How Hope, Fear and Misinformation Led Thousands of Haitians to the U.S. Border
The New York Times:
“A friend of mine told me to cross here. I heard it was easier,” said Mackenson, a 25-year-old Haitian who spoke on the condition that his last name not be published. He and his pregnant wife had traveled from Tapachula, Mexico, near the country’s border with Guatemala, where they had been living after earlier stops over the last three years in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Panama. “It took us two months to get here on foot and by bus.”
Like this family, thousands had been living in South America for years before making the trek to the border. They left Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
See also: How to Help Haitian Asylum Seekers
Biden Wasn’t Elected to Scold Racist Border Agents—He Was Elected to Stop Them
Elie Mystal, writing for The Nation:
Even if Haitians survive the gauntlet of oceans, rivers, and racist cavalry to make it to the United States, the Biden administration has been deporting them back to Haiti—by the tens of thousands. It has chosen to continue the Trump administration policy of deporting people and forcing them to apply for asylum from their home countries. Deporting asylum seekers violates international human rights standards. But the current administration has said that it’s sending one to three flights of Haitians back to Haiti a day—with those numbers expected to rise to six to seven flights per day.
Biden could have stopped the deportations, restored asylum seekers’ basic rights, and fired every last person who worked on the border under Trump. Immigration enforcement is squarely within Biden’s executive power. He doesn’t have to cajole Joe Manchin or fund Krysten Sinema’s next wine-tasting to get something done here. Biden could zero out the Border Patrol—if he wanted to. And he could abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement while he’s at it.
Gabrielle Petito and America’s Obsession With Missing White Women
Charles M. Blow, writing for the Times:
The breathless coverage of the disappearance and apparent killing of Gabrielle Petito has played out in a virtual — and sometimes literal — split screen alongside images of mounted officers in Texas swinging long reins like whips while herding Haitian migrants. That startling contrast forces us once again to wrestle with a crucial question: What kinds of people, in what kinds of bodies, with what kinds of lineage do we value?
Mo Abudu Isn’t Waiting for Permission
Etan Smallman for the Times:
With no experience in the industry, she bought an Oprah Winfrey box set, enrolled in a TV-presenting course and drew up a business plan, going on to establish the first Pan-African syndicated daily talk-show, “Moments With Mo.” She soon earned herself the unofficial title of “Africa’s answer to Oprah.”
Percival Everett’s Latest Grounds Racial Allegory In History, Horror And Blood
Carole V. Bell reviews Everett’s novel The Trees for NPR:
At a certain point, dark social satire bleeds into horror. That can be powerful, but it can also very easily miss its target. Percival Everett’s new novel The Trees hits just the right mark. It’s a racial allegory grounded in history, shrouded in mystery, and dripping with blood. An incendiary device you don’t want to put down.
Black Park Rangers Bringing History to Life
James Edward Mills, reporting for the Times:
“When we tell the stories of our ancestors, those relations hear our voices as if they were the echo of their own, and they live again through us.”
“A storyteller is a healer and a good story has always been good medicine […] The right story at the right time can heal the world.”
Thanks for reading. See you next week.