Read and respond to this persons intake on the articles read. Kathleen
1. It’s heartbreaking that Marlene Dault phrases what the educational system does with anti-slavery history as “Hiding it away.” This part of history should be known, not hidden away like it’s something not to be touched. That part of history is really important and should be taught in schools, not avoided. I had never learned about this event before now, and I am upset that I had not known about this before. The US educational system tends to summarize history and even try to avoid what they consider to be the more “touchier” parts of it, but it’s still frustrating to see them ignore integral parts of history.
2. In James Weldon Johnson’s 1920 description of the US occupation of Haiti, “The Truth About Haiti”, some points mentioned supports the comment Edwidge Danticat makes in “So Brutal a Death” about George Floyd’s death. Her comment specifically is “the image of these police officers squeezing the life out of Floyd might serve as a metaphor for the way U.S. Administrations have, for generations, dealt with the countries many of us come from—through invasions, occupations, wars, the buttressing of dictators, and the removal of democratically elected governments, among other tactics.”
The point from Johnson’s description that supports this is when it is mentioned that American was ruling Haiti under marital law, as shown where it is mentioned “It is a people of Negro blood, who have produced a Christophe and a Dessalines, who have given to the world one of its greatest statesmen, Toussaint L’Ouverture, who have behind them a history of which they have every right to be proud, that are now threatened with the loss of their independence; that have now fallen not only under American political domination, but under the domination of American prejudice. Haiti is ruled today by martial law dispensed by Americans” (Johnson). Americans took them under their control under the guise of helping them.
Another point that supports that is where it is also mentioned that American control is maintained by force, specifically “There are nearly three thousand American Marines in Haiti, and American control is maintained by their bayonets. In the five years of American Occupation, more than three thousand innocent Haitians have been slaughtered” (Johnson). This occupation involved bloodshed to keep control over them. The justification for this was cited as “The first is that such a state of anarchy and bloodshed had been reached as could no longer be tolerated by the civilized world; the second, that the Haitians have demonstrated absolute unfitness to govern themselves; and the third, that great benefits have been brought to Haiti by American control” (Johnson).
This shows Americans taking the role of governing Haiti for themselves, giving them no agency. Another point that he brings up that supports Danticat’s statement is how the United States was pressuring Haiti to hand over control to them for a long time, so they could govern, Haiti, as stated as “The fact is that for nearly a year before the coup d’état which overthrew Guillaume, the United States had been bringing pressure on Haiti to compel that country to submit to American control” (Johnson). All of these points show how Americans had dealt with Haiti through unjust occupation, unfair domination, unneeded bloodshed to maintain control, removing their previous form of government, not allowing the nation to display any form of independence, and pressuring their government officials.
3. “Children of The Sea” by Edwidge Danticat is really heartwrenching. The beginning of the text is really thought-provoking, and I really liked the way things are described, especially in especially with the first paragraph of the text on page 3. It’s heartbreaking though, the way they describe her family having to hide and destroy things of the president, that “Papa burnt all his campaign posters and old buttons, manman buried her buttons in a hole behind the house, she thinks that he might come back” (Danticat, 4).
The writing going between the account on the boat and the account of Danticat’s home life is jarring but it makes the read more interesting and lets the reader gain better insight, like when the Danticat bounces between the terror of the youth federation and the army in her neighborhood with their harsh treatment of Madan roger “he demonstrated on the streets, you should have advised him better, she cursed on their mother’s graves, she just came out and shouted it, i hope your mothers will never rest in their cursed graves!” (Danticat, 16), and then it switches to the experience on the boat with the pregnant woman Celianne, “Celianne spent the night groaning” (Danticat, 17).
It was devastating to hear Danticat’s family’s hopes that the president would come back for them while he never ended up coming back and Danticat talking about their dreams like “Passing the University exams” while on the boat after Celianne had given birth to a silent, and stillborn, baby after an incident before she got onto the boat(Danticat, 21). Both the stories of how Celianne had become pregnant so young and how the army was threatening Danticat and her family are terrifying, and the fact Celianne had to throw her baby over before she threw herself over as well, Danticat describing the scene as “They went like two bottles beneath a waterfall” (Danticat, 26) is upsetting. I wish that things had gone better for both Danticat and Celianne, both their life stories were harsh and unkind to them.
