Dear Editor,
Does anyone else find it funny (not in a "haha" way), that Bahamians who are outraged by our surging violent crime problem are also very likely the same Bahamians who don't support immigration reform?
It is hilarious to me that a nation which considers itself to be "Christian" can conveniently forget that the second greatest commandment given by Jesus Himself, per the book of Matthew in the New Testament, is to "love your neighbor as you love yourself".
Not every Haitian is a criminal or bad person. Not every Haitian who leaves his or her country and stumbles across our shores has bad intentions. In fact, in all my life of interacting with Haitians or people of Haitian descent, I have never had a single poor experience or otherwise felt threatened.
Which leads me to muse on why exactly Bahamians are so angry and nasty towards Haitians, particularly:
1. When you look at the average Haitian family, you see just that - a family - a unit of people living peacefully with each other, helping each other, loving each other, uplifting each other. You do not see Haitian fathers abandoning their homes and responsibilities as many Bahamian fathers do. Instead, you see Haitian fathers working hard to take care of their families while mothers are at home taking care of their kids and households.
2. When you visit our public schools you see Haitian parents making sure their kids get to school either by walking with them, taking a bus with them, catching a ride with them, or driving them there. You see Haitian students at the top of their classes consistently. You see Haitian parents meeting with teachers and administration regularly to make sure that their kids are doing what they're supposed to do.
3. When you go to our public clinics and hospitals, you see Haitians taking advantage of the free resources provided by our government that Bahamians scorn, steal from and run down.
4. When you look at jobs that do not require many skills or require intense, repetitive physical labor, you see Haitian men working these jobs happily for many hours at a time with very little pay. For many years, Haitian men have helped to clean and beautify the exteriors of countless Bahamian homes, most times for much less than the average Bahamian would ever work hard for.
Similarly, Haitian women have helped to keep the interiors of many Bahamian homes spotless. They have helped to keep and feed many Bahamian babies while their parents worked. Again, oftentimes they have done all of this for much less than the average Bahamian would ever work hard for.
All these things considered, it is obvious to me that Bahamians loathe Haitians because we are simply threatened by what they represent. They are a resilient, industrious, proud, but humble people who collectively are not afraid to take risks -- if those risks mean the betterment of everyone. For example, Haiti was the first black nation in the Caribbean to gain its independence and they literally fought for it, unlike us Bahamians who were handed a guise of independence.
Haitians are everything Bahamians like to say and think we are, and everything we are not when it all boils down to it.
So many Bahamians have left our country to move to other people's countries to experience "a better way of life". What would it be like if Americans, Canadians and the Brits treated us in the same manner that we treat Haitians? Just because you are privileged enough to afford a plane ticket to emigrate to another country does not make you any better or different than the people who are so poor that they can only afford to get here by taking treacherous journeys on sloops.
Immigration reform, or the lack thereof, is the Achilles heel of this nation. Until Bahamians learn to live with and be kind to the people we consider to be lesser - Haitians, Jamaicans, Cubans, blind people, deaf people, handicapped people, women, LGBTQ people, etc. - this nation will never progress.
If a person is willing to contribute to our economy and help to build the country, as most Haitians and other immigrants are, there is no reason why we should continue to disenfranchise them for the sake of being hypocritical, ungodly and disgusting.
By disenfranchising Haitians and other immigrants who want to be here and who want to contribute, we are shooting ourselves in the feet.
You cannot breed contemptuous relationships with people, then express outrage or act surprised when they become hostile and adversarial with you.
Check your privilege.

- Otishka D. Ferguson

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