The discussion, titled Welcome to the Table: Let’s Talk Racism, will be held on the second floor of City Hall on Thursday, Aug. 8, at 6 p.m. and will feature heavy hors d’oeuvres and a very open discussion, Springfield NAACP President Denise Williams said. This is a direct response to the racism she said is being practiced throughout the community and at commission meetings, and is intended to bring down the temperature.
“Nothing has died down; it’s out of hand ... and either we deal with it or it’s going to explode in the streets,” Williams said.
She said the rhetoric directed toward Haitian immigrants largely contains racist undertones.
“I don’t care if you’re from Haiti, I don’t care if you’re from Africa; you’re Black,” Williams said. “An attack on one is an attack on all of us.”
Williams said she has seen discrimination toward Haitians lead to discrimination toward non-Haitian Black Springfielders, too.
The NAACP’s discussion will be open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend, Williams said. Attendees are encouraged to arrive with questions, and Williams said the organization may hold multiple sessions if there is a need.
How did we get here?
Krystal (Phillips) Brown, Springfield city commissioner, said the negative sentiments previously whispered boiled over after the fatal Northwestern bus crash Aug. 22, in which a Haitian immigrant crashed his minivan the court said he was driving illegally into a school bus, causing it to overturn, killing 11-year-old student Aiden Clark on the first day of school.
Williams said the Clark family’s letter, which Springfield Mayor Rob Rue shared with the community in October, in which they asked the community to stop using their son’s name to bolster their messages of hate and to instead embrace the immigrant community, should have placated tempers, but this has not been the case.
“We do not want our son’s name to be associated with the hate that’s being spewed at these meetings,” Nathan and Danielle Clark wrote in October. “Please do not mix up the values of our family with the uninformed majority that vocalize their hate. Aiden embraced different cultures and would insist you do the same. Thank you to the community for the continued support.”
The family shared a similar statement at the sentencing of Hermanio Joseph, the minivan driver, in May.
“We hate that across this county there is hate fueled by the worst moment of our lives. Our tragedy,” Nathan Clark said at the sentencing. “This hatred is present in this county, this city, this community. Mr. Joseph didn’t start this, but he dumped a lot of fuel on the fire that has consumed many people.”
Brown, the only Black city commissioner, sits through meeting after meeting, hearing dozens of people repeat the same kind of rhetoric, but she said she has had discussions with people she would not have had otherwise as a result, which is a “high note.” She said the challenge is moving past the tempers and harmful way of speaking to get to the root of the issue.
“My goal is to be able to let everybody have a space, let everybody be heard. That really, truly is my goal,” Brown said. “I’m not trying to give people their three minutes so they can shut up and move forward; that’s not my case. ... That’s probably the weightiest, most cumbersome part of this whole thing, is trying to wade through some of the hurtful rhetoric to be able to get to this person is a human being as well and they really are upset. Right now they’re not regulated. This is true, genuine concern and true, genuine fear, and [I’m] just trying to understand that perspective.”
Memories of past problems
Brown said initially she heard a lot of “us vs. them” language, but she is hearing less of that, however, now she is hearing a lot of generalizations that she is not experiencing, and calling the immigrants “invaders.”
These attitudes bring back memories of past racism in Springfield, like when Brown’s own parents could not go certain places due to the color of their skin, she said.
Williams said she and the NAACP will not let the community revert to the attitudes and practices of the 1950s and 1960s. She said Haitians look just like Black Americans and hate toward them is damaging for everyone.
“I’m tired of all of this talk in 2024 about Black people, whether they’re from Haiti, whether they’re from Africa, regardless of where they’re from,” Williams said. “Black people are Black people and we ain’t going nowhere, so they need to stop saying, ‘Send them back where they came from.’”
At the most recent city commission meeting, following several community members repeating previous claims, Haitian Community Help and Support Center president Vilès Dorsainvil asked the community for “a little humanity.” He asked for compassion.
Dorsainvil said Haitians are largely fleeing violence and it can be hard for others to understand how it feels to leave your home, facing the threat of kidnapping and murder, and then struggle to feed your kids in your new country.
Brown said Haitian immigrants in Springfield have been through so much to get here and now they are facing hate as the result of fear.
“I am not Haitian; I don’t have a clue of what they’re going through, I wouldn’t know what they have gone through, what they’re currently going through in regards to fleeing your own country, travelling so many miles and then be faced with hostility simply because of fears,” Brown said.
Haiti’s capital city of Port-au Prince is currently almost completely under the control of gangs, and gang violence across the country has displaced more than 300,000 children, according to the United Nations. Gang violence has led tens of thousands to flee their homes in the capital.
In 2010, the island nation was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the nation in 2021. Hurricane Matthew struck the island in 2016. In 2021, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, and his successor Ariel Henry resigned in April this year.
The Haitian community center is open to conversations with Springfielders, Dorsainvil said. It is located at 1530 S. Yellow Springs St.
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