Spectacles of Violence: A Conversation With Ayanna Legros
“I see this as a continuation of the history of dehumanizing images that we consume of Haiti,” says Haitian-American scholar Ayanna Legros. We are speaking over Zoom on the recent controversy in Del Rio, Texas, where border patrol agents on horseback appeared to whip Haitian migrants using split reins. Legros, a PhD candidate at Duke University investigating the role of radio in Haitian diasporic communities in the United States, decides to pull up the viral image for closer inspection. “My immediate reaction was like this is disturbing, but I'm not surprised,” she says. Accordingly, Legros cites a 2011 essay by Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon, "Lucid Cameras: Imaging Haiti After the Earthquake," in which the author analyzes the “historical Othering of African bodies via the colonial gaze” vis-à-vis western journalists in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. “That was the first time I really saw someone write about the trauma of the earthquake without having to show images of it,” Legros explains. Dr. Pressley-Sanon does so purposefully, to avoid perpetuating the violence that originates with such othering imagery while exploring alternative ways to discuss it. Legros reiterates this careful concern: “I think, with Haitians, and in Black America, it's like, ‘Why do we always have to show this proof of white supremacy just to have people awaken?’” Even so, the narrative of the scene at Del Río is quickly rendered dubious by US officials and conservative media pundits alike. By the time of our conversation, even the photographer, Paul Ratije, had responded to the backlash in an interview where he described the image as “misconstrued.”
Certain aspects of the photo, however, cannot be denied, only placed into greater context. As she continues to scan the image, Legros draws my attention to the belongings of the two men being chased by a border patrol agent. Plastic bags with bottles and stacks of clamshell take out containers, most likely filled with food and drink—a modest, if only temporary safety net for migrants. For Legros, these minor details suggest a much more complex narrative that betrays media spectacle. “I think the image forces us to grapple with the various stages of migration and the fact that we don't know these people's stories.” To arrive in Del Río, Texas, she explains, is unlikely to be a direct journey. From crossing Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic to failed attempts to book a flight to Miami—a distance of just 681 miles—to traveling by boat through the Caribbean or embarking on the hostile transit from South America to Mexico; these routes are all within the realm of possibility. “And assuming that that's the only moment of violence that they're experiencing,” adds Legros, “just shows that we’re lacking depth in these conversations, and awareness of migration.” Such is the case in the days and weeks after our initial conversation. Although thousands of Haitian migrants are allowed to enter the United States, thousands more are forced away from the border or deported as the encampment at Del Río is quickly cleared. Their fate on either side of the border remains vulnerable and uncertain. “I want to know where these people are going to end up?”, asks Legros. “What is the plan? I need more than don't come as a Haitian-American. And do not move people around just to avoid negative press.”
But this is precisely what happens time and time again: an avoidance of the past as it continues to materialize in the present. Legros describes this delayed reckoning as “something that is going to forever haunt the United States.” For example, Legros alludes to the longer history of the treatment of Haitian migrants attempting to come to the United States, and issues dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. “We saw Haitians were being detained everywhere from Fort Allen to Puerto Rico, to Guantanamo Bay. There were issues with kids being separated from adults; documents and passports being confiscated; lack of proper legal representation; lack of translators; sexual violence against women and girls, and so on.” Coupled with more recent events, from the 2010 earthquake to the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, it becomes difficult to prioritize the present moment without returning to the past, or as Legros explains, “For me, it's like, I don't want to talk about Mexico, I'm still in July. I'm still in 2010. I'm still thinking about the funds that have been plundered and the cries of Haitians around the PetroCaribe campaign. I'm still trying to understand Hugo Chavez’s theatrical rhetoric about Haiti, I'm still at Charlot Jeudy's murder—those are the kinds of conversations that we need to be having, because if we're looking at everything as a singular case, and we're constantly in the space of reaction, especially to photographs, we're not setting ourselves up for sustainable futures,” says Legros.
However conflicting, the viral photograph at the Del Rio encampment did elicit online discussions and public scholarship around the question of historical debt to Haiti: from the Haitian colony funding the American Revolution to the punitive indemnification of the nascent Haitian Republic to the US interventions throughout the 20th century. To this last point, Legros adds, “If people want to have discussions about Haiti, we can start with Citibank, we can just talk about the amount of gold reserves that were taken by US Marines during the US occupation.” This topic is explored in the 2017 book Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean by Peter James Hudson. “Do people want to start a campaign to address Citibank, specifically?” asks Legros. “That's something that can be done.”
And while she acknowledges that action needs to happen at the US-Mexico border, Legros says there's also a lot of work that's just still needs to be done within various Haitian communities, especially the ones that have not been historically written about, i.e. outside of New York, Miami, Boston; and in newer hubs like North Carolina, where she resides. “As a side project, I have been exploring ways to document the stories of newly arrived migrants in North Carolina who are from Haiti, because there is an emerging population here.” Ultimately, it is a question of humanizing the experience of Haitian migrants wherever they may be and wherever they may end up after what is often a harrowing journey. “It's one thing to acknowledge the resilience of the Haitian people; it's another thing to humanize them,” says Legros. Or as Dr. Pressley-Sanon reminds us, “the viewer does not often ask what is left outside the frame of the photograph.” With tens of thousands of migrants en route to the US-Mexico border, including a massive caravan of Central Americans and Haitians dubbed “la Caravana Madre,” there will be more imagery to contend with as individuals, as communities, as a nation, and so on. “I think every person has their own relationship to imagery,” says Legros. “Speaking for myself, as I get older, I'm learning to not consume these spectacles of violence.”
Resources & Works Cited
–Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), also known as "The Bridge," is a coalition of Haitian non-profit organizations and community activists.
–Jacqueline Charles, Caribbean Correspondent for the Miami Herald
–Haitian Studies Association supports scholarship on Haiti and provides a forum for the exchange and dissemination of ideas and knowledge in order to inform pedagogy, practice, and policy about Haiti in an international community.
–Moïse, Lenelle. “The Children of Immigrants by Lenelle Moïse.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91753/the-children-of-immigrants.
–Houston Haitians United is purposed to promoting and uplifting Haitians and our culture by means of creating and providing resources for the well-being and advancement of Haitians everywhere highlighting Haitian culture through events and providing an avenue to which Haitians, Haitian Businesses and Haitian organizations can network.
–Haitian Studies Institute (CUNY), an academic unit aimed to encourage and support studies on Haiti and Haitians living abroad.
–KOURAJ is a group of masisi activists, created to politicize other homosexuals and transgender persons in Haiti regarding their fundamental human rights.
–NACLA Report Vol. 53.1: "End of Empire? Racial Capitalism, Forced Migration, and State Violence in Haiti"
–Hudson, Peter James. Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean. The University of Chicago Press, 2018. Print.
–Pressley-Sanon, Toni. “Lucid Cameras: Imaging Haiti After the Earthquake of 2010.” Journal of Haitian Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, Center for Black Studies Research, 2011, pp. 6–32, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41715431.
Ayanna Legros.
Ayanna Legros is an interdisciplinary historian of 20th century Caribbean and Latin America. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History at Duke University. Her research investigates the role of radio in Haitian diasporic communities in the United States.
Néstor David Pastor is a writer, translator, and editor from Queens, NY.