The morning after former President Donald Trump repeated racist claims about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, some Haitian families are keeping their children home from school for their safety, according to an area activist. Those who allowed their children did so, but with heavy hearts.

“She [my niece] was scared, but I told her to go, that God would protect,” said one Haitian resident, who asked that she not be identified publicly for fear of reprisal.

“We’re all victims this morning,” said the woman, who moved to Springfield six years ago. “They’re attacking us in every way.”

Aside from the anxiety caused by Tuesday night’s debate, the woman also said her cars have been vandalized twice in the middle of the night. She woke up one morning to broken windows and another to acid thrown on the vehicle. She’s added cameras to her driveway and tried to report the incidents to the police to no avail.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      This is an OLD racist trope being brought back. Maybe the originator of it didn’t know about the trope, or maybe they did, but you don’t need evidence of this happening for a racist trope to work.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        yeah, it’s definitely racist, but i think the traditional racist trope here is that asians eat dogs. I’m not aware of this extending to other groups, but i suppose racism doesn’t really give a shit?

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Except maybe lost pets… but pets get lost. Every neighborhood has lost cat posters don’t they?

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        3 months ago

        that’s not evidence of anything.

        “guys somebody died!” “oh shit there must be a serial killer around here now!” “nah man he just fell down a set of stairs”

        a bunch of cats in a specific neighborhood going missing, now that’s suspicious.