Since last year, several disparaging words and disgraceful remarks made by Donald Trump have shocked and stirred controversy. As he was being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants, he declared: ‘Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?‘…
In December we published an article quoting Paul Altidor, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States: Our Country (Haiti) Deserves Your Respect, Not Your Pity. Last month, Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat reacted to Trump’s ‘Shithole countries’ remark targeting Africa, Haiti. Read our post here.
Littane Bien-Aime is Haitian-American and a U.S. diplomat posted to Sao Paulo, Brazil and she explained on Blavity.com the reality of being Haitian-American in the United States. Here are selected extracts of her post:
My dad worked 12 hours a night (3 pm to 3 am) 6 days a week with Sundays off as a cab driver in Boston. My mother worked as a nursing aide in nursing homes. At one point she worked two full time jobs in addition to a part time per diem job at three different nursing homes in two different cities. Many weeks she logged over 100 hours including overtime. She would work a double for 16 hours from 7 am to 11 pm then head to her part time job, arrive 30 minutes late and work another 8 hours before coming home to rest for a few hours before her next shift. She still made time to cook for several days in advance, do our laundry, and make sure that we were dressed and at school on time.
Though my parents never once complained (they were just grateful to have jobs) I could see the fatigue in their faces and hear it in their voices when they’d get home at 11:30 pm, 3:30 am or 7:30 am from 12, 16 or 24 straight hours of work. In my mom, I could see it in the permanent bags that developed under her eyes after sleeping only 4 to 5 hours a night for years. For me, and many other Haitian-Americans this upbringing was the norm. These 72-100+ hour workweeks, though unhealthy, were very common in our community. Running from one job to the next, keeping three kids fed and making ends meet with three different paychecks was normal. The example of my parents isn’t extraordinary and their story isn’t unique.
Read full article here.
