demeaned in this manner and portrayed as "poster-child" for AIDS. They are immigrants looking for a better life in America just like other immigrants from other parts of the world who throng into America in search of their American dream, not knowing that many of such adventurers before them found nightmares instead; and decided to sleep on rather than wake up to a dream that did not come true. Our homeless and prison population attest to this fact that not all American dreamers lived their dreams but that should never stop anyone from trying their luck whenever the opportunity avails itself. So, no, the former president is wrong as Haitian immigrants are not AIDS infested.