Haiti as Trauma Porn: U.S. Media and Narratives of Haiti by Charmane M. Perry, Ph.D. Assistant Professor African American Studies Program The University of Alabama at Birmingham
I think Haiti is a place that suffers so much from neglect that people only want to hear about it when it’s at its extreme. And that’s what they end up knowing about it. – Edwidge Danticat Discourse on Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora has been a relatively constant topic in the mainstream news cycle and the dispersion of information across social media over the course of 2021. While many Americans may not have been paying attention earlier this year to disputes and protests in Haiti over President Jovenel Moïse’s refusal to resign, Haiti was catapulted onto frontpage news and across social media over the summer (Delaney, 2021; Porter, Santora, & Robles, 2021). In the early morning hours of July 7, 2021, President Moïse was assassinated in his private home in Port-au-Prince. Shortly afterward, more information was learned and various questions arose as a man hunt for an alleged 28-member group of mercenaries consisting of Columbian, Haitian, and U.S. nationals ensued, during which they were sought, captured, and/or killed and politicians and businessmen were interrogated. Many questions remain unanswered, and Moïse’s murder has yet to be solved. In the weeks and months since July, Haiti and Haitian migrants have appeared and reappeared in the news and social media. On August 14, 2021, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Haiti, affecting over 800,000 people and resulting in over 2,000 deaths and 12,000 injuries (UNICEF, 2021). Roughly a month later, thousands of Haitian migrants made a very dangerous journey from Central and South America to the U.S./Mexico border. While Dominican, Cuban, and Venezuelan migrants were also within the group of migrants camped at the border by an international bridge near Del Rio, Texas, most were Haitian migrants (Debusmann, 2021; Miroff, 2021). While the migrant “crisis” at the border was definitely newsworthy, it was the images of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback chasing and using whips on Haitian migrants that caused outrage and allegations of racism as these photos conjured narratives of American slavery. As if this were not enough, in late October, Haiti once again made the news after the 400 100
