Black America & the Rising Tide of Color Facing European Borders
Standing with Haiti is the Only Choice for Black America.
The following essay submission was first published in the October 2021, HAPI community newsletter, on current events. Please be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to gain access to this, and future current event essays, written by Omowale Afrika. https://www.hapifilm.com/newslettersignup
“…whether they advance sword in hand or in the more insidious guise of beggars at our gates, pleading for admittance to share our prosperity. If we continue to allow them to enter they will in time drive us out of our own land by mere force of breeding.”
~ T. Lothrop Stoddard; The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy
Over the past few weeks, there’s been a continued discussion among Black Americans, as to whether we should support our Haitian brothers and sisters being held in open air concentration camps, at America’s southern border. The fact that this is even a question shows just how menticidal we’ve become, due to our collective reliance on colonial borders, for a sense of national identity. We’ve allowed these lines of European demarcation to divorce us from our historical memory, by dismembering our body into anatomical parts, that are only known by the sheets — we call flags — that cover them.
The historical relationship between Haiti and Black America is bonded through kinship links so strong, that it takes an ocean to stop us from being one people. The flow of migration between Africans from Haiti, and Africans in the United States, is perhaps the most well-documented migration pattern, between two groups of enslaved Africans, throughout the diaspora. Two of the most notable slave rebellions, documented on US soil were put in motion by Africans, who were brought to the US, from Haiti, after the island gained her liberation: Denmark Vesey and Charles Deslondes. In fact, in my own city of Philadelphia, during the first commemoration of Haitian Independence, free “Black Americans,” and free “Haitians,” marched through the streets together, and physically assaulted white citizens for their support of slavery in the US.
In a true sense, we are one people with a dual heritage, which should only serve to make us stronger. Unfortunately, many Black Americans today are unaware of this history, and in the passage of time, we’ve somehow come to believe that our economic interests are somehow intertwined with a nation that is working to destroy us. With the opening quote we chose for this essay, we wanted to demonstrate that, T. Lothrop Stoddard, who wrote the book, “The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy,” more than 100 years ago, was abundantly clear, that the final stage of European imperialism would result in the Global border crisis we see playing out today.
The imperialist nations of Europe, and their greed fueled capitalist economies, have created a situation, where the people of the global south, are forced to migrate to the European metropoles (United States, France, UK, Italy, Germany, etc.), to regain access to the wealth and resources these nations have stolen from them. Anglo Saxon nations, such as America, are actively working to politically destabilize, and economically colonize the wealth of nations, such as Haiti. The flow of “migrants” (i.e., victims of imperialist plunder) we see arriving at the borders of these Anglo-Saxon nations, are a direct result of these modern colonial projects.
However, the only migrants this nation will grant access to, are those who have the potential to be made white, and serve as white-supremacy reinforcements, for the declining Anglo-Saxon population. According to 2020 Census data, released in August of 2021, the Hispanic/Latino population grew 23%, while the population that was not of Hispanic or Latino origin grew 4.3% since 2010. In addition to this explosive growth, which has made Hispanics the largest minority in the United States, on July 2, 2021, the Biden Administration has laid out a pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million Hispanics/Latinos.
Any Black American that has to question whether they should support the migration of Haitians, given these circumstances, is clearly menticidal. Anglo-Saxons in this nation can look past the ethnic differences of Hispanics/Latinos, and see the benefit of letting them in, due to their shared European heritage. Dr. Amos Wilson spoke on this trend, nearly 30 years ago, when he said the following:
“Hispanics are going to be the largest minority in the United States, in about twenty years. And you’re going to learn what people of color are about… You are getting into a situation, here as African-Americans, that Africans are in the world over. We are being isolated by other groups. By what I call the mercantile minorities. Those minorities who will be owners of business and property, all of whom will look at us who are propertyless, as criminals and thieves… And will… all gang up against us, in protecting their own mercantile and business interest. So, you gotta wake up (talking about people of color). You must only talk about one people of color, and that’s African people.”
The 21st century is the century of survive or die; for African-descended peoples (i.e., Black) living in the diaspora, and we’ll either survive as Africans, or we won’t survive at all. Those flags won’t protect you from ethnic cleansing, only power can do that. And our only chance of building the power necessary to survive, is to embrace our identity as Africans, and work to build a new Pan-African movement, that has the ability to galvanize the diaspora, and stop allowing the white world to play us against each other, through their continued divide and rule strategies.
Omowale Afrika is a writer, independent film maker, and grassroots organizer from the Philadelphia area. You can learn more about his work, by visiting his website at www.omowaleafrika.com
