Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Editors note: This article contains graphic descriptions of police brutality.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies Yveline Alexis has taught at Oberlin since 2013. In 2011, she earned her Ph.D. in History and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino/a Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with her dissertation titled Nationalism & the Politics of Historical Memory: Charlemagne Praltes Rebellion against U.S. Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1986. Last month, her book Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Pralte was selected by one of The Times Literary Supplement contributors as their book of the year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In the introduction to your book, Haiti Fights Back, you write about the difference between the word nationalist and the Haitian Creole word nasyonalis. Could you explain what that difference is and how an academics understanding of Haiti could be impacted by this culturally nuanced take on national identity?

This is definitely such a key question. I kept using the word nasyonalis just because its been in the lexicon for Creole since the original revolution of 17911803. So I thought we were all on the same page, like nasyonalis means someone who loves their nation and will fight to the death for their nation. One of the series editors was like, You know, given these times, nationalist has a different connotation. And if you think about the Hitler period and its ripple effects and legacy, nationalist can be seen as derogatory. And I was like, Oh crap, I need to make this very clear how Haitians and Black people and people of color utilize the word. So nasyonalis means love of nation willingness to die and sacrifice for your nation. It is citizen kinship, whether its your brother or sister, a willingness to die for them as well.

This is something that must be a very complicated field in and of itself, but how would you describe the Haitian diasporic experience in America?

I think for me, its been positive in the sense that, because I was raised in Brooklyn, New York, the only times I spoke English were in formal institutions like schools, a courthouse, and the mayors cause we were protesting all the time. But we were in this enclave of people who were speaking Patois, predominantly spoken in the English-speaking Caribbean. And Creole, of course; French, of course, which we had to learn. And then at home, there were just so many languages buzzing around. For me it felt like a very safe, supportive community that was watching out for one another.

My own people came during the dictatorship of Haiti, and thinking about the dictatorship even though it ends has ripple effects in terms of the machinery that kept it going. So there would be people who came through my home to get to safety from Haiti to New York, heading to Canada or to France, et cetera. And its an interesting way in which the community whether its my family or the larger Haitian community in Brooklyn protected these people. It was just like, You dont speak to cops; if youre broke, youre never going on welfare because welfare then invites the state into your home. But its a beautiful way in which we move through the world.

Now, one of the things that I would say is shocking to me, I met a number of Haitians or Haitian-Americans from Florida who talked about not being proud of being Haitian until Wyclef Jean and the Fugees came out, and I was like, What? I realized, in hindsight, what was happening was so many of the people who fled in boats, what they call the boat people, were arriving in Miami. That derogatory image of Haitians as all the images that come with someone who flees in a boat thats not well equipped to carry 100, let alone 300 people thats what they were saturated with. So I forgave my Floridian Haitians. And I was like, Oh, if this is on your daily news feed and youre in a school battling the fact that youre Black and battling the fact that you have immigrant parents who do very immigrant things, I understand the context.

You talked about protesting when you were young. What did your activism focus on, and were there certain causes you wanted to draw attention to?

I think for me, immigration is so huge, partly because its something that we all go through. This nation is not ours. Yes, we helped build it. In my mind, Im writing this futuristic novel where we all leave and we ask Native Americans for permission to repopulate the United States. But I was thinking to myself, were all immigrants. I mean, yes, theres linguistic diversity, but whether youre Indian, whether youre Jamaican or Haitian or Cuban, theres something about migrating to a new nation whether involuntarily because of the political and economic conditions, or voluntarily, because you have the opportunity. You go to these elite schools, or you just wanna come and shop, because I know a number of immigrants do that as well. Theres a way in which that unifies us. My activism was always tied to that.

It was the beginning of my march to the city hall [to protest the, what I think was CDC, report about HIV being the fault of Haitians, hemophiliacs, and quote unquote homosexuals] and thinking about Brooklyn Bridge as a site. We were on that Brooklyn Bridge, just marching from Brooklyn to Manhattan to say, Listen, this cant be the representation of Haitians when you know Haiti was involved with the United States from the 1700s. By the time I went to college, there was this incident where this kid who I went to school with in junior high had gotten burnt alive because he was Haitian. And I was just like, What the heck is this? Then when I was in college, we had Abner Louima, who was a Haitian immigrant who spoke Creole and very limited English, and police brutalized him by literally sticking a plunger up his anus. And its like, What the heck?

So theres just this battle fatigue with it. But then also the reality that we cant stop wherever theres injustice, we need to be there trying to flip it. Its not just a Haitian issue, right? This is something that happens across nationalities, and this is how the U.S. treats immigrants of color specifically. So then, when you think about Breonna Taylor or George Floyd, I hate to say, its like the same shit that happens over and over and over. Yall say Black lives whether its immigrant or national citizen doesnt matter. How can we make sure that their lives continuously matter?

There are often trips organized over Winter Term that take students to different places. During your time at Oberlin, has any such trip been planned to Haiti?

I havent had the time to plan one, but I know people have gone to Antigua and I think Barbuda, as well as different parts of Africa including Senegal and Ghana. The thing about this is, I served on a committee where we had to review international trips; all of the trips to Jerusalem and Israel were getting approved and then wed get to a place like Gambia, which is in Africa, and there were faculty and staff asking, Is it safe? And Im like, Hold up. We are sending kids to Israel. Lets just have a dialogue about safety. Whos at war? Luckily, people were able to hear my arguments, but I think there is still a stigma attached to the question of what are safe nations to travel to, which is not something thats specific to Oberlin.

It happened in my undergrad at Cornell University too, where we didnt have a Go to Africa program. I went through the University of Albany. Its something that Im interested in planning. My only thing is if I could be so serious Im so protective of Haiti. I hate when people cant put their cameras down or take pictures of people without consent, particularly kids. Or, you know how our people do, theres a way in which we dress its hot as hell. And so people may have low cut clothing, and people are just randomly taking pictures and posting it on Instagram or whatever. And Im like, did you ask that market womans permission? Did you ask that childs permission to take their picture and then blast it? So Im a little protective. I feel like the right students, if I planned a trip like that, would be able to navigate Haiti the posh Haiti, but also hood Haiti. Cause we would do it all.

Read more from the original source:

Professor Yveline Alexis on New Book, Activism, and Haitian Diaspora - The Oberlin Review

Category: Diaspora
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