Donald Trump’s debunked claims tap into a centuries-long racist narrative that has real impact on Haitian immigrants and Haitian Americans, in Ohio and beyond.
Call it a mother’s intuition. After former President Donald Trump repeated a vicious smear about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, during his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, many parents in that community instinctively kept their children home from school. They were right to be concerned. In the days following Trump remarking on national television that these immigrants are eating household pets—a debunked rumor that first spread on social media—the threats rolled in.
The bomb and mass shooting threats that started shortly after the debate and continued through the weekend forced evacuations and closures of government buildings, hospitals, a university, and schools in Springfield. Although Trump’s words have imperiled…