Though I would share this letter/article writen by Richard Morse, singer/owner of Ram. He is of mixed heritage – Black Haitian Mother and White American Father. He is part of a roots-rock band called RAM based in Haiti. He lives in Haiti; also runs “Hotel Oloffson” there.
If I had been born in Haiti I would be considered a "Mulatto";
however, I was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in the suburbs of Yale
University, therefore, I'm not a Mulatto, I'm Black. There is
no such thing as a Mulatto in Connecticut, or in the US for that
matter; either you're White or you're Black, one or the other.
[There are other races but for the purposes of this ramble I'm
sticking to the Black/White issue]. My children see me as
White and laugh at the thought that I may have Black blood in my veins.
They view themselves as Black.
In Haiti, things are different. In Haiti, "Mulatto" is a
"class" and a "race" unto itself. Let me give you an example. In
Haiti, after the Aristide coup of 1991, when there was all that
repression and murder, it was Black people who were getting
killed, not Mulattos; more specifically it was poor, Black
people who were getting killed. Back in the day, the Mulatto
class had an army (Force Armee d'Haiti, FADH) to do the
killing and protecting for them. At the time of the 1991 COUP, that
army was headed by Raoul Cedras, a Mulatto. Today, Haiti's economic elite
is a Mulatto organization infiltrated by Middle Easterners and
Germans. [I must add here that when I use the term "Mulatto",
I use it loosely to refer to a light skinned "Black" person.
There are actually many terms to identify at which generation
a Black person entered into your blood line].
Historically, when they tell you that there's 80% illiteracy
in Haiti, what they're actually saying is the Mulattos and their
entourage can read and write but the Black people can't.
When the Southern soldiers from the United States
came to Haiti in 1915 to occupy the country, they didn't know these
racial subtleties. When the American diplomat said, (you have to forgive me Bob
Corbett, this is an important quote) "Niggers speaking French!"
he was actually referring to Mulattos or the Black part of
their entourage. Mulattos embrace French and keep the rest of the population
unschooled in order to create separation.
Though the White Southern US troops saw the Mulattos as
"niggers", in reality, Haitian Mulattos don't see themselves as "Black"
at all and they do all they can to distance themselves from Haitian Blacks. Haitian
"Black" people do not see Haitian Mulattos as part of their
own race or culture either. When you see squalor and poverty in
Haiti, it reflects how the Haitian Mulattos feel towards the
Haitian Black person: bidonvilles (slums), no sewer systems, no running water,
no bathrooms, filth, no garbage removal, no education, no money, slave wages, no
health care, etc etc. The Mulattos have historically seen the
Haitian poor as uncivilized and undeserving of humane living conditions. Haitian Mulattos
view the Haitian Black as the enemy, the slave, the laborer, the beast.
Haitian intellectuals of the 20th Century started to address
these social realities and that became the birth of "Noirism"
or "Blackism". Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier was a "Noirist".
His son, Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier was a "Mulattoist".
If you look at the most recent beneficiaries of the 2009 economic
investment movement in Haiti, it reveals: Rene Preval, Mulattoist.
Bill Clinton, Mulattoist. George Soros (working with Mews to make
sweatshops???), Mulattoist. American Embassy, Mulattoist
(The US Embassy does it's dealing with the Haitian American
Chamber of Commerce which is the bastion of Mulatto business elites). Haitian Minister of
Culture (Black man supporting a Jazz festival) Mulattoist. Haitian Hotel
Association, Mulattoist. Haitian Ministry of Tourism, Mulattoist.
The new owners of Electricite D'Haiti, Mulattoist.
This so called new economic revolution that Bill Clinton is
leading in Haiti is bound to fail for the simple reason that it's not a Haitian economic revolution; it is just a
reaffirmation of where the Haitian Mulatto class
sees itself in Haitian society; above the rest; entitled to money, power,
privilege, with paid access to Washington, and therefore Bill Clinton.
This economic movement is bound to fail because it continues to
disenfranchise Haitian Blacks and brings to light the corrupt economic
and social nature of the Haitian Mulatto Business class.
The new movement is bound to fail because it relies on corrupt
elections, a corrupt United Nations and corrupt, behind closed doors
This new Haitian Deal is bound to fail because, plainly
put, "It Stinks!"